Scooting isn’t just about empowering toddlers to travel from A to B, it helps establish essential life skills, whilst hitting those all-important developmental milestones.
Riding a scooter is a fun and engaging way for children to navigate the world around them. Three developmental elements that are enhanced by scooting include gross motor skills, cognitive skills and social interactions with each being vital to a child’s development.
Guest bloggers Micro Scooters explain these benefits in more detail and describe how a simple scoot around the block will help toddlers to thrive.
Gross motor skills
These are all the lovely muscles that work together to enable children to move. They include:
- Balance – Maintaining stability whilst using little legs to push off to create movement isn’t so simple for toddlers new to scooting. They need to master the art of balance in order to get up the speed that requires them to be independent.
- Coordination– Using both legs to push off whilst steering at the same time means different parts of a child’s body are moving simultaneously and this promotes hand eye coordination.
- Strength– Pushing off with one foot whilst maintaining posture builds leg strength and core stability.
- Spatial awareness– Navigating around obstacles while scooting helps children develop a better understanding of their bodies in relation to the environment.
Cognitive Skills
Here are all the ways that scooting requires ‘brain power’ to get from A to B:
- Problem solving– how to navigate their environment is incredibly important when scooting, including navigating the safest path and assessing obstacles.
- Concentration– scooting requires focus and attention, staying engaged with the journey is essential in order to get to the end safely.
- Memory– this includes remembering routes and where to go as well as understanding how and why obstacles and different pathways can be troublesome. Learning in this environment will be hugely beneficial and easily transferable to other situations.
- Planning– speeding up and slowing down or changing direction needs children to assess, think about and plan their movements in order to reach their final destination.
- Task sequencing– including pushing off, steering, stopping, regular practicing of patterns improves the ability to remember steps in a task.
Social Skills
We think spontaneous scoots with friends should be bottled up and given to anyone having a dull day. There is nothing better than a scoot round the block to blow away the cobwebs and scooting with a friend is just the ticket for lifting mood.
- Social skills – Riding together encourages children to communicate, interact and share experiences, taking turns will teach toddlers about sharing and teamwork. As a result they’ll build friendships and learn to resolve conflict.
- Imagination and exploration – Scooting allows toddlers to explore their environment in a playful way. They can use their imagination to create games or adventures, sparking creativity and curiosity about the world around them.
In 2019, Micro Scooters partnered with Brytesparks, a team of biomechanics experts, to study child development in relation to their products. The researchers found that riding a Micro scooter boosts children’s confidence in their physical abilities. This increased confidence helps them move with a greater awareness of their bodies and their capabilities, making them less likely to engage in unnecessary risks.
What is deliberate play?
When play is deliberate, it means that the parent actively engages their child in a game, with a clear aim: to assist in the physical development of the child.
Whilst the parent has a clear goal, the child is not aware of the intention. Meaning that infants are fully immersed in the positive experience rather than resistant to commands. Such games are specifically designed to not only help a child to achieve certain development milestones, but also to embed these skills. As a result the child moves through their physical development stages more quickly and with more confidence.
You can find some games that support deliberate play on the Micro Scooters website.
Products supporting development
The experts at Brytesparks have assessed child development with Micro Scooters in mind, specifically their ride-on toddler scooter and balance bikes.
Micro Scooters are the number 1 scooter brand in the UK. Their multi-award-winning range is renowned for being exquisitely made and long-lasting.
Whether your child is starting adventures on their toddler scooter or cruising the school run on two wheels (perhaps you’re looking for a parent version to keep up) there is a scooter in the range for the whole family. With free delivery, free returns and a 28-day no quibble guarantee when you buy direct from Micro scooters. Swiss designed and engineered – for miles of smiles. For years of adventure.