Top Ten Blog Posts of 2017

It’s been a few years since we did a top ten list at the end of the year (that may be because for a few years we weren’t very consistent with posting). Since we managed to get out a post every week of this year (yes, we are patting ourselves on the back) we thought we would take a look back and see what posts were the most read by you our readers!

Here are our top 10 overall from 2017:

10.  Encouraging Rolling From Back to Stomach

9.  What Does High Tone Mean?

8. Easter Egg Hunt For Motor Skills

7.  Having a Ball with Core Muscle Strength

6.  Avoiding the ‘Container Shuffle’ with Your Baby

5.  My Child Isn’t Rolling Over:  Should I Be Concerned?

4.  A Multi-Tasking Activity

3.  A Glossary of Sitting

2. What Does Low Tone Mean?

1.Motor Learning: Stages of Motor Learning and Strategies to Improve Acquisition of Motor Skills

Interestingly enough, all of these were published prior to 2017, so I decided to dig a little deeper and find out our top ten that were published in 2017. Those are:

10. Halloween Inspired Gross Motor Games

9. Single Leg Stance

8. Transitional Movements

7. 10 Things You Didn’t Know a Pediatric PT Could Help With

6. Crossing Midline

5. Taking the Vision out of Balance

4. Core Workout: Hungry Hippos Meets Wreck it Ralph

3. Eccentric Abs (and no, I don’t mean odd!)

2. Ideas to Target the Core

1.Righting Reactions

Happy New Year, thanks for a great 2017 and we look forward to seeing you in 2018!

What Contributes To Your Child’s Balance?

There are three main components that make up a person’s balance. These include: vision, somatosensation, and our vestibular system. These components need to work seamlessly together in order to allow both adults and children to maintain their balance in all different environments and scenarios.

 

Vision is pretty simple: what you’re able to see with your eyes allows you to keep your balance. You may notice that your young child needs to look down more frequently, especially in newer environments. Somatosensation is what we are able to feel, and particularly important for balance is what we are able to feel with our feet. This comes in handy for walking across uneven surfaces, such a grass or dirt. Our proprioceptive receptors are able to detect changes in terrain and accommodate accordingly. Finally, our vestibular system is what is located in our inner ear. This system allows us to detect changes in movement and motion, and accommodate accordingly.

 

If one component of balance is unavailable for use, the other two must compensate for this loss. Take vision for example: When you are walking at night or in the dark, your vision is at a disadvantage, and therefore, the vestibular and proprioceptive systems have to compensate for the corresponding loss of visual input. Many people, children included, may tend to over-rely on vision, particularly if the other two components aren’t functioning properly. It is therefore essential to ensure that all three components are contributing to one’s balance.

 

An example of the development of the somatosensory component is evident in young children when they are first learning to stand. You may remember your child rocking back and forth from their feet to their heels. This allows the child to gain knowledge of their limits of stability, and is also providing essential somatosensory input. They will learn to associate the feeling of being too far on their toes with a loss of balance, as well as going too far back on their heels. This discovery play is essential for all children, and helps to develop a sense of what appropriate balance feels like!

 

The vestibular system becomes essential for maintaining balance during movement.  The development of this system can be enhanced by encouraging  your growing child to participate in activities that involve movement—such as swinging, jumping, and playing catch!

 

It is essential to encourage kids to explore and discover their balance! Some activities that encourage balance development include: standing on one foot, walking along narrow surfaces (such as along curbs), jumping off higher surfaces, standing with their eyes closed, and walking along uneven or unsteady surfaces (such as grass or tan bark or over pillows at home).

Here are some older blog posts that address activities that can work on balance!

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.

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

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?

Jungle Vines

 

We love taking students for their clinical internships. They often bring fresh ideas to our treatment plans. This is an exercise that our most recent student came up with, and of course we have all found a reason to use it with our kids! Feel free to change the name of it, this is the name we use when it is part of an Adventure for one of our kids.

We take our climbing net and we string it up parallel above the floor in our Universal Exercise Unit. The height can vary depending on the skill of the child. For some kids, having it lying flat on the floor will be challenging enough. You can also use an agility ladder for this activity, or create a grid with tape. (we have done a similar activity with tape across a hallway but made it more of a maze)

Because we like to get in multiple repetitions we usually have a toy with many pieces (such as a puzzle or animal bean bags). Then the child can ‘rescue’ friends, or a monster, or whatever they feel like.

It works really well for working on single leg stance as the child usually takes some time when lifting their foot up to clear the obstacle and then place it in the next hole. It also works on balance (one foot and two feet) while they plan their next move and use precision to make it through the jungle. Of course there is motor planning and coordination as they pick their path through the jungle and figure out how they need to move to get to the other side, and then actually execute the plan.

What other ways have you done activities like this?

Find the Bucket

We love collaboration with other providers. We are lucky enough to have an OT company that we reciprocally share space with. This allows us to pick their brains and them to pick ours. One day they were talking about using our platform swing and how to work on visual motor skills and this activity was born. We of course have adapted it depending on what exactly we want to focus on that day, but I’ll give you the basics and then you can adapt at will!

We set up the platform swing and place a bucket of some sort underneath it. The child shouldn’t be able to see the bucket when the swing is at rest, but it should be right at the front of the swing so its easy to find when the swing is moving. Get some balls for the kiddo to drop into the bucket once the swing starts moving. This gets them to work on their visual motor skills, their timing, their motor planning and coordination.

To take it a step further you can change what position you have the child in on the swing. For our kiddo we start in prone prop, then move to quadruped, then high kneeling, then half kneeling. This lets them work on core strength, and balance.

We have the kiddo reach for the ball before they are able to drop it in the bucket. This encourages weight shifting, reaching, hand-eye coordination. They also have to hold their balance while they are weight shifted and the swing is moving which helps with righting reactions.

The dropping the ball in the bucket while the swing is moving, is of course the fun part! The kids find it hilarious to ‘find the bucket’ and get super excited whenever their ball makes it into the bucket!

Has anyone else done an activity like this? What variations have you used?