Photo from Flickr Tamckile[/caption]Do you ever use visualization techniques to help children improve their motor skills or reach their goals? Visualization is a common practice among athletes to improve their performance and take their skills to the next level. Research among adults indicates that mentally rehearsing a sport can help to improve performance, trigger responses from the autonomic nervous system and help in the construction of schema.
Here are 5 steps to carry out for visualization techniques:
- Determine what the overall goal is that the child would like to reach.
- Instruct the child to relax and visualize him/herself achieving the goal.
- Right before the child is going to try the skill again ask the child to visualize him/herself performing the skill perfectly.
- Throughout the attempt at trying/practicing the skill have the child imagine success.
- After the skill, have the child visualize the skill again. Ask the child was there anything he/she could do different the next time to improve the skill.
Reference: Saint Clair, Erica. Visualization: The Simple Tool for Even Greater Athletic Success. Retrieved from the web on 2/10/14 at http://breakingmuscle.com/sports-psychology/visualization-the-simple-tool-for-even-greater-athletic-success.
Imagination Action Journeys are 10 fun filled stories that encourage literacy, physical activity, imagination and creativity. Children will enjoy reading and acting out the stories. These can be completed indoors or outdoors with one child or a group of children. What a great way to promote literacy and physical activity! Find out more at http://yourtherapysource.com/imagine.html
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