Motor Skills Ep 7: Practical Strategies for Motor Skills

Have you ever wondered how small tweaks to everyday activities can support  your child's motor skills? Discover the secrets to seamlessly integrating motor skill development into daily routines and making it fun in this finale of our motor skills season at Belle's OT Corner! We review all previous episodes and put it all together to offer practical tips to build them into your home and school setting. Learn to either add motor challenges to familiar tasks or adjust activities to make them more manageable, all with the goal of supporting your child's development without overwhelming them.

Join us as we share creative ideas to make children's activities purposeful and challenging, helping them build strength and resilience. This episode is packed with actionable strategies to help your child succeed, fostering independence and boosting their confidence along the way.

Follow me on @bellesotcorner on instagram and Facebook for more insights. Don't forget to rate and review! 

DISCLAIMER:
Whilst I will always make evert effort to share correct information as at the date of the podcast, research is constantly happening and as a profession we learn more everyday. One therapist may have a different way of doing things to another, and every child's needs are unique. By listening to this podcast, you agree not to use this podcast as medical advice to treat any medical condition in either yourself or others Consult your child's paediatrician or therapist for any recommendations for your child.

Transcript

Belle 0:09

Hello everyone and welcome back to Belz Tea Corner. I hope you guys have had a lovely week. If you're over in England, I hope you've been enjoying a bit of sunshine, as summer feels like it's finally arrived. It's fantastic, and today we're going to be wrapping up our motor skills season, so we'll be coming to the end of this season. I cannot, once again, time is flying this year. I cannot believe how quickly this has gone, and what I wanted to do in this episode to just round out the season was kind of a quick overview of everything we've talked about but then really focus on. Okay, so, now that you have all this knowledge, what are the little changes that we can make? What are the small changes to things at home? What are the small changes to things at school? What are those little adaptations that we can put in place to help maybe practice some of these skills in the background or put the right supports in place so the child doesn't have to focus on these skills as much and can focus on the more challenging task at hand. So we're going to talk about it in kind of two different lenses, depending upon what we want the child to be able to achieve, or your child to be able to achieve. And, yeah, having that kind of bigger picture look at our motor skills to round it out Should be a short and sweet episode that can end this one out, and then we'll have our new season next time.

Belle 1:32

So so far in our motor season we have talked about postural stability and tone. We've talked about our analogy of having our strong trunk and our strong core and then we get our branches in our arms and our legs and then we get our branches in our arms and our legs and then we get our leaves and our fingers and so needing that base of support. We've talked about our bilateral coordination and what that means and how it can impact when we have difficulties coordinating both sides of our body. We've talked about motor planning, so a bit of the more cognitive side of engaging in a gross motor task, figuring out what my body needs to do, how strong, how fast, for how long, all of those components. We've talked about our fine motor skills, so what's involved within some of that dexterity that we need and some of that control that we need within our fingers to engage in some fine motor tasks and we've talked about last episode. We talked about our modelling and language. So this was more for adults how we can use our modelling and our bodies and how we can use our language and our words to help a child to engage and persist through when some of these motor skills are tricky. And it was actually last week's episode that gave me the idea for this week just to have that kind of more adult focused ones around.

Belle 2:53

Okay, so now, what? What can we do? How can we make those little tweaks when we know that the child might be having difficulty with all of this, instead of feeling like you need to sit down and practice, you know, like going to the gym, you've got to go and sit and do this, and then this activity. And then we're going to do this activity for some bilateral integration or bilateral coordination, and then we're going to do this activity to build some strength, and we're going to do this activity for some motor planning. Too much, just too much. And then it gets too stressful and you get worried about which one should I be doing when? And it's just all too much. And what I wanted was to look at, actually, now that you've got this knowledge, what are those little tweaks that we can make? What are those activities that you can bring into your home, that are fun, that are engaging, that your child might actually want to do and will help build some of these skills in the background as well, and we'll help build some of these skills in the background as well.

Belle 3:45

Now, as I said just before, we want to look at this through two lenses. So one is the child is doing or change the activity to then have a motor component associated with it to have a bit of an extra challenge. Maybe the challenge is something to do with strength, maybe the challenge is something to do with bilateral integration, maybe we add a motor planning component. We'll chat about that in a second. But the idea is the activity is easy and known, so we can add a challenge in a different way. The other side that we want to look at this is when the activity is challenging and part of that challenge is the difficulty with motor skills.

Belle 4:38

So how can we support the motor skill? How can we support the bilateral coordination component? How can we support the excuse me how can we support the um toners? How can we do those activities to get us ready? How can we support the endurance? How can we support some of those areas so that the child doesn't have to think about that bit as much, so that those bits are easier and they can focus on the actual challenging task. So in this case, think about if a child's getting dressed and learning to get dressed independently.

Belle 5:13

Instead of having to worry about what my body is doing, I can actually focus on where does the hole? Where's the hole? Where's the top of the shirt? Where's the back of the shirt? How do I know which way around this goes? Do I put my pants or my trousers on and then my underwear, or what do I do first? Can focus on all that thinking, all those sequences, because we know that we've supported the motor side.

Belle 5:37

So this is where we're going to focus today, on that. What are those activities that we can bring in and how can we tweak them to have a bit more of a component that's going to challenge the motor skills? And, on the other side, what are the strategies we can use to support the motor skills, to give the brain that extra space to focus on the separate thing? That is challenging. So it's kind of the idea of do we want success and focus on the motor skills or do we want success and focus on a different task is the easiest way to think about it. So let's do how we can tweak some activities to have a bit more of a motor skill component to it, and what are some things that you can do at home that are going to build those different motor components that you know your child might be struggling with or you think they might have some difficulties with. And so the easiest way to think about this is to embed it within either things that they like or activities they're going to have to do anyway. And so maybe it is that they like cooking in the kitchen with you, and so, instead of just cooking in the kitchen, we're going to cook in the kitchen but you're going to balance on one leg while you're stirring, and then can you balance on your other leg while stirring something else. Or maybe I don't know if you guys have ever seen wobble cushions before, but they are fantastic and you can look them up online. They're essentially a little inflatable disc and they your child could either stand on that while they're having to cook dinner or help with cooking, if they like cooking. Or maybe maybe we're going to do some baking, but we'll sit at the kitchen table, so they have to sit on that one, because then they're going to get all those wibbles and wobbles and they're going to have to turn their tummy muscles on.

Belle 7:14

Now, when we start to look at this area of how can we tweak an activity that the child enjoys and is already doing, the number one thing is we make it purposeful, and what I mean by that is a child needs to understand why. Because we're making it harder. So why are we making it harder? What is the challenge here? What is the tricky bit going to be? And so, if we go back to the example of tweaking cooking, maybe we say, all right, you can help me cook today, but we're going to do something a little bit different. We're going to cook and make your muscles work hard at the same time, so you get those nice strong muscles. So, as we're cooking, I'm going to set a timer, we're going to see how long you can stir it while standing on one leg and balancing, or we're going to see if we can sit on this one. So your tummy is working really hard and you're building up all those strong muscles, and if you get tired, just let me know and we take it out. And so it's this idea of them understanding the why, because we will be making things a little bit more tricky. It will be frustrating, but once they know, oh, I'm getting my big, strong muscles, it's amazing how much kids are willing to push through and build that skill.

Belle 8:27

Or maybe it could be when you're doing dressing, for example, if your child's really good at knowing all the steps of dressing. But the tricky bit is the motor skill component. Well then that's what we focus on and we go okay, so let's get our. Let's say you might, your child might, have some low tone, so we're going to do some prep activities before we get dressed. Or maybe they're really good at getting dressed and so you say, okay, this time can you get dressed just using one hand. So then they have to do that extra bit of motor planning and thinking about how they're going to orientate their body.

Belle 9:01

So we can look at building in different motor bits into daily activities. We can also look at building in different motor bits into the games that we play. So when they come home from school or on the weekend, after they've done their homework or they've done all their jobs or whatever it is, or their afternoon activities, whatever it might be, and you have those pockets of time to spend together. Maybe what it is is you start looking okay, so what's some more purposeful activities that we can spend together? As we play, can we go and do some ball skills, so can we go and throw and catch a ball or kick a ball. But as we're doing it again, if they're really good at throwing and catching a ball, can we throw and catch a ball on one leg. Can we throw the ball, but I'm going to roll it back to you, so you have to bend down and pick it up, and so we're just making these little tweaks that are adding in something different into the activity. Or if throwing and catching a ball is already tricky, then that's what we're going to focus on, and we're going to use some of the language and the modeling that we talked about last week to really help and support in that area.

Belle 10:06

If we think about different things that we can do just around in the garden or just helping around in the house, we can look at some things like can they help you with the washing? So can you tell them come on, I need some help, I need your big muscles. Can you pull all the wet clothes out of the washing machine and then we're going to carry it together to the line and then can you help me put them on. And then we're going to carry it together to the line and then can you help me put them on, because then we can even build in a bit of fine motor, because they can help with the pegs and it doesn't matter if in the time that you've put 80% or 90% of the washing out, they've put out one or two pieces, because they were there, they were using their muscles, they were thinking about it and they were helping.

Belle 10:43

Other ones that you can do, if you do have a garden, is they can help with the gardening, they can help with moving things around, they can help with pushing something along, they can help with pulling up weeds so many different activities that you can then tweak and say, okay, well, we're going to do this one as fast as we can, so that gets, get your muscles ready and we're going to go really, really fast as they get older. And things you can then do, things like helping with the dishes, helping with making their beds, all of these bits we can. A they're great because they practice some of these motor skills anyway, but B we can make them a little bit more challenging. Maybe you get them to wash up the heavier dish or the dish that's really dirty, so they have to really scrub and use their big muscles to push against the saucepan to clean it. And so you see how we can make these little tweaks to hit that right little challenge. But it's something that's they're doing already or that's fun and new and different for them to do.

Belle 11:42

If we then think of some of the more fine motor bits and pieces, we can do games and puzzles together, and maybe we tweak how we do our games and puzzles. Maybe, for example, if we're playing Jenga so the one that you've got all the blocks stacked up, maybe it's you can only use two fingers full stop. Or maybe, if they find it really tricky, we can use both hands together but not make it full. You don't always need to follow the rules exactly as the rules are set up. Maybe it is that we're doing some arts and crafts and we're going to start with some really big beads and make some necklaces, but then, as they get better, we're going to thread some really, really tiny beads and we can talk about having to use our really small muscles in our hand to get that bit of extra control. So you can see how there's lots of different ways that we can build in different activities that are going to challenge a bit of those motor skills.

Belle 12:38

If we think back to some more gross motor ones again and I've said it many, many times but obstacle courses in the house are fantastic. Painter's tape is fantastic. Doing arts and crafts on a vertical surface to get some of that shoulder stability and shoulder control is fantastic. Doing homework lying on our tummy so we need to prop up through our back and get all that strength in our back and we're exploring being in different positions also fantastic, and so you can think about how we can tweak or build in some of these into their days to then, as I said before, help them build some of these motor skills. Now, obstacle courses if you jump on instagram, tikt honestly anywhere. There are 15,000 different ones.

Belle 13:27

Some of my favorites are ones that include different elements of motor skills within the one, because that way we make sure we're not making their brain work too hard in one area and we're not getting muscles that are going to be too tired, that it's too hard to continue, and what I mean by this if you have some painter's tape. For example, you can start at the front door and put some painter's tape down that they have to balance on, and then maybe the painter's tape goes up the wall and there's a car and so they have to trace the car along the little bit of the road and then at the next bit they have to go up and over a chair and do a bit of climbing and motor planning components and then maybe they get to you or get to a wall and have to do some wall pushes or hands on your hands and try and push against you to see if they can push you over. See how we've, in that we've done some balance, we've done some fine motor and a bit of stability for our shoulder and our core as we're pushing that car along the wall. And then we've got some strength and some motor planning as we're going up and over the chair or maybe under the chair, and then we've got some strength again and a bit of proprioceptive feedback and a little bit of motor planning as we try and push against you to push something over. And that way, when we can just have lots of different activities, something that's going to do a little bit more fine motoring, something that's going to be a bit more jumping and crashing, and something that's going to do a little bit more fine motory, something that's going to be a bit more jumping and crashing, and something that's going to be a bit more strength, and something that's going to be a bit slower, like our balancing. All of a sudden it's fun, it's new, it's engaging and it's helping build a lot of skills at the same time, which is perfect.

Belle 15:01

And, as I said, there are heaps and heaps and heaps out. But if you would like some extra ideas or you're a bit struck, just send me a message. I'm more than happy to help out and point you in the right direction to some other activities and things. But just when you're, and even just on that and even the best bit about obstacle courses is they can help you set them up. But what are we going to do first and what should we do next? And even if you've got painter's tape or you know you're putting something on the ground, they then have to do that, so they're getting that extra bit of fine motor skill as well. So really, when we look at this, it's about getting our kids involved as much as we can and tweaking it to be at that just right challenge for them. So they know that they're working hard and we're telling them that this is going to be tricky, and telling them that they're going to be using their muscles, but then helping and supporting them to be able to do that as independently as possible. So that's a little bit of a summary of how we can look at tweaking the activities that we do every day to have that extra motor component.

Belle 16:00

Now, before we finish up today, I want to talk about that other side that I was mentioning, and this is where we know that the task is tricky and the task is already challenging, and one component of that challenge is the motor skill component, and so we want to support that as much as we can so they can focus on the task at hand. And so this could be a child. That, what could we do? This could be a child, that what could we do? This could be a child that has low tone, and so sitting at a desk for two hours is really exhausting, and so they flop and they lean, and so what I'm going to do so they can focus on the task is I'm going to let them change positions. They're going to be my little helper so I tell them to get up and carry something and come back. So they're getting that change, they're getting that prep activity and then they can come back and focus on the task. Maybe I give them a bit of a wobble cushion so they can lean and wobble against that and then I take it away. So we're going to say we'll sit with this for five minutes, we'll get all those tummy muscles fired up and then I'm going to take it away so that you can focus on what you're doing, all those tummy muscles fired up, and then I'm going to take it away so that you can focus on what you're doing. These are the kids that we could also look about, like flexible seating options within the classroom so they can lie on their floor or they can sit with a lap desk, or they can sit at the table and we can look at what some of these alternatives are that can support them, so they're not getting that same fatigue component and they can then focus on the task at hand more.

Belle 17:28

If we think about at home and we think about dressing, because dressing there are so many cognitive steps to dressing and so if we want to make that a bit easier. Well, can we do it sitting down instead of standing up? When you're doing your shoes and learning how to put your shoes on, can you sit on a step so that you're close to your feet but you don't have to fiddle with fighting and crossing your legs and putting your foot somewhere that you're going to be able to reach? It can get really tricky. Or can we explicitly break down? Well, hang on, I can see your foot's all the way over there. Why don't we try and put it here and we're going to put a sticker or a mark or something that you can put your foot on to help you remember that this is where I put my foot and I don't need to think about it every single time I go to put my shoes on. Or I'm going to make sure, as an adult, that I'm going to tell you every time so that you don't need to think about that.

Belle 18:19

This is also where we can look at some of the equipment that we're using, and when I say equipment, I don't mean anything super fancy, but I mean things like if we're throwing and catching a ball, can we use a bigger ball If we're going to be sitting at the table for a really long time. Can we look at something that's going to support my posture whilst I'm sitting at the table? Can I make sure that I'm at a good height at the table and there's something under my feet so that I feel supported and safe? It's about what are the pieces of equipment that I'm already using and are they supportive enough to meet where I'm at and my need? So if I'm having difficulty with learning to use cutlery and a big spoon's a bit heavy, can I use a smaller spoon to make it a bit easier so I'm not having to do the strength at the same time?

Belle 19:07

If I'm finding it really tricky to do all the steps of putting my shoes on, can you do my laces or my velcro for me so I can focus on the other bits? If I'm learning how to at school, if I'm doing my handwriting and I'm finding it really tricky doing all the writing, can I do a little bit and then get support for the other half? Or is there one bit where we agree that I'm going to really focus on my writing for two lines and then the rest of it? It doesn't matter if it's a little bit messy and so I do two lines of really focused and then two lines of messy. I do two lines of really focused and then two lines of messy, and then two lines of really focused and then two lines of messy, or can I use a pencil grip or something bigger to hold onto to make it a little bit easier. And some of these are where you'll then need to get and seek some help from an OT, but some of these are ones that you can try yourself as well.

Belle 19:58

You know, if shoes are really tricky and I'm finding it hard to put on my shoes because they're a bit tight, can I practice using mum's and dad's shoes just to learn, because they're bigger and they're easier. If you know, I said throwing and catching a ball. If a small one's too tricky, can I use a bigger one. Riding a scooter if pushing is too hard, can I just practice by balancing first and can we break down the balancing bit first. Bikes there are kids that use training wheels sometimes. Or can we just go back to a balance bike and I can take the pedals off completely so I can just practice on my balance, and so you can see how this is where we're changing the task a little bit to allow that focus to be on what we really want the child to be focusing on and have that successful engagement instead of it all becoming too hard. And so I get frustrated and so I then withdraw. It could be things like at the park. If you know your kid finds climbing really tricky, well then I can come with you and we can model it and we can use the language hits that we talked about from last week to make that a little bit easier.

Belle 21:01

But the idea is that as an adult, we're having a more active role in making sure the child is set up for success. Not that we're going to do it for them, but we've wrapped all the supports around them and the bits of equipment around them that they need, so they're in a position where they are actually able to engage in that tricky thinking. If, for example, I'm thinking about like dinner time and using cutlery, and if the focus is on using cutlery, well then we're not going to be talking about sitting up straight. They can sit however they like, maybe they have a cushion to sit on and then they can focus on using the cutlery. Once they get better at using the cutlery, then we can start to do that bigger picture and say okay, well, now I wonder if you can use the cutlery but stay sitting up while you do it, maybe just for two cuts, maybe then for three cuts with a knife, and then we can build it up from there.

Belle 21:54

These are the little tweaks that we look at and, as I was saying before, whichever pathway you go, really depends upon what you want the focus to be on. Do you want the focus to be on that bit of independence, that completing things successfully? In which case, great. Then we need to step in and either put something in place in the sense of equipment or other, or using ourselves to help them navigate through those physical challenges or those physical difficulties, so that they can focus on the actual task they're doing, like throwing and catching. Okay, well, if you're figuring that out, but it's too hard with a small ball, I'm going to step in and give you the bigger ball so that you can be successful and focus on all the other things.

Belle 22:36

But if we want them to help build up some of those motor skills, well, that's when we look at tweaking the activities that they're already engaged with and they're already finding really interesting and they're already doing, while we're going to tell them as well, and this is the most important thing, if you take anything away from this season, today's episode, all of it we need the kids to have the buy-in. They need to be knowing what they're working hard for. Am I working hard for strong muscles? Am I working hard so I can do this for myself? What's the reason? What's the why? Because once they have the why, they're going to be so much more willing to continue to engage in that tricky activity. So I hope that gives you a bit of a nice breakdown of the different ways that we can look at supporting our motor skills and how we can set up the environment and set up activities at home that are going to allow your children to develop some of these motor skills, particularly if there are areas that you've noticed that they have found tricky.

Belle 23:34

And really, as you're doing it, do think about well, what? What do I want here? Do I just want this to be fun and play time, in which case great, I am changing nothing. Do I want this to be a little bit of a motor challenge? In which case great, I'm going to add in a little bit of a motor challenge into what we're doing, or I'm going to choose a play activity that's going to have a bit of a motor challenge to it. Maybe we do Simon Says, maybe we do some dancing, maybe we do an obstacle course, maybe we go and play, throw and catch, maybe we just do silly jumping so many options. But that's what we're choosing to do and there's a reason why. And so if this time we're doing it to make ourselves stronger, well then, I'm ready to step in and give that more modelling and give that more support. Or if, actually what the focus is is helping the child to become a little bit more independent in an area and you actually want them focusing on the occupation more, well then great, I'm going to step in and provide the extra support. I'm going to use the equipment around me, I'm going to use the furniture, I'm going to use all the tools that I have in my house so that you don't have to worry about that bit. We're going to look at sitting on a step. We're going to look at me reminding you about the body bit, so you don't need to think about it, so you can focus on whatever the activity is that they are trying to do.

Belle 24:52

Alrighty, guys, that brings us to the end of our motor season and look at that, it did end up being a nice short and sweet episode for you guys. So I hope you managed to find a little bit of time to pop this one in, have a little bit of a listen on whatever you're up to this week and I'll see you guys back in a couple weeks, as always. Please, if you could rate, review the podcast. It's super, super helpful for me in getting it out there and if you have anyone that you know that you think might benefit from it, please share the love, share it around, so that we can all learn and grow together. All right, guys, you have a fantastic week and I will see you soon. Thanks, you.