Happy 2025! The start of a New Year is the perfect opportunity to learn to do something new or do something old but with less assistance. If your system of praxis (conceiving, planning and executing a motor action) doesn’t come with an optimal navigation system, it can be tricky to jump into purposeful motor action without interference. Read along for my tried and true advice for jumpstarting your motor this year!
Focus on no more than two goals at a time. Start with one daily living activity and one recreational activity. Consider what would mean a lot to YOU and select these activities yourself! If your expressive communication fluency is still “in progress”, perhaps someone who spends a lot of time with you can help you select these goals.
→ Can’t decide? Whether you’re fluent or not, you can influence the decision with your own good luck: Your coach/assistant can assign each of six realistic goals to a number on a die (as in one of a set of dice); then, you roll the dice to see where it lands for each of the two motor goal categories. Those can be your first two 2025 motor goals!
→ Still not sure? Start noodling with these ideas that I’ve borrowed from a few of my Nonspeaking friends:
DAILY LIVING ACTIVITIES
(chores, contributions, hygiene)
- Hang up your coat when you enter your home (and read down below for adaptations to this idea!)
- Get snack bowls for a family night & pour in your favorite snacks.
- Use speech-producing AAC to turn on music (i.e., command Alexa, using a tablet and a speech app, or start music on a preferred streaming device)
- Brush your teeth, rinse, and spit into the bathroom sink
- Pick up loose clothes and place them into the laundry hamper.
- Pour water for all diners at the dinner table*
- What good habit would you like to get into?
RECREATIONAL ACTIVITIES
(athletics/wellness, art/craft, hobbies, games & fun)
Some of these cost money. This is a good time to use up some birthday/holiday money or gift cards (or put them on your wishlist for next time!). Some items may be eligible for disability funding – you can check with your local funding agents. I prefer one-time payments over costly subscriptions.
- Learn to dribble or pass a basketball to a partner (this quiet basketball is good for indoors and comes in two sizes – Google search the “Silent Basketball” for availability near you).
- Jigsaw puzzles for tablets – find one that can be customized to start with fewer pieces, and increase number of pieces (decreasing size) as you get the hang of it! My son recommends the Jigsaw Puzzles app by Easybrain available on Google Play and iOS/Apple. Tip: pay the few dollars for the premium app to avoid pop-up ads that throw off your concentration.
- Start working out! Find workouts online through Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. For a structured experience adapted to apraxic athletes, many spellers are loving, occupational therapist and certified S2C practitioner, Jess Sibley’s Minds in MotionOT fitness app, designed explicitly for successful development of motor fluency to do the workouts while fading in-person support over time. This is a pay once, use forever app, that includes all the resources you need, plus training videos for a caregiver or friend to be your trainer. It’s worth it.
- Learn to use a new tool in an area that interests you: practice hammering nails or thumbtacks into a wooden board and then a wall; use a vegetable peeler on a vegetable; sharpen pencils in a sharpener. What would be useful in your life?
- Gardening: Start by watering the plants at home.
- And, of course – learn the motor for a new body engager!
Click here to read some great reasons to work on your purposeful motor goals this year and find more areas of interest to choose your goals.
Here are some more tips:
- Practice Every Day: For the best and fastest results.
- Develop the Motor: Break tasks down into steps, use helpful prompts, and practice them regularly. Here’s some compulsory reading for your coach or caregivers to teach them how to coach your body respectfully. They should recognize that what’s simple for them may be complex for you.
- Set Realistic Goals and be Creative: Start by assessing your own skills to determine how many steps are doable for you while still making it a challenge. For example, take the goal of hanging up your coat when you enter your home. This task will look different for everyone.
a. Here’s one way → install a sturdy hook or put a sturdy coat rack at an accessible-height near your front door.→ Take off your coat and hang it on the hook by the door.
b. If that wasn’t challenging at all, try this → Affix a sturdy hook inside the nearest closet. → take off your coat, hold it and walk to the closet, open the closet door, hang the coat onto the sturdy designated hook.
c. No problem? Try this → Take off the coat, open the closet door, maneuver the coat onto a hanger, and hang the hanger on the rod while balancing the coat on the hanger.
d. Was that too much? Adapt! Make sure your hanger is easily accessible, or slip-proof, or bigger/smaller. Add visual or tactile anchors that help you get the job done.
e. Remember, any single one of the above steps will require individual attention and motor coaching (“tuuuuurn your foot” and “reach, reach, reach up with your arm” – see compulsory reading link in Bullet 2, above!)
- Schedule it: Incorporate practice into daily routines or schedule specific times for practice. Consider things like how much time you need for some meaningful practice, and what time of day is your (and your coach/CRP’s) energy levels optimal for this type of task? Add it to your calendars and reminder systems, set the alarms and go!!
- Use Supports and Adapt: Use timers, counting, and other creative ways to measure time or apparatus to know when to stop a motor action in an activity (i.e., can’t stop watering the plant so it doesn’t drown? Leave a suitably-sized container near the plant and fill that instead, then pour that into the plant – upcycle your differently sized bottle caps from detergents and cosmetics for this purpose). Consider sensory supports, like rubber bands, velcro, or colored stickers, to assist you with handling objects for your motor activity properly every time.
- Have fun: Hard work isn’t always fun, but it is important to make some of this process enjoyable. Some favorite background music might do the trick.
If there’s more frustration than fun, it may be time to call in a pro for more personalized advice. Contact i-asc.org for a referral to a certified S2C practitioner who could provide some virtual support for brainstorming accommodations to make your goal a success.
Happy 2025 – Keep Calm and Move on!
About the Author
Giorgena proudly serves on I-ASC’S Leadership Cadre alongside Nonspeaking leaders and fellow Certified S2C Practitioners. Her 2025 motor goal is to walk more and talk less!
One Response
Giorgena, I am loving your blog. I am happy to learn some new hacks. I am going to try exercising using Minds in Motion. Thanks for reminding me about their program.
Your cool friend Nicholas M.