Games and individual activities involving physical skills.

A child will have many opportunities to participate in sports throughout his or her developing years and into adolescence. The level of a child's participation in sports, how he or she performs, or whether he or she enjoys playing is greatly influenced by adults' attitudes toward the physical and emotional aspects of the activity.

Infancy

The amount of athletic activity that an infant is capable of participating in is limited. Still, many parents worry about their child's motor skill development and how they can help develop these skills. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) advises parents that normal play with adults is more than enough physical stimulus to encourage normal development of motor skills. In years of research, no one has produced any evidence that increased stimulation of infants increases development of motor skills in later years.

Swimming is perhaps the...