Relationships between Gross Motor Abilities and Sensory Processing in Children Aged 18 to 36 Months.

Objective: We investigated the relationship between gross motor abilities and sensory processing in typically developing children.

Method: Participants included children aged 18 to 36 months (N = 48). All participants were full-term infants. We assessed gross motor abilities based on the Gross Motor Function Measure (GMFM), and sensory processing characteristics based on the Infant/Toddler Sensory Profile (ITSP). The gross motor ability index was calculated using GMFM score which was estimated from the age. Pearson's product moment correlation coefficients were used to examine the relationships between the gross motor ability indexes and ITSP section scores.

Results: Our findings showed that gross motor ability may be related to oral sensory processing. The children who were more responsive to oral sensory processing tended to exhibit gross motor abilities below the standard for that age.

Conclusion: Gross motor abilities were related with sensory processing, especially oral sensory processing, in children aged 18 to 36 months.