Students who have perceptual-motor deficits are unable to process information the way they should. They do not hear what we hear or see what we see. Repetitive drills will not help these students learn nor will telling them over and over again to “sit down” or “put your name at the top of the page”. These students are not deliberately disobeying your instructions. You cannot change their behavior without changing the way their nervous systems are processing information. Medications are often used as a quick fix for controlling behavior but they do nothing to help change the way the students’ process information so the learning problems remain.

There is a simple and effective way to repair the processing problems and help students control their behavior. It is called Perceptual-Motor Development (PMD).

Perceptual-motor training involves teaching specific motor skills and developing appropriate motor responses. It is the students’ ability to generalize these motor responses that allows them to make accurate and appropriate responses to incoming information. The program provides a way to repair “processing bridges” which, for some reason or another, did not develop. This training is as effective for the bright students who have problems completing assignments, as it is for slow learners and hyperactive students.

See “Be Alert” for behaviors that may indicate a student has a perceptual-motor problem.