Our Movement Sense

Sensory integration

﻿In today's lesson, we are going to learn about the movement sense. Now, yes, you heard right. Being able to move is actually part of our sensory systems. And we're going to learn a little bit more about it. We as therapists have tried to think of the best way to continue to support children, young people and their families. We will be exploring topic areas that we regularly provide advice and support on across all ages and abilities. Each lesson will have ideas and activities that can be carried out at home or in school. This information is to be used alongside any specific strategies or resources which have been given by your child's school or therapist. If you have any questions or would like help tailoring this to your child's needs, then please contact your local therapy service. In today's lesson, we are going to learn about our movement sense. And part of that, we are going to play the Twister game. So let's have a look at what we will need. Pause the video here to collect all the resources, and then once you're ready, you can press play again. So for today's lesson, you are going to need a Twister mat, if you have one, otherwise you can use some chalk and we can draw a Twister mat outside. And if you don't have any chalk and you don't have a Twister mat, you can also have a pack of paper, white ones are fine with some coloured pens or pencils or alternative you can have some, a stack of coloured papers. So you will need four different colours in your pack. And you will also need some blue tac. So make sure that you've got all of those things really first and then press play and we will carry on with the lesson. Great, well done. No, now we're ready. So our movement sense, as I was saying, moving around is part of our sensory system. So it's really to do with balance. And this little funny picture that we have on the screen is a picture of the inside of your ear. Now you ear to do two things, it has to listen, and it also helps you to balance. So you will see on this picture, they are three little circular kind of little things. It's the best way that I can call them, describe them, they're little round circle circle, circle bits and they are all in a different direction. And they are called your semicircular canals. Inside them is a lots of fluid and there's also little, lots of little airs inside. So the fluid, as you move around this fluid moves too. So whenever you move your head to a different position, these little fluids will kind of shift as well. So if you move your head this side, the fluid will move, it will really, and it will then tell your brain that you've moved your head to the side. And the same will happen when you shake your head, or when you were hanging upside down or when you're spinning around, that fluid will really help you to balance and it sends a message to your brain to tell you whether your head is upright or whether it's way outside, whether you are spinning or whether you are moving forward or backwards. So that's really the inside of our ear and that is how our movement sense works. Now, let's have another little look. Why and how does our movement sense help us? Wow, our movement sense helps us to balance, it helps us to run, to walk, to crawl, to spin, to lean over and pick something up from the floor and it also helps us to work backwards, all the things we need to do in everyday life. It also helps us when we use both sides of our body together. So when we're using two of our arms to do something, or when we're doing kind of little jumping games with our legs, when our legs have to do things together, or when we have to do climbing, if we had to kind of climb up a ladder at the playground, that's one of the things that our balancing really helps us with. It really works very closely with the other senses as well, especially with our eyes and with or ears and with our body sense and with our tactile sense. So you can see the movement sense is kind of really important and it talks to all the other senses to help us stay safe, to help us move around and to help us have a lot of fun. So let's have a look at what we going to do now. We are going to get ready to play Twister. So we are going to make a coloured mat. So if you haven't got a Twister mat, don't worry, we are going to do that together now. So first, you're going to choose four coloured pens or pencils and with each colour, you're going to colour in three sheets of paper, or you can use your coloured paper if you already have those colours. So you need to kind of have three sheets of paper of the same colour. So if you look in that final little block you will see I've use three different colours and they're four different colours and each colour, they are three bits of paper. Next what you're going to do is once you've done all of that, you are going to arrange your papers in exactly the same way that I've shown you in the example, and you can use blue tactics to stick it onto a smooth, clean surface, 'cause that will help you to move around when we are playing the game. Alternatively, you can use your chalk and you can draw a grid just like I've done on the last picture to show you what it looks like. And well oh, there you have your Twister mat. So, off to do this task. So pause the video here and when you're ready and you've done all of it and you've set up your Twister mat whether you've got a mat already or whether you have to draw it with chalk, or whether you going to make a paper based one, pause the video until you've done that and then once you're ready, press play, and we will carry on with the lesson. Okay, you ready to play? Great, you need to ask your parent or carer to join in. You're going to place your colour mats or the Twister mat onto a smooth even flow, and now this is how the game works. You going to take turns in shouting out a colour and a body part. So you going to say yellow arm, you can make it even more complicated and say yellow, right arm, or you can say red, right leg. So you can make it more complicated or easier. And then, you have to see if you can move that body part to the correct square without falling over. So the first person who falls over or whose knee touches the floor, is out. So have fun playing this game with your parent or carer, and we're going to pause the video now for you to do this and once you finished, you can press play again. Brilliant, I hope you had fun. So here's a few more ideas, you can think about different ways to move across the room without walking. So you can think about crawling, rolling, twirling, jumping, hopping, maybe you can think of some more ways, how can you move across the room without walking? Tell your parents or carer how each of these movements feel? Do they make you feel dizzy or are you enjoying moving around in different ways? The other thing that we can do is, you can sit in a comfortable position and then you can have a go at working with your movement sense and see if you can find out how it feels. So what are you going to do it's really important that you sit down in a comfortable chair, so you're not doing this in standing and have your parent or carer with you when you do this game and maybe they can do it with you, but do you take turns. So first what you're going to do is you going to move your head from side to side, okay? So we're going to move it this side and then we're going to move it that side, and you can do it maybe three times in a row and see if it feels different. So I'm going to do it, and then I will give you a chance to do it as well but watch me first. So I'm moving my head, moving it, two, three, there we go, oh my goodness. I do feel a tiny little bit dizzy when I do that fast, because that's all the fluid that I've been talking about earlier in those little semicircular canals have been moved very quickly and they've sent a message to my brain that my head is been moving from side to side. So the next thing that you can do is to bend your head down, to look right down and then to look all the way up, so you stretch all the way up and see if you can do that. So first, you're going to really look all the way down and then you're going to look all the way up, all the way to the back and come back to the middle. See if you can do that two times maybe, and then see how you feel. I'm quite sensitive to movement, so for me, I can't do that too many times before I feel really dizzy and that's why it's really important to do this while you sitting down. So tell your parent or carer how each of these movements feel. Okay, are you ready to try it? Brilliant, well, well done. The next lesson will help us when our sense of movement makes life tricky. So we will see you the next time and I hope you have fun exploring your movement sense.

Our Movement Sense

Our Movement Sense

These resources will be removed by the end of the Spring Term 2026.

Lesson slides

Lesson details

Key learning points

Equipment

Licence

Lesson video