Perceptual Motor Skills

Perceptual motor skills are movement skills that are vital to the development, learning and growth of children. It is the ability of a child to use their senses and their motor skills in conjunction with their environment to interact with it. 

For example, In order for a baby to crawl, push objects, and eventually walk; they must develop their perceptual motor skills. Motor skills include the ability to control the body’s movements, including that of the eyes. Perception refers to the process of taking in, organizing, and interpreting sensory information. Voluntary motor activity and awareness of perceptual information are inextricably linked. Perception involves learning and relying upon movement to achieve this learning.

Perception motor skills mainly include Body Awareness, Spatial Awareness, Directional Awareness and Temporal Awareness;

Body Awareness:

The ability to locate body parts and understand their purpose is part of body awareness. 

Spatial Awareness:

Knowing how to position and maneuver around in a space the body occupies is known as spatial awareness.

Directional Awareness:

It takes directional awareness to distinguish left from right, front from back, top from bottom, and up from down.

Temporal Awareness:

Knowing the passing of time, the sequence of events, and anticipating when moving objects will arrive is a component of temporal awareness.

Developing perceptual skills

Developing perceptual motor skills happens in three phases. The first is cognitive, which involves comprehending the task. The second is associative, which is about practicing the skill. After mastering the previous two stages, the autonomous stage focuses on improving speed and accuracy.

The following activities involve perceptual motor skills:

• • Body awareness activities: pointing, pointing, identifying, moving, and performing tasks involving body parts 
• • Gross motor activities: throwing, catching, kicking, jumping, and swinging 
• • Fine motor activities: cutting, lacing, hammering, buttoning, pouring
• • Spatial awareness activities: walking, running, catching, rolling, tunnels, and mazes to move, explore, locate, compare, and identify
• • Directional awareness activities: Use of the body, objects, and apparatus for moving, stationing, pointing, identifying, and imitating.
• • Balance activities: Utilizing balance beams or boards, trampolines, and springboards to walk, bound, and clap.
• • Integration activities: Matching motor and sensory responses, hitting moving objects, tracking moving objects, and responding to auditory signals.
  • Expressive activities: Drama, dance, and music.

About 6 to 10 percent of children with difficulties developing their perceptual motor skills suffer from a brain-based disorder called dyspraxia. Children with dyspraxia are unable to plan and coordinate their movement, reducing their ability to develop gross and fine motor skills. Moreover, it can affect their mouth and tongue movements as well as hinder their ability to speak clearly.

Children’s language, visual, movement, hearing and listening skills can be improved by EmpowerKidz!

Contact Dr. Anupma Sethi at +1-669-900-2315 today to understand more and get complete guidance on Learning Disability Service.