Gross Motor Skill Activities

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

Two years ago I sat in a room with one of Chase's teachers as she discussed academic concerns with me.  I felt calm and ready to hear what she had to say.  I knew he had issues, I had been discussing them with his physicians his entire life (although they just said not to worry about it at this point).  She expressed a concern that Chase was developmentally behind in all areas, and that it might be a good idea to begin testing.  One area of concern included Chase's delay in motor skills. Research shows that motor development is the cornerstone to success in school (Cohen and Cowen, 2008).  When I learned this I was surprised.  No wonder P.E. and Recess are key components in a school setting!!!!

 

Motor Skills

• Gross Motor Skills - running, jumping, balancing, etc.  However it is not just moving that makes Gross Motor skills important.  Educators are aware that children must develop gross motor skills in order for their fine motor skills to develop properly.

From the moment I understood that we needed to work on Motor Skills Chase began participating in physical therapy at school (He has improved so much in the last two years that next year he will not have Physical Therapy as part of his IEP next year in Kindergarten), going to The Little Gym (which we will continue to do), and finding ways to incorporate movement in his activities at home.

I stumbled across the following three activities in Tara Delaney's book "101 Games and Activities for Children with Autism, Asperger's and Sensory Processing Disorders".  The book has a ton more activities, but these were the three that stood out to me that not only helped with gross motor skills - but also with literacy.

Jumping Bears 

I absolutely love the multicolored counting bears that you can buy at any school supply store, or even Amazon.com.   This activity not only aids in gross motor development, but is also a proprioceptive activity!  You have your child place a small number of different colored bears on the trampoline and then they jump until a bear falls off.  When the bear "leaps" off the trampoline have them say "(color) bear is jumping off."  This activity promotes using their verbal skills, visual tracking (which is key in learning to read), and builds color identification. We have used colored bears for counting, categorization, and learning colors.  I never thought of using them in this manner before - what a fun activity. 

Scooter Safari

I love this idea that Delaney covers in her book.  It is a different way to build vocabulary, and alphabetic priciples. Place the animals around the area you plan to play.  Before you begin the activity place the animals under, over, in, out, behind, in front of different things.  This helps build spatial concepts.

I have learned that children need directions given to them in a variety of different ways.  I always give them the big picture first - even though I KNOW that some of them will zone out after the first step.  Chase has a difficult time following multi-step directions, yet it is important that he hear them so that he builds up this skill. 

Have your child lie down on the scooter with enough space between the scooter and their armpits to allow smooth movement.  Have your child propel themselves forward, alternating their hands, towards the animals.  You may have to model what you want for them to do by physically moving their arms for them at first (Delaney, 2010).  Chase needs to be shown something before it clicks in his head.  It is actually fun to see the light-bulb come on and how eager he is to give it a try on his own.

As the children find the animals have them tell you where they found it.  As they walk the animal back to the cardboard box have them identify the letter that the animal starts with. Ask them to tell you the sound that letter makes.  I also ask Chase what other animals/items start with that letter.  He always gets so excited when he is able to share.  Once the animal is safe in the zoo (cardboard box) the child gets back on the scooter and "drives" to the next animal.

I love that I can do this activity inside or outside - depending on the weather.  The best part is that you are playing with your child and they may never recognize that they are doing that boring thing called "Learning."

Fishing/Charades

DD and Chase frequently ask their dad to take them fishing.  They don't have to go to a pond or river to catch fish - they can do it at home!!!!  Here is how:

1. Make a fishing pole from the cardboard tube of a paper towel or wrapping paper.  Have your child help you cover the tube with either colored construction paper or my favorite new tool - colored masking tape.  Have them even choose the masking tape.  Chase's is green!  Tie a string at the end of the tube.  Leave enough length so that the "line" is about 24-30 inches long (about 36 inches total is about what you need).  Tie a magnet to the other end of the line.
2. Cut out pictures from the Internet, or magazines that show animals and people doing actions. (Ex: bunny hops, dogs beg, babies crawl, people: throw ball, run, cook, mow the lawn, etc.)  Make sure to write the animal and the action under the picture to aide in word recognition.  Glue them to the cardboard fishes.  Attach a paper clip to each picture for the magnet to catch.  (You can try using felt, or Velcro in place of the magnet and paper clip.)
3. Have your child place the fish face-down on the floor and mix them up.  They will then "go fishing" with the fishing pole.  Once they have the fish they will act out the action depicted on the cardboard fish.  If you have more than one child (which I do) have the other children guess.  

What an awesome way to incorporate eye-hand coordination, gross motor skills, and building literacy!  I'm glad that Tara Delaney included this in her book

Resources:

Cohen, V. L. & Cowen, J. E. (2008). Literacy for children in an information age: Teaching, reading, writing, and thinking. Belmont, CA: Thompson Higher Education. 

Delaney, T. (2009).  101 Games and activities for children with autism, asperger's, and sensory processing disorders.  New York: McGraw Hill.