Locomotor Skills and Physical Activity for Kids

Locomotor skills are an important group of gross motor skills that kids begin to learn as babies. Walking—one of the biggest physical development milestones of all for young children—is the first locomotor skill. In walking and the other locomotor skills that follow it, the feet move the body from one place to another. These skills are the starting point for many sports and leisure activities, from soccer to golf to dance and more.

Roughly in order of how children learn them, the locomotor skills are:

• Walking: Moving with one foot on the ground at all times
• Running: Sometimes both feet are in the air while traveling
• Hopping: Moving up and down on one foot
• Jumping: Going up and down, with both feet in the air at once; can also mean jumping off a height or jumping forward
• Galloping: Traveling with one foot always in the lead
• Sliding: Galloping sideways
• Leaping: Jumping forward or back with one leg outstretched; taking off on one foot and landing on the other
• Skipping: Alternating steps and hops

Most children learn to walk at approximately 1 year of age and to run, hop, and jump at age 2. They begin to master the more complex skills of galloping, skipping, sliding, and leaping at about age 3. Children need some instruction to learn these skills, especially the more challenging ones.

Toddlers and preschoolers need lots of opportunities to practice these locomotor skills. Most will enjoy these "practice" sessions. Practice shouldn't feel like a workout class, just a fun playtime. Kids need freedom and space for this kind of play, so make sure their daycare or preschool is offering enough of those.​

Make it a game. Simple activities, like follow the leader or Simon Says, can encourage physical play that builds skills. When you're walking anywhere with your child, show him how to vary his movements. Speed up, slow down, swing your arms, walk on tiptoe. Play modified (read, simplified) versions of bigger kids' games that require locomotion, like relay races and hopscotch. On longer walks, incorporate challenging skills like galloping.

If you're indoors, try working on jumping from spot to spot or count how many hops your child can do on first one foot, then the other. Show her how marching can lead to skipping, using high knees. 

If you are concerned about your child's physical development, check with her doctor or your school district's early intervention program (in the U.S.). Try these activities at home.

To work on walking skilfully and steadily: Set up ropes or strips of tape and have your child walk between them, or place small objects (like beanbags) on the floor for her to step over. Draw wavy lines with chalk or tape and challenge her to follow them. Make footprints from paper and have your child follow them—or outside, let her step in puddles or snow and make her own prints, then follow them.

To build running skills: Play racing games, and sports that involve running, such as soccer. Have your child run with a goal in mind: Saving his favorite stuffed animal from a pretend roaring river (really the hallway rug), for example.

To encourage jumping: Let her jump in a place where it's usually not allowed, such as off her bed into your arms. Try a mini trampoline, or show her how she can jump safely from a surface that's just slightly elevated (like the beam edging a playground area). Then work up to higher surfaces. To help your child jump higher, tape target pictures to the wall and have her try to jump up and tag them. You can use any kind of pictures that will motivate your child.

To practice galloping: Use a hula hoop around the waist like the reins on a horse. Start with you being the horse, inside the hoop, and your child being the rider. He's outside of the hoop, holding on to it, following you as you gallop forward. This way he can see how your feet are moving. Then switch and let him try being the galloping horse.

To help with skipping: Have your child skip while touching a wall to help her balance. Sing songs while skipping; the rhythm helps your child follow the step/hop, step/hop pattern.