This idea is so simple I wouldn’t have thought of it except my nephew initiated it and we had a blast. Basically my parents keep a glass jar of rubber bouncy balls for him to play with (note if you have little kids make sure they don’t put them in their mouth). He brought the jar down and we went into the three season room (not sure why its called this since they use it all four seasons) which has a tile floor (any hard floor will do) and we turned the jar upside down and watched the balls bounce all over the floor. We then had to go around and pick them all up. In the process of picking them up we worked on squatting, quadruped, crawling, weight shifting, reaching, in hand object manipulation, various grasps, body awareness as we maneuvered around the furniture, visual scanning so that we didn’t step on the balls as we picked them up (and scanning to locate the ones to pick up). Then we put them back in the jar which works on voluntary releasing, visual motor accuracy and tripod or pincer grasp. If you wanted to really spice it up you could sit the jar on a chair or some other elevated surface and try to toss the balls into the jar. Then you get to go chasing after them when you miss! Or, you could practice bouncing the balls and trying to catch them which works on visual motor and hand eye coordination.
How do you use bouncy balls?
