How to improve your child’s balance skills? I am sharing with you some critical information about balance skills then will show you the best balance activities you can do with children in any environment.
We as paediatric physiotherapists consider balance skills one of the most important motor skills children acquire. We expect from children to acquire all the basic balance skills by the age of 5 years.
Why having sufficient balance is so important with kids?
1- Having good balance allows the child to walk independently on different surfaces whether indoor or outdoor.
2- Proper balance also allows children to move independently in any environment with physical demands like walking up and down stairs, walking on curbs, and using the sidewalk.
3- Children with adequate balance are able to play confidently with their siblings and peers indoor and outdoor such as swinging and sliding.
4- Having good balance should prevent frequent falls and injuries with children.
5- Balance skills are the basic to acquire many gross motor skills such as jumping, running, and ball play.
6- Having sufficient balance will allow children to learn any sports that require the whole body movement like tennis, football, basketball, and any type of martial arts.
Any medical problem that causes developmental delay will ultimately cause delayed in balance skills such as Cerebral Palsy, Down’s syndrome, and Autism Spectrum Disorder. Therefore, delayed in balance skills is a very common issue we see as pediatric physical therapists.
So, Let’s work all together to improve children’s balance. The question is how to improve children’s balance?
1- Assess and treat any medical issue that causes delayed balance (and can be treated) like vision problems as well as inner ear issues.
2- Strengthen weak muscles especially the core muscles, check these videos
👉🏼 Kids’ core workout https://youtu.be/VVEfFps_eGM
👉🏼 Core exercises for kids (no equipment) https://youtu.be/sMpRqbAVKBw
👉🏼 Strengthening exercises for kids https://youtu.be/4hfMKoxVPZQ
3- Practice balance activities with your kids, the good news is that I am going to demonstrate 57 balance activities using simple equipment. Don’t worry, if you don’t have any of these equipment because I will show you a number of balance activities without using any equipment.
Make sure to watch all the activities to get as many ideas as possible.
00:00 Introduction
00:35 Why having sufficient balance is important with kids?
01:41 What causes delayed in balance skills?
01:58 How to improve children’s balance?
02:57 Balance activities using a rope
04:11 Balance activities using hula hoops
05:21 Balance activities using a towel
06:20 Balance activities using cups
07:10 Balance activities using cardboard boxes
07:48 Balance activities using cushions
08:30 Balance activities using the Ikea mattress
09:20 Balance activities using Yoga mats
10:08 Balance activities without any equipment
Don’t forget to share with everyone in your mind 😉 Subscribe and hit the notification button to not miss any future video.
👉🏼 You can follow @Generate.skill on Instagram & Facebook.
👉🏼 I also have this ebook on Kindle for your review 🙂
How to be Active: from birth to three years https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08RCX18BP
#balanceactivitiesforkids #improvebalancechildren #homeactivitieskids
