Learn To Jump

Let’s talk about Jumping! Jumping is an important gross motor skill that kids develop between the ages of 2-3. Jumping comes in many shapes and sizes with varying levels of difficulty ranging from a simple vertical jump to the more complex jumping forward, jumping over, and jumping down. To better understand jumping let’s take a quick look at how children develop the skill of jumping.

Jumping Development

Most kids are able to jump getting both feet off of the ground boy age 2. Now the amount of clearance from the ground isn’t super important in the beginning, what you are looking for is your child’s ability to bend their knees and propel upward.

By age 3 most kids are able to do more complex forms of jumping, jumping forward a short distance and even jumping over things like stuffed animals. 

Concerns About Your Child’s Jumping?

If your child isn’t jumping and you are having concerns, here are few things to try:

Practice: As I said before kids learn new skill with repetition. So, practice jumping. stand facing your child and holding their hands. Show your child how to jump and encourage them to copy. Be sure your are not pulling up on your child’s arm as this motion can cause shoulder injuries. 

Break Down the Action: If your child need a little more support, break down the jumping motion by practicing the 3 separate parts of jumping. 

• Step 1: The first step for jumping is learning to bend the knees. Easy ways to practice bending your knees: Stand in front of a mirror and watch yourself move. Place small toys, cotton balls, or blocks and have your child bend down and pick them up.

• Step 2: The second step for jumping is learning to propel yourself upward. I like to tell kids, “Let’s Blast Off”. The best way to practice blasting off is again standing in front of a mirror and practice with your child.

• Step 3: The final step is using to use your arms to help propel your body upward during a jump. Practice swinging your arms back while bending your knees. Then. swing your arms up and reach overhead as your blast off.

Ask for Help: If your child is still struggling, be sure to reach out to your medical for additional support. 

Fun Ways to Practice Jumping

If you are looking for some fun and easy ways to work on jumping try these

• Check out the Jumping Videos on my YouTube Channel here or access through the links above.

• Grab some sidewalk chalk (or painter’s tape if you want to play these games indoors) and draw a series of lines on the ground and have your child jump over the lines. They can jump forward, backward and even sideways.

• Another great option is hopscotch. If jumping on one foot is too hard they do a 2 foot jump into the single box numbers. 

• Pretend to be animals that jump like a bunny, grasshopper, kangaroo, or frog.

Videos for Animal Walks with Animals that Jump!