What Skills Are We Motivating Your Child To Develop?
Occupational Therapy at Motivate Kids can support your child’s development in the following key areas
SENSORY INTEGRATION
Sensory integration is how we process and respond to information we receive from our body and our environment. Some children may find some sensory input ‘too much’ and avoid this whilst others may find it ‘not enough’ and seek the input. Our sensory apps offers more details.
GROSS MOTOR
Gross motor skills develop the strength, endurance and coordination of your child’s large muscles that support their ability to sit, walk, run, jump, hop, skip, ride a bike and throw or kick a ball. These skills require good postural control, balance, bilateral motor coordination, motor planning and sequencing.
fine motor
Fine motor skills develop the strength, endurance and coordination of small muscles such as their hands, fingers, feet, toes and eyes. Your child learns to more competently hold, explore, and manipulate toys and tools such as a fork, scissors, pencils, buttons and laces and opening lunch containers to overcome difficulties with feeding, dressing and handwriting. These skills require good postural control and sensory feedback
executive functioning
Executive functiong is the ability to filter out what is not important and focus on what is, being able to attend to tasks independently, shift attention, organise oneself in the current moment and plan for the near future such as getting ready for school in the morning.
emotional regulation
Emotional regulation is to knowing how to make sense of emotions that we all experience. We learn to match our reactions to the size of the problem, understand how our emotions impact on others (social thinking) and use tools to regulate our emotions (self-regulation). As parents-carers, we learn to identify the emotion and help our child develop helpful strategies and avoid using confusing terms such as meltdown, tantrum, and ‘naughty’ behaviour.
school skills
School skills include developing fine and gross motor skills, planning and getting ready for school such as packing and unpacking their bag, organising their tray, transitioning from break to class time, engaging with their peers and asking for help when needed.
social skills
Social skills help us to understand other’s points of view so we develop better interactions and friendships. We learn strategies to help enter and exit conversations, play, share and negotiate with others. It involves active listening, taking turns, managing conflicts, showing gratitude and giving complements to support the wellbeing of our important relationships.
self-care
Self-care develops independence in dressing, bathing, brushing teeth, managing hair, toileting, using cutlery at mealtimes and the ability to fall asleep and stay asleep. These skills require optimal sensory integration and a child’s large and small motor skills, which helps them gain confidence in their ability to try new things as they build pride in their independence.
