As a parent, you want to help your child develop and grow as much as possible. Using fun activities at home, where they feel most at ease, can be a great way to help them improve skills without even realizing it.
We’ve found time and time again that children make the best progress in a place where they feel relaxed.
Here are 3 great ways to integrate a little therapy into your daily routine.
1) High kneeling instead of sitting on the sofa, helping with the laundry by separating socks, for example.
This works really well because, as we all know, your child loves to be involved but there has to be some kind of purpose. Distracting him or her from the activity of kneeling means they’re more likely to be happy holding the position for longer, without really noticing.
High kneeling is a great exercise to practice balance and hone body awareness while really working on core stability. Your child will be strengthening their hips, pelvis, core and back muscles as they maintain their balance. Your sofa’s also a nice comfy place to kneel for a while, so they won’t be putting any strain on their knees or ankles.
2) Standing against a mirror to draw a picture – all you need is a large piece of paper, multiple crayons of different colors, and some imagination.
Activities where your child’s working on a vertical surface like a mirror, or even your fridge or a tall window, can have a whole host of benefits.
For starters, they’re likely to need both hands – one to draw with and the other to stabilize themselves, helping with bilateral coordination.
Drawing on the mirror will help improve their grasping pattern, dexterity and control, while also encouraging an extension of the wrist.
Using a vertical surface helps with hand-eye coordination and visual attention as they are working closer to their eye. It’s also great for children who don’t like to sit still for long. They often work better when standing as they have more freedom to move.
It encourages an improved posture with a good head and neck position, using core muscles to stay upright. He or she will also cross the midline of their body to reach all areas of the mirror, as it’s a big space to cover.
Your child will also be using much bigger arm movements to draw on such a large surface, promoting flexibility in their joints and strengthening their arm and shoulder muscles.
Plus, you might get some fun pictures to hang in their bedroom at the end of it.
3) Boxing! Using both hands, this can be done sitting, standing, high kneeling, on a single knee, or with a combination of all of these.
Kids love this activity and it’s a great way to work on balance while having fun. It’s also a great activity to get siblings involved in.
Not all therapy needs to be programmed or conducted in a specific session. At the end of our intensive therapy weeks, we give our parents lots of easy and fun activities to integrate into everyday life when they return.
Making time to play with all the family can be seen simply as fun, not physio!
