Why Motor Skills Matter: Improve Your Child's Physical Development to Enhance Learning and Self-Esteem

"This is an important book [that] offers critical insights and the hope for a bright developmental future that all children, parents, and the professionals who serve them need." --T.B. Brazelton, M.D., Founder, Brazelton Touchpoints Center, Boston Children's Hospital

"Why Motor Skills Matter shows how children use their senses and bodies to explore their environments and what we can do to protect and strengthen this critical pathway for their development, health, and learning." --Joshua Sparrow, M.D., Director, Brazelton Touchpoints Center, Boston Children's Hospital

Learn To Use Physical Activity To Raise An Emotionally Well-Balanced, More Coordinated, And Happier Child

Playful interaction beginning in infancy is crucial to a child's cognitive skills, language, speech, and overall emotional balance. Filled with practical, age-appropriate activities for children from newborns up to age five, Why Motor Skills Matter helps you to:

• Integrate touch, movement, and body awareness during playtime.
• Ensure that your child progresses through the proper developmental sequence.
• Determine if your child has sensory processing difficulties or disorders.
• Avoid common developmental mistakes, such as using exersaucers, having your child wear hard-soled shoes, and promoting early walking.

"This is an important book for parents as well as physical and occupational therapists, other pediatric health providers, and teachers of young children. It offers critical insights and the hope for a bright developmental future that all children, parents, and the professionals who serve them need." --T.B. Brazelton, M.D., Founder, Brazelton Touchpoints Center, Boston Children's Hospital

"In this era of smartphones, tablets, and narrowly focused academic standards and testing, Tara Liddle's book is more urgently needed than ever. Why Motor Skills Matter shows how children use their senses and bodies to explore their environments and what we can do to protect and strengthen this critical pathway for their development, health, and learning." --Joshua Sparrow, M.D., Director, Brazelton Touchpoints Center, Boston Children's Hospital

"Everything we can learn about our children makes us better parents. This book is an excellent guide to child development and what we can do to help our children grow up confidently, competently, and 'in sync' with the world." --Carol Stock Kranowitz, M.A., Author of The Out-of -Sync Child: Recognizing and Coping with Sensory Processing Disorder

"Why Motor Skills Matter is a book that should be on every parent's mandatory reading list. I cannot recommend this book highly enough." --Julie Ross, M.A., Owner and Executive Director at Parenting Horizons, Author of How to Hug a Porcupine

"The accessibility of Tara Liddle's Why Motor Skills Matter is what keeps so many folks coming back to her text time and time again. --Christen M. Russo, M.D., Assistant Professor of Orthopedic Surgery; Columbia University Irving Medical Center; New York-Presbyterian/Brooklyn Methodist Hospital

"Today, when children are moving less than ever, but the purpose of ideal development remains unchanged, this book is more relevant than ever before! Having a baby shower? You're getting this book from me!!" --Liesa M. Persaud, PT, DPT, PCS, CKTP

"It's time to help children feel good about themselves from the inside out. Why Motor Skills Matter will do exactly that." --Dr. Ron Taffel, Author of Childhood Unbound

"Why Motor Skills Matter is certain to become an integral part of the literature on child development and, more importantly, a staple on every parent's shelf." --Susan E. Swedo, M.D., Fellow, American Academy of Pediatrics; Chief, Pediatrics and Developmental Neuropsychiatry Branch, NIMH. NIH, DHHS, and coauthor of Is It "Just a Phase"?

"Why Motor Skills Matter presents a thorough and terrifically useful synopsis of motor development in infants and young children." --Lise Eliot, Ph.D, Professor of Neuroscience, The Chicago Medical School, and author of What's Going on in There? How the Brain and Mind Develop in the First Five Years of Life

"I highly recommend Why Motor Skills Matter for the parent of every child, and I assure those parents that they will not only enjoy each chapter but will be far more informed about the development of their children by the end of the book." --John M. Driscoll, Jr., M.D., Former Chairman; Department of Pediatrics, Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons;

Tara Losquadro Liddle, Mpt, has been a pediatric physical therapist in private practice for over thirty years. She is presently working as the Regional Director of pediatric therapy at a major healthcare company while pursuing a doctoral degree in pediatric physical therapy. She is a frequent speaker at hospitals, schools, and parent groups. To learn more about Tara Liddle visit www.taraliddle.com.