What is Physical Literacy?
The term physical literacy simply means your baby is developing a wide variety of important motor skills and as they grow in their first year, physical activity will be a vital part of their development and this starts from birth. During the 1st 1000 days, your baby will undergo rapid changes physically and emotionally and these changes will lay the foundation for their future health and well being.
Therefore, it is important to provide your baby with lots of opportunities to practice their skills from a very early age. They need lots of opportunities to practice tummy time, floor play, reaching and grasping for objects, turning their head toward you or a toy, pulling, pushing and playing freely exploring their environment. Playing with your baby, role modelling play, providing challenging activities and lots of opportunities to practice these, along with the encouragement to develop and maintain eye contact all helps to support their physical literacy journey.
But what does all of this look like during your baby’s first year?
The first 1000 days provide a window of opportunity for developing motor skills and establishing life-long patterns. It’s also a time when your baby will undergo rapid growth and physical, emotional and social development.
Physical activity in the first five years helps your baby’s brain grow, develop and improves their social skills. This can all be nurtured through active play and our series of cards and videos aim to help support you in developing their movement skills and confidence through the power of play.
The benefits of your baby being physically active goes way beyond just the physical benefits. It also supports the development of:
Physical Activity Guidelines
Infants less than 1 year:
Infants should be physically active several times every day in a variety of ways, including interactive floor-based activity, e.g. crawling.
For infants not yet mobile, this includes at least 30 minutes of tummy time spread throughout the day while awake (and other movements such as reaching and grasping, pushing and pulling themselves independently, or rolling over); more is better. 2019 UK
Chief Medical Officers' Physical Activity Guidelines NB: Tummy time may be unfamiliar to babies at first, but can be increased gradually, starting from a minute or two at a time, as the baby becomes used to it. Babies should not sleep on their tummies.
Babies feel secure and reassured when something is repeated. It also helps to develop their neural pathways.
