The challenges presented by ill-formed nerve pathways can often follow a child into adulthood. Perceptual motor skills can be trained into the neural pathways, forming efficient pathways, thus increasing brain performance.
Good Motor development provides the basis for the development of good perceptual skills. The first information a baby receives about his world he gets from his body’s responses to his environment. Good motor development will insure that the child will obtain accurate and dependable information about his surroundings. It is the key to good intersensory integration, that is, good visual-auditory coordination. When a child has good visual-motor skills and good auditory-motor skills he will have good visual-auditory integration.
Good motor development is essential for success in school because so many of the skills necessary in the classroom make use of the child’s own body. For example, when required to listen to a teacher’s instructions, and follow through with them, a student is required to not only hear instructions, but process and interpret them, and remember them. Then, the body needs to send out the instructions to the muscles required to complete the task. This might require the use of shoulders, wrists, fingers, walking, talking, etc. If a child cannot properly multi task, they will not be able to complete the assignment efficiently.
The body needs to have an internal awareness of where each part of the body is and what it is doing. This need for constant feedback becomes disruptive when the body has not developed this internal awareness. It compensates by keeping the entire body tense, or through constant movement.
Motor control is also important for the efficient use of energy. If all our energy is used up controlling our bodies there isn’t any energy leftover to make memory impressions and therefore, we must relearn things over and over.
Good motor control assists the child in having good behavior control. Many children who have poor body control also have very poor behavior control. We see this with the children that have been labeled A.D.D.
The child needs to have good motor development in order to have success on the playground and in sports. It is also necessary for good self- esteem, social development, sensory integration, and safety in our complex world.