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.

Multi Step Shamrock

Print and cut the provided picture below of a shamrock (about 7 inch in size). You will use this as your stencil.

Provide the child with a green or white page of construction paper.

Ask the child to trace the shamrock on his paper using the stencil you made.

Instruct the child to cut out the shamrock.

Allow the child to spread some glue over the shamrock he cut. You may use a paint brush or a craft stick if the child avoids sticky materials.

Place the different manipulatives in front of the child inside a shallow container or a paper plate.

Instruct the child to glue the different objects on the shamrock transferring the objects from the container to his paper using the tweezers or the tongs.

The child may also use his fingers to reinforce pincer grasp and in-hand manipulation skills.

You may also have the child crumble pieces of tissue paper into small ball to work on dexterity and strengthening of the small muscles in your child’s hands.

Spelling Push Ups

A six-year-old child balances on a therapy ball while reaching for construction paper letters on a playroom floor to practice spelling.

Use the construction paper, the pen and the scissors to cut out letters of the alpha-bet. You will need more than 1 of each letter. You can also use pre-cut letters.

Spread the letters on the floor or a mat in a random order. Help the child lay prone on the therapy ball. The child should be able to touch the floor. Instruct the child to use his hands and reach out to grab one letter at a time, then to walk back and place the letter in front of them. After the child gets all the letters he needed, he can spell the word.

You can also use magnetic letters and a magnetic board, or use math equations where the child has to walk out and grab the correct answer.

Lunch Box

A five-year-old child uses safety scissors to cut out construction paper handles for a DIY paper lunch box craft on a wooden table.

Let the child pick a color of construction paper (paper size should be A4).

Draw a line in the middle of the construction paper and ask the child to fold the paper accurately on the line. This works on his fine manual control skills.

On a separate construction paper, draw 2 handle shapes and ask the child to cut it along the lines. These handle shapes will be used as the lunch box handles.

Ask the child to glue the handles to the top ends of the folded paper (the child should be able to open/close the folded paper as a lunch bag).

Have the child draw what they had or brought for lunch on the inside of the folded construction paper or have the child cut and glue pictures of food items from newspapers/magazines.

Allow the child to decorate the outside “lunch box” using the crayons, markers, and colored pencils.

Holiday Gifts

A 4-year-old girl uses a scooter board in a cozy home to collect green toys and place them into low-hanging holiday stockings.

For this activity, all the materials should be green colored and spread across the room.

Hang the stockings at different corners of the room at a child reach level.

If using a scooter board, have the child lay prone and propel the scooter board around the room to collect the different items and place them in the stockings.

If you do not have a scooter board available, ask the child the perform different animal walks to collect the items and to receive the sensory input (i.e. bear walk, crab walk, frog jumps, etc.)

Crab Walk Soccer

A young child and an adult playing crab walk soccer by kicking a ball toward a tape goal in a sunlit living room.

Set up goals approximately ten feet apart using the boxes, the masking tape, or the chalk.

Instruct the child to assume a crab-walk position.

Assume a similar position.

Each one of you needs to try to get the ball to the goal by bumping it with your body or kicking it with your foot.

Hands may not be used.