We have so many kids who are working on stability with functional mobility. So recently for this one kid we created a circuit just for him to work on his stability! Here are some of the tasks it included:
- Balance Beam – We chose a tall narrow one so that this child would have to slow down while walking along it. We also have ones that are lower to the ground but because it is so easy to step off the tendency can be to go faster and more uncontrolled.
- Stepping Stones – We used only the taller ones and not in a path with each other. The object was for the child to stand with both feet on the top of the stepping stone. Then we used an easy to catch ball and played ‘catch’ for 3 tosses so that he was doing some activity while staying stable on a tall, small surface. We had three of these throughout the circuit.
- Balance Board – For this the object was to stand on the balance board and keep a ‘quiet body’ while catching the ball 3 times. Without the cues for quiet body there was a lot of side to side and trying to use movement to compensate for stability.
- Bosu – The Bosu was challenging because it moved in all directions. On this one we worked on just standing with a quiet body and when we were able to do that we squatted down to pick up a bean bag (or other small item) and toss it to the PT
- Core/Stability Disc – Similar to the Bosu, this also moved in multiple directions but had less excursion than that Bosu so it was a little easier to control. This also required a lot of cues for quiet body and then we did 3 catches.
- Toe Taps – We set up two cones in front of a spot. The object was to tap one foot to one cone and then bring it back to the spot. And then repeat on the next foot. For those kids that are more advanced you could have them tap both cones with one foot before bringing it back to the spot. By having to bring the foot back to the spot it also helped with the stability because when they were unstable their foot tended to land wherever it wanted but they had to use control to get it back onto the spot.
- Ball Stands – We took a partially deflated playground ball (full inflated is harder) and put one foot on top of it while leaving the other foot on a spot. We counted for a count of 5 and increased to 10 (you can count for whatever length works best for you and your child) and then brought the foot back down to the spot. Same rules apply for bringing the foot back to the spot as in the previous exercise.
These are just a few of the ideas we had. I would love to hear other ideas!