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when your child grows up and needs to grow in physical strength as well as for the simple function of being able to sit for school work.
While writing is a fine motor skill, the gross muscles need to be strong to support the torso for the task.
Activities to develop gross motor skills
All these activities are general and can be used to develop gross motor coordination for most children in your class. However, some children may need a much more specific programme of activities. Occupational therapists and physiotherapists will need to assess the children's needs and advise on particular gross motor activities to address each child's specific difficulties.
- Dodgems ? ask the children to run around in different directions, making sure that they do not bump into each other. They need to dodge out of the way of each other. You can make this game more difficult by calling out 'Change' so that they have to change direction.
- Stone cold ? give each child a number, then ask them all to run around in different directions. If their number is called they have to stand still like a statue until the next number is called when they can move again.
- Stepping stones ? using small hoops as stepping stones, ask the children to 'cross the water' by jumping from one to the otehr without falling the 'water'.
- Hopscotch ? children can jump to being with until they feel confident with hopping.
- Parachute games ? ones that use the large muscle movements.
- Climbing activities ? using a range of large apparatus.
- Balancing activities ? using a range of both small and large apparatus.
- Brain gym ? some of the suggested activities invovle the coordinated movement of some of the large muscles.
- Bean bag activities ? a range of team games involving throwing bean bags at a target, or putting bean bags into a bucket, hoop, etc., or games involving kicking or throwing.
10. Ball games ? a range of games involving rolling, kicking, throwing and catching.
11. Batting activities ? a range of games involving the use of bats, sticks or racquets. These could be:
o dribbling a ball around objects using a hockey stick
o timing how long the children can keep a call in the air by batting it
o putting aball into a specific position, using a putter or a hockey stick
o paired games as in table tennis, racquet ball and short tennis
o team games as in rounders, cricket and hockey.
12. Skipping activities ? individual and group skipping games (e.g. 'Salt, mustard, vinegar, pepper').
Balance beams
Set up a simple balance beam in your garden with two bricks and a widish plank of wood. Get your child to walk across this. As they begin to master it you can add a second stack of bricks or a narrower plank.
Bean bag games
Throwing and catching bean bags is often much easier for this age group than balls which tend to run away. You can throw these to one another, your child can throw them into a wash basket, over a rope or onto a hole in a cardboard box for variety.
Hoop games
If you have a large enough lawn, you can roll a hula-hoop down the lawn and get your child to chase and catch it. When they are a little older get them to try and run through the hoop while it is still moving.
Hopping
Hopscotch, hopping up and down stairs, hopping on paving stones?all of these are great child gross motor activities for balance.
Jumping
At 2 years old you child will probably still be jumping with only one foot leaving the ground. As the year progresses they should start to lift both feet off the ground. You can encourage them to jump by playing the animal games below.
Animal games and movements
This is a favourite games until well into the primary school years. Get your child to imitate the way certain animals walk. It?s even more fun if mom joins in! They can:
? Slither like a snake
? Hop like a bunny
? Waddle like a penguin
? Walk like a dog
? Spring like a kangaroo
Running after bubbles
On a wind free day select a large grassy area and blow bubbles for your child to chase and pop. This is on of the great natural child gross motor activities.
Balls large throwing and catching
Purchase some outsized balls for your child to roll, throw and catch.
Ride on toys
There is a huge selection of ride on toys for childs. Do not rush into buying a tricycle too soon as this is not normally age appropriate until 3.5 years.
Climbing Frames
Climbing frames are great fun to have in your garden for child gross motor activities. Choose ones that have a platform and a tent if you can as this becomes an extension for imaginary play.
Consider Gardening...
Gardening with your children is a wonderful way to develop and it has the bonus of encouraging your children to do productive work in a fun way and build upper body strength at the same time.
Children strengthen arm muscles by pushing and pulling objects. A simple pushing game might involve pushing a large box or laundry basket with a small amount of weight to provide resistance. Wagons and push-toys also provide appropriate resistance to develop arm muscles. Children practice controlling arm movements by painting or coloring on an easel or large piece of paper. Parachute play strengthens the arms using up and down movements. Swinging a bat or tennis racket develops arm muscle strength and dexterity. Throwing and catching involve spatial awareness, arm control and dexterity. Children begin learning to throw and catch with objects that move slowly, such as a small pillow, a scarf or a beanbag. As throwing and catching skills continue to develop, children can use balls of different sizes and shapes. Throwing at a target improves aim and accuracy
Infants strengthen leg muscles by kicking, scooting and crawling. Push-toys and ride-on toys assist young children in learning to walk. Children develop greater control over leg movements through running games such as chase or tag. Jumping and hopping require more advanced coordination and endurance. These skills can be enhanced by jumping on trampolines, playing hopscotch, jumping rope and jumping through hula hoops. Skipping and galloping involve running and hopping in sequence. Kindergarten screening tests often measure a child's ability to skip as a means of determining the child's level of coordination. Kicking combines spatial awareness and control of the leg muscles. Kicking balls of different sizes allows the child to practice controlling the angle, speed and force of each kick.
Toddlers and older children often coordinate the use of multiple muscle groups to perform more complex activities. Swimming, swinging and climbing require the use of muscles in the arms, legs and trunk. A simple obstacle course involves multiple muscle groups as well as spatial awareness.
for dyspraxia I would also look at
Spatial awareness refers to a child?s understanding of how her body moves and her physical relation to other objects. Infants and toddlers begin to develop spatial awareness by observing themselves in mirrors. Toddlers and older children improve spatial awareness through simple activities such as dancing with ribbon streamers, moving to music or spinning in circles.
Activities to develop spatial awareness skills:
- Action songs ? using different parts of the body.
- Movement games ? requiring the pupils to use space and position.
- Following directions ? during PE, games and other physical activities.
- Line-walking ? ask the pupils to walk along a line of chalk on the floor. Then ask them to walk along the left side of the line, then the right side of the line.
- Follow the leader ? put the pupils into groups of about eight. Then appoint one pupil as the leader. The others have to follow the leader and copy their actions as they go. Change the leader after a couple of minutes.
- Climbing activities ? using a range of large and small apparatus.
- Balancing activities ? using a range of both small and large apparatus.
- Jigsaw puzzles ? of varying degrees of difficulty to suit individual children.
- Brain gym ? some activities help to develop spatial awarenesss skils.
10. Draw a person ? encourage the pupils to look carefully at the position of the features on a real person.
11. Patterns 1 ? use dots as guidelines to reproduce a pattern.
12. Patterns 2 ? multi-link pattern cards and other activities.
13. Footsteps ? ask the pupils to arrange cardboard footprints for others in the group to follow. Ensure that each footprint is marked with either 'left' or 'right'.
14. Twister ? a proprietory game in which pupils have to ensure that different parts of their body are touching spots on the Twister mat. This game helps to consolidate pupils' use of 'left' and 'right'.
15. Model-making ? use a picture as a guide to building a model.
16. Tangrams ? of varying degrees of difficulty.
17. Maps 1 ? following directions on a map.
18. Maps 2 ? giving directions for others to follow on a map.
19. Tessellation 1 ? arranging 2D shapes.
20. Tessellation 2 ? arranging and drawing around 2D shapes.
The Lips are important for control of dribbling, swallowing and blowing as well as speech sound production. During speech, some sounds, such as ?sh?, ?w? and ?oo? need the lips to move forwards, other sounds such as ?ee? and ?m? need the lips spread.
Aims of exercise: to improve lip shapes and movements so that speech sounds can be made more easily.
Looking in a mirror
Making funny faces
Open and shut mouth
Make a big mouth like a lion
Make a little mouth like a mouse etc.
These will make your child more aware of his mouth and how it moves.
Blowing and sucking - through different pipes, tubes, straws etc.,
Helps lips make a rounded shape. Encourage him/her to hold with their lips alone, not with his teeth as well.
- The Tongue is important for chewing, licking, and swallowing as well as playing a major part in speech production. During speech the separate parts of the tongue (tip, sides, back etc.) must move forwards, backwards, up, down, side to side rapidly for different sound to be produced.
Aims of exercise: to improve tongue shape and movements so that it is well controlled and placed accurately for speech sounds.
Encourage your child to practise sticking his tongue out ? this helps to develop a good tip, which is essential for speech sounds. Do this while:
Looking in a mirror
Licking cooking spoons
Licking lollies
Try to encourage licking games which help lick downwards onto chin:
Lick sideways
Lick upwards, especially up behind the teeth.
It sometimes helps to emphasise where you want his/her tongue to go if you put his/her finger there and ask him to lick that.
NOTE: Tongue movements can be very difficult and you may find these suggestions are not working. If this happens, leave the exercises out and concentrate on other easier areas until the Speech and Language Therapist can advise you.
- The Soft Palate is difficult to see, this fleshy continuation of the hard palate (roof of the mouth) performs a very important function. It is responsible for the shutting of the nasal passages and so prevents air from the lungs passing up the nasal passages, or food coming down the nose instead of being swallowed. The soft palate adopts this position in blowing, sucking and swallowing activities and should do so for all speech sounds except ?m?, ?n? and ?ng?. If it is not working efficiently, speech will have a nasal quality.
Developmental Verbal Dyspraxia Page 3 of 5
Aims of exercise: to encourage easy rapid movements of the soft palate to close off the nasal passages when appropriate in speech.
Blowing activities encourage vigorous movements of the soft palate and will help develop muscle strength. If your child finds this very difficult and air comes down his nose, you can help by gently placing your thumb and forefinger under his/her nostrils ? this will help close off the air stream and give him the feeling of air coming through his mouth and is more pleasant for the child than if you pinch his/her nostrils.
Blowing bubbles ? a wand is difficult so use a simple blower (a variety are available in toy shops)
Blow painting through straws can be fun, if messy!
Blowing pipes, recorders, harmonicas, etc., is enjoyable and rewarding.
Blowing games are often enjoyed and will motivate him to try again ? various blowing games can be found in toyshops as well as blow football (you can improvise with straws and cotton wool, paper or a table tennis ball).
If your child tends to bite too hard on ordinary straws or can?t close his/her lips adequately round a straw, try plastic tubing such as that used for wine making.
- The Larynx (voice box) is responsible for production of sound during speech. The sound is produced by air passing through the vocal chords to produce vibration. If these movements are weak or poorly co-ordinated the voice may be too quiet or loud, the pitch may be too high or low, and the voice may be husky or sound weak.
Aims of exercises: to improve the strength and quality of vocal tone. When encouraging your child to use a better voice, it is important to ensure that you do not create vocal strain ? just asking him to make a louder sound may result in him shouting and becoming even huskier.
Encourage singing ? using his voice with music in any way he can. A good way to motivate him/her is to encourage dancing, clapping to music as well as singing the tune ? at first don?t worry about the words, use "lala" or "ahah" or any other sound that he can manage.
Play games using different voices ? a baby?s, a man?s, a little girl?s, a teddy bear?s, a mouse?s, other animals etc. ? this helps teach control of pitch.
- Breath Control is the basis of all speech production. Speech is produced on exhalation (breathing out) and may be adversely affected by weak shallow breathing, an inability to control breathing out for long enough to produce a phrase or sentence, or poor co-ordination of breathing and speech patterns.
Aim of exercises: to encourage good easy breathing for speech.
a) Encourage your child to make a sound (e.g. ?ah? or ?ee? or ?oo?), first of all for a short time and then gradually increasing the length of the breath and sound. Some visual cue will help him ? run a toy car, or an animal or your finger along a line, or through amaze etc.
b) Using a blowpipe and ball (available in different forms from toyshops) try to keep the ball revolving in the air for an increasing length of time.
These suggestions should give you ideas on how to help your child become aware of the structures and movements needed for speech production and help him gain some control of them.
Developmental Verbal Dyspraxia Page 4 of 5
SOME BASIC RULES:
Make it fun - muscles will be more relaxed.
Praise him for effort even when he/she doesn?t achieve the target you are aiming for.
Make the activity as easy as possible for him/her (e.g. the right size straw) so he/she can achieve.
Watch out for fatigue, muscles tire very quickly, so stop as soon as the child begins to fail or says he/she doesn?t wasn?t to go on.
Encourage brothers, sisters and friends to join in so that it is fun and something everyone is doing ? but watch out they are not the only one to fail the activity.
Progress in control of muscles is usually very slow, so don?t be impatient, try to encourage him to keep trying.
These activities are suggested to help you until you can see a Speech and Language Therapist, when a programme tailored to his needs will be planned. If they are unable to do an activity do not persist ? failure will only make your child more negative and make speech and language therapy even more difficult for all concerned. It is better to drop that set of exercises and continue with one he/she can cope with until specialist advice is available.