When it comes to the development of fine and gross motor skills in infants, social and cultural factors can certainly have an impact. Since motor development provides an opportunity for infants to navigate their environments, which promotes cognitive, social, and perceptual development, it can be affected by cultural practices, social and nutritional factors including iron deficiency  (Rosa M. Angulo-Barroso, 2011). Both the child’s family environment as well as the economic status involved can either promote or suppress the development of such skills. For example, if a child lives in an environment that is impoverished and involves hunger, homelessness, or malnutrition, the ability to develop motor skills will be compromised. If the child’s physical environment is overcrowded, his or her ability to move about freely and explore will be inhibited (Corneau, 2011.) Additionally, in some cultures, such as in African, mothers carry around their babies most of the time so that their abilities to develop the skills for walking, crawling, and sitting are likely to develop more slowly than in cultures where children are helped to walk, sit up, and stand on their own at earlier ages.

There are many activities that can help parents to promote the development of motor skills in their infants. For example, if the child is given bits of food such as Cheerios that are put on the tray of their high chairs, they can learn to pick up small objects and maneuver them into their mouths. Later on, this skill can be refined by allowing the child to utilize the spoon to bring food from a bowl into his or her mouth. In order to promote the skills that will eventually lead to walking, parents can place an infant on the ground and move a few steps away from him or her, with outstretched hands, encouraging the infant to try to move in order to reach the parent. This can promote rolling, crawling, and reaching out to grab the parent’s hand, which will assist in the development of various motor skills, both fine and gross.