In honor of Super Bowl 50 being in the San Francisco Bay Area next weekend, and the Broncos playing in the game, I thought I would share a football activity one of our therapists came up with. She used this as a motivating activity for one of our kids who is really into football and wanted his therapy activities to be meaningful. I thought she did a great job of incorporating his age appropriate interests into something that was therapeutic and fun.
As you can see from the picture a football field was created along with goal posts. This child was working on dynamic standing and sitting balance as well as walking, transitioning between sitting and standing, and squatting to pick things up from the ground.
With this set up his goal was to get it through the uprights. He got a certain number of points based on various criteria
- Was he sitting or standing while he threw the ball
- Did it go through the uprights
- Did it land on the ‘field’
- How far away from the target did it land
Clearly if he threw it standing and it went through the uprights he got the most points and then they were graded lower after that. He had a target number of points that they kept on a white board (also allowing him to work on his math skills!).
After he threw the ball he had to walk to where it landed (or to the accessible place the therapist moved it to) and squat down to pick it up and then return to the bench and sit before he threw the ball again.
You could easily do this with bean bags or a soccer ball and goal or any other activity. The part that was fun for us was all the skills he could work in a meaningful and fun way for him! And, football was a regular discussion with regards to players, positions, teams, divisional standings, etc.
What ways have you made activities meaningful for your kids you work with?