Some of My Favorite Activities
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Occupational therapists use a wide variety of play
activities to build motor and sensory processing skills. One of my favorites, especially during warm
weather months, is ball play.
Throwing, catching, kicking and/or hitting balls can
appear seamless for some children, even though they involve complex body
movements. These activities involve
coordinating both sides of the body, being able to track the ball visually,
timing when to bring arms and hands together, judging the speed of the ball
and, when playing with another person, being able to read and interpret what
the other person is going to do, and then adjust accordingly. It’s no wonder that ball play can be
challenging for many children.
There are several ways to help your child learn these
skills in a fun, supportive way. These
include:
·
Using large beach balls or blown-up punch
balloons. These are slower, easier to
track visually, and don’t hurt if they happen to hit your nose.
·
Use a toy such as a Zoom Ball. This is a ball attached to two ropes with two
handles on each end, the players take turns opening and closing their arms to
make the ball go back and forth.
·
Tie string between the holes of a small whiffle
ball or other lightweight ball that has holes in it and suspend it from the
ceiling at chest height. Your child can
hit it with HIS hands or, if you’re brave and he’s coordinated, a baseball bat.
·
If your child is having difficulty catching, try
rolling the ball back and forth between the two of you, then throw from a very
short distance, then increase the distance little by little…
·
Begin with larger, softer balls, gradually
progressing to smaller ones.
Of course, the vast majority of kids will not grow up to
play for the San Francisco Giants. But
there are other reasons for helping them develop their skills in this
area. Ball play helps build strength,
endurance, coordination, and spatial awareness which are needed for activities
such as handwriting, as well as for visual motor skills which are important to
later pre-academic and academic learning.
Equally important, they build social skills. Children who are able to catch and throw may
be more likely to respond with a “yes” when a peer asks them to play. They may be more likely to join in playing on
the playground, at the park, or at recess.
They may be are more willing to be part of a group or a team, and to
feel that they belong.
Going through the process of learning a challenging skill
such as ball play, sticking with it, and practicing enough to develop that
skill, teaches resilience and problem solving while building inner confidence
that comes from effort, perseverance and mastery.
All that from a whiffle ball and some string? Absolutely.
The games we play as children help to lay the foundation for how we
experience the world, our relationships with others, and our beliefs about who
we are. Games are important.
Play ball!
