Date
22 March 2024

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.

Video hosted on Youtube http://youtu.be/FCcNxbY1bmQ

Develop motor skills

Develop motor skills

Give students multiple opportunities to develop skills and master essential tasks.
  • 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.

5995 [IMG-students-on-bars-in-playground-wide-shot.jpg]

Source: Ministry of Education | Te Tāhuhu o te Mātauranga

Source:
Ministry of Education | Te Tāhuhu o te Mātauranga

Understand how dyspraxia affects handwriting

Understand how dyspraxia affects handwriting

See how a handwriting task is challenging for this student with dyspraxia.
Video hosted on Youtube http://youtu.be/5vUjtY84VkU

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.

Provide support and alternatives for handwriting

Provide support and alternatives for handwriting

Provide a range of support and alternatives for printing and writing tasks.

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

File

Handwriting and dyspraxia

Strategies and tips to support students with dyspraxia.

Publisher: Dyspraxia Foundation

Download PDF

Website

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.

Publisher: CanChild, McMaster University

Visit website

Website

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.

Publisher: CanChild, McMaster University

Visit website

Next steps

More suggestions for implementing the strategy “Key areas to support”:

Return to the guide “Dyspraxia and learning”

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