In an increasingly technologically dependent world, many children find little or no motivation go outside and would prefer to play games on their iPads, or watch entertaining videos on youtube.
This is unfortunate, because many opportunities for growth in skills and intelligence are lost to hours spent hunched over a screen. It is time to encourage your children to get off their seats and up on their feet…their futures may even depend on it!
Did you ever think that activities such as running, dancing, climbing, and jumping would be so important to how your child not only survives, but thrives in the world?
These are fun forms of exercise are examples of “gross motor activities”–large movements that involve the arms, legs, feet, or the entire body. According to Carmen Dodds, a qualified Occupational Pediatric Therapist, “gross motor activities stimulate the basic foundations of physical, social, emotional and cognitive development.” This means that sports can make us better friends, better thinkers, and better people in general! Isn’t that amazing?
In turn, gross motor skills also develop and refine fine motor skills–which are small movements that involve small muscles such has the hand, or upper limbs to manipulate and control items. The gross motor skills developed in sports lay the foundations for fine motor skills such buttoning clothing, turning pages, eating, cutting with scissors, and typing are vital to a child’s learning and development. “They are a precursor for literacy, numeracy and activities of daily living such as independent dressing and toileting,” enthuses Dodds. This means that fine motor skills can indirectly help us become better at math, at reading, and at functioning as independent individuals.
Truly, the benefits of sports are endless. Beyond developing their gross and motor skills, sports teaches individuals positive values such as teamwork, problem solving, and a healthy self-esteem. Sports provide learning experiences that will support our children beyond their academic years, molding them into become well-rounded and successful individuals. And isn’t that what we want for all of our children?
If you’re looking for a comprehensive sports program that your children will enjoy, consider the The Ready Steady Go Kids program. Designed to promote gross and fine motor development, the activities completed weekly include jumping, hopping, skipping, galloping and heel-to-toe walking. activity was designed and will be taught to promote motor planning, which is the ability to come up with an idea, plan how to complete that idea and then finally, execute that idea, and and bilateral control, which is the ability to control both sides of the body.
This bilateral control is further developed by learning how to do star jumps, scissor jumps and through the participation in sports such as footy, cricket and T-ball. Through these activities, they learn how to catch and throw objects, kick, and coordinate movements in a busy environments (the court).
The Ready Steady Go Kids program also boasts of a gross motor sports circuits set ups which provide provide a multi-sensory experience for your child and focus on developing physical strength, balance, and coordination. These mini sports circuits are goal oriented, and teach your child to take on challenges and fulfill set goals such as shooting a puck, kicking a goal, smashing a volley or putting around an obstacle.
The Ready Steady Go Kids program truly provides a fun and well-rounded sports camp experience, designed to provide a holistic development for your learning and growing child.
Dodds concludes, “participation in this active and structured multi-sport program for 45 minutes each week reinforces the importance of keeping physically active; taking instruction from others; taking turns; cheering on teammates and ultimately having fun and getting enjoyment from playing sport!”
