Pediatric Occupational Therapy practice serving the Vancouver lower mainland, BC Canada

Term	Definition
Gross motor skills	defined as the controlled movement of the large muscles of the body, such as in crawling, walking, running, climbing, skipping, hopping and balancing.
Fine motor skills	defined as the controlled movement of the small muscles of the body (hands, fingers, and mouth), such as in writing, coloring, cutting with scissors, tying, buttoning, zipping and opening jars.
Visual-motor coordination	The ability of the vision system to coordinate the information received through the eyes to control, guide and direct the hands in the accomplishment of a given task, such as in copying shapes and letters, or catching a ball.
Visual-spatial perception	The way a person perceives the relationship of external space to his body as well as how he perceives objects in space relative to other objects. Assembling a puzzle and constructing a block design require this skill.
Sensory processing	refers to the way the nervous system receives, organizes and understands sensory input. It is considered an internal process of the nervous system that enables people to figure out how to respond to environmental demands. Children and adults may have a nervous system that is hyper-responsive or hypo-responsive to sensory stimuli (i.e. auditory, tactile, vestiblar and visual), thus affecting their daily emotional state and behaviour.

Ronit Kabazo