Seasonal Activities For Sensorimotor Development

This book contains easy-to-use activities for therapists, educators and carers to provide fun and engaging sensorimotor groups for students with movement and sensory dysfunction. The activities span an entire year with a different main activity for each week. Themed by season, the activities can be linked to the school year and incorporated into the classroom. The activities promote socialisation, postural strengthening, improvement of gross and fine motor skills, and self-regulation of the body. Comprehensive instructions on how to run a group are included, as well as benefits and adaptations for severely affected individuals and wheelchair users. There are sensory-regulating warm-up appetizers to increase body awareness and prepare the students for movement; main course activities to strengthen fine and gross motor skills; and cool-down desserts to regulate the body and assimilate benefits gained during group activities. The activities are suitable for use with any school-age students, including those without movement difficulties, but are especially beneficial for students with mild to moderate motor disabilities, who exhibit increased difficulty functioning in a group setting.

This is a successful manual of tried and tested activities to develop gross and fine motor skills in children. It contains: Numerous creative activities to stimulate sensory and body awareness, encourage basic movement, promote hand skills and enhance spatial/perceptual skills; Information on working in small groups; Handouts that can be photocopied to give to parents or other carers for home practice.

Sensory motor activities are crucial for children to learn from their environment. Bridging the gap between theory and practice, this revised edition is a complete package of tried-and-tested sensory motor activities for children, covering basic movements, interoception, sensory and body awareness and early visual perceptual skills. Providing an overview of the sensory systems, the authors offer practical strategies for parents/carers and practitioners to link knowledge to practice when communicating and engaging with a child. The authors present both familiar and novel activity ideas, explaining how they provide sensory stimulation to the relevant sensory systems and may help to support the child’s development, sensory processing and regulation levels. New material includes: greater emphasis on understanding the sensory systems and how they link to the activities a brand new chapter on interoception revised recording methods, including Goal Attainment Scaling as an outcome tool an expanded list of activities. Sensory Motor Activities for Early Development, 2nd edition is an essential text for all parents/carers and practitioners who use sensory motor activities in a playful way to help the development of children with a range of needs. It will be valuable reading for those working with children who do not initiate movement, who require help with their movement, who need to refine their movement, who need encouragement or motivation to engage in purposeful movements, or those who need activities to provide sensory stimulation.