Gross Motor Skills
Gross motor skills, strength and coordination is an imperative skill as it precedes fine motor development. Therefore, children who are having difficulty with pencil grasps and seated postures are often found to have gross motor strength and coordination issues. Having a difficulty in this area can inhibit a child’s willingness to participate in sports which further declines not only their gross motor functioning but also group participation.
Motor Development and Coordination
We have a fully equipped gross motor gym onsite which enables ease of assessment and treatment of diagnoses such as Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD), low muscle tone or general coordination difficulties.
Motivation
At the therapist’s discretion, children are able to access the gross motor gym after they have completed their written work (fine motor activities) purely as a motivational tool or reward for all their hard work!
Proprioception
Proprioception is an innate system necessary for understanding where the body is in space and directly related to gross motor function and coordination. Children who experience difficulties in this area tend to appear clumsy or uncoordinated and in severe cases, often need to feel their way along a wall or hold onto a parent to guide them, despite having regular eye-sight. Specific exercises can be recommended to assist in the development of proprioception.
It can be related to left-right brain integration (reluctancy to cross the midline). Does your child know their left from right? Coordinating both sides of their body creates strong neural connections between both hemispheres of the brain.
