5 Gross Motor and Coordination Activities
Watch this video to learn how to create 5 gross motor and bilateral coordination activities using plastic tablecloths and shower curtain rings from the Dollar Store.
Using Metronome Apps to Teach Gross Motor Skills
Lately, I have been using a free metronome app on the iPhone to help teach gross motor skills. There are several metronome apps so pick the one that works best for you. I downloaded this one since it was free and it works fine for my purposes. Basically you can set the beat on the […]
Weight and Gross Motor Skills
Pediatric Physical Therapy published research on weight and gross motor skill development in young children. Body mass index and gross motor skill level was determined for 4650 kindergarteners. The results indicated that children with obesity exhibited decreased motor skills compared to their peers especially with respect to locomotor and balance skills. Reference: Roberts, Dawn; Veneri, Diana; […]
Bug Hunting Activity
Here is a fun outdoor activity for Spring that encourages fine motor, gross motor and visual perceptual skills. Head on over to YourTherapySource.com for more details.
Child Welfare and Gross Motor Skills
Here is an interesting study published in Pediatric Physical Therapy. One hundred seventy six children in the child welfare system underwent gross motor skill evaluations, physical examinations and case workers were interviewed. The results indicated the following: significantly lower gross motor skills for children in foster care versus kinship care children who were abused or […]
Autism, Motor Skills and Socialization
If you ever need to justify why children with autism need occupational or physical therapy, don’t forget to include the benefits that improvements in motor skill development has on socialization. Recent research looked at young children’s scores on the Battelle Developmental Inventory–Second Edition for gross and fine motor skills. The Baby and Infant Screen for […]
Simple Group Game for Tight Spaces
A variation of this game was played at the local school: Peanut Butter and Jelly Purpose: Encourage eye hand coordination, motor timing and motor planning. Materials: Two different colored balls Activity: Have the children sit on the floor in a large circle. Choose one ball to be the peanut butter and the other ball will […]
BMI and Gross Motor Skills
Pediatric Physical Therapy published research on the relationship between body mass index (BMI) and gross motor skill level in children. Fifty typically developing 3-5 year old children were evaluated with the Peabody Developmental Motor Scales. Of those 50 children, 24% were overweight/obese with 54% scoring below average on the PDMS in that group. Whereas only […]
Gross Motor Skills and Psychiatric Disorders
Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology published research on the gross motor performance and physical fitness of children with psychiatric disorders. One hundred children (81 boys and 19 girls with a mean age of 9 yrs 11 months) were divided into three subgroups: emotional disorders (17 children), behavioral disorders (44 children) and pervasive developmental disorders (39 […]
Outdoor Activity: Nature Color Hunt
Scavenger Hunts: Scavenger Hunts electronic activity book includes over 150 scavenger hunt cards to find. In addition, there are 3 different scavenger alphabet hunts and 10 pencil and paper scavenger hunts to encourage visual discrimination and visual motor skills. These hunts are great to get any child up and moving! Recommended for ages 4+ yearsold […]