By: Meghan Sullivan, MS OTR/L

What are gross motor skills?

Gross motor skills are used everyday throughout our lives. They require whole body movement and involve large muscles of the body (legs, arms, trunk) to perform everyday functions, such as standing, walking, running, jumping, lifting items, and maintaining an upright position at a table.

Components of gross motor skills include: balance, proprioception (awareness of where your body is in space and time), eye-hand coordination, motor planning, visual perception, bilateral integration, spatial awareness, and temporal awareness. Practicing these skills and improving motor control helps children explore the world around them and can facilitate other areas of development.

Children with gross motor difficulties may demonstrate some of the following:

  • Difficulty running, hopping, jumping, or skipping
  • Inability to maintain age-appropriate balance
  • Difficulty catching and throwing
  • Difficulty moving in space
  • Difficulty maintaining an upright posture
  • Inability to stand for extended periods of time
  • Clumsiness and lack of coordination

Gross motor activities you can complete in the home:

  • Pillows, Cushions, Chairs, Ottomans, Beds, Step Stools
    • Make an obstacle course using items you have around your home. You could use pillows to jump onto like lily pads, chairs to crawl under or in and out of, push ottomans or storage bins to one end of the room, and beds or couches to climb over. The sky is the limit and there is no right or wrong way to set this up. Obstacle courses are great for targeting specific gross motor skills or to provide heavy work/proprioception to help regulate their central nervous system.
  • Pretend the floor is hot lava! Put couch cushions, pillows, and blankets on the floor. Have your child jump from one item to the next and challenge them to keep their feet out of the “hot lava” (off the floor). This is a great activity for improving balance and coordination.
  • Balloons
    • Play “keep it up” or balloon volleyball. The goal of this game is to hit the balloon again and again in the air to prevent it from touching the floor. You can challenge your child by purposefully hitting the balloon to different spots in your playing area. If you want to target core strength, have your child maintain a tall kneel or half kneel position.
  • Play “Cat/Dog Soccer.” This game requires at least two players. Both players have to maintain a table-top position while crawling around like a cat or dog, advancing or blocking the balloon with their hands to a designated goal. This is a great game for improving bilateral coordination skills, upper body strengthening, and core strengthening.
  • Crab walk balloon kicks, which requires a player to maintain the crab walk position (reverse tabletop) while another player tosses the balloon for them to kick.
  • Stuffed Animals
    • Hide multiple stuffed animals in a designated area and have your child perform animal walks to retrieve and place in a specified location. Animal walks may include: bear crawls, frog jumps, crab walks, cat/dog crawl, snake slither, bunny hop, gorilla walk (stomping floor)
  • Paper, markers, scissors, and dice
    • Start by having your child fold a piece of paper in half, followed by folding the same piece of paper in half again to create four squares. Cut the four squares out on the creases created. Write the number 1 on one piece of paper, number 2 on the second piece, and so on. Flip the papers over. On the back of the piece of paper with number 1, write an exercise such as jumping jacks. Continue to write an exercise on the back of each paper (examples listed below). Once completed, roll a die to determine which card you will complete. Once the card is selected, roll the die again to determine how many repetitions are to be completed. Continue this pattern for any duration of time.

Examples: jumping jacks, animal walks, push-ups/wall push-ups, jump on two feet, march/stomp in place, bounce on exercise ball, etc.

  • Plastic Bottles, Cups, Ball, Building Blocks

Items such as plastic bottles, cups, or building blocks are great as bowling pins! Find a large or small ball around the house, line the items up, and have your child try to knock them over. To challenge your child, you can have them kick the ball, lie on their stomach and push the ball, throw or roll a larger ball (exercise ball), or kneel and roll the ball. In addition, moving your child closer or further away is an alternative way to increase or decrease the challenge.