It is important to remember your child is unique and will develop in their own way as all children develop at different rates.  They are not only growing physically but learning all about the world around them.  All sorts of different things will influence and affect how your child develops and it is important to remember that no two children are the same.  

Our information is intended to provide some useful guidance around the expected ages children will achieve their development milestones.  Also highlighted are some suggestions and advice around activities that will support you to encourage the development of your child’s gross and fine motor skills as well as their communication and interaction.

If you are concerned about your child’s development and feel they are not developing as you would expect please contact the service on the link below to discuss your concern’s further with a therapist, and if needed an assessment will be arranged.

What should your child be able to do 

By 7-8 years

  • Your child should be able to hold and move across monkey bars without support      
  • They should be safely able to perform a forward roll      
  • They should be running smoothly with arms opposing legs and a narrow base of support (feet not too far apart) and be able to run around obstacles while maintaining good balance        
  • Your child should be able to step forward with leg on opposite side as throwing arm when throwing a ball and kick a football with reasonable accuracy and consistency        
  • They should be able to jump over an object and land with both feet together        
  • They should be able to catch a small ball using hands only       
  • Balance should be maturing, they should be able to walk along a balance beam, walk backwards heel-toe and stand and maintain balance on one foot for over 10 seconds        
  • They should be able to skip using a skipping rope and hop on one foot on the spot, forwards and backwards       
  • Your child should be able to ride a bike
  • Write neatly and hold the pencil in a tripod grasp generating movements from the fingers and not the wrist
  • Cut neatly around shapes
  • Use a knife and fork for most foods
  • Form letters and numbers correctly

How you can help

You can find useful tips, hints, and advice on ways to help support your child’s gross and fine motor skills via the links below, remember lots of encouragement and over practise of the skills they find most difficult will help your child to improve.  Also encouraging them to join sports clubs and teams will be a fun way to help them get stronger and improve their physical skills.

Growing pains can often be a problem in key stage 2, visit this section on our webiste for further information.

There is lots of useful information for fine motor skills development via the FIZZY and Clever Hands programme developed by therapists in Kent Community NHS Trust. 

At the end of Year 6 your child will transition to secondary school, the links below provide tips and advice that will help support your child with some of the skills needed for this;

When to seek support

  • If your child's physical skills are deteriorating or they have lost the ability to perform physical skills they could previously do
  • If your child is struggling to get up from the floor
  • Clumsiness
  • Poor coordination
  • Struggling to keep up with peers in P.E.
  • Struggling to hop, jump and skip

What should your child be able to do 

  • Between 7 and 11 years, your child’s speech, language, and communication skills will continue to develop, though they have already grasped many of the skills they need.
  • Your young person will continue to use long and complex sentences.
  • They will be able to keep a conversation going by giving reasons and explaining choices.
  • Your young person will be able to understand and use sentences which may confuse younger children, such as “the car behind the bus is blue” or “it’s raining cats and dogs.”

How can you help

When to seek support

  • Your child is finding it hard to learn an understand the meanings of words.
  • Their sentences and stories may be muddled.
  • They may find it hard to make predictions.
  • They may struggle to join in group conversations.

If you have any concerns regarding your child's development please click on this link to refer your child into the service, you will then receive a telephone call from a member of the team to discuss your concerns further and organise an assessment as appropriate.