Your baby's motor skills develop in sequence - that is, usually from head to foot. Hence, your baby's ability to co-ordinate her head and arm will usually come before she can co-ordinate her feet and legs. What most parents don't know is that actually the middle of the body is the first to develop, so your baby is able to coordinate her torso even before her arms and legs.

Motor skills are a key development stage for babies as it enables them to become more independent. As soon as a baby is born, she will begin the process of developing the motor skills that are vital for her to manipulate and interact with her environment. The ways in which different babies develop their motor skills can have a big effect on their outlook toward the environment that they are a part of. In fact, the development of your baby's motor skills and her experience and ability to take on new skills are very closely linked.

As her motor skills grow, so will your baby's ability to interact in a deeper way with her environment. For example, a baby who has mastered the motor skill of sitting up without help will have a completely different outlook on the environment that they are a part of than a baby who has not yet mastered this skill and needs assistance from objects or adults to help them up. You will find that as your baby begins to stack skill upon skill that her experience of the world, and in turn the complexity of newly learned skills, will grow exponentially. As your baby's motor skills grow and become more complex, so will your baby's overall interaction with her environment.

The development process can be broken up into three-month intervals and divided into two categories: gross motor skills and fine motor skills. "Gross motor skills"� is the term used to describe your baby's ability to control different parts of her own body. "Fine motor skills"� refer to your baby's level of coordination of different body parts, such as picking up an object with her thumb and forefinger.

Infant muscle development starts at the head and works its way down. Your baby will first develop control over her neck muscles. Soon after that she will learn to control the torso, and finally the leg muscles. Your baby will then start to sit up on her own. She will start crawling a bit, and even turn over by herself. She will enjoy being bounced on your knee (gently) which is an excellent way for your baby to start developing balance. By the time she is around eight months old, she will start learning how to stand up on her own and will try to pull herself upright by holding on to objects with your help.

To back up a little bit, one of the first things that you will be taught as a new parent is how to support your baby's head - as most babies are unable to do this themselves until the age of three months. Usually at about seven months of age your baby is likely to be able to hold her head steadily using her own control, for longer periods of time. To help your baby develop head control here is what you can do:

• Gently place your baby's stomach facing down on the floor. Try and do this a few times a day. This will help to strengthen those muscles.
• Try and get your baby to lift her head - perhaps by sitting down next to her so your face is close to hers.
Rolling over is another action that is something of a landmark for your baby's development. Typically, after about 4 or 5 months your baby may be able to roll over in one direction (stomach to back or visa versa). After six or seven months, she may be able to roll over both ways. Helping your baby to roll can be helped by using a favorite toy as an incentive. Make sure your baby has plenty of space for rolling. A soft carpet or blanket is perfect for this. Once your baby has mastered rolling, be careful where you leave her in case you might turn your back (i.e.: changing table or bed with no railing).

So what does the crawling and walking process look like? Well, between 8 and 13 months, most babies follow this kind of development:

• First your baby will be able to get herself on her hand and knees.
• Then she will jolt back and forth, in an attempt to try and take her first movements forward.
• She will learn several new methods of moving around, such as swiveling and squirming on her stomach.
• Once this starts, within a month she will be able to crawl forwards. Some babies start crawling backwards before they learn to crawl forwards.
• Different babies have different crawling styles - everything from bouncing along on their bottoms to crawling with arms and legs extended may be seen.
  
  These locomotion skills that your baby is trying to learn can be developed by doing a few simple things. For example, games such as "crawl tag"� can be great fun for your baby and provide her with valuable locomotion training. Crawl after your baby slowly saying, "I'm going to get Baby!"� (or say her name) and then turn and crawl away to try and let her crawl towards you. You could also create a crawling tack - kind of obstacle course on the floor where several of her favorite playthings are used as the "obstacles."� Again, good fun for your baby and very useful for her development.
  
  When it comes to actually walking, babies can usually expect to start this between the ages of nine to fifteen months with the average being around thirteen months. If your baby is not walking at this point, but has no problems crawling, standing, or sitting upright, don't worry. This is really quite normal. Some babies skip the crawling phase entirely and can start walking as late as seventeen to nineteen months. As with everything else, all babies are different in their development.
  
  There are several ways to help your baby begin the process of walking. Some parents think that expensive toys and walking aids are required to facilitate early development but this is not actually the case. What you need to do most is to interact with your child as much as possible; this is to facilitate brain development. Babies love to hear stories. The purpose of this is not just recreational or for entertainment, but very important for helping along your baby's brain development. Instead of telling your baby a story and making it up as you go along, try reading it aloud to her from a book. This will help her develop her vocabulary. Play with her, talk to her, sing to her.
  
  Did you know that younger siblings in a family often develop at a faster rate than older brothers and sisters? Can you think why this is? If you guessed it is because the younger sibling has someone to constantly interact with, then you are correct. As far as toys and walking aids, walkers are definitely NOT recommended. Babies tend to rely on them too much and they tend to stunt the development of your baby's upper leg muscles and as a result, delay the progression of her motor skills. If you need another reason why walkers are not a great idea, were you aware that every year there are approximately 200,000 walker related injuries? The scary thing is that 30,000 of these are quite serious and can include fractures, broken bones and dislocations. In fact, Canada has banned the use of walkers altogether. The American Medical Association, as well as various other organizations, has proposed a ban on walkers in the United States.
  
  There are a few things that you can do to help your baby in developing her motor skills. These may well help her start to walk earlier:
  
• While indoors, leave your baby's shoes off and have her walk barefoot. It's much easier than with shoes. Just make sure that the floor is not slippery.
• Don't hold your baby by her hands or arms but by her torso if she needs you to steady her. If she was to slip and fall you could dislocate her shoulder.
• If you need to entice your baby to try walking, hold a favorite toy just out of reach so she will have to walk to get it.

This article focused primarily on "Gross Motor Skills."� See also"Fine Motor Skills