Motor Skills

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Motor Skills Perceptual Motor Programs

• EPC252, Semester 2

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Why are Motor Skills Important?

• PE Prostituted editorial by Jeff Walkley
• (from The ACHPER Healthy Lifestyle Journal,
  1995)

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So why is this area an issue?

• Failure breeds failure, avoidance rejection,
  therefore, we need to focus on grades K-3 to
  develop
• success competence in motor skills,
• experimentation in motor skills,
• acceptance

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Why K-3?

• GRADE 1 children who are 5/6/7 years of age
  have the neurological anatomical ability to
  develop skills in ALL fundamental motor skills
• GRADE 4 children have established their belief
  in physical activity sport

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What are Motor Skills?

• Motor skills
• Fundamental skills
• Fundamental motor skills
• DIFFERENT TERMS, SAME THING!!
• Brainstorm a definition examples.

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What are Motor Skills?

• Fundamental skills are those utilitarian skills
  that children need for living being (Pangrazi
  Dauer, 1992, p. 291)
• Fundamental motor skills (FMS) are the
  foundation movements or precursor patterns to
  more specialised, complex skills in games,
  sports, dance, aquatics, gymnastics and
  recreational activities (DECCD, 1997, p. 4)
• Current research indicates that the current level
  of FMS development in a childs early years is
  inadequate

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What are Motor Skills cont.

• Early development of FMS is an important step
  towards ensuring an individuals involvement in
  physical activity is lifelong, safe and healthy
• Without competence in a range of skills such as
  running, skipping and balancing, students are
  less likely to access the range of options
  available to establish an active lifestyle
  (DECCD, 1997)
• Research has indicated that the improvements in
  self esteem and confidence that are associated
  with a sound development in FMS has a flow on
  effect to other areas of a childs education
  (DECCD, 1997)

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3 Motor Skill Categories

• Locomotor
• Nonlocomotor (body management)
• Manipulative

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Locomotor Skills

• Are used to move the body from 1 place to another
  or to project the body upward, eg. walking,
  skipping, jumping landing, hopping, running,
  leaping, galloping, dodging
• Form the foundation of gross motor coordination
  involve large muscle movement

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Nonlocomotor or Body Management Skills

• Are performed without appreciable movement from
  place to place, eg. bending, stretching, pushing
  pulling, twisting turning, balancing,
  rolling

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Manipulative Skills

• Are involved when a child handles some object
• Usually involve the hands feet but other parts
  of the body can also be used
• Leads to better hand-eye foot-eye coordination
• Form the foundation for many game skills
• Eg. catching, throwing, striking, dribbling,
  kicking

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Pyramid of Skill Attainment
Higher Skill Attainment
Specialised Skills
Fundamental Skills
Body Management Competence
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Tasmanian FMS booklet

• 1997
• Developed by Tasmanian teachers

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How long to develop motor skill proficiency?

• Brainstorm - how long do you think (in minutes)?
• Task team writing of name
• Task paper throw
• Too Much Too Quickly by Jeff Walkley
• (from The ACHPER Healthy Lifestyle Journal, 1995)

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How can we teach FMS?

• PMP
• Skills approach
• Thematic approach
• Games Sense or TGfU
• Sport Education
• THROUGH
• Daily PE
• USING
• Tasmanian FMS booklet

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Before he can learn that p is down and b is
up, he must learn when he is down and when he is
up. Directionality must become a part of the
body scheme before any child can have a real
appreciation of the directionality of letters,
numbers and words. (Capon, 1975)
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Perceptual Motor Programs

• Fundamental motor skills have been developed as
  an integral component of the HPE curriculum.
• Traditional P.E programs have centred on the
  output or performance e.g. Can the child skip?
  With perceptual motor programs, input and
  perception are the first concern, then you
  examine how it effects ones performance.
• PMPs aim to be preventative rather than
  curative.
• PMPs should involve all students in their early
  years of schooling, not just children who are at
  risk

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What is Perceptual Motor Development ?

• Perceptual motor development is defined as ones
  ability to receive, interpret and respond
  successfully to sensory information
• Perception means to know or to interpret
  information, and motor refers to output or
  responsive movement
• (Capon, 1975)
• A perceptual motor program, therefore, uses
  movement activities to enhance academic or
  cognitive skills

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The Importance of PMPs

• 2 main reasons
• The influence PMP can have on non-impaired
  children (Learning Readiness)
• The influence of PMP on children requiring
  remedial programs for PM skills (Remediation)
• Readiness programs are preventative programs,
  that is why they are so important in every
  schools early grade curriculum.

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What is Involved in a PMP?

• Gross motor activities (locomotor)
• Vestibular activities
• Visual motor activities (Manipulative)
• Auditory motor activities
• Tactile activities
• Lateralisation activities
• Body awareness
• Spatial awareness

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Gross Motor Activities

• Rolling, crawling, walking, running, jumping and
  landing, hopping, skipping, galloping, leaping
  and dodging.

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Vestibular Activities

• Rolling (over balls), forward and backward rolls,
  spinning, balance, scooter boards, skipping (with
  and without ropes), jumping activities, see saws
  and trampettes.
• The vestibular centre in the brain receives and
  processes sensations from the gravity and
  movement receptors found in the inner ears. This
  information is used to regulate muscle tone,
  equilibrium and posture and allows people to know
  how fast they are moving and in which direction.

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Visual Motor Activities

• Eye-hand co-ordination (striking), eye-foot
  co-ordination activities (kicking), ball
  activities (throwing and catching).
• Temporal awareness (developing an internal time
  structure).

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Auditory Motor Activities

• Singing, rhymes and chants.
• Responding to auditory cues/commands, ability to
  utilise auditory cues.

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Tactile Activities

• Massage.
• Direct touch.
• Rolling.

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Lateralisation Activities

• Ability to control two sides of the body together
  or separately.
• Bilateral movements (Simultaneous or parallel).
• Unilateral movements (one side of the body)
• Cross lateral movements (Simultaneous movement of
  different limbs on opposite sides of the body
  e.g. crawling)
• Directional awareness.

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Recognising Children at Risk

• Children who often go unnoticed are those who try
  very hard with little success.
• Children with poor muscle tone or poor posture.
• Children with co-ordination problems, who appear
  clumsy, unable to run easily, often have falls.
• (ANSUA, 1991)

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Children at Risk cont.

• Children who display poor fine motor
  co-ordination, have problems with all manual
  skills such as managing buttons, pencil grip,
  avoiding colouring activities, dislikes jigsaws
  and trouble managing scissors.
• Children who display a difficulty in expressing
  themselves properly (poor speech, stuttering)

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Children at Risk cont.

• Children who demonstrate difficulty with spatial
  awareness and poor visual perception. They may
  avoid using playground equipment to avoid
  climbing, swinging and heights.
• Children with mixed laterality. Children who may
  write with their left hand but prefer to hop on
  their right leg.
• Children who display an under-developed tactile
  system or a hyper-tactile child.

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Children at Risk cont.

• Children with sensory input problems I.e cannot
  filter out irrelevant sounds and stimuli, easily
  distracted, talk loudly to drown out background
  noise.
• Children with poor eye contact.
• Children with immature head movement development
  e.g moves their head while reading instead of
  moving their eyes or jerky head movement while
  reading.

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Children at Risk cont.

• Children with poor visual memory.
• Children who have a poor auditory memory I.e can
  only handle one command at a time.
• Children with visual problems squints, red
  rimmed eyes, headaches, watery eyes following
  reading, book close to eyes when reading and
  inability to cope with small print.
• Reversals with letters and numbers.

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Children at Risk cont.

• Children with poor concentration and learning
  ability leads to poor comprehension e.g can read
  well but demonstrates little comprehension.
• Children who demonstrate poor time concepts e.g
  unaware of lunch time and dinner time, yesterday
  and tomorrow.
• Children who display midline problems. Children
  who have not integrated both sides of their body
  e.g may be ambidextrous, writing hand may change,
  when writing across one side of the page then
  moves the paper so they do not cross the midline.

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Improving Literacy Through Motor Development

• PMPs have been shown to be an avenue to which
  the perceptual abilities of a child may be
  enhanced. There has been research conducted that
  demonstrates that improved perceptual motor
  development can positively affect a childs
  academic performance.

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Skills Approach

• Focus your teaching on the skill
• Drill, practice, modified games
• Non-dominant side practice
• PE homework
• Profile skill achievement of students

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Thematic Approach

• Propulsion
• Overhand throw, kick, bounce
• Reception
• Catch
• Striking
• Forehand strike, 2-hand strike
• Locomotion
• Run, leap, dodge, vertical jump

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Games Sense or TGfU

• Teach games, dont TAKE games!
• Select a series of modified games that allow
  students to practice FMS
• Eg. Dodge
• Octopus tag, line tag, relays

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Sport Education

• Involves extended lessons on the same sport
  (usually a term)
• Involves students acting as coaches, umpires,
  scorers
• Eg. soccer
• Run, dodge, kick, vertical jump (field players)
• Catch, leap, kick, overhand throw (goalie)

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References

• ANSUA. (1991). Movement for learning. Motor
  sensory
• therapy. Victoria author.
• Capon, J. (1975). Perceptual motor development.
  Belmont,
• Ca. Fearon Pitman.
• DECCD. (1997). Fundamental motor skills.
  Tasmania
• author.
• Pangrazi, R. P., Dauer, V. P. (1992). Dynamic
  physical
• education for elementary school children (10th
  ed.). Ontario Macmillan.