Skill: Motor Planning

Motor planning is the ability to assess a motor activity, plan and organize how to carry out that motor activity, and finally implement motor skills to achieve that motor activity.

Motor planning leads to the ability to carry out a motor skill automatically after enough practice.

Jump and Kick

Jump and Kick for Balance

Place steppingstones along a path.

Place cardboard blocks to the left and to the right side of each steppingstone.

Ask the child to stand on the first steppingstone and use the right leg to kick the cardboard block on the right side and the left leg to kick the cardboard block on the left side.

Next, instruct the child to jump to the next steppingstone and repeat the previous step.

The child will continue jumping to the ext steppingstones ad knocking down the cardboard block until the end of the path.

Don’t have steppingstones? Use pillows instead (this also increases the challenge for your child’s balance).

Don’t have cardboard blocks? Use water bottles instead (empty for an easier challenge, and filled with water or rice/beans/sand for more challenge and increase the proprioceptive input) or use empty shoe boxes, paper rolls, paper cups, or plastic containers.

Grading option:

  • The challenge can be graded by placing the blocks further away (see the 2nd video below)
  • Ask the child to frog jump from one steppingstone to the other, then stand back up, and kick the block.

Newspaper Dance

Challenge your child’s core muscles by having them stand on a newspaper page (or paper bag, or another safe alternative you may have in your home).

This game works like Musical Chairs.

Play a song and have the child dance.

When the song stops, the child must stand on the newspaper page.

If the child does not step outside of the newspaper page boundary, fold the newspaper page in half.

Continue this until the child is unable to stand without stepping outside of the boundary.

Use painter’s tape to hold the newspaper page in place to prevent slips/falls.

You may see your child transitioning from standing with a typical stance, then standing with feet close together, then standing on one foot, then standing on tip-toes. This challenges their core!

Increase the challenge by:

  • Playing with an appropriate peer on the same newspaper page – be ready to catch anyone who loses balance!

Secret Message

Challenge your child’s core muscles by having them maintain a tabletop positioning (on their hands and knees).

Place a hand towel under their hands (or have them hold onto it), then have the child write out letters and words with their arm movements.

Guess their message by watching what they spell out with their towel.

Increase the challenge by:

  • Using their non-dominant hand.
  • Using their feet.

Construction Paper Guitar

Using a large piece of cardboard or construction paper, draw the shape of the guitar’s body. If the child is able to draw it by himself, allow him to do so. Otherwise, let the child trace your drawing, using a thick marker.

Ask the child to cut out the shape, following the lines. Depending on the child’s skill level, make the line thicker, and provide support as needed. Once the child cuts out the guitar’s shape out, ask him to draw or trace a circle in the middle of the guitar’s body. You can use a round object to help with drawing an accurate shape.

Instruct the child to cut out the circle, providing support as needed.

Using a single hole puncher, carefully have the child punch three holes on either side of the circle he just cut. Using 3 rubber bands, ask the child to cut through them so they are now one long string.

Instruct the child to thread each rubber band across 2 parallel holes, and tie on each end. Provide support as needed for tying the rubbers in place.

Using another piece of cardboard or construction paper, ask the child to draw or trace a rectangle. Instruct the child to cut it out, and use the glue and tape to attach it to the top part of the guitar’s body. To make the guitar look more life like, ask the child to draw lines continuing from the bands up the stem of the guitar.

Feed Me

In this activity, imagination and creativity are key components.

Begin by drawing the face of a child, a character (clown, robot, princess, etc.), or an animal that the child likes on the shoe box’s cover. Then, cut out the mouth of your figure so that it looks like the figure is opening its mouth. Make sure the opening is big enough so that the child is able to place the small objects through the opening.

Place the cotton balls (see additional ideas for objects below) on the table in front of the child or in a shallow bowl.

Give the tongs to the child and instruct her to hold it with her thumb, pointer, and middle fingers only, while tucking the pinkie and ring fingers into the palm of her hand. Then, ask the child to use the tongs to pick up one object at a time and feed the figure by placing the object into the figure’s open mouth.

This is where creativity comes into play as you can use the child’s imagination to decide what kind of food the cotton balls represent.

If you chose to draw an animal, you can have the cotton balls be the type of food this specific animal eats (i.e. monkey = bananas, dog = bones, bunny = carrots, etc.)

Based on the child’s developmental skills, you can have her draw the figure (can be a very simple figure) and cut the mouth opening independently.

Additional ideas for small objects (depending on the child’s age and abilities): pasta, beads (large and small), beans, cotton swabs, marbles, and Lego