Perceptual motor skills are the abilities that allow children to combine their senses with muscle movement to interact with their environment. These skills enable children to judge distance, coordination, and force, allowing them to perform tasks like catching a ball, writing, or navigating a crowded room without bumping into others.
For young children, physical activity is more than just exercise—it is a critical component of learning. Mastering perceptual motor skills takes time and practice, but it sets the foundation for children to move safely and confidently throughout the world.
What are perceptual motor skills?
Perceptual motor skills refer to a child's ability to process sensory information (what they see, hear, or feel) and respond with an appropriate physical movement. While the eyes or ears receive the input, the brain must interpret it and signal the muscles to react.
With strong perceptual motor skills, children can:
- Sit upright without losing balance
- Close a door with appropriate force (not slamming it)
- Develop handwriting and drawing skills
- Play cooperatively and safely with peers
Perceptual motor skills vs. gross motor skills
It is common to confuse perceptual motor skills with gross motor skills, but there is a distinct difference:
- Gross motor skills are purely physical actions involving large muscle groups, such as crawling, running, or jumping.
- Perceptual motor skills rely on the brain's interpretation of sensory data to guide those movements. They involve concepts like timing, coordination, and spatial awareness to ensure the movement is successful.
Visual-motor integration: A key to handwriting success
Visual-motor integration is a crucial subset of perceptual motor skills that directly impacts a child's ability to develop handwriting proficiency. It refers to the coordination between visual perception and motor control, enabling individuals to translate what they see into precise hand movements.
For educators, understanding visual-motor integration is essential when supporting students struggling with handwriting. Challenges in this area can manifest as difficulty with letter formation, spacing, or aligning text on a page.
Incorporating activities like tracing, connecting dots, or copying shapes can help improve these skills. Tools such as handwriting guides or therapeutic exercises can also play a significant role in strengthening visual-motor integration, empowering students to write more effectively and confidently.
Why is perceptual development important?
Perceptual motor development is essential because it connects a child's cognitive processing with their physical actions. This connection enables the brain to plan and make decisions, ranging from simple tasks like self-feeding to complex activities like riding a bicycle.
Key benefits of developing these skills include:
- Independence: Children can navigate daily routines with less assistance.
- Safety: Improved body awareness reduces accidents and falls.
- Social confidence: Children with better coordination are more likely to participate in active play and interact positively with peers.
- Academic readiness: Many classroom tasks, such as writing or cutting with scissors, rely heavily on hand-eye coordination and sensory processing.
While some skills develop naturally—like a baby noticing their hands—educators and families can provide structured opportunities to practice these skills in the classroom or at home.
Activities Across Developmental Domains
A free guide with activity ideas that foster child development across developmental domains.
Perceptual motor skills activities for preschoolers
Children learn best through exploration. By incorporating specific games into your lesson plans, you can help children improve three core areas of perceptual motor development: temporal awareness, body awareness, and spatial awareness.
You can track learning milestones and share progress with families using a tool like brightwheel’s daily activity report feature.
Temporal awareness
Temporal awareness is the understanding of time, rhythm, and sequence. It allows children to predict when a ball will arrive so they can catch it, or how to move their body to the beat of a song.
Activities to improve temporal awareness:
- Throwing or kicking a ball: This is a classic way to build hand-eye coordination. Toss or roll a ball to a child and have them return it. As abilities improve, vary the size of the ball to increase the challenge.
- Playing with balloons: A balloon toss requires fast thinking and constant adjustment. Children must use their eyes, hands, and feet to keep the balloon afloat, adjusting their movements based on the balloon's unpredictable speed.
- Dancing to music: Dancing is the most natural way to teach rhythm. Encourage free expression or teach specific steps. For an extra challenge, play "freeze dance," where children must stop moving immediately when the music cuts off.
Body awareness
Body awareness (proprioception) is knowing where your body is in space and how different body parts move. It helps children understand which muscles are needed to perform specific tasks and how to control their limbs.
Activities to improve body awareness:
- Simon says: This game reinforces the connection between language and movement. Give specific directions like "Simon says touch your nose" or "Simon says stand on one leg." It helps children identify body parts and control impulsive movements.
- Bubble chase: Blow bubbles and encourage children to catch or pop them. This requires them to move their bodies toward a moving target while avoiding obstacles (like furniture or other children).
- Follow the leader: Appoint a leader to perform actions like jumping jacks, spinning, or clapping. Having children mimic these movements builds coordination and motor planning skills.
Spatial awareness
Spatial awareness is the ability to understand how much space the body occupies and how it relates to the environment. This skill is crucial for understanding concepts like "personal space" and navigating safely indoors versus outdoors.
Activities to improve spatial awareness:
- Puzzles: Puzzles teach children how shapes fit into specific spaces. This builds problem-solving skills and visual-spatial reasoning as they imagine how pieces connect.
- Airplane game: Have children spread their arms and "fly" around the room. The goal is to move without bumping into anyone else, which reinforces the concept of personal space boundaries.
- Obstacle courses: Create a simple course using cones or small objects. Ask children to navigate over, under, or around the objects without touching them. This teaches them to judge distance and adjust their movements accordingly.
Frequently asked questions
Q: What is the main difference between sensory processing and perceptual motor skills?
A: Sensory processing is simply the brain receiving input from the senses (like seeing a ball). Perceptual motor skills are the next step: using that sensory input to plan and execute a physical movement (like reaching out to catch the ball).
Q: At what age do perceptual motor skills begin to develop?
A: These skills begin developing in infancy, as soon as babies start tracking objects with their eyes or reaching for toys. They continue to refine and become more complex throughout early childhood and into the elementary years.
Q: How does perceptual motor development affect reading and writing?
A: Skills like visual tracking (following a line of text) and hand-eye coordination (forming letters) are foundational for literacy. Without strong perceptual motor skills, children may struggle with the physical mechanics of reading and writing.
Conclusion
Developing strong perceptual motor skills is a key factor in children’s ability to move safely and confidently in the world around them.
Whether enabling them to perform certain tasks independently or allowing them to interact with their peers, these skills are vital in helping children develop important connections between their minds and bodies, which opens up new opportunities and experiences for them to continue learning as they grow.
