Heave-ho! Letting your toddler enjoy the challenge of lifting heavy things
It can be instinctive to jump in and help when you notice your toddler trying to lift something you know is heavy, but when it is safe to do so, letting them try (and fail, and try again) helps to develop not only their resilience but also their important gross motor skills.
Since they were in the womb, your toddler has been building up their gross motor muscles.[1] This includes all the larger muscles in their body, which need to be strong and powerful enough to support all their movements. Gross motor muscles help your toddler to maintain their posture, and to move their arms, legs and head, so they need to be strengthened to support your toddler to explore the world.
It’s not as simple as working out and having a strong base, these muscles then need to work as part of a sequence.
As your toddler has grown, they will have been mastering new gross motor skills which they then use as part of other tasks, so they might first have learnt to balance and stay steady while walking, then learnt to lift an item and hold it for a short period of time, and then began to put these skills together to pick up and carry an item from one place to another.
The concentration, and core strength, required to carry an item is easily underestimated, but putting these motor skills together and then practising them enough for it to feel natural is an important aspect of your toddler’s gross motor development.[2]
Now they have grown, your toddler will enjoy challenging themselves to extend their motor skills to engage even more widely with their world.
This is the point you might have arrived at now, as you see your tiny toddler heaving a full watering can, heavy box of blocks, or other weighty object around with them.
Carrying something heavy requires us to engage our gross motor muscles – not only to pick it up and hold it, but also to maintain our posture and balance, especially if the item might move or wobble while it’s being carried, like a container of water.
This is a brilliant way for your toddler to really feel their body working with them – they are having to use their core strength and adjust the position of their body (and the item they’re carrying) to maintain their balance.
They might find, especially at first, that they can’t go too far as it is so much to do, and think about, that their body tires easily.
This could be the moment for you to step in, especially if you notice that your toddler is getting frustrated and so may be put off trying another time. But, if they’re happy and determined to have another go, step away and let them keep trying to find that perfect position to make it from A to B!
References:
[1] K.E. Adolph and J.M. Franchak. (2017) ‘The Development of Motor Behaviour’. Wiley Interdiscip Rev Cogn Sci. 8(1-2) 10.1002/wcs.1430.
[2] Williams, H. & Monsma, E.V. (2006). ‘Assessment of gross motor development.’ In: B.A. Bracken & R.J. Nagle (Eds). Psychoeducational Assessment of Preschool Children, Fourth Edition, (pp. 397-433). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates: Hillsdale, NJ.