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Developing Your Baby's Motor Skills
Motor skill development starts as soon as a baby is born. Tummy time, moving their head around, flailing their arms and legs—it’s all an important part of their development. Working with your baby on encouraging their motor skills development will help them later throughout their first years when learning how to eat, run, and hold crayons. If you’re looking to get a jumpstart on your little one’s motor skills development, there is plenty you can do right at home. Keep reading to learn more about developing your baby’s motor skills and the products you need that will ensure they have fun while doing it!
What Are Fine Motor Skills?
Fine motor skills refer to the ability to do things with the small muscles in our hands, wrists, and eyes. Examples of fine motor skills include:
- Writing
- Coloring
- Drawing
- Painting
- Turning the pages of a book
- Using scissors
- Putting together a puzzle
- Peeling off stickers
- Building with Legos
Anything that involves grasping and manipulating an object falls under the category of fine motor skills. These skills start developing early, at around 5 or 6 months old, once babies are able to intentionally grasp something in their hands.
What Are Gross Motor Skills?
Gross motor skills refer to the ability to do things that require the whole body, namely the larger muscles. Anything involving core stability or balance falls under gross motor skills. Examples of gross motor skills include:
- Sitting
- Standing
- Walking
- Jumping
- Skipping
- Riding a bike
- Riding a scooter
- Hitting a baseball with a bat
- Climbing
Gross motor skills start developing at around 2 months of age with simple kicking. Babies learn how to roll, sit, and reach by the time they are 6 to 8 months old.
How Can I Help Develop My Baby’s Motor Skills?
There are plenty of easy ways you can help develop your baby’s motor skills by encouraging playtime. Some ways you can get things going include:
- Tummy time
- Playing with a ball
- Building blocks
- Play gyms
- Clapping and singing
- Playing with toys together
Products You Need
Ready to get your baby’s motor skills tuned up? Playing with oral development toys is a great way to encourage motor skill development, and they also check off a ton of other boxes as well.
Innobaby Teethin SMART EZ Grip Fruit Teether
Motor skill development, oral development, and teething pain can all be tackled at once with this adorable teether!
Innobaby’s fruit teethers aren’t just great for teething pain; they’re considered “training teethers,” which means they’re great for a bunch of different reasons. They stimulate the muscles of the lips, tongue, and cheeks to improve oral motor skills, which aids in nursing, eating solid foods, drinking from cups, and speech development. The light and easy-to-grip handle also improves hand-eye coordination.
This teether comes in four adorable fruit shapes and is the award-winner of The National Parenting Center's 2013 Seal of Approval, named Best of April Box by Citrus Lane and winner of Best in NY Baby Show 2013, and NY NOW best in baby gear 2014.
Innobaby EZ Grip Flower Teether Rattle / Oral Sensory Developmental Toy
Add a little bit more sensory fun to your baby’s teether time with this EZ Grip Flower Teether Rattle!
Innobaby's Award Winning Teethin' SMART Massaging Flower Rattle Teether offers an easy-to-grip handle and lightweight design for even the youngest teethers. The unique dual-sided shape and textured petals offer gentle relief for swollen, sore, and tender gums.
The soft and flexible design reaches all parts of the mouth for a thorough and gentle gum massage while stimulating oral sensory nerves for improved speech and oral development. Created to be safe for your baby, our teether is designed with ventilated breathing holes for safety while the baby chews.
Innobaby's Teethin' SMART Massaging Teethers are a safe, toxic-free way to help babies satisfy their teething needs by staying BPA-free, Phthalate-free, and PVC-free. Research shows improving oral motor skills aids effective nursing, develops proper muscles for eating solids and drinking liquids with a cup, and improves speech. And… they are top shelf dishwasher safe and freezer safe, too!
Innobaby’s Flower Teethers allow for multiple sensory stimulation. Tip: Give baby a pair of rattles to increase bilateral movement and stimulate both sides of the brain. The different textures will also improve oral motor skills by stimulating tongue, lip, and cheek muscles, which aid in nursing, transitioning to solid foods, drinking from cups, and speech development. As always, Innobaby’s teethers are held to the highest standards in safety (Toy Safety Standards ASTM F963 and EN71).
Innobaby EZ Grip Star Teether / Oral Sensory Developmental Toy
This teether is chock-full of textures, shapes, and sensory delights to keep them entertained!
These star teethers stimulate the muscles of the lips, tongue, and cheeks to improve oral motor skills, which aids in nursing, eating solid foods, drinking from cups, and speech development. The light and easy-to-grip handle also improves hand-eye coordination while working on those fine motor skills!
Innobaby holds its teethers to the very highest standards (Conform to Toy Safety Standard ASTM F963 and EN71) and uses the highest quality TPE available because Innobaby wants the best for your baby, just like you! Other teethers may be too small or break apart easily, but you can trust ours!
Ready for more parenting tips and great family products? Head to Innobaby.com!