Physical development
Key points and how to support PD
There are two aspects of Physical Development
- Moving and handling
- Health and self-care
Moving and handling
Moving and handling focuses on your child's physical abilities. Your child should be hitting specific milestones dependent on their age group. If your child is under one years old, one of these milestones could be to roll over or turn their head in response to a noise. If your child is 3+, one of their milestones is more likely to be draw lines or circles using gross motor skills (using a pen/pencil).
Health and self-care
Health and self-care focuses more on your child's self-care abilities. Do they wash their hands independently? For a younger child, these milestones can be as simple as opening their mouth for a spoon.
Physcial activity recommendations
Please use the link below to view the NHS recommendations for a child's physical activity, ages 0-5
Home learning resources
Moving and handling
Ages 22-36 months
Talk to your child about their movements and help them to explore new ways of moving, such as squirming, slithering and twisting along the ground like a snake, and moving quickly, slowly or on tiptoe. Provide ‘tool boxes’ containing things that make marks, so that children can explore their use both indoors and outdoors.
Aged 30-50 months
Football! Take your child/children to the local park to play football. Focus on kicking and catching the ball. The easy way to do this is show them penalties and let them take turns at being the goalie and the kicker! Reward them with cheering and praise after attempts.
Health and self-care
Aged 22-36 months
Support children’s growing independence as they do things for themselves, such as pulling up their pants after toileting, recognising differing parental expectations. To support your child with this, you could display a colourful daily menu showing healthy meals and snacks and discuss choices with the children, reminding them, e.g. that they tried something previously and might like to try it again or encourage them to try something new.
Aged 30-50 months
Join in with a fast-paced game/dancing with your child and support them to recognise the affects it is having on their body, e.g. heart rate changing, sweat, tired, and how to fix them, e.g. if you are tired eat healthy food for energy, to keep clean, have a bath after sweating! Talk to your child and encourage them to guess/recognise the affects it has on their bodies.
Website links
Use the photo-links below for extra ideas on how to further support your child with this area at home!
