On my first Mother’s Day, I ordered myself a few new parenting books. Not all of them were so great, but the one I was really glad about buying was Why Motor Skills Matter by Tara Losquarado Liddle. My daughter was a preemie, and she had delayed development during her first three years of life. She still wasn’t sitting on her own months after her first birthday, and we eventually had to enlist the help of an occupational and developmental, as well as a physical therapist.

Liddle’s book helped me to understand my daughter’s growth and development so much. It’s one thing to have a doctor’s sheet of milestones in front of you; it’s quite another to actually know the what, why, how, and especially when of developmental stages. Simply knowing “she can’t sit yet” drove me insane! But realizing that it was because her abdominal muscles simply weren’t developed yet—or strong enough yet—really gave me something solid to grasp, something we could work on together rather than simply fret about and ask the gods to do something with.

So we used Liddle’s exercises. In addition to the every-other-week visit from her physical therapist, my daughter’s abdomen grew stronger and stronger as we worked her on a ball, made her reach for things, and invested in the Bumbo chair to help her balance. It didn’t take her long to catch up on her sitting milestone—and soon after, her walking one.

Liddle uses a “body-centered approach,” with plenty of milestones listed along with ways to help kiddos like mine—kids with low muscle tone, prematurity, sensory issues or other problems—get to those milestones. It’s such an awesome hands-on parenting book that really empowers you to help your child yourself and really get those motor skills working.

She also emphasizes how mild deficiencies in motor skills, if not corrected early, can lead to a detrimental effect in self-esteem and the child’s overall wellbeing. Though she backs up all of her research with renowned scientific evidence, she explains all of this—as well as the developmentally appropriate toys, exercises, and growth periods—in easy language for parents to follow and learn from. Progress, says Liddle, is much more important than milestones—something that many parents find it hard to learn!

If you’re a parent of a young child, going to be one, or work with kids under five, I highly recommend this book for you to use. The toy recommendations, exercises and other helpful advice make it a fantastic edition to any parenting library.