Animal Walks – OT Activities to Boost Motor Skills & Sensory Development

Animal walks are playful, engaging gross motor activities for kids that help develop a wide range of skills, from muscle strength and coordination to language development and sensory regulation. These are a fun and simple way to disguise exercise as play, making them perfect for occupational therapy for children, preschool gross motor games, and sensory integration activities at home or in school.

🔍 Why Animal Walks Are Important in Occupational Therapy (OT)

Animal walks are a favorite tool among occupational therapists because they support the development of multiple domains in children, especially those with sensory processing challenges, Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), ADHD, or motor delays.

✅ Key Benefits of Animal Walk OT Activities:

• Upper body and core muscle strengthening

• Bilateral coordination (using both sides of the body)

• Improved spatial awareness and body control

• Boosts balance, mobility, and flexibility

• Encourages motor planning and problem-solving

• Supports aerobic fitness and healthy movement habits

• Provides proprioceptive and vestibular input for sensory needs

• Enhances play skills and imaginative thinking

• Builds expressive and receptive language skills

These activities are an ideal form of heavy work for children needing sensory input to calm down or focus better during their day.

🐾 Top Animal Walks for Kids – OT Approved Activities

Here are some of the most popular and beneficial animal walks to include in your child's therapy or home play routine:

Animal walk – OT activities

Bear Walk

Bend over and put both hands on the ground. Now, walk forward with same leg & arm. So, move your left arm & left leg forward together and then right arm & leg. Don’t let your knees touch the ground.

Benefits: Builds upper body strength, coordination, and core stability.

Snake Walk

Start in prone position (laying down on tummy) ) & keep hands to their sides. Child moves by wiggling on the floor and move forward without using their hands.

Benefits: Enhances body awareness and promotes motor control.

Seal walk

Start in prone position (lying down on tummy) Child props self-up on arms. Use arm to pull yourself forward.

Benefits: Strengthens shoulders and supports tummy time needs.

Kangaroo jump – Keep your feet together, hands to chest & start with small jumps with both feet while keeping hands stationary. Keep knees flexed throughout.

Benefits: Great for jumping skills, leg strength, and coordination.

Crab walk – Start by squatting down close to the ground. You should look like a table top now. Now walk sideways, while holding your bottom off the ground & your back straight.

Benefits: Improves core strength, balance, and bilateral coordination.

Frog jumps – Start in squatted position. Place your hands on floor in between your knees. Using your feet, jump forward & land with your hands & feet on the ground.

Benefits: Builds leg strength and explosive power; supports motor planning.

Duck walk – Squat down & walk around from there & waddle like a duck.

Benefits: Increases lower body strength and endurance.

🧠 How Animal Walks Boost Brain & Language Development

Animal walks are more than just physical activity—they stimulate the brain through cross-lateral movement, encouraging both sides of the brain to work together. This is crucial for skills like:

• Reading and writing

• Speech and language development

• Listening and following instructions

• Problem-solving

Talking about animal names, actions, and sounds boosts vocabulary, concept understanding, and expressive communication.

For example:

• During the snake walk, ask: “What sound does a snake make?” (Practice “Sssss”)

• For the dog walk, say: “Let’s bark like a dog! Woof woof!”

These interactive activities build receptive and expressive language skills while making learning fun.

Fun Ideas to Add Purpose & Play

Make animal walks more engaging by pairing them with:

• Scavenger hunts (collect puzzle pieces while walking like different animals)

• Animal song enactments (e.g., “Old MacDonald Had a Farm”)

• Alphabet animal games (“A is for Alligator walk”, “B is for Bear crawl”)

• Obstacle courses using cones, tunnels, and mats

• Flashcards to randomly pick the animal walk

• Animal walk races to promote turn-taking and teamwork

These ideas turn movement games into structured OT activities that promote executive functioning, attention, and social skills.

Some additional benefits –

Practice & repetition is a key factor when developing gross motor skills not only for adequate power but also for brain development. The use of both hands & legs in organized manner helps significantly in brain development.

These fun moves & walks can have functional cry over into everyday activities such as improved obstacle navigation, increased core strength. Moreover it also allows them to release their excess energy.

Talking about animals & their movements can support both receptive & expressive language skills. Also helps in increasing vocabulary (Jump, sit, fast, slow). Acting out animal movements can even support a child’s imaginative play skills.

Introducing concepts – Who can swim? – Fish walk; enact a pet/domestic animal – Dog (woof woof). This does not only introduce new concepts but also facilitates child’s ability to interpret & respond to a variety of question forms.

Be creative with your child & always add purpose to these activities – Scavenger hunt, enact according to animal song, think of an animal with particular letter – A – alligator, B – Bear & so on; obstacle course, animal races, use flashcards to denote different animals, etc. You can make it fun game by taking turns picking an animal to walk like.

Use this opportunity to also work on communication skills – Ask “what does snake say?” during snake walk. Practice Hissing sound with your child.

This is an excellent source of heavy work which is perfect for helping children that are struggling with flapping hands, fidgeting toys, wiggling & even meltdowns.