Child Development - Motor Skills - Physical Development

Birth - 2 years

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Growth and Development

Growth

Growth refers to changes in height, weight, and body composition. 

Motor Development or physical development

​At first, infants have very little motor control, but will develop fine motor skills.

These involve small muscle movements, like picking up a bean.

They will also develop gross motor skills.

These involve large muscle movements, like walking or throwing.

​Growth is dramatic in infancy. After birth, infants gain more than a pound a month, so that birth weight is doubled by 5 months of age. Infants grow about 10 inches in the first year and 5 inches in the second year (Rogol, Roemmich, & Clark, 2002). Motor development is also dramatic. Newborns cannot grasp a toy you hold in front of them or sit up by themselves, yet by age 2 they are walking and stooping over to pick up a bean off the floor.