Teaching Throwing and Catching to Children with DCD

10 Ways to Play Catch with a Friend

Playing catch with a friend is always fun but do you ever stop and think about all the skills that are required to play catch?  Tossing a ball back and forth requires eye hand coordination, visual motor skills, visual tracking, focus, timing, bilateral coordination, visual spatial skills, balance, body awareness and motor planning.  If just one of those skills is hard for a child, catching a ball can be a challenge.  If all of those skills are in working order, playing catch with a friend can also create opportunities to improve those skills further.  Here are 10 ways to play catch with a friend starting out at least 10 feet apart (besides the obvious – stand a few feet apart and play catch):

1. Bounce and Catch:  Partner 1 bounce passes the ball to partner 2.
2. Hoop Bounce and Catch:  Put a hula hoop in the middle between the partners.  Partner 1 bounces the ball inside the hoop to send it to partner 2.
3. Double Bounce and Catch:  Partner 1 bounce passes the ball to partner 2.  The ball must bounce twice before partner 2 catches it.
4. Wall Catch:  Partner 1 hits the ball against the wall and partner 2 has to catch it.
5. Dribble, Dribble Throw:  Partner 1 dribbles the ball two times then throws it to partner 2.  Partner 2 dribbles to ball two times and throws it back to partner 1.  Change the numbers of dribbles required and try again.
6. Double Toss (same size balls):  Partner 1 has a ball and partner 2 has a ball.  On the count of three, both partners throw the balls to each other and catch it.
7. Opposite Toss:  Partner 1 rolls the ball to partner 2, while partner 2 throws a ball to partner 1. All at the same time!
8. Backward Ball:  Partner 1 stands a few feet behind partner 2.  Partner 2 is facing away from partner 1.  Partner 1 tosses the ball over partner 2’s head, the ball bounces one time and partner 2 catches it.
9. Double Backward Ball:  Partner 1 and 2 stand back to back at least 10 feet apart.  Play catch tossing the ball backwards.  The ball can bounce one time before you catch it.
10. Double Toss (small and large ball):  Partner 1 has a tennis ball.  Partner 2 has a larger, playground type ball.  On the count of three, both partners throw the balls to each and catch it.

When you play catch with a friend, try each challenge at least 10 times to learn and practice the skills. As you improve, see how many times you can do the challenge before dropping the ball.

Do you need help teaching children to catch, throw and kick?  Teaching Catching, Throwing and Kicking Skills: Help children learn how to catch, throw and kick with this packet full of information of age progression of skills, visual picture cards, tips, letter to parents and more!  FIND OUT MORE INFORMATION.

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Brain Activation and Ball Skills

Do you know what parts of the brain are activated when a child learns ball handling skills? You might be surprised to find out that catching a ball requires all the lobes of the brain to work together!  When you see a child reach their arms out to catch a ball various steps have already occurred throughout each lobe of the brain.  Let’s take a closer look at brain activation and ball skills.

Step 1:  See the details.  The occipital lobe is activated to analyze the details such as clarity, contrast and color.

Step 2:  Identify it.  The temporal lobe is activity to recognize the ball’s identity.

Step 3:  Distinguish it from surrounding objects.  The ball’s initial location and form are mapped out in the parietal lobe.

 

Step 4:  Predict the direction of the ball.  The middle temporal and posterior parietal lobes are active and predict the ball’s vector.

Step 5:  Determine where to catch the ball.  The frontal lobe and the parietal lobe play a role in predicting the location of the ball by relying on prior experiential learning including oculomotor, motor, perceptual and spatial experiences.

Step 6:  Start to move to the ball.  The moment to moment 3D coordinated of the shape and location of the ball reach the motor cortex in the frontal lobe.

Step 7: Catch, kick or dribble the ball.  The motor cortex in the frontal lobe works with the timing system in the cerebellum, the overall balance system and the reflex motor support systems in the brain stem and the thalamus to finalize the action.  If you are dribbling the ball start the entire process over again with each dribble!

It is amazing how complex the brain activation is for a simple eye hand coordination skill like catching a ball.  Imagine the activation during a volleyball game, tennis match or soccer game!

Help children learn how to catch, throw and kick with Teaching Catching, Throwing and Kicking Skills.  This digital download is full of information of age progression of skills, visual picture cards, tips, letter to parents and more!  FIND OUT MORE INFORMATION.

Reference:  Reference: Chokron, S., & Dutton, G. N. (2016). Impact of Cerebral Visual Impairments on Motor Skills: Implications for Developmental Coordination Disorders. Frontiers in psychology, 7.

The post Brain Activation and Ball Skills appeared first on Your Therapy Source.

Step By Step Pictures to Teach How To Catch a Ball

Help children learn how to catch a ball with these step by step visual instructions.  This is a freebie from the latest packet – Teaching Catching, Throwing and Kicking Skills.  You can download the picture cards here http://yourtherapysource.com/teachcatchthrowkickfreebie.html

Get more information on the complete download here http://yourtherapysource.com/teachcatchthrowkick.html

Double Doodling with Paint My Wings by Toca Boca

Are you familiar with double doodles?  It is a Brain Gym® bilateral drawing activity to help with eye hand coordination, spatial awareness, right/left discrimination and visual discrimination skills.  Here is a new app that facilitates double doodling called Paint My Wings, from one of my favorite developers, Toca Boca.  Of course it is cute and colorful like their other apps.  This app allows you to paint your butterfly on one side and the symmetrical paint will appear on the other wing automatically.  You can draw with both hands at the same time creating double doodles.  You can vary the colors and the type of paint used ie thick line, thin line, dotted lines, etc.  Granted it will only pick up one hand but it allows the children to try and follow with the other hand is doing.  Just a tip - this app is not meant for the children to color inside the lines it is just fun to doodle different designs.  Definitely a fun app to play around with and guess what?  It is FREE today as of 6/5/2015.

And bonus, Toca Doctor is also a great app and free today too!  Toca Boca Doctor  is a great app for young children.  It challenges visual perceptual skills, visual motor skills and eye hand coordination.  It works well as a reward - complete a certain number  of tasks and the child is rewarded with a mini game that only lasts less than one minute.

You can check it out here (affiliate link)  https://geo.itunes.apple.com/us/app/paint-my-wings/id432858701?mt=8&uo=6&at=1010l7q

Pool Noodle Stick for Reaction Time, Coordination and Balance

Create this simple pool noodle stick to encourage reaction time, eye hand coordination, balance skills and muscle strengthening.  Read all the details and watch the video at http://yourtherapysource.com/videopoolnoodlestick.html

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Need more sensory motor activities?  Check out Sensory Motor Game Boards at http://yourtherapysource.com/sensoryboards.html.  Just print and play these games that encourage coordination, motor planning, gross motor and balance skills.

Hidden Cups Video Activity

Watch this video activity idea that encourages fine motor skills, forearm pronation/supination, eye hand coordination, grading of movements and counting.  You can view it at http://www.yourtherapysource.com/videohiddencups.html

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10 Ways to Practice Catching and Throwing Skills By Yourself

Here are 10 ways to encourage catching and throwing skills in children that they can do all by themselves:

1.  Toss a balloon up in the air and catch it.

2.  Bat a balloon up and down in the air using your hands.  How many times can you keep it up in the air without it dropping to the floor?

3.  Toss a scarf or small handkerchief in the air and catch it.   

4.  Try throwing up a playground size ball and catching it and then progress to a tennis ball.

5.  Try tossing and catching a ball up in the air standing inside of a hula hoop. 

6.  Walk forward and toss and catch a balloon, scarf or ball depending upon your abilities.

7.  Toss a balloon or ball up in the air, clap your hands and then catch the ball.

8.  Bounce a ball on the floor and catch it. 

9.  Bounce a ball on the floor, clap your hands and catch it.

10.  Toss a ball at the wall, let the ball bounce and catch it. 

25 Tips Sheets for School Based Therapists

 

These 25 Tip Sheets for School Based Occupational and Physical Therapists are jammed packed with information to distribute to
teachers and parents.

 

Find out more information at http://yourtherapysource.com/tipsheets.html

Bell Maze

Here is a simple, super cheap activity to make.  Clean a recycled Styrofoam meat tray.  Cut a pipe cleaner in half and then fold it in half.  Poke the pipe cleaners into the tray to make a small arch.  You can put the pipe cleaners in any order you wish.  Toss a jingle bell into the tray and practice getting the bell to roll under the arches.  The bell works well because it is not a perfect sphere so it rolls slower than a marble or small ball.

This activity encourages:

• bilateral coordination
• eye hand coordination
• visual motor skills
• motor planning
• grading of movements.  

Loop Board

Here is a simple do it yourself project costing about $3.00.  You can watch the video at YourTherapySource.com.

Hand Strengthening Activity for Kids

Water Squirt Race

Oral and Fine Motor Video Activity

Here is a fun outdoor activity to encourage oral motor, fine motor and eye hand coordination skills using bubbles and household items.

Video Activity Idea - Kid Boxing

This fun activity encourages bilateral coordination, timing, eye hand coordination, visual tracking skills and upper extremity muscle strengthening. The key to this activity is teaching the child to hit each balloon or ball with the right hand and left in a rhythmic, controlled pattern. Have fun with it!




Need more activity ideas? Turn fine motor skills into gross motor skills with the activity ideas in Motor Magic.

Check out Play Strong to encourage muscle strenghtening through play.

Visual Motor, Eye Hand Coordination and Handwriting

The Journal of Occupational Therapy, Schools and Early Intervention published research on 75 second graders who were evaluated using the Concise Assessment Scale for Children's Handwriting, the Developmental Test of Visual Perception-2 and the manual dexterity section of the Movement Assessment Battery for Children. Results indicated that visual motor integration and eye hand coordination are predictive of the quality of a student's handwriting.

Reference: Marie-Laure Kaiser; Jean-Michel Albaret; Pierre-Andr Doudin (2009) Relationship Between Visual-Motor Integration, Eye-Hand Coordination, and Quality of Handwriting. Journal of Occupational Therapy, Schools, & Early Intervention, Volume 2, Issue 2 April 2009 , pages 87 - 95.