What is Motor Planning?
Motor planning is a complex idea that has many different components, but in short it is the body’s ability to remember the small steps that, when combined, allow us to do a specific activity. Motor planning refers to movements our bones, joints, and muscles make that allow our bodies to move, and with each movement, our body and brain sends messages back and forth to tell each other ways to move to accomplish tasks.
Understanding Motor Planning
Sometimes children have difficulty processing the information needed to learn new motor actions. These children may seem clumsy or need extra time to complete what may seem like a simple task. No need to get frustrated, there are some motor planning activities and exercises you can work on with your child that will help develop their ability to motor plan!
- Yoga Cards
Yoga is a great way to make moving your body fun! Try searching “Yoga Pretzels” on Amazon, this is a great card deck to allow kids to work through poses with information to cater to different learning styles. Pick a few cards to work through as a family! You can also make it competitive and see who can hold positions the longest. At the beginning, help your child get into the positions verbally, physically, or visually show them you doing the position. Over time, take away one of the ways you’re helping to see if they’re processing how to motor plan on their own.
2. Animal Walks
Have races around the living room doing bear or crab walks, hopping like a frog, or moving like a snake or giraffe! Or challenge them to come up with a way to walk like a certain animal!
3. Simon Says
Start by being Simon and hold different poses to show your child, so they can replicate them, the sillier the better! Do not stress as much about your child following the rules of the game, but more on challenging their bodies to replicate what you’re showing them.
4. Ball Maze
Get a ball of any size and rope or tape for this game. The goal is for the child to move the ball along the rope from one side to the other. Start by using their hands to roll the ball along the line, then move to carefully kicking it with their feet, or even increase the challenge by having them use their elbow or knee, or even make the pattern of the rope into a wave or zig zag!
5. Obstacle Course Stations
Create a sequence of stations your child has to go through such as kicking a ball to knock down a block tower, then frog jump towards different targets, then push a weighted laundry basket around obstacles. You could also have them come up with their own tasks to do at the stations!
Hopefully some of these motor planning activities are helpful to you and your child!!
Information cited from: napacenter.org