For your two year old to jump up and down on a square, he must see the square and use balance to land on the square. In order for your child to Velcro close his shoes, he must have adequate fine motor skills and be able to use the sense of touch to grab the Velcro and fasten it.
Your child is now seeing obstacles that might cause him to stumble ahead of time, whereas before he might just have tripped. He can now balance, jump, and walk and hold things at the same time. This is because he is now using his vision and attention skills to see what is in front of him and can adjust his movements and balance. Sensory motor skills heighten your child’s reflexes and responses because the child is using a combination of senses to be more aware of his environment.
Your child also uses his hearing to follow two- and three-step requests that may involve large muscle movements (“Walk to the trash can and throw away the paper.”). He will incorporate his listening and understanding skills to direct his attention to items being named and directions such as “stop” and “go.”
Sensory motor skills bring together your child’s cognitive skills through attention and reasoning when he uses his visual sense to make contact with items and move more gracefully throughout his environment. Sensory motor skills are part of his growing language skills as he understands and responds to directions. It is important to remember that sight, touch, and hearing must all work together to support development of your child’s gross motor skills.
As your child matures, so do his senses and ability to use his senses to improve his motor skills.
