What are gross motor skills?

Gross motor skills use the large muscle groups, which work together to produce actions such as walking, running, jumping, catching, and throwing. In order to achieve efficient gross motor co-ordination, you must have developed and integrated the following component skills: body awareness, postural stability, balance, bilateral integration, sensory processing, motor planning, eye-hand coordination.

 

Possible difficulties:

• Falls, trips, and bump into things
• Poor coordination when walking, running, skipping, swimming, ball games, and school PE activities.
• Reluctant to participate in active sports and school PE activities.
• Tires easily.
• Poor balance, poor posture.
• Poor sitting posture.
• Difficulty in planning and carrying out a sequence of movements, difficulty changing direction or stopping and starting actions.
• Difficulty completing activities requiring coordination of both sides of the body (bilateral integration) e.g., bike riding, swimming.

 

What are the Gross motor group treatment sessions?

• The Children's OT DCD team run a gross motor skills group treatment programme. These sessions run for 5 weeks, each session lasts approximately 45 minutes at Cherry Tree House, Clatterbridge Hospital.
• Each group has up to 6 children with their parent/ guardian. 
• We have a set programme of activities each week which compliment the homework programme.
• Child's parent/ guardian(s) are encouraged to let their child 'have a go first'. However, it is an interactive session so parents are encouraged to get up and help their child, if necessary.
• Staff will always give a physical demonstration and verbal instructions of each activity. The amount of instruction given can sometimes be challenging for some of the children but this is important to ensure health and safety of children, parents/ guardian, and staff.
• We provide all the equipment they need to complete the activities in the session.
• Children are required to wear sensible supportive shoes. It is advisable if child is wearing a skirt to put a pair of shorts or leggings underneath.

 

What will my child be working on in the sessions?

• Body awareness
• Postural stability
• Balance
• Aiming and catching
• Developing confidence with gross motor activities

 

The importance of the homework programme

• Each week, Parents/ Guardian will be given a homework programme to practice specific activities with your child which is designed to compliment the work done in the motor skills groups.
• Just attending the sessions each week will not improve your child's motor skills. It is the homework programme that will make the biggest difference to a child's motor skills.
• You will log the daily homework that your child has completed on the sheets provided. Bring the sheets with you so that the therapist can keep a track of your child’s progress. Please be honest on the sheet or we are unable to see if treatment is working for your child.
• Inside the Motor skills information folder, there is a keeping track checklist of gross motor activities on page 8 - 9. This is not an exhaustive list but is designed to give you ideas to get started. By marking the checklist as you go through the programme this will allow you to keep track of what your child needs to keep practicing. It is important to continuing practicing after you have completed the programme to see any real changes in motor skill development. Research has shown that regular frequent activities are what improve motor skills. Ideally this should run alongside additional leisure activities e.g. swimming, playing in the park, scooter, bike riding, horse riding, martial arts.

 

Useful links

The Active all sports holiday disability activity programmes offers children and young people with a disability or additional need the opportunity to stay healthy and active through the holidays. Active all sports Wirral

 

Wirral Local Offer website is a helpful online resource that sets out what services, support and advice is available for children and young people aged 0 -25 years who have special educational needs. SENDLo website

 

Wirral Youth Zone named by young people as ‘The Hive', is a purpose-built facility for the borough's young people. For members aged 8–19 (up to age 25 for those with disabilities) Providing a safe environment where young people can come and enjoy themselves and enables young people to raise their aspirations and confidence to create a happier and healthier generation. Hiveability