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From: greg@olivee.UUCP (Greg Paley)
Newsgroups: net.kids
Subject: Re: Large muscle motor skills?
Message-ID: <254@olivee.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 21-Mar-85 14:20:49 EST
Article-I.D.: olivee.254
Posted: Thu Mar 21 14:20:49 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 25-Mar-85 02:33:45 EST
References: <7337@watrose.UUCP> <1014@gloria.UUCP>
Distribution: net
Organization: Olivetti ATC, Cupertino, Ca
Lines: 34

The teacher mentioned in the original article may not have
given enough justification for her opinion, but is also not
necessarily wrong.  My wife provides day care for several
children during the week.  Two boys from the same family
seem noticeably below others of their ages in large-motor
coordination.  Trying to gently bring up the subject with
their mother, it came up that she

	(1) Never lets them play outside at home - their
		yard is too overgrown.

	(2) Never takes them to parks - she doesn't have
		time or energy.

	(3) Doesn't let them have toys they can climb on
		or roll around with - she prefers crafts
		and items that provide "intellectual
		stimulation".

As she expressed it "I guess my kids will just be thinkers".

My wife tries to encourage the kids to play outside when
the weather is nice and takes them to parks frequently.  The
two boys mentioned seemed scared to death of swings and
other playground equipment at first, and are very slowly
starting to gain confidence and coordination (one of them
is 4 1/2, the other 2 1/2).

While I don't want to see every kid pressured to be a jock,
I do think it's wrong to completely ignore the kind of
activities that encourage the development of large-motor
coordination.

	- Greg Paley