Support motor skills
Support ākonga to develop fine and gross motor skills.
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Develop coordination skills
Develop coordination skills
Professor Amanda Kirby talks about the importance of regular practice and a focus on essential or interesting skills.
Where possible integrate skills activities into classroom routines.
No captions or transcript
Develop motor skills
Develop motor skills
- Focus on essential tasks or skills the student is interested in.
- Break a task down into small steps.
- Support the steps with visuals.
- Teach and practise the steps regularly to build into a movement sequence.
- Provide multiple options to develop essential skills. For example, use small play items to develop fine motor skills for writing.
- Provide alternative means of completing tasks. For example, Velcro™ shoes while learning to tie shoelaces or as an alternative.
Improve balance
Improve balance
Increase opportunities for indoor and outdoor physical activities throughout the school day.
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Source: Ministry of Education | Te Tāhuhu o te Mātauranga
Understand how dyspraxia affects handwriting
Understand how dyspraxia affects handwriting
Avoid asking students to copy from the board.
Provide lined paper and easy-to-grip pencils.
Encourage the student to use a tablet to take a photo of handwriting to access at their table.
Closed Captions
Provide support and alternatives for handwriting
Provide support and alternatives for handwriting
Examples of handwriting supports
- pen types, sizes, shapes, lengths and colours
- pen and pencil grips
- surface types, such as paper, whiteboards, laminated sheets
- lined paper to guide alignment
- furniture, such as an angled board, adjustable height tables, chairs for optimal positioning
- support for spacing between letters and words, for example using finger spaces.
Examples of alternatives for handwriting
- keyboards
- onscreen keyboards, such as an iPad keyboard
- voice typing.
Useful resources
Useful resources
To write or to type – that is the question!
This article discusses how children with dyspraxia or other developmental coordination disorders may benefit from using a computer to write.
Children with coordination difficulties: a flyer for physical educators
This flyer explains how physical educators can assist children with coordination disorders to perform at school.
Next steps
More suggestions for implementing the strategy “Key areas to support”:
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Current page Support motor skills
Return to the guide “Dyspraxia and learning”
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How to use this site
Guide to Index of the guide: Dyspraxia and learning
Understand:
Strategies for action:
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Identify needs and how to provide supportShow suggestions for Identify needs and how to provide support
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Key areas to supportShow suggestions for Key areas to support
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Helpful classroom strategies years 1-8Show suggestions for Helpful classroom strategies years 1-8
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Helpful classroom strategies year 9-13Show suggestions for Helpful classroom strategies year 9-13
