Motor Planning and Praxis: What Parents Need to Know
Everyday life is full of little routines: brushing teeth, getting dressed, climbing onto the playground, or learning a new game with friends. For most kids these activities eventually become automatic. For some children, though, the steps feel complicated, tiring, or confusing. When that happens it often has to do with motor planning and praxis.
This post breaks down what those terms mean, what challenges can look like, and how you can support your child at home and with professional help.
What Are Motor Planning and Praxis?
- Motor planning is the ability to figure out how to move the body in order to achieve a goal. For example, putting on shoes means balancing, sliding the foot in, fastening, and sometimes tying. Those steps require the brain to plan the movement in order.
- Praxis is the full process of thinking about an action, planning how to do it, carrying it out, and then learning from the results.
Praxis can be thought of in four steps:
- Ideation: Coming up with the idea. A child might think, “I want to climb that ladder.”
- Planning: Deciding how to do it. Which hand goes first? How should the body balance?
- Execution: Actually doing the movements.
- Feedback and adaptation: Adjusting after trying. If the ladder was tricky, the child might change their grip or stance the next time.
Why These Skills Matter
Motor planning and praxis are building blocks for independence and confidence. They allow children to:
- Learn new skills like climbing, jumping, and riding a bike
- Take care of themselves with dressing, brushing teeth, and feeding
- Join in at school with writing, cutting, or crafts
- Participate in play and sports with friends
- Feel capable instead of frustrated when faced with new challenges
What Challenges Might Look Like
You may notice some of these signs if your child struggles with motor planning or praxis:
- Trouble completing tasks with several steps
- Delays with crawling, walking, or running compared to peers
- Seeming clumsy, tripping often, or bumping into things
- Avoiding playground equipment or new games
- Difficulty with buttons, zippers, or putting clothing on in the right order
- Repeating the same attempt over and over even if it is not working
- Needing frequent reminders of what to do next
Some children may receive a diagnosis such as Dyspraxia or Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD). Motor planning challenges also often overlap with sensory processing differences, since the way the body feels and interprets touch, balance, and movement affects planning.
How You Can Support Your Child at Home
You do not need special equipment to help. Many activities can be built into daily life:
- Break tasks into steps. Give one direction at a time. Visual schedules can also help.
- Practice through repetition. The more often a child completes a task, the more natural it becomes.
- Model and demonstrate. Let your child watch you complete the steps before they try.
- Create obstacle courses. Pillows, chairs, or tunnels in your living room encourage planning and problem solving.
- Play games like Simon Says to practice listening and following sequences.
- Use pretend play and animal walks. Hopping like a frog or crawling like a bear builds awareness and planning.
- Cook or bake together. Recipes teach sequencing, timing, and following directions.
- Include sensory play like swinging, climbing, or walking on different textures to build body awareness.
When to Seek Professional Help
Encouragement for Parents
- Progress is not always fast, but consistency matters. Small steps build over time.
- Celebrate every win, even partial ones. Confidence is powerful.
- Be patient with mistakes and let your child have ownership in choosing activities.