General Instructional Guidelines
Motor Skills
Beliefs & Assumptions
- All students have individual needs and can benefit from motor experiences to develop and maintain their most optimal level of physical fitness.
- Physical activity should be a part of each student’s overall program. Motor skill development should be integrated and assessed in a variety of contexts using both qualitative and quantative measures.
- Motor needs and activities should be coordinated between home and school.
- Motor experiences / activities should be age appropriate to promote social opportunities and peer interaction
- Motor activities build on each student’s abilities and strengths to address their areas of need.
- Motor activities enhance overall well-being, self esteem, enjoyment, motivation, and contributes to recreation and leisure skill development.
- Motor skills are best learned through ongoing engagement in a variety of activities.
- Educational programming addressing motor skill development / maintenance is part of an integrated curriculum where other skills are also being addressed (ie. communication, social skills).
The General Instructional Guidelines for Motor are to assist staff
in teaching motor activities at a variety of levels. Although it is
recommended that gross motor skills be taught in a developmental order,
they can be taught in a non-sequential order.
Parts of these guidelines may not be applicable to every student due to
the diversity of abilities and needs. Many of the activities and
suggestions may need to be adjusted according to the student’s
functioning level as each student is unique and learns in different
ways and at differing rates.
These guidelines were developed to be teacher useful and includes
activities that were developed for students with developmental
cognitive disabilities – activities that are fun and rewarding - where
students experience frequent success.
Emphasis of motor skill development for primary age students is focused
on developmental and play skills; at the intermediate level, the
emphasis is on basic skills, perceptual motor, physical fitness, and
game skills; at the secondary and post secondary levels the emphasis is
on leisure and fitness and these skills are usually addressed in the
instructional area of “Recreation and Leisure.”
The following is a general descriptor of each of the areas of focus for motor development:
Developmental
- Build on skills already present
- Addressed sequentially
- Earlier skills are foundation for more difficult skills
- A variety of equipment, activities, and instructional strategies are used to promote generalization of skills
- Each student learns in their own way and at their own rate
- These skills are encouraged and integrated throughout the day
Basic Skills
- Basic skills are used to build a foundation for movement and more challenging activities
- Skills that develop vary from student to student
- If a student is unable to perform a skill, avoid excessive rote instruction
- Optimal learning for basic skills usually occurs within the elementary years
- Many of the basic skills are necessary for participation in various games
- Splintered learning may occur with basic skills which consists of locomotor, non-locomotor, and manipulative
- It is possible for a student to isolate and perform a selected skill from a category or exhibit a number of skills from different categories
- ie.student may shake body (non-locomotive) while running (locomotive)
Perceptual Motor
- Perceptual motor addresses the use of cognitive together with motor to carry out a motor response
- Perceptual motor is the ability to receive, interpret, and respond successfully to the sensory information. Perception is the receiving system and motor is the response movement.
- A perceptual motor response therefore involves a meaningful response to external stimuli; the student receives the stimuli, processes it and perceives what they need to do, and comes up with the appropriate movement
- Students experience some forms of perceptual motor information in most gross motor activities
Physical Fitness
- In all motor activities a variety of physical fitness components are included
- Most students can improve their physical fitness level
- It is best to incorporate physical fitness in a variety of activities
- Physical fitness will vary according to a student’s physical and cognitive abilities
- Physical fitness can be acquired only through the medium of muscular effort and is maintained through active engagement in specific activities
Game Skills
- Games may incorporate all levels of physical and cognitive skills
- The educational team helps to determine appropriate activities or games for each student
- Games are a vehicle to encourage students’ growth and integrated skill application involving communication, social-emotional, motor, behavioral and cognitive skills
- Games are used to address motor skill development in an organized manner.
- Games are used to provide appropriate sensory experiences
- Innovative games can sometimes be more meaningful and motivating than standard games