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Gross motor

Gross Motor skills allow a child to engage in a range of playground activities, sports, safe movement in space, navigation of new environments and more.

How We Can Help

Gross motor can be translated to large movements’. The term Gross Motor is used to describe the ability to produce smooth, fluid and accurate movements in activities and tasks within a child's life including engagement in a range of playground activities, sports, safe movement in space, navigation of new environments and more. 


Children who struggle with gross motor movements often present with difficulty in moving around their environment safely, balancing, running, hopping and jumping, engaging in physical sports, are clumsy and uncoordinated. 


A child with gross motor difficulties may present with challenges in a one or a few of these areas: 

  • Balance 

  • Proprioception 

  • Visual perception 

  • Motor planning and execution 

  • Hand-eye coordination 

  • Sensory regulation 

  • Midline orientation 

  • Bilateral integration 

  • Temporal awareness 


Combinations of these gross motor skills are required to perform in activities such as catching a call, maintaining balance on a bike, plan where they wish to move in space, orienting their hands towards the middle of the body if a ball is throw towards them and more. These tasks are a lot more complex then you might have once thought- they require a lot of gross motor coordination and skills. 


An Occupational Therapist will analyse a child’s gross motor skills in relation to a task and provide a treatment plan based on their areas to improve. If you think your child has any of these associated difficulties or challenges with gross motor skills, please do not hesitate to contact us. 

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