23/05/2024
Splish Splash Sposh
Water play gives many opportunities to develop gross and fine motor skills across the age ranges. Young babies love to reach out when water is being poured in front of them, they love to feel the trickle and try to grab the flowing water with an eager grasping hand.
Young children enhance their gross motor skills, coordination and physical fitness through lifting, pouring, carrying, running, splashing and paddling in pools, while actions such as squeezing help to develop the small muscles in a child’s hands.
As children manipulate water play materials, they build their scientific enquiry and problem solving skills, as they begin to understand why and how things happen. For example, a child may notice that one object sinks in the water and another object floats, which prompts them to add more objects to the water to see what happens. As they continue to investigate which objects sink and float, a child will soon discover that a heavier object sinks, while lighter objects float, no matter how big or small they are.