image retrieved from: kardoninstitute.org
I know I’ve talked about our group before but I wanted to share something we figured out by accident. One of the great things with group is we have our various therapists rotate in and out so there are always new ideas coming in. One of our OT’s decided to have the kids play kazoos to work on oral motor control, breath control, and have fun. What we saw was that for some of our kids they completely lost postural control while trying to blow into the kazoo.
For one of the kids, while he was sitting on the floor or in a cube chair he was able to maintain an upright posture. When asked to blow into the kazoo he ‘melted’ because he wasn’t able to concentrate on his sitting posture and blowing into the kazoo at the same time. In addition, he was having to use his postural muscles to generate breath support for the activity.
He loved the activity as did all the kids. Just think of the possibilities. They get to strengthen core and postural muscles while ‘making music’ and they have no idea they are working hard. You can figure out what level of support the kiddo needs in order to play the kazoo without losing their upright posture. Then you can slowly make it more challenging. The more they play the kazoo over a period of time they are also working on their muscle endurance!
How have you used kazoos or other fun tools for postural control?