Why Motor Development?
An adequate level of motor development is necessary for
full realization of learning potential.
- Nearly 20
percent of today's school-age children lack the basic
skills needed for effective learning.
- Teachers and
parents often provide motor development experiences, but
they do not have time to evaluate, prescribe and carry
out the enrichment needed by many children.
- Many
children require special opportunities to develop these
important perceptual and motor behaviors. An exciting
program is available through the University of South
Carolina. The Lab is organized to serve the perceptual
and motor development needs of children ages 3-8 years.
A variety of program services are available through The
Perceptual-Motor Development Laboratory.
Parents' Resource Room
Resources for parents to:
- preview
- ‘check-out'
- take home
- carry-out with the child
Available materials include a wide variety of:
- Gross and fine motor activities
- Visual
perception and body awareness games
- Nutrition
education resources
- Recommendations for parents
- Home activities for parent-child interaction (new twice weekly)
- Examples of activities can be found on the
following websites:
Sample developmental activities:
- "Don't Drop It" - Static Balance
Description: Have your child stand on a small stool
or large pillow. Toss different soft objects to the
right and left of the body. The goal is for the
child to maintain balance, shift the center of
gravity as needed to catch the moving object. Try
throwing balled up newspaper or balled up socks for
fun.
- "Crafts from the Cabinet" - Object
Manipulation
Description: Make pictures and designs on
construction paper using different things from the
cabinet/pantry. Use beans, rice, macaroni, cotton
puffs, tooth picks, colorful pasta noodles, etc.
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