How is it that we are able to walk through a dark room to get to a light switch or sense where our body parts are when our eyes are closed during yoga class? We are able to do so because of something called proprioception, which is the internal sense of where your body parts are in space without needing to see or attend to them. We have receptors in our muscles, joints, and other structures that pick up a variety of changes in such things as pressure, length, and position and feed that information to our brains for unconscious processing. If you can relate to one or both of the scenarios mentioned above, you can probably acknowledge how helpful this is to get through daily life.
Proprioceptive input contributes to our overall body awareness, which is the general sense of how our body relates to the world around us. Body awareness helps orient us to our surroundings so that we can navigate easily and efficiently through the environment. During childhood, we build body awareness through movement and experience, but there is high variety in its development. Some children have more difficulty than others and need a little guidance to improve.
The following are indicators that a child may have challenges with body awareness:
- Often running into objects or people in their surroundings
- Difficulty mimicking movements or body positions
- May appear clumsy and trip over objects or their own feet
- Has difficulty learning new movements
- Does not like to be in the dark or close their eyes
Here are a few simple ways to help a child build their body awareness:
- Play games that involve identifying body parts
- Have your child close their eyes and touch body parts on command
- Have them find body parts on you or another family member
- Play games that involve mimicking movements or body positions
- Simon Says
- Hokey Pokey
- Pull a movement out of a hat:
- Nod your head, close your eyes, wiggle your toes/fingers, shrug your shoulders
- Twister is a great one (even if you don’t play by the rules!)
- Balance boards can also be a good tool also (here is one of our favorites)
