Motor skill

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A motor skill is a skill that regards the ability of an organism to utilize skeletal muscles effectively. Motor skills depend upon the proper functioning of the brain, skeleton, joints, and nervous system and thus motor skills involve the proper functioning of such systems. Most motor skills are learned in early childhood, although disabillities can affect motor skills development. Motor development is the development of action and coordination of one's limbs, as well as the development of strength, posture control, balance, and perceptual skills.

Motor skills are divided into two parts:

Gross motor skills include lifting one's head, rolling over, sitting up, balancing, crawling, and walking. Gross motor development usually follows a pattern. Generally large muscles develop before smaller ones. Thus, gross motor development is the foundation for developing skills in other areas (such as fine motor skills). Development also generally moves from top to bottom. The first thing a baby usually learns is to control their head.
Fine motor skills include the ability to manipulate small objects, transfer objects from hand to hand, and various hand-eye coordination tasks. Fine motor skills may involve the use of very precise motor movement in order to achieve an especially delicate task. Some examples of fine motor skills are using the pincer grasp (thumb and forefinger) to pick up small objects, cutting, coloring and writing, and threading beads. Fine motor development refers to the development of skills involving the smaller muscle groups.