Your child’s core musculature contributes to the stabilization of many surrounding areas in their body. Being that the core is the center of the body, it is important to ensure that it is strong and ready to stabilize the body.

Core strength contributes to adding greater support for the spine in order to support different activities and overall help prevent injuries. Core strength is also important for balance when sitting, standing, walking, and even climbing. Core strength is essential for all the movements of our arms and legs as well.

In your child's early development, a strong core helps with different movements such as rolling to explore their environment and later to support sitting. As they get older it will help with stability when standing and moving around. Ensuring that your child has a strong stable core at a young age will allow them to have continual benefits as they grow, such as age-appropriate coordination skills.

There are many activities that a child can do that can assist them with building up core strength. For example, in infancy, rolling is ideal with helping the core build up muscles to aid the rotating motion. Sitting independently/unsupported is also great with building up this strength and will allow them to build up proper muscles to catch themselves if they sway in this upright position. When doing this, allowing them to reach for toys in this position will also work on bending forward or to the sides.

As your child builds up these muscles, sitting them on a more dynamic surface such an exercise ball while rolling the ball slightly will force them to correct in an attempt to sit upright.

These are all great tools to allow them to build up the proper muscle to make for greater stability. Overall building up these muscles is necessary to allow for stability and strength of other muscles or areas of their growing bodies. It is also necessary to note any muscle imbalances or delays to allow for proper intervention and help to assist their muscles to continue to grow strong.