Parents, caregivers urged to master motor skills in children

Child caregivers and parents have been asked to pay close attention to the physical, emotional, cognitive, language, and social development of children in their care as they are vital aspects of human development.

As iHELP Project Principal Investigator, Rose Opiyo explains a child goes through various developmental stages, these domains become more skilful.

 iHELP which fully stands for Inclusive Home Based Early Learning Project, is a community-led Inclusive Home-based Play-based Model of Learning in Kakamega which is jointly supported by the International Development Research Centre-IDRC and the Global Partnership for Education-GPE.

The Two -year pilot project seeks to Increase Early Child Education and Care-ECEC for Children in Marginalized and Rural families and Communities under the core principles of access relevance and inclusivity.

In Kenya, the Masinde Muliro University-MMUST and the County Government of Kakamega are working with a number of agencies among them the Kenya Institute for Curriculum Development and Kenya Institute of Special Needs and other partners in the development of Caregivers and Community Council manuals for the IHELP programming and capacity building activities.

Speaking during a training workshop for caregivers and parents in Kakamega, Opiyo explained that motor skills assessment for children is a key exercise that involves a mixture of physical activities that helps to identify the cause of any motor difficulties and leads to recommendations for support.

She said knowledge of motor skills is essential to help rule out deformities in limb development and structure in children or enable timely interventions at an early age.

Ednah Sabin, a lecturer at the Department of Health Promotion and Sports Science-MMUST notes that mastery of the five major motor skills of sitting, standing, walking, running and jumping is important for normal daily functions.

The training exercise involved the assessment of Gross and Motor Skills through the Test of Gross Motor Development (TGMD) which was administered to children aged three years and above.

For those of three years and below, questionnaires were administered to their parents who are expected to observe their children and report on fine and gross motor skills.

“Motor development is important to children's health and growth. Early diagnosis is critical to early educational interventions for an effective treatment for mitigating symptoms of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in children,” said Sabin.