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Why children need play

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With increasing emphasis at school on developing academic skills in children at younger and younger ages, what role does dramatic ("pretend") play have in early childhood? Is the idea of play merely a throwback to another time when we did not have as much information about how children learn to read and acquire math skills? Is play a luxury? Is it worth it to sacrifice playtime in order to make sure that children learn the letters of the alphabet and know how to count, especially those "at risk?" In any case, don't children already play enough at home?

There is a growing body of research that shows a link between play and the development of cognitive and social skills that are prerequisites for learning more complex concepts as children get older. For example, play is linked to growth in memory, self-regulation, oral language, and recognizing symbols. It has been linked to higher levels of school adjustment and increased social development. Play has also been linked to increased literacy skills and other areas of academic learning (a view held by Piagetian and Vygotskian theories of child development).

Play is especially beneficial to children's learning when it reaches a certain degree of sophistication. In other words, "unproductive" play happens not only when children fight and argue over who is going to be the "mommy" and who is going to be the "baby," but also when the child who is "mommy" keeps performing the same routines with her "baby" day after day with no change. By contrast, play that has a potential for fostering many areas of young children's development, including social and cognitive development, has the following characteristics:

1) Children create a pretend scenario by negotiating and talking to peers and use props in a symbolic way; and 2) Children create specific roles-and rules-for pretend behavior and adopt multiple themes and multiple roles.

When children engage in this kind of play for most of their early years, they learn to delay gratification and to prioritize their goals and actions. They also learn to consider the perspectives and needs of other people. They learn to represent things symbolically and to regulate their behaviors and act in a deliberate, intentional way.

Most primary school teachers would probably agree that they don't expect kindergartners to enter first grade with a complete mastery of spelling or addition. After all, it is in the early elementary grades when children learn these academic competencies. However, teachers of entering school-agers do hope that the children who come into their classrooms can concentrate, pay attention, and be considerate of others. These areas are developed not by using flashcards or computer programs, but through interacting with peers during play.

Today, many children do not have enough play opportunities at home because of TV, videos, and the computer. They interact with toys that are not conducive to building imagination and interesting dramatic play themes. In many instances, pretend play with siblings and neighborhood children is not available. There are more adult-organized and directed activities than in the past. They tend to be in groups of children of the same age rather than in mixed-age groups, which would include older children who could act as "play mentors."

Early childhood classrooms provide a unique setting to foster the kind of dramatic play that will lead to cognitive and social maturity. There are other children to play with, a setting that can be organized to accomodate imaginative play, and adults who can encourage the play, guiding children to play effectively with each other. Indeed, this is the cornerstone for all learning, and we need to stand firm in our support of play.

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With increasing emphasis at school on developing academic skills in children at younger and younger ages, what role does dramatic ("pretend") play have in early childhood? Is the idea of play merely a throwback to another time when we did not have as much information about how children learn to read and acquire math skills?

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Ways to help students behavior

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Get pregnancy information, baby advice and parenting tips at TheBump.com. Join our parenting forums and use our pregnancy tools.

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Can you improve behavior by movement (play time, music, etc)?

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Do we expect too much of preschoolers?

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Lots to cover in 4 hours of preschool and not sure how we were able to achieve it in 2.5 hours.

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Do preschools need play time (recess and free play)?

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Different activiities

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What gross motor is and how it helps

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HOME

Since gross motor skills can be learned and improved with practice, children need plenty of opportunities to exercise these skills.

Scroll down for a list of 10 activities you can do to improve your child's gross motor skills.

Gross motor control refers to the movements of the large muscles of the body.

The development of these skill are important for School Readiness.

Children acquire new gross motor skills by practicing a movement or activity until that particular skill is mastered.

From birth, a baby starts developing gross motor control, beginning with the control of her head and torso. The development of gross motor control continues until the baby has learned to sit, crawl, stand, walk and then progressed to running, jumping and the range of activities that an adult can do.

Gross motor skills include: DO NOT COPY CONTENT FROM THIS PAGE.

body awareness - for improved posture and control

balance - the ability to maintain equilibrium

laterality - awareness of the left and right sides of the body

crossing of the mid-line

co-ordination of major muscle groups

spatial orientation - awareness of the body position in space and in relation to other objects or people
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Unfortunately, so many website owners have duplicated the content on this page, that it has recently been rewritten, to try to keep it original.

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As a child develops and improves the of the arms and legs, fine motor skills begin to develop - skills such as grasping, touching, feeding herself etc.
Children who do not have reasonably good gross motor skills, often struggle with the fine motor skills which are needed for formal school work in the classroom scenario.

This article by an occupational therapist, explains how Gross Motor Activities Improve Handwriting

There are other added benefits derived from the physical exercise that practicing gross motor skills provides:

"
At this age a child needs several hours of physical activity a day. This helps to build the body, purify the blood, promote good digestion and calm the nerves."
~ Raymond Moore, Homegrown Kids

" For we are an over wrought generation, running to nerves as a cabbage runs to seed; and every hour spent in the open is clear gain, tending to the increase of brain power and bodily vigour, and to the lengthening of life itself. They who know what it is to have fevered skin and throbbing brain deliciously soothed by the cool touch of air are inclined to make a new rule in life: Never be within doors when you can rightly be without."
~ Charlotte Mason, Home Education, Vol 1

Make sure your child has plenty of time to run around, climb, play and even do some work, such as gardening or helping with other chores out of doors. DO NOT COPY CONTENT FROM THIS PAGE.

Even if you are a city dweller, find a park, a vacant lot or other suitable place where you can go and get enjoy some physical exercise. Even in cold weather, dress up warmly, go out and develop your child's gross motor skills, while enjoying the outdoors.

" In this time of extraordinary pressure, educational and social, perhaps a mother's first duty to her children is to secure for them a quiet and growing time, a full six years of passive receptive life, the waking part of it for the most part spent out in the fresh air."
~ Charlotte Mason, Home Education, Vol 1

Besides the physical benefits of being outdoors, for the purpose of physical activity, other valuable learning opportunities may also arise as your children encounter objects in nature or other subjects that captivate their attention.

From about three years of age, your child will be ready to make good use ofplayground equipment that is designed to use her large muscles vigorously and develop gross motor skills. Don't deprive her of climbing - just help her to do it safely and within limits. Climbing is particularly good for stimulating a child's sense of laterality.

Country living usually provides small trees and fences for this activity, but city parks or playgrounds with a jungle gym or slide will also achieve the same. Encourage your child to use and many of the apparatus at a play park as possible.

Developing Gross Motor Skills

DO NOT COPY CONTENT FROM THIS PAGE. Always encourage and motivate your child with plenty of positive reinforcement for her efforts, no matter how proficient her skills.

We should encourage our children to improve on their weaknesses so as to attain an acceptable standard, compensate for weakness where necessary while focusing on, developing and enjoying their strengths and talents.

No one is good at everything. The object of these stimulating activities, is to help your child develop each area to her unique potential, not to over-stimulate or try and develop super-babies!

Click here for gentle, educational, toddler activities for 1 year olds .

Interact with child using the activities listed below to help develop gross motor skills. They are aimed at 3-5 year olds, but since this is a wide range, you should adapt them according to your child's proficiency.

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1. Using a large ball, play games to encourage your child to kick the ball, using one foot at a time. You could also throw and catch it to each other.

2. Encourage your child to ride any kind of scooter or bike, suited to his age level and ability. DO NOT COPY CONTENT FROM THIS PAGE.

3. Play the copying game: "Simon says - do this." Say those words and do an action that your child must copy. When you say "Simon says do that" she must NOT do the action. DO NOT COPY CONTENT FROM THIS PAGE.

4. Do spatial relations activity: Ask your child to stand behind a chair, next to the chair, in front of a chair, on top of the chair and crouch under the chair. DO NOT COPY CONTENT FROM THIS PAGE.

5. To develop the sense of laterality, ask your child kneel on the floor on all fours, then give instructions such as to lift her left hand, lift her right leg etc. DO NOT COPY CONTENT FROM THIS PAGE.

6. Ask your child to be your shadow and mimic everything you do while you walk arounfd and perform simple actions. DO NOT COPY CONTENT FROM THIS PAGE.

7. Enjoy singing some action songs together and do the actions while you sing them. DO NOT COPY CONTENT FROM THIS PAGE.

8. Encourage your child to act and move like various animals: slither like a snake, waddle like a duck, hop like a rabbit, crabwalk etc. DO NOT COPY CONTENT FROM THIS PAGE.

9. Ask your child to see how long she is able to balance first on one leg, then on the other. DO NOT COPY CONTENT FROM THIS PAGE.

10. Let your child to gallop like a horse. DO NOT COPY CONTENT FROM THIS PAGE.

Read more about Why Kids Need to Move to Learn.

Learning Hardware - Toys for Early Child Development

A good selection of well-chosen toys and games will help to create a 'learning environment' in your home, where children will develop skills they need in life while having fun! Use this as a wishlist for gifts for birthdays.

Subscribe today to THE WHOLE CHILD, a free e-zine packed with age-appropriate preschool activities to stimulate your children in a variety of ways, plus useful tips and info for YOU, delivered regularly to your inbox.

In just a few minutes, doing one easy activity a day, you can have fun and interact your children in a way that will stimulate their all-round growth and development.

When you sign up, you will receive ideas and tips for:

Click on the links above for more information describing and explaining the importance of these activities, as well as some samples of the kinds of free preschool activities you can expect inTHE WHOLE CHILD e-zine.
You can read Back Issues here.

THE WHOLE CHILD e-zine will be mailed out soon, so sign up for free preschool activities today by completing the form above.

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Gross Motor Skills, Gross Motor Activities

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HOME Since gross motor skills can be learned and improved with practice, children need plenty of opportunities to exercise these skills. Scroll down for a list of 10 activities you can do to improve your child's gross motor skills. Gross motor control refers to the movements of the large muscles of the body.

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How gross motors help in readiness skills

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I use small photos to illustrate the information and activities that I share, and you will have a much better experience on this website if you can view the images.

Did you know that including preschool gross motor activities in your child's routine can help prepare them for school?
Many parents think that having good gross motor skills can enable a child to excel at sports. This is only part of the benefit!

Developing your child's gross motor skills can do so much more than that - they can influence a child's ability to write well, to read well and even to concentrate in the classroom.

Let's take a look at some of the skills your child will need in formal school, and see how including preschool gross motor activities can develop this skill!

1) Being Able To Sit At A Desk To Work

Taking part in gross motor activities can help your child develop the physical endurance needed to sit at a desk for extended periods of time. This may also help your child's ability to concentrate.

Activities that develop the core muscles can help your child to sit upright and not slouch at the desk or on the mat.

2) Listening To The Teacher And Following Instructions

Taking part in sports, games, and other preschool gross motor activities, with or without other children, can help your child to learn to listen and to follow instructions.

These are vital skills for any child to have in the classroom.

3) Copying Work From The Board

Copying work from the blackboard requires your child to visually focus on the work on the board, and transfer focus from near to far and back again.

These functional visual skills are often enhanced by participation in gross motor activities, especially ball games.

4) Scissor Cutting, Drawing and Coloring Skills

In order to use the small muscles of the hands to hold a pencil or manipulate scissors, the large muscles of the arms, shoulder and trunk need to be strong and stable.

Gross motor activities that target the core muscles and the shoulder muscles can help develop this strength and stability.

Doing gross motor tasks that involve coordination may also help your child to coordinate the hands to use scissors and other stationery well.

5) Developing Good Handwriting Skills

In order to master handwriting, your child needs to be able to use the hands and eyes well together, a skill called visual-motor integration.This means that the eyes guide the hands in controlling the pencil so that the correct shapes and lines can be made to create the letters.

Developing eye-hand coordination through gross motor games can help your child master visual-motor integration.

6) Correctly Spacing Written Work On The Page

In order for your child to correctly space out the written work on the page, crossing the midline and directionality skills need to be well established, as well as spatial perception and planning skills.

Giving your preschool child lots of gross motor opportunities can help your child develop these skills while moving around, changing direction, and planning how to use equipment.

Playing at the park can work on all these areas! You can also try my ideas for including midline crossing in gross motor activities.

7) Learning To Read

Your child needs good visual tracking and focusing skills in order to read well.

Ball games, bean bag games and games requiring eye-hand coordination can help these skills to develop.

8) Reinforcing Basic Math Skills

Many preschool gross motor activities involve rhythmical counting, which can help your child internalize number sequences. Encourage your child to count jumps and throws, or assign them a certain number to do - it takes a lot of control to stop at jump number 10 on a trampoline!

You can also include number recognition in games such as hopscotch and target tossing. Introduce skip counting in 2's and 10's as your child gets older.

Ideas for Preschool Gross Motor Activities

Although most of the activities on my site are geared to children in kindergarten and first grade, most of them can easily be used by preschoolers as they develop their skills.

Visit my gross motor activity pages, or try my gross motor e-book bundle!

Or check out these gross motor posts by fellow therapists!

(Each link opens in a new tab/window and takes you to their lovely sites)

I hope you found this page helpful and inspiring! Thanks for visiting!

If this page was helpful, please share it with your friends!

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Preschool Gross Motor Activities and School Readiness

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Ways to improve attention spans

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For many students with ADHD, maintaining sustained focus on schoolwork is a mentally draining challenge. There is no magic trick for increasing naturally low attention spans, but parents and teachers who use these strategies with struggling students report real, significant results.

Student with ADHD surrounded by books, on laptop, at university by windows

Does your child have a short attention span? Children who have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder ( ADHD or ADD) often jump from task to task without finishing any of them. They feel trapped by any task that takes longer than the time they're able to maintain focus. Improving this skill usually requires breaking tasks into smaller segments while working to increase the child's low attention span.

Sustained attention is the ability to maintain focus on a task or assignment a child considers uninteresting or difficult - in other words, schoolwork and homework. A young child can typically complete a five-minute chore with only occasional supervision. The average teenager can do a task, with short breaks, for one to two hours. But for children with ADHD, it's completely different. Try these tricks for increasing focus and attention in your child with ADHD, both at school and at home.

How Can Children with ADHD Focus in the Classroom?

Teach students how to pay attention. At the beginning of the school year, ask students to demonstrate what attention and inattention look like. Say, "I'm going to start talking. I want this side of the room to act out what paying attention looks like, and I want the other side to act out what inattention looks like." After you have done this exercise, talk about the differences you saw between the two sides of the room.

Take 10 minutes every day to practice paying attention. Set a kitchen timer for random intervals (one to three minutes), and ask students to place a check mark on their paper if they were paying attention when the alarm went off. This will help students become aware of how long it takes before they drift off. There are smartphone apps - Interval Minder is a good one - that allow you to program an iPhone to sound a tone, create a screen flash, or vibrate at random intervals as short as five to 10 seconds.

Adjust tasks for shorter time frames. Set a kitchen timer for 10-minute intervals. When the bell rings, have the student with ADHD show you his work. This gives him a chance to get up and move and allows you to monitor progress.
[Free Guide: How Fidgets Improve Behavior and Focus]
Provide preferential seating - in front of the classroom, within cueing distance of you, and away from as many environmental distractions as possible, including doors, windows, and visual displays. If possible, make sure the child is seated among attentive, well-focused students.

Cut work pages in halves or smaller segments. Pass out one part at a time. This reduces a student's frustration over seeing a lengthy worksheet.

Give the student some choices. Allow kids to decide which assignments to do or the order in which they want to do them. Choice increases motivation, and motivation increases sustained attention.

Have a student clear his desk of distractions. He should have only the essential items needed to do the task at hand.

Create opportunities for children to respond to the material as it is being presented. Lecture for no more than 10 minutes, then ask kids to comment on the material. Have everybody vote on something, ask kids to write the answer to a question on their individual whiteboards and hold them up, or ask, "How many of you...?"
[How to Focus After 4: Defying Homework Distractions]
Cover or remove visual distractions. Erase unnecessary information from the board and remove visual clutter.

Ask kids to track how long it takes to complete an assignment. Have them write down start and stop times for classroom assignments. Then ask them to estimate how long an assignment will take, and to compare their estimates to the actual time.

Have a class discussion about fighting homework distractions. Talk about what the common distractions are, then break up the class into small groups to brainstorm ways to combat them.

How Can Parents Increase Attention Span for Studying at Home?

Break schoolwork assignments into small segments. For a child with ADHD, the general rule of thumb is that a task is most likely to get done when the child knows that "the end is in sight" at the beginning of the task. It's easier for kids with ADHD to do six five-minute chores than to do one 30-minute chore.

Reward your child when he finishes a task. Some parents don't allow kids to play video games on school nights. But video games can be an incentive to maintain attention if kids know they will be allowed to play for 30 minutes after they finish their homework. If you decide to make this offer, say it like this: "As soon as you finish your homework, you get to play video games for 30 minutes." Saying, "You can't play video games until you finish your homework" sets the scene for a power struggle. Giving your child something to look forward to will energize him.

Have your child rate how hard a task is for her (1 is easy and 10 is difficult). Ask her how she could turn an 8-9-10 task into a 2-3-4 task. Can she turn it into a game, make it fun by listening to her iPod while she does it, or break the task into small pieces and do one piece at a time, with built-in breaks?

Ask your child to estimate how long a task will take. Your child may think it will take an hour to do his math homework. If he finds it took him only 15 minutes, he will be pleasantly surprised - and much less likely to procrastinate the next time he has to tackle it.

Gradually increase attention. Measure how long your child can stick with homework or a chore before needing a break. Once you establish that, set a timer for two to three minutes longer than the baseline measurement, and challenge your child to keep working until the timer rings.

Be there. Children can sustain attention longer when someone is physically with them. Make homework time a family affair - everybody brings work to the dining room table at the same time every night. Parents work on their paperwork while kids do their homework.

Schedule movement breaks. Kids with ADHD work more efficiently when they have regular opportunities to get up and move around. Even on nights when they have a lot of homework, they will get it done faster if they have periodic breaks that include some physical activity.

Help him visualize time. Devices that show elapsed time will help him reset his focus when it drifts from the task. Time Timer makes a clock and a wristwatch, as well as software for the computer, that show a time-challenged child how much time he has left (or how much has passed) via a diminishing red disc.

Expand on your child's partial answers by saying, "Tell me more. I would like to know how you arrived at that answer? It is interesting." This will keep his attention on the task at hand.
[Kids with ADHD Can't "Just Focus"]

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For many students with ADHD, maintaining sustained focus on schoolwork is a mentally draining challenge. There is no magic trick for increasing naturally low attention spans, but parents and teachers who use these strategies with struggling students report real, significant results. Does your child have a short attention span?

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More ways on how gross motor skills help children

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Gross Motor Development

Gross motor skills involve movement of the large muscles in arms, legs, and torso. Gross motor activities include walking, running, skipping, jumping, throwing, climbing and many others. It may be easiest to think of "gross motor" skills as skills most utilized in a gym class or on a playground.

Gross motor skills also include small movements of the large muscle groups. There are always a few children in every preschool or kindergarten classroom who suddenly fall out of their chair during a lesson. In each case, the child was probably shifting his weight, but inadvertently moved his leg, hip or torso muscles too much, causing him to fall out of his chair.

Preschool and kindergarten children need strong gross motor skills so they can engage in age-appropriate physical activities (such as running, climbing, and throwing) and so they can participate in classroom activities that require body control (such as walking in a crowded room or sitting still during a lesson).

In this section, I will discuss:

What bilateral integration is and how it relates to gross motor development;

Why bilateral integration is essential for success in reading and writing;

Tips for accelerating your child's gross motor skill development; and

What gross motor skills your child will be expected to have in preschool and kindergarten.

What is Bilateral Integration?

Bilateral integration is a fancy term that refers to the ability to smoothly perform actions using both sides of the body simultaneously. Successful gross motor movements are a result of bilateral integration.

There are several stages of bilateral integration that develop in sequence:

1. Symmetrical Bilateral Integration. Symmetrical bilateral integration involves both sides of the body working in mirror-image unison, where the actions on one side of the body mirror the actions performed on the other side.

2. Reciprocal Bilateral Integration. Reciprocal bilateral integration involves moving both sides of the body at the same time in opposite motions.

3. Asymmetrical Bilateral Integration. Asymmetrical bilateral integration involves each side of the body acting in a different way to complete a single specific task. For example, one foot may kick a ball as the other foot plants on the ground and balances the body.

4. Crossing the Midline. The "midline" is the imaginary line down the center of your body from the top of your head to your toes). Crossing the midline involves instinctively reaching across your body to complete an activity.

Importance of Bilateral Integration in Reading and Writing

Successful writing depends on well developed asymmetrical bilateral integration and an ability to cross the midline. First, a child must use one hand to control the pencil and the other hand to position and stabilize the paper (asymmetrical bilateral integration). Then, a child must use one hand to write words along the entire horizontal length of the page, without switching the pencil from the left hand to the right hand at the mid-way point of the page (crossing the midline).

Without well developed asymmetrical bilateral integration or an ability to cross the midline, a child will limit his drawing to the portion of the paper closest to his writing hand since he cannot comfortably reach his hand to other areas of the paper and his non-writing hand does not instinctively readjust the paper's position.

Successful reading depends on an ability to cross the midline. When reading, a child's eyes must follow along the entire horizontal length of the page, before moving to the next line.

Without well developed bilateral integration, a child will likely read the first few words on a page and then pause. After thinking for a moment, he may continue to read the second half of the page. This pause is because the child was unable to instinctively cross the midline so he needed to pause and needed to deliberately move his eyes to the next word to resume reading.

Tips for Accelerating Your Child's Gross Motor Development

Strong gross motor skills depend, in large part, on strong muscles. Muscles gain strength through repeated activity and practice. To accelerate your child's gross motor development, focus on providing your child with opportunities to engage in focused gross motor activities such as first marching in a straight line. Once he is comfortable with that basic skill, direct him to march forwards while tapping his left knee with his right hand and his right knee with his left hand. This type of activity directly promotes bilateral asymmetrical integration and crossing the midline skill development.

Next time you are outdoors with your child, roll a large ball towards your child while he stands in place. Instruct him to kick it back without stopping it first. As he gains comfort with this activity, have him walk (and later run) towards the ball as it rolls towards him. This type of activity involves advanced asymmetrical bilateral integration as well as coordination.

Learn More About What Will Be Expected of Your Child in School

Children are expected to begin preschool with basic control over the large muscles in their body (the arms, legs and torso) but without finely tuned control over these muscles. For example, a child in preschool may be able to walk up and down the stairs, but may place two feet on each step before moving to the next step, instead of placing only one foot on each step. Also, a preschooler may be able to hold a large bin of markers but may accidentally spill it when trying to walk while holding it.

As children progress through preschool and kindergarten, teachers expect that they will gain increased control over all large muscles in their bodies and be able to execute precise movements such as skipping, hopping, climbing, carrying large objects while walking, walking up and down stairs placing only one foot on each step and sitting cross-legged for up to thirty minutes.

Learn more about the specific gross motor skills your child will be expected to have at the beginning of preschool and at the beginning of kindergarten.

Further Reading

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Gross motor skills involve movement of the large muscles in arms, legs, and torso. Gross motor activities include walking, running, skipping, jumping, throwing, climbing and many others. It may be easiest to think of "gross motor" skills as skills most utilized in a gym class or on a playground.

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Ways to increase attention span and help with frustration

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PediaStaff Pediatric SLP, OT and PT Blog

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By: Loren Shlaes, OTR
Certified Teacher of the Alexander Technique

1. Encourage parents to make sure that the child is getting plenty of time to play outdoors. Studies show that there is a direct correlation between exercise, IQ, and school performance. Remember, movement is what activates the brain! I recommend to parents that they take their children to the playground for 20 minutes before dropping them off at school. If this is truly not possible, then have the child walk to school, or at least part of the way. One friend plays a game of hide and go seek with her five year old on the way to school every morning. Always precede tabletop tasks in the clinic with some form of gross motor activity.

2. Children who have a hard time attending often are shallow or inefficient breathers. Toys that encourage sustained exhalations are superb for improving respiratory function. I like bubbles, blow darts, whistles, Blo-Pens, kazoos, and inexpensive wind instruments, like ocarinas, harmonicas, and recorders.

3. Brain Gym exercises for improving handwriting, like lazy8's or elephant 8's, are fun and easy to do before starting homework. If a child has difficulty regulating his behavior at school, doing hook-ups can be helpful before class starts.

4. Craft activities are the perfect means for encouraging a child to develop his tolerance for frustration, attention span, eye hand coordination, and problem solving skill

5. Old fashioned board games not only require a good attention span, they develop sitting tolerance, and teach social skills like sportsmanship and turn taking. Other good choices: jigsaw puzzles, word games, and card games that take some skill, like cribbage.

6. A short attention span for tabletop or fine motor activities is frequently a sign that the child has undetected visual problems. Most likely there is a weakness in the child's convergence, which is the ability to pull the eyes in for close work. Games that strengthen the neck and trunk, such as wheelbarrow walking, playing prone on scooterboards and on the net swing, and high intensity vestibular activities, such as spinning, {if the child enjoys them} will help. So will games that encourage scanning and visual pursuits, such as dot to dot, mazes, balloon tennis, I Spy, and chasing bubbles with a claw toy and popping them.
If the child still resists tabletop activities after about a year of sensory integration therapy, it's time to refer to a vision therapist for an evaluation.

7. Sometimes the simplest solution is the easiest. If the child is having a hard time focusing in the moment, does he need to go to the bathroom, have a drink of water, or is he hungry? Small children can't always tell us these things, but more often than not, if a child becomes suddenly disorganized during clinic time, it's because nature is calling.

8. If a child is persistently resistant to an activity you have chosen, is it because the child finds it too difficult or too overwhelming? Can the activity be graded or changed to make it more successful? Sometimes less structured activities, like Play-Doh, drawing in shaving cream, and hunting for small objects in a bin of beans or foam pellets are the best until the child develops some sitting tolerance. Conversely, does the child find the activity boring or too beneath him?

9. If the child has trouble sitting still while he's working, give him a therapy ball or inflatable cushion to bounce on, and something to chew on like gum or a lollypop. Or move the activity to a swing or to the floor if possible. Another possibility would be to do writing at an easel or to tape homework to the wall so the child can stand. Not only is this easier for a child with low tone, it exercises the shoulders, which improves stability for fine motor control, and decreases visual distortion, making the work easier to see. Win/win!

10. Use activities that work on the skills you are trying to build that are not exactly the same as the skill itself. For instance, if you are trying to teach a child the correct way to hold a pencil while he is writing, give the child the pencil with the adaptive grip and play tic tac toe, draw pictures on the board using nubs of chalk, give him a coppertooling project, etc.

Featured Author: Loren Shlaes, OTR

Many thanks to Loren Shlaes for providing us with these great therapy ideas for our newsletter.

Loren Shlaes is a pediatric occupational therapist specializing in sensory integration and school related issues, particularly handwriting. She lives and practices in Manhattan. She blogs at http://www.pediatricOT.blogspot.com/.

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Ten Ideas to Increase a Child's Attention Span and Tolerance for Frustration

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By: Loren Shlaes, OTR Certified Teacher of the Alexander Technique Encourage parents to make sure that the child is getting plenty of time to play outdoors. Studies show that there is a direct correlation between exercise, IQ, and school performance. Remember, movement is what activates the brain!

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How gross motors help in kids learn

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I use small photos to illustrate the information and activities that I share, and you will have a much better experience on this website if you can view the images.

Regular gross motor activities should be an essential part of every child's life.

Through play, through games, and through sport, children should be developing their gross motor skills to prepare them for the demands of school such as handwriting, concentrating, following instructions, sport skills and team work.

These quick links outline the gross motor articles on my site...

Core and Shoulder Girdle Exercises

Coordination Activities

Classroom Exercises

This article has useful tips and free printable PDF's with gross motor exercises that can be done at the desk and on the mat in the classroom.

There are also some ideas for vestibular activities you can do in the class!

Compiled from various pages throughout my site, the free printables on that page are suitable for teachers and homeschool moms of preschool to elementary kids. Visit my Classroom Gross Motor Exercises page!

Bean Bag Games

Gross Motor E-Books

OT Mom's Gross Motor E-Books give you all the information and activities you need to have fun doing focused gross motor exercises with your child at home.Click on the images to view each affordable e-book.

They are available individually as well as in special bundle deals.

Gross Motor Resources

You probably have a whole lot of resources already without knowing it! Balls, ropes, access to a play park - these are all readily available resources. Second hand shops often stock bats, smal trampolines and other gross motor items, so it is worth checking them out.

I have picked out a few really helpful items over at PFOT - check them out through the pic below. This is an affiliate link, which means I will receive a small commission if you purchase an item through my links - but you are under no obligation to do so!

Scheduling Gross Motor Activities

There is no hard and fast rule about how often to do these activities. It depends on your child's abilities and also on your family's lifestyle. Take a look at your family's daily and weekly routine.

Each family is different and you need to decide what works best for you. I believe you will see the most progress if you can incorporate 10 to 20 minutes of fun activities 3 times a week, but see what works for you.

Daily routine: is there a time of day when it is generally possible for you to focus on your child for 10 minutes? After breakfast if you homeschool? After a rest time in the afternoon? Between bath and bed? Can you make a 10-minute break in the homework routine in the afternoon? Are there any activities you can make a regular part of family outings, family life?

Weekly Routine: Which afternoon are you usually home without extra-mural activities? Or can you head for the playpark while you wait for your other child to finish extra-murals? What about Saturdays before chores?

Remember that incorporating gross motor exercises into your family's life has wonderful long-term benefits!

Look at other ways of improving your child's general fitness levels with gross motor activities such as swimming, playing catch, cycling and walking on the beach.

Related Pages On My Site

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Viewing this page on your device? Please adjust your settings to enable images! I use small photos to illustrate the information and activities that I share, and you will have a much better experience on this website if you can view the images. Regular gross motor activities should be an essential part of every child's life.

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Article about recess