When babies are growing we want to protect and nurture them. This leads to a natural instinct to stop them from climbing, but learning to climb is an important aspect of their development.
School readiness
Many primary schools and parks have some sort of climbing apparatus. Whilst many parents feel safe allowing the children to explore under parental supervision, how do we know that they have the correct skills to explore school apparatus when the parental support is not there? Simple, let them explore at every opportunity!
Improve agility
One of the most important sets of skills for a child is that of fine motor skills. Climbing is a great way of improving this as they learn different ways to grasp different climbing challenges and how to grip different surfaces. For example, the child will use a different grip and grasp if climbing metal climbing frames than they would if they were playing on wooden climbing frames.
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Confidence
Many children are easily overwhelmed when they are first introduced to climbing challenges. If the child is provided with the right set of skills, they are more likely to feel confident to tackle the equipment and adopt a trial and error approach. This will increase their confidence even more, allowing them to feel comfortable enough to try other climbing challenges more willingly. These https://www.niclimbingframes.com/childrens-wooden-climbing-frames offer some excellent wooden climbing frames to help improve confidence.
Physical benefits
Climbing encourages children to go outdoors and look for their own challenges. This will instil a love of the outdoors which has obvious health benefits, and help to prevent obesity and weight issues. Also, the act of climbing is a physical activity which will build the children’s muscles and improve their gross motor skills – https://www.parent24.com/Baby/Toddler_1-2/How-climbing-and-outside-play-help-your-childs-growth-20150826 has some excellent tips for parents in supporting children learning to climb.
Problem-solving
When faced with climbing challenges the children will naturally start to use problem-solving skills; Where should I start? Where will I put my hands and feet? What if I want to climb it using a different route? These are important life skills that the child will need through their school journey and beyond.
Risk-taking
Children will learn to risk assess climbing apparatus before tackling it. This is another vital skill as the children learn to discover their limits and understand what danger is.
