Understanding Your Child’s Motor Skills

What do we mean by Motor Skills?

Motor skills are the movements children use to take part in everyday life.

They include gross motor skills, which involve larger movements such as running, jumping, climbing, balancing, throwing, and catching. Fine motor skills involve tasks such as handwriting, drawing, using scissors, fastening buttons, using cutlery, and handling small objects.

Motor skills also involve more than muscle strength. A child has to work out:

Some children need much more effort and practice than their peers to perform everyday physical tasks.

Practical examples include throwing and catching, obstacle courses, handwriting-related activities, threading, buttons, shoelaces and keyboard skills.

Motor skills can also be an important strength

A child may struggle in one area of movement while being very capable in another. Your child might be particularly good at:

• football or another sport;
• swimming;
• running;
• climbing;
• dancing;
• cycling;
• building and construction;
• drawing;
• crafts;
• practical activities;
• gaming/keyboard skills;
• learning physical skills they are particularly interested in.

So we should never conclude:

We want to understand their individual motor profile:

1. Look at everyday life first

You don’t need to formally test your child’s coordination. Start by noticing everyday activities.

Getting dressed

How do they manage:

• buttons;
• zips;
• shoelaces;
• putting clothes on correctly?

Eating

How do they manage:

• knife and fork;
• opening packets;
• pouring drinks;
• cutting food?

School

How do they manage:

• handwriting;
• drawing;
• scissors;
• rulers;
• organising equipment;
• PE?

Play

How do they manage:

• running;
• jumping;
• climbing;
• throwing;
• catching;
• kicking;
• cycling?

The most useful information is not simply whether they can do something. Ask:

A child may technically be able to write, for example, but find handwriting so effortful that they write less, work slowly or become exhausted.

2. Separate fine and gross motor difficulties

This helps us choose the right support.

Fine motor skills

These involve controlled movements of the hands and fingers. You might notice difficulties with:

• handwriting;
• pencil control;
• scissors;
• buttons;
• zips;
• shoelaces;
• cutlery;
• crafts;
• manipulating small objects.

Gross motor skills

These involve larger movements of the body. You might notice difficulties with:

• balance;
• running;
• jumping;
• climbing;
• throwing;
• catching;
• kicking;
• cycling;
• playground activities;
• PE.

A child can have difficulty with one, both or neither.

3. Look for avoidance

This is particularly important. Children don’t always tell adults “I find coordination difficult.” Instead, they may:

• avoid PE;
• refuse to ride a bicycle;
• dislike handwriting;
• avoid playground games;
• rush written work;
• ask adults to fasten things for them;
• become frustrated;
• say an activity is “boring”;
• clown around during physical activities;
• give up quickly.

Sometimes what looks like motivation or behaviour is actually:

Try asking:

4. Practise the actual skill you want to improve

One of the most useful principles for motor development is to make practice functional and specific.

• If the difficulty is buttons: practise buttons.
• If it is catching: practise catching.
• If it is using cutlery: practise using cutlery.
• If it is shoelaces: practise shoelaces.

It is important to practise practical activities, including shoelaces, threading, and buttons, alongside gross-motor activities such as throwing/catching and obstacle courses.

Rather than trying to improve “coordination” in the abstract, start with:

5. Break difficult movements into steps

Complex movements contain lots of smaller actions. Take tying shoelaces. A child has to:

1. hold both laces;
2. cross them;
3. pull them;
4. form the loops;
5. coordinate both hands;
6. tighten the knot.

Instead of repeatedly saying “Tie your shoes.” teach the individual steps.

The same principle works for:

Teach one part, practise it, then gradually combine the steps.

6. Give enough time

Motor tasks can take some children longer. Being repeatedly told “Hurry up!” can make an already difficult task even harder.

Where possible:

• allow extra time;
• practise when you are not rushing;
• prepare earlier;
• reduce unnecessary time pressure.

For example, 7:45 on a school morning is probably not the best time to teach shoelaces.

Practise at a calm time, then gradually transfer the skill into everyday routines.

7. Keep practice short and achievable

Motor learning usually requires repetition. But repetition doesn’t need to mean long sessions.

Try 5-10 minutes regularly rather than one frustrating 45-minute session.

Stop before the child becomes exhausted or completely frustrated.

The objective is:

8. Make practice enjoyable

Helpful activities include obstacle courses, ball activities, tweezers, threading, dot-to-dot, noughts-and-crosses and colouring. These can be turned into play.

Gross motor ideas

• obstacle courses;
• throwing a large ball;
• catching;
• kicking at a target;
• hopping games;
• playground activities;
• swimming;
• cycling;
• dancing.

Fine motor ideas

• Lego/construction;
• threading;
• crafts;
• tweezers/tongs games;
• colouring;
• drawing;
• dot-to-dot;
• cutting activities;
• cooking;
• puzzles.

Choose activities your child actually enjoys.

9. Adjust the difficulty

If catching is difficult, don’t begin with a small fast-moving ball. Start with:

and gradually move toward:

If handwriting is difficult, don’t simply require more pages of handwriting. Find the level at which the child can succeed and build from there.

A useful principle is:

10. Protect confidence

Motor difficulties can become very visible to other children. A child may notice that classmates:

• write faster;
• catch more easily;
• ride bicycles;
• tie their shoes;
• perform better in PE.

Repeated failure can affect confidence. Avoid unnecessary comparisons.

Praise:

rather than only successful performance.

11. Handwriting deserves special attention

Handwriting is a motor task, but it is also a learning-access issue.

If handwriting takes enormous effort, the child has fewer mental resources available for:

• spelling;
• sentence construction;
• remembering ideas;
• planning;
• answering the question.

So when written work is poor, ask:

Sometimes it is both.

Useful support may include:

• shorter written tasks;
• appropriate pencil/grip positioning;
• additional time;
• breaking writing into smaller sections;
• alternative ways of demonstrating knowledge;
• developing keyboard skills where appropriate.

It is important to practise keyboard skills as part of practical motor-support approaches.

The aim is not to stop the development of handwriting. It is to make sure handwriting difficulties don’t unnecessarily prevent the child from showing what they know.

12. Think about independence

Motor support should ultimately increase independence. Choose meaningful goals.

Concrete goals make progress much easier to recognise.

13. Motor Skills at school

School support should focus on participation, not simply making the child practise more. Possible strategies include:

• Allow appropriate extra time: particularly for handwriting, changing clothes for PE and practical activities.
• Reduce unnecessary handwriting load: if the objective is testing knowledge rather than handwriting, consider whether every answer needs to be handwritten.
• Break physical tasks into steps: demonstrate rather than relying only on verbal instructions.
• Consider alternative ways to record work: typing or other approaches may be appropriate at times.
• Support PE participation: adapt the difficulty so the child can participate successfully rather than repeatedly experience failure.
• Practise discreetly: avoid unnecessarily highlighting a child’s motor difficulty in front of peers.
• Focus on progress: compare the child’s performance with their previous performance, rather than constantly with classmates.

14. Consider the interaction with other domains

This is very important. Motor difficulties do not always originate solely from motor coordination. For example:

• Attention & Impulse Control: the child may rush the movement or fail to attend to instructions.
• Sensory Processing: certain textures, touch, movement or body-position sensations may make activities uncomfortable.
• Cognitive Skills: sequencing and remembering several steps may be difficult.
• Speech & Language: the child may not fully understand complicated verbal instructions.
• Emotional Regulation: repeated difficulty can lead to frustration or avoidance.
• Energy Levels: the child may struggle to regulate the amount or speed of movement.

The full Strengths & Needs Profile helps us ask:

Your first three actions

Don’t start ten exercises. Choose one functional problem.

Action 1: Choose the skill

Ask:

For example:

• handwriting;
• getting dressed;
• catching a ball;
• using cutlery.

Action 2: Practise ONE small part

Break the skill down. For example:

Try it for a few minutes at a calm point in the day.

Action 3: Review after 1-2 weeks

Ask:

• Is it becoming easier?
• Does my child need less help?
• Are they more confident?
• Is the task taking less time?

Rate: Better / No change / Worse

If better: keep practising and progress to the next step.

When should we seek additional help?

Some children have motor differences that benefit from further professional assessment or support.

Consider discussing this with the appropriate healthcare or education professional when motor difficulties:

• significantly affect everyday independence;
• interfere substantially with school participation;
• make handwriting unusually difficult or tiring;
• substantially limit PE/play participation;
• cause persistent frustration or avoidance;
• are noticeably different from what would be expected for the child’s developmental stage;
• occur across several areas of everyday motor function;
• persist despite appropriate opportunities to learn and practise.

Depending on the difficulty, further input might include Occupational Therapy, Physiotherapy or other developmental assessment.

Remember

The goal isn’t:

It is:

Start with:

And always remember to ask:

Their strengths are often the best place to build from.