Core Workout: Hungry Hippos meets Wreck it Ralph

I happened to walk by another one of my therapists using a really fun and creative way to work on core strength with kids. I know I have done my share of walkouts over a ball or peanut with a kiddo but this was so much more fun. In addition to working on the core, it also works on upper extremity strength, shoulder stability, and motor planning.

She helped to stabilize his feet on the ground while both of his hands were on a scooter board. There were several bowling pins set to the front and to an angle from the kiddo. He had to hold his core tight while pushing the scooter board out to knock over the bowling pin and then bring the scooter board back. The goal was to see how many he could knock over at a time. They had a target number and he ‘won’ that round if he hit the target number. You can always tell when a game is fun when they want to do more rounds even though they say on one break ‘this is hard.’ I’m pretty sure I would have trouble doing even one repetition!

Here is a brief video of the activity.

Has anyone else tried any other variations of this? We’d love to hear about them.

Jumping and Balance Path

I know we’ve talked about a jumping path before but I loved this path that I happened to observe one of my therapists using with her kiddo. It incorporates jumping forward, jumping over, jumping on, jumping off, jumping open, and jumping close. And then, it adds in balance via single leg stance and toe taps!

The best part was, watching her kiddo help her put it together and knowing that he had put his cut out feet in the open position like she had asked him to.

Here’s a video of the final product!

What other variations can you think of?

Halloween Inspired Gross Motor Games

Looking for some fun things to do with the kids that are Halloween Themed and will work on those gross motor skills? Check out these games!

Pumpkin Bowling: You can literally use a small round pumpkin or you can use a ball that is orange (if you don’t have one – get creative and make one to look like a pumpkin)! Have your kiddo stand at the designated spot (you can literally use a spot if you want), if you want to get really creative you can make it a gravestone or something else Halloween themed! This is where you can challenge their balance. Have them stand on on one foot, in tandem stance, or stand on a balance board or dynadisc, have them stand backwards and roll the ball through their legs – the point is get creative and have fun! Have them roll the pumpkin to knock over the ghosts. This can be paper towel rolls or white cups with ghosts faces drawn on them. You can stack them in pyramid style or set them out in traditional bowling pin formation. We’d love to see pictures of your set up!

Spider Web Walk: We’ve talked about this one before and there are lots of ways you can make it more or less challenging for the kids. Use tape to draw a spider web on the floor and find challenging ways to walk around the web. Read more here.

Witch Hat Ring Toss: Buy some witches hats or cover athletic cones in black construction paper to make your own. Same as with pumpkin bowling (read above for ways to work on balance) create a starting point and then have your child try to throw a ring onto the witches hat. You can have one hat that they have to get multiple rings on, or have multiple hats set out that they have to try to toss towards. Let’s see how many ringers they can get!

Pumpkin Patch Stomp:  Blow up some orange balloons (you can draw on them if you want to make them look more like pumpkins) and try to stomp on them! To make it a little easier you can put some sand or water in the balloon so they won’t move away as easily. The more air in the balloon, the easier it is to pop, but if it is less full, its easier for the child to get and keep their foot on it. You might want to have a mix of balloons to vary the difficulty.

Pumpkin Walk: Have your child try to walk across the room, or on a balance beam while balancing a baby pumpkin on their head. You can also change this to Witches Hat Walk and make a witches hat out of an athletic cone and do the same thing (the hat might be easier for the little ones because it has a flat bottom)

Spider Web Crawl: Use toilet paper or white streamers to create a web across a hallway. Have your kids try to crawl over and under without breaking the web! For some other ideas read more here.

Dribbling a Ball

We were recently working on ball dribbling skills with some kiddos. They had been practicing them off and on for a while but were still finding it hard to dribble the ball while walking down the hallway. So, we decided to spend one whole session devoted to bouncing the ball and progressing this skill. To do this we looked back at the how motor learning occurs and started with blocked practice of the basic skill and slowly added to it to get to the skill we wanted. The best part was that at the end of the session the words ‘that was easy’ were actually spoken – this was so great because when we first said we were going to go out and dribble down the hallway that same child said ‘oh no, that’s hard.’

1. Using a spot on the ground and the wall behind the child we started with bouncing the ball in place on the spot. The wall was used to help provide a cue to stay up tall as there is a tendency to bend at the waist and get closer to the ball rather than bouncing the ball hard enough to come back up high enough. We let the child choose how they wanted to bounce the ball and it usually started with both hands bouncing the ball and then catching it and then bouncing it again.
2. Next, using the same props/cues, we progressed to bouncing it with two hands up to 3 bounces. This way they were working on continuous bouncing and not bounce and catch. Once 3 was mastered we slowly progressed until we got to 10 successful bounces.
3. Next, using the same props/cues, we repeated the above step but by bouncing with one hand. We continued to progress this until we got up to 10 successful bounces with one hand.
4. At this point we moved into the hallway (and this is when the words ‘oh no, that’s hard’ were spoken). We had them dribble the ball while walking for up to 3 bounces. Most used two hands and we let them. Again we slowly progressed until we got to 10 successful bounces while walking.
5. Next we decreased to one hand and repeated the above steps until we got to 10 successful bounces while walking. This was when it was declared ‘that was easy.’

At this point the child began dribbling the ball the full length of the hallway. What was fun to see was that there was control of the ball. Even when it bounced slightly to the left or the right, they were able to maintain control and keep dribbling forward!

Now, in subsequent sessions we will have to continue to practice this but ideally we can begin to decrease the number of steps and then begin to generalize the skill and introduce different games that involve dribbling.

How have you worked on dribbling with kids?

10 Things You Didn’t Know A Pediatric PT Can Help With

In honor of October being Physical Therapy Month, we wanted to share a list of things that you may not realize a pediatric physical therapist can help your child with. If any of these resonate with you, call your local pediatric physical therapist to ask questions. Happy Physical Therapy Month!

1. Yes we work with BABIES! Pediatric PT treats newborns for things like torticollis, plagiocephaly, and delayed achievement of milestones.
2. Yes we facilitate BREASTFEEDING! Pediatric PT can help you and your baby with the following things: positioning, range of motion and mobility for access (latching), relaxation, and proper trunk and pelvic stability.
3. Yes we support POSTURE and ERGONOMICS! Pediatric PT can analyze and teach both you (lifting safety) and your child (posture, backpacks, handwriting, and more).
4. Yes we address challenges related to TOILETING and BEDWETTING! Pediatric PT works with your child to strengthen the pelvic floor, develop routines, and educate in all areas that affect toileting.
5. Yes we provide NUTRITION SCREENING! Pediatric PT does nutritional screening to promote health and wellness, address obesity, and enhance rehabilitation.
6. Yes we address CONCUSSIONS! Pediatric PT performs pre- and post-concussion screens including subsequent vestibular rehabilitation.
7. Yes we analyze FOOTWEAR! Pediatric PT assesses proper fit and function of shoes for sports, everyday use, and even picking out their first pair.
8. Yes we facilitate development of COORDINATED PLAY SKILLS! Pediatric PT helps your child keep up with their peers by working on body awareness and coordination for skills such as bike riding, monkey bars, skipping, jumping jacks, and more.
9. Yes we support YOUTH ATHLETES! Pediatric PT not only treats injuries but prevents them through running and movement analyses, and performance enhancement training.
10. Yes we perform GROSS MOTOR CHECK-UPS! Pediatric PT helps ensure your child is on track with their gross motor skills by recommending annual check-ups just like you go to the dentist every 6 months.

 

Balance and Vestibular System Ideas

Balance is an important part of movement and safety and is a requirement for every day activities. Balance can involve keeping two feet on the floor, or even standing on one foot. There are many activities that require balancing on one leg. Some of these are: running, stairs, kicking, and walking in varied directions.

Try these activities to improve your little one’s balance today:

• Popping bubbles: Have your child stand on one leg, and use the other foot to try and pop a bubble.
• Kicking a ball: Practice standing on one foot for 5-10 seconds prior to kicking the ball to your partner.
• Balance beam: Make your own balance beam by using a pool noodle. Practice walking up and back. If this gets too easy, walk backwards!

Some of our older blog posts that address balance are:

• Taking the Vision out of Balance
• Ball vs Platform Swing for Balance Reactions
• Balance Boards
• Fun way to work on balance reactions
• Balance Beam Ideas

The vestibular system is one of our key components of balance and helps individuals of all ages maintain visual stability. Children may experience deficits with their vestibular system for many reasons, and these deficits can impact their ability to actively participate in age appropriate activities and recreation. Here are some ideas for stimulating your child’s vestibular system:

• • Vestibular Input Activities
  • Sensory Processing: The Vestibular System
  • Vestibular Activities
  • 10 Calming Vestibular Activities
  • Toys for Vestibular Development
  • Why Kids Need Upside Down Play

Wheelbarrow Walking

Do any of you remember doing wheelbarrow races as a child? I do! I remember thinking it was hysterical that someone was holding my feet and I was racing someone else on my hands. Well, as much fun as that was, wheelbarrow walking is actually a great tool to incorporate with kids to help them get and stay strong.

Wheelbarrow walking works on strengthening the arms and the core. It can also support coordinated activity because of the need to walk reciprocally on their hands, while keeping their head up to see where they are going, and keeping the core muscles turned on so that the person holding their feet can better support them.

I am a big fan of multi-piece toys such as puzzles and shape sorters. They naturally build repetition into an activity. For instance, you can put the puzzle at one end and the pieces at another end. Place one puzzle piece on your child’s back just like they were a wheelbarrow picking up a load. Then have them walk on their hands to the other end to put the piece in the puzzle. Turn around and head back for the next piece. Keep repeating until all the pieces are replaced.

So how do you vary this by child? That’s easy!

1. Distance to walk – Start with shorter distances. If they are doing really well you can increase the distance by moving the puzzle board just a little further away.
2. Number of repetitions – Start with carrying just one piece back at a time. If they seem to be tiring, start adding more than one piece to the wheelbarrow. This way they still complete the puzzle but you have decreased the number of repetitions.
3. Where you are holding them – The closer to their arm pits you provide support, the easier it is for them. The closer to their ankles that you provide support, the harder it is for them. Just like goldilocks and the three bears, you want to hold them in just the right spot. This means that they can walk on their hands without letting their belly sag towards the ground. If you see their belly sagging (or back arching) you may want to move closer to their arm pits. Once they have mastered keeping their core strong, you can slowly move closer towards the ankles.

There are other variations to make this fun besides just completing a puzzle or a shape sorter. Here are a few ideas I had:

1. Treasure hunt – Start with a treasure list and have the items hid in the room that you are in. Have them walk on their hands to collect the treasure. They can hold the items in the ‘wheelbarrow’ while they collect each of them.
2. Race track – Create a race path that is clearly marked and use a stop watch to see how fast they can get around the race track. If they have to pause on the track it’s like taking a pit stop. Clearly, they’ll want to take less pit stops to get faster times. Be careful they aren’t going so fast that they start to sag at their core.
3. Staying in place – Rather than walking on their hands, have them assume the position and put papers with different colors or letters or numbers in front and to the side of them. Call out a color (or number or letter) and have them use their hand to touch it. You can get tricky by telling them what hand to touch it with (similar to twister).
4. Going backwards – You can do almost any of the above ideas backwards. It’s a great way to make the activity novel. You can also combine forward and backwards to make it extra tricky!

Since you are the one that will be helping, you want to make sure to take care of your back as well. Be careful that you aren’t bending over to support them. Use a rolling stool or a scooter board, or walk on your knees (but I would recommend knee pads if you are going to be doing this a lot).

Single Leg Stance

We often have parents come in and ask for us to help their child be able to stand on one foot better. Usually they have heard that this is a skill that all children should be able to do. But why? What does standing on one foot help with? Here are some of the skills that are improved when single leg stance improves:

• Going up and down stairs
• Kicking a ball
• Stepping over obstacles
• Getting dressed
• Standing up from the floor
• Hopping
• Skipping
• Walking with a narrow base of support (i.e. on a balance beam)

 

So what are some activities that could help your child to improve this skill? Here are a few:

• Toe taps – Place a spot in front of your child and have them tap their toe on it. Make it a game by calling out numbers to see how many they can do. Or switch it up between left and right foot. You can do this on the ground, or raise the height to make it more challenging. You can also move the target from in front to diagonal to the side. 
• Foot on a ball – Find a ball and have your child try to hold one foot on top of it and maintain their balance. You can time them to see how long they can go for, or have two people doing it at once to see who can last the longest. Make sure to switch up feet. Softer, squishy balls are easier to balance while larger, firmer balls are harder to balance on.
• Popping bubbles – This one is fun because what child doesn’t love bubbles? Blow bubbles and have them try to stomp on them to pop them! 
• Stepping over obstacles – Have your child try to cross a room while stepping over obstacles in their way. You can use small books, pool noodles, toys, groceries, or anything that you can think of. Shorter and narrower are easier than taller and wider. Also make sure it is a stable obstacle and not a ball that will roll if they bump into it. You could also use painters tape to make obstacles across your hallway so they have to step over varied heights of tape.
• Yoga – Tree pose is one of our favorites. Kids like to imitate it and they can ‘cheat’ by putting their foot down close to their stance foot if the knee is too challenging. 

What are some ways you work on single leg stance?

Fun with Painter’s Tape

Looking for easy and fun activities for your kiddos to do at home? All you need is painter’s tape and a little imagination! Here are four different gross motor activities with simple set ups to work on balance, strength, motor planning, coordination, and body awareness.

1. Weaving through spider web:  Use a hallway to span tape from one wall to the next in a varied pattern as seen in the picture. Have your kiddo step over, army crawl under, and crouch through to get to the other side. Giving them a chance to problem solve how to get from one end to the other works on motor planning and being able to adjust their body and avoid contact with the tape challenges their awareness of their body in space. Here are some posts on painter’s tape spider webs, and jungle vines (just adapt for painters tape)!
2. Walk the line: walk forwards, backwards, sideways:  The beauty of painter’s tape is that it can easily be applied and removed from so many surfaces. Regardless of your floor type, you can create patterns on the ground for your kiddo to walk across. This challenges their balance and ability to move with a narrower base of support. You can also have them hop on one foot down the line or hop back and forth between lines to build strength and power. You can add more variety by having your child walk backwards or sideways! Here are some other post on similar ideas such as balance beams, more balance beams, and jumping paths – just adapt and use painter’s tape!
3. Spider web walking:  In addition to lines, you can create a spider web out of tape and challenge your child to walk on the line to get different critters within the boxes or you can have them jump from box to box to avoid touching the spider web! Here is a longer post on this idea!
4. Tic tac toss:  Take the tic tac toe game off the paper and turn it life-size by taping a grid on the ground. Use two different color bean bags to duel it out amongst family members or friends. If you want to add more physical challenge you can incorporate similar concepts to what is explained above including walking heel to toe to your chosen box or hop from square to square to drop it in rather than tossing.

Now grab some tape and let the fun begin!

Squat, Stand, Tip Toes

 

One of our previous PT’s stopped by and brought us a 10 year birthday present (We had just celebrated our 10 year anniversary). She was so excited when she saw the Little People Stand and Play Rampway because she thought it would be great for kids to use to work on standing, squatting, transitions on and off the floor, and more. And yes, we have used the toy in the way we thought, although we’ve also found its good for tip toes as well! Sometimes we are inspired by a toy and sometimes we have an idea and find a toy that will help motivate. This happens to be one of those times that we were inspired by a toy!

As you can see in the picture, we set it up on a support surface so that the child would still have to get in to standing to reach the top. An added bonus was that she had to get up onto her tip toes to reach. To work on being all the way down on the floor transitions, you could have the car end up under the bench. They may try to reach in squatting, which also is good for them to do, but many times they will get onto their hands and knees or into sitting so they can reach a little easier. Then they have to practice the transition from the floor into standing. If they choose to stay in squatting they get to work on balance and stability while reaching outside their base of support.

What are some of your favorite toys for working on standing, squatting, and tip toes?