Building the Foundations

Why Sensory-Motor Skills are Important for Learning and Self-Care

Occupational Therapists often use the Developmental Pyramid to explain skill development. This visual model shows us that in order to complete higher order tasks such as learning, behaviour, and emotional regulation, we rely on having strong building blocks of sensory processing and motor development. 

Building from the bottom up! 

If we look at the Developmental Pyramid we can see the bottom ‘foundations’ are the sensory systems, showing the importance of how our brain and body take in, interpret, and use the sensory information in the world around us. The sensory systems include our tactile, proprioceptive, vestibular, visual, auditory, oral, and interoceptive systems. When these sensory systems are developed and work together harmoniously, children can navigate their environments and participate in their daily routines. 

Building Movement Skills

As we progress up the pyramid, our children start to control their bodies and move confidently. The Sensory-Motor Development level is where our children build upon their body awareness, postural control, motor planning, and bilateral coordination. 

Progressing further up the pyramid, we take the skills we already have and use them to interact with the world around us. Our sensory systems and sensory motor skills work together, allowing us to develop hand-eye coordination, ocular-motor control, visual-spatial perception and sequencing.

At the top of the pyramid we find skills that rely on all of the foundations below. 

In everyday life, these foundations show up in every task we do. 

• Getting dressed requires balance to stand on one leg, body awareness to know where our arms and legs are going, bilateral coordination to pull clothes on, and sequencing to do the steps in the right order. 

• Eating meals relies on our postural control to sit at the table, hand-eye coordination to bring the food to our mouth, and sensory processing to manage the different textures and tastes. 

• Toileting depends on our interoceptive awareness to notice the body signals, motor planning to manage our clothing, and balance and coordination to sit and stand safely. 

• Morning and Night routines require our attention, regulation, and sequencing to move through tasks such as brushing our teeth, packing a bag or putting our pyjamas on, which all require their own foundational skills too! 

When these underlying foundational skills are still developing, our activities of daily living can feel effortful or overwhelming. However, when these foundational skills are being supported, the everyday tasks that we need to or want to do become easier to do independently. 

To book in a one-on-one parent consultation with an OT, please contact our Client Connection Team on (03) 8256 2484