Our last post had ideas for dynamic standing balance activities. Well while we were talking about those activities we thought of ways we could modify them to work on sitting balance as well as improve core strength!
Since the ideas are really similar in terms of activities to our Standing Dynamic Balance post we will talk about variations here.
- The surface you sit on makes a difference. You can use a therapy ball which is really unstable since it can move in all directions. This will require you to stabilize on top of a dynamic base while doing a dynamic activity. Or you can sit on a peanut ball. This is more stable because it will only move in two directions unlike the ball. To go for the most stable you can sit on a bench or chair. You can make that a little more unstable by putting a disc or pillow on it to make it less stable.
- You can place items on their foot and have them lift their foot. These items could be stickers, bean bags, or rings. Or instead of lifting their foot to get the item off, they can stick their foot out to you to place the item on it. This works easier with the ring or sticker than the bean bag!
- Or you can do reaching activities. You can reach to get the bean bag, sticker, or ring, or you can reach to hand/toss these items. You can also modify things by putting stickers on the knees and trying to touch various body parts to the sticker. You can work in all directions as well as doing cross body.
For kids that have a really hard time with core stability you may need to give them a little support or tactile cues to remind them to ‘turn on’ their core.
What other ideas do you have that you like to do?
