Gross Motor Skills

Gross Motor Skills involve the large muscles of the body that enable such functions as walking, kicking, sitting upright, lifting, and throwing a ball.

Gross Motor skills are important for major movement functions such as walking, maintaining balance, coordination, jumping, reaching, and many others. Gross motor abilities share connections with other physical functions. A student's ability to maintain upper body support, for example, will affect his ability to write. Writing is a fine motor skill. Students with poor gross motor development, have difficulty with activities such as writing, sitting up in an alert position, watching classroom activity, and writing on a blackboard. For them, these activities can be physically draining.

If you suspect your child has gross motor weaknesses that may affect his education, discuss this possibility with your child's IEP team. Evaluation by a physical and/or occupational therapist can determine how significant the problem is and provide important information for use in therapy to improve your child's motor skills.

The IEP team will use therapists' assessments and other evaluation data to determine if your child needs regular therapy as a related service. If your child needs therapy to benefit from specially designed instruction, these services will be written into the individual education program.