Tips for nurturing physical development

Image: Early Movers 3

Children develop dispositions to move from an early age – infants seek movement opportunities and should, given the right opportunities, learn how to move in developmentally appropriate ways. Children need lots of opportunities for repeated practice in a variety of environments with encouragement, regular feedback and support.


How can I help nurture physical development?

Children are naturally curious and naturally very good at developing their own games. To encourage the development of a range of core movement skills, children should be provided with adequate and appropriate space to play, and open-ended resources and equipment to play with. Rather than asking children to engage in a range of prescriptive games targeting specific skill sets, children should be encouraged and supported in initiating their own movement play, by asking questions like "how can we play with this?"

In the activities section, we make some suggestions about games you can initiate with children, but a range of equipment could be made available to children to support their independent and group play.


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