ABOUT KIDS IN MOTION

WHAT ARE FUNDAMENTAL MOVEMENT SKILLS?

Fundamental movement skills are the most basic movements we can make and they can be built up into complex actions. It’s pretty much the same idea as language, where each individual sound needs to be mastered to correctly form words. Fundamental movement skills for the basis of our physical literacy and that should make it clear how important they are. Depending on who you ask, fundamental movement skills can be broken down in any number of ways. However, the easiest way of looking at them is by separating the skills into three categories: locomotion, stabilisation and manipulation.

• Locomotion
Basically, anything to do with movement. If you can use a skill to move your body from one place to another, then you’re talking about a locomotion skill. These include walking, running, hopping, swimming, skipping, jogging, jumping and any other form of moving you can think of.
• Stabilisation
These are skills that show your depth of control over your body, usually by stopping movements or making finely controlled ones. Stabilisation skills include actions such as balancing, stretching, twisting, landing, bending, pivoting, hanging and other ways you can control your motion.
• Manipulation
Finally, manipulation skills are all linked to moving other things that aren’t directly attached to you. Moving things by throwing, catching, pushing, pulling, bouncing, dribbling, trapping and just about anything else you can do to an object (think of things you can do to a ball for example). Manipulation is also the most complex set of tasks and as such it is generally split into three sub-categories: sending, receiving and travelling (again, think of the ball).

WHY FUNDAMENTAL SKILLS MATTER?

By taking the time to specifically teach children to master their fundamental movement skills at an early age, we are giving them the tools they need to undertake more complex movement skills with greater ease.
Improving a child’s physical literacy in such a way is at the core of children’s sporting activities like gymnastics and the benefits are far reaching. Put simply, the earlier in life children can master the basics, then the sooner they can begin to develop the hard stuff. As is true of all learning, the younger you learn something, the easier it is to master.
Helping your child repeat simple actions over and over again is very important. The more practise they get, the more they develop and therefore Kids in Motion’s well developed and age-appropriate fundamental movement skills, as well as extra-curricular classes like Gymnastics, Yoga, Ball games (basketball, baseball, volleyball, tennis) dance and movement classes is always a huge benefit on children`s learning and developments.
Together these fundamental skills movement programmes along with extra-curricular programmes that are offered in Kids in Motion at no additional charge, provide a well-rounded education—one that’s developed to meet EYFS standards and proven to get children on the path to a bright future.