How OT's help
Whether your child's school has identified problems with their gross motor skills or you have noticed such difficulties yourself, we can help.
Childhood development is complex and not all children will move at the same pace, but some of the most common reasons that a parent will contact us with concerns about their child's gross motor skills include:
- Lateness in reaching developmental milestones such as sitting up, walking or running
- Awkward or clumsy movements, possibly associated with a higher risk of accident
- Dislike or avoidance of physical activity and games
- Rapid tiredness after participating in physical activities for only a short period
- Slumped, head-in-hands posture when sitting doing table-top activities
- Difficulty in completing activities involving sequences of physical movements, such as an obstacle course or hop-scotch
Our assessment process allows a specialist occupational therapist to identify the nature of your child's difficulties with gross motor skills, and the reasons for them. Once identified, we can work with you and your child to put in place a plan to address them.
Packages of care
We are flexible around the needs of your child and family and have a variety of gross motor skill treatment packages to ensure we provide the right solution for you. All of our interventions are oriented towards ensuring that you and your child see measurable improvements.
This might include one or more of the following:
- An eight-week block of one-to-one bespoke treatment sessions, delivered to your child at home or school, after which we will review and plan the next steps with you
- An intensive block of treatment delivered over the holidays - this is popular with overseas families, or those with limited weekend or after-school capacity in term time
- A home and school programme providing practical, everyday techniques, with advice and support to ensure that the approach is consistent throughout your child's day
- Attendance at a gross motor skills group at weekends or over the holidays
Common areas we work on
Through our assessment we will identify the specific gross motor skills that your child is struggling with, and the source of these difficulties, allowing us to plan a targeted treatment programme.
Some of the most common areas that we would expect to be working on are:
- Balance and coordination
- Strength and endurance
- Attention and alertness
- Body awareness
- Movement planning.
- Sensory processing
- Working with parents and schools to ensure that the right approaches to developing gross motor skills continue even when the OT is not present
