Gross Motor Development

Active movement, whether in play or in the course of daily activities, helps children to keep their attention, engage in play skills like running, jumping, and ball skills, and more easily engage in self care skills such as dressing and toileting.

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Occupational Therapists can help children enhance their bodily and spatial awareness, physical coordination, endurance, and planning and sequencing of their movements in order to develop their physical skills for play, movement, and self care skills.

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Children who struggle with whole body movement skills can have difficulties with:

• Rapid fatigue/tiring

• Showing only short bursts of energy

• Disinterest in or avoidance of physical activities

• Rushing performance of physical tasks to mask difficulty or fatigue

• Silly performance of a challenging physical task

• Being clumsy or awkward

• Not seeming to learn from their mistakes

• Less than age appropriate physical skills

• Dressing

• Toileting

• Moving around the house

• Getting in and out of the car

• Maneuvering around furniture

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