Motor planning is a person’s ability to plan out and execute a task that is not habitual.
I am not sure of the exact medical or professional description but that sums it up for us. I had never heard this term before but soon it became a part of our everyday vocabulary. This was one of Hunters biggest struggles early on and his team was quick to pick up on it. They would point it out to us and explain what was happening every time they saw it. Educating us while helping him was important. In Hunters case a Motor Planning struggle is when he couldn’t do a task he already knew or couldn’t apply what he learned in one task to another similar situation. Having something on his mind and knowing what he wants or needs to do but suddenly being unable to do it, (this also lead to many of his blank stares).
Hunter was approximately 9 months old when we first heard this term from his PT. He was able to sit up on his own for the most part by this age. If he was sitting up and flopped over while on the living room floor he’d just roll over onto his belly. The expression on his face was priceless! As if to ask “How did I get here?” One afternoon I had placed him in his crib upstairs to take a nap, after a short bit he was crying and clearly frustrated. I ran to his room to see what had happened, fearing the worst by the tone of his scream, and found him sitting up in his crib and leaning against the side rails. He wanted to lay down but couldn't do it or motor plan how to do it and he became very upset. He knew how to do this down stairs but the change in location confused him and made it impossible for him to carry out. It broke my heart terribly to see him so upset, I can’t imagine the emotional pain he was enduring knowing he wanted to do something he clearly knew but unable to accomplish it.
Another example of this commonly seen with him around this age was climbing over an object. It took some time for Hunter to be able to crawl over my legs or his PT’s legs. We spent many sessions working on this. Eventually he mastered it and could crawl over our legs with ease. His PT soon began introducing other objects for him to crawl over and it was noticed right away that he could no longer do it. His frustration was intensified by the fact that was also unable to motor plan how to get around it. He would be frozen in the moment. No sound, no attempt to do it another way… nothing. I would just look at my son, quietly starring at him. Inside my head I would be saying over and over what he needed to do, as if telepathically I could help him, it never worked. Sometimes it was so difficult for him you could look into his eyes you could see him crying inside yet there was no sound coming from him, he was just silent.
We saw this motor planning delay in various things he did. He could crawl down on one stair in the house but not be able to do another stair at a different location. Or individual skills he has mastered put into a sequence also made it impossible for him to do. I also describe this as trouble multitasking, I’ve found that family and friends would understand it better when shared that way. To this day Hunter struggles with motor planning although he is getting much better. I should add that his success in motor planning is also very dependent on his system being regulated, (I’ll explain that later).
We have learned in some situations to provide visual models by showing him the motor skill to refresh his mind so he can do it. We’d sometimes do it ourselves first so he could watch or provide him with a photo to look at.
The helpless feeling inside me tears me up when I see him get stuck. I can see the wheels churning inside as he tries to figure it out and the frustration on his face becomes more obvious. This can be mistaken for regression but it isn't. He is just stuck in the moment and motor planning. He didn't loose the skill; he just couldn't do it at the time.
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