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.

Quick Brain Break - Q and A Body Game

Need a quick game to rest and refresh your student's brain?  Try this Q and A Body Game:

Purpose: Promote body awareness, motor skills and listening skills.

Materials: none

Activity: This can be played with one player or a group of children. The adult faces the group. Explain the directions of the game. The adult is going to ask the children to move certain body parts based on questions. The children are not to answer the questions. They should move the body part that is the answer to the question.

Here is an example:
Question: What body part waves hello?
Answer: Children wave hands in air.

Here is a list of several questions and answers or make up your own. See what questions the children can come up with.

Q: What body part makes funny faces?
A: Child moves mouth or tongue

Q: What body part wears socks?
A: Child moves feet.

Q: What body part uses crayons?
A: Child wiggles fingers.

Q: What body part smells skunks?
A: Child moves nose.

Q: What body part climbs ladders?
A: Child moves arms and legs

Now change the game and request actions based on different noises:

Make a clapping sound with your body.
Stomp your feet
Snap fingers
March in place
Smack lips
Slap knees
Tap shoulders quietly

Now have children close their eyes. Make one of the sounds with your body that you practiced together. Can the children guess what body part you are using to make the sound.

Need brain break ideas? Check out all of our Brain Break downloads at http://yourtherapysource.com/brainbreaks.

Or order our Brain Breaks Card Set at http://yourtherapysource.com/growingplaycards.html



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5 Physical Activities to Increase Power in Children

The definition of power is (force x distance) ÷ time.  In other words power is the product of strength and speed over time.  Many times children who receive therapy services exhibit a decrease in power.  For example, perhaps a child can jump forward but does not have the power to jump forward long distances over the course of time.   Obviously, use caution with power exercises - due to increase stress on certain joints power exercises may be contraindicated in some children.

Here are 5 physical activities to increase power in children:

1.  Plyometric Jumps - Sometimes known as jump training, plyometric exercises have muscle exert a maximum amount of force in the shortest amount of time.  The easiest plyometric to try with a child is a box jump.  Have a child stand on top of a box or stool (about 12-18" high).  Jump down and perform a vertical jump as high as you can when you hit the ground.  

You can vary this activity by jumping down followed by jumping forward or to increase the challenge further jump down and jump back up onto a different stool.

2.  Squat Jumps - Begin starting tall.  Squat down and then jump as high as you can reaching for the sky.  Repeat going back into the squat position.  Vary it by doing a star jump - squat and jump high and out into a star position (jumping jack position).  Jump back to standing tall.  Repeat.

3.  High Fast Skips - Skip moving quickly lifting the knees as high as possible.  This can be very difficult for younger children.  Try to skip with high knees to start with a bounce in each skip.

4.  Medicine Balls - Throwing and catching medicine balls can help to increase power in the upper extremities.  Try rebounding a small medicine ball off a mini trampoline that is upright against the wall.  

5.  Partner Activities - Stand back to back with a partner.  Hold a medicine ball and twist at the trunk to pass it to your partner.  The partner then moves the ball to the front of the body and passes it back to you.  Play catch with a lightweight medicine ball with a partner.  Practice chest passes and over head passes.  Have the child lay down on the floor in hook lying position holding a medicine ball, perform a sit up and throw the medicine ball to an adult.   This is obviously difficult so you may need to start with the child on an incline wedge.

What is your favorite power exercise to do with children? 



Play Strong is a download of 40+ activities that promote muscle strengthening in children. The activities are great for your pediatric occupational and physical therapy sessions for children with varying abilities. This is an excellent resource for pediatric therapists.  Find out more information at http://yourtherapysource.com/playstrong.html

 

5 Steps to Visualize Success at Motor Goals

[caption id="attachment_1211" align="aligncenter" width="300"] 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:

1. Determine what the overall goal is that the child would like to reach.


2. Instruct the child to relax and visualize him/herself achieving the goal.


3. Right before the child is going to try the skill again ask the child to visualize him/herself performing the skill perfectly.


4. Throughout the attempt at trying/practicing the skill have the child imagine success.


5. 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

Relationship Between IQ and Motor Skills

Pediatrics published research on the relationship of IQ to motor skills.  Data on motor skills and IQ was assessed on 460 children in educational and clinic settings.  The results of the data analysis indicated that typical and atypical motor skills were seen at all levels of IQ.  In addition the following was seen:

"for each SD lower IQ, a mean loss of 10 percentile motor points should be expected".

 Overall, children in the study with a lower IQ showed poorer motor performance more often than children with a higher IQ.  

Reference:  Bouwien Smits-Engelsman and Elisabeth L. Hill. The Relationship Between Motor Coordination and Intelligence Across the IQ Range. Pediatrics 2012; 130:4 e950-e956; published ahead of print September 17, 2012, doi:10.1542/peds.2011-3712

Teaching Motor Skills

The development in children of fundamental motor skills such as ball handling and locomotor skills need to be learned, practiced and practiced some more.  A recent research review in Child: Care, Health and Development aimed to determine the effectiveness of motor skill interventions in children.  The results indicated the following:

1.  A significant positive effect of motor skill interventions on the improvement of fundamental motor skills in children was found.

2.  Object control and locomotor skills improved similarly from pre- to post-intervention.

3.  Overall effect size for the control groups who only had free play had no significant changes

4.  There was a a non-significant, negative correlation between effect size of pre- to post-improvement of fundamental motor skills and the duration of the intervention (in minutes).

The researchers concluded that early childhood centers should schedule motor programs to facilitate motor skill development in children. 

Pediatric occupational and physical therapists can help to educate teachers and parents on the importance of teaching and practicing fundamental motor skills.  If you need ideas check out these sensory motor books:

Sensory Motor Group Activities A to Z
Locomotor Games 
50 Sensory Motor Activities for Kids!

Reference:  Logan, S. W., Robinson, L. E., Wilson, A. E. and Lucas, W. A. (2012), Getting the fundamentals of movement: a meta-analysis of the effectiveness of motor skill interventions in children. Child: Care, Health and Development, 38: 305–315. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2214.2011.01307.x

Challenging Motor Skills

Yesterday, I was spending some time with my 14 month old daughter outdoors. I was just watching her interact with the environment and see what choices she made to play. All of a sudden it hit me how often she challenges her motor skills to a more difficult level. There were many examples of this:

• she was walking on the pavement (still somewhat unsteady being a new walker for about one month) and gets bored with that rather quickly and prefers the challenge of the uneven terrain of the grass (notice her crouched position and wide base of support walking on grass)
  
• she had the choices of ride on toys, the Cozy Coupe car and balls to play with but it never takes long for her to gravitate towards the porch stairs so she can practice climbing up and down (this is an obviously dangerous task for her - she can make it up but if left to her own accord she would tumble to the concrete when descending the stairs)
• she occasionally asks to go in the swing but much prefers to attempt to climb up the slide or up the ladder (also quite precarious when she stands on a slide)
• she has the choice to play with balls, pine cones and leaves but she always goes back to these tiny round balls that fall from one of our trees to practice her fine motor skills to pick up the potential choking hazard

Now of course I am closely watching and guarding her throughout all these activities but I do let her explore them. It really made me wonder why some babies do this behavior? Why is he or she always looking for the next motor challenge? I realize that not all babies behave this way although she is my fifth child and her four previous siblings behaved in the same manner (especially obsessing with climbing the stairs). In addition, whenever we are at a gathering with other parents many of them see me closely following my children up and down the stairs repeatedly (babies love to perform the same tasks over and over and over again). Almost of all them say "I see they found the stairs, I remember those days".

Although my observations are based on typical childhood motor development, children who are developing at a slower pace also benefit from being challenged motorically. This is why when some babies or young children are not walking they will benefit from a standing program, gait trainer or wheelchair for social, cognitive and physical benefits. You can read more on this topic from a previous post Ready, Set, Go.

So I guess my questions for the day are:

1. Do you let your child explore and challenge themselves to learn new motor skills and develop a sense of accomplishment?
2. Why is it that when a baby could choose to play with toys or explore the outdoors they sooner or later gravitate towards something they can climb on or perhaps something they should not have?
   
   
   Is it the novelty, the fear, the sense of accomplishment or self driven motivation? I am guessing it is all those things together. I looked for research on this but came up empty handed. Would love to hear if anyone has anything on it I am very curious...