Building Gross Motor Skills Through Play
Tiny Heroes sometimes have delays in their gross motor skills, but with some help early on, they can easily catch up in no time. These delays are typically not due to CDH itself. Many of our children could not do various gross motor activities in the NICU. They had various surgeries that weakened some major muscle groups and often lacked the opportunity to learn from peers due to the need to stay home to avoid infection more than other children. If these delays occur, your doctor may recommend working with a physical therapist. However, you can do many things at home with your child to help develop their gross motor skills in combination with the directions from your doctor and PT. Once your child is more engaged, mobile, and able, there are a variety of fun activities you can do to help their gross motor skills and ability to accomplish ADLs (activities of daily living).
The beauty of physical therapy is that you can convert pretty much any activity at home into therapy. You probably already have all the toys, if not more, that you need to practice at home. Here are a few things that might be worth purchasing to make these activities more fun or easier to do: PT supplies. Have some fun while trying out some of these at home to help with any delays your child may be experiencing.
Animal Walk: Get ready to get silly! Place a piece of tape on the floor on opposite sides of the room. Now, have your child walk like an animal from one piece of tape to the other. For example, walk like a crab, hop like a frog, walk like a dog, etc. Get creative and try to come up with as many different types of animal walks as you can think of!
Floor Ice Skating: Grab two paper plates and have your child sit down and draw their best ice skate on each plate. Once they’re done, find a spot in your house where your child can skate the night away! Help them carefully stand on their skates, and then tell them to slide around on the “ice.”
Wheelbarrow Race: For this activity, you’ll hold your child’s legs up while they walk with their hands, mimicking a wheelbarrow. Pick a start and end point you can use several times. Then grab a timer and try to beat your time from the previous race. If you have four or more people in your house, you can race against each other on teams of two!
Red Light, Green Light: Try to find a wide-open space where your child can run around, such as your backyard or a park. You’ll begin on one side of the yard, and your child will start on the other side. Yell out “green light” and watch as your child starts running towards you. After a few seconds, yell out, “red light.” Your child will need to stop in their tracks as quickly as possible. They must stay still until you decide to call out “green light” once again. Continue the game until your child makes it all the way to your side. This activity is even more fun with multiple children - see who can make it across to you the fastest without moving after “red light” is called. If they keep moving after you call “red light,” they have to take two giant steps back. The first person to you is the winner!
Toy Toss: This activity is an excellent way to work with your child on hand-eye coordination while also cleaning up their toys in the process. It’s a win-win! First, grab the basket or bin you use to store your little one’s toys. Now, have them run around the room as fast as possible and grab each toy one at a time. Once they have a toy in hand, tell them to aim and toss it into the basket. Continue until all of the toys have been cleaned up!
Tightrope Walk: This is a fun way to strengthen your child’s core muscles! A strong core helps with balance, stability, and gross motor skills. Stick a piece of tape on the ground from one corner of the room to another. Ask your child to walk on the tape and pretend they are walking on a tight rope. If they step away from the tape, they have to start over. You can also extend the activity by asking them to walk on tiptoes, sideways, backward, giant steps, or baby steps.
Dancing: What could be a more fun way to improve strength than a goofy, energy-burning dance party with mom or dad? It’s a great way to sneak in so many pediatric physical therapy moves - jumping, running, hopping, bouncing, and skipping to their heart’s delight. Pick some fun music your child will enjoy. Turn on the music and show off your awesome moves! This is a great way to help kids burn off some energy before bedtime or in a waiting room. Use this to help get their sillies out!
Rocker board: Rocker board offers a range of fun activities for kids to build their leg and foot muscles. These are especially great for kids who toe-walk. Help your child carefully step onto the rocker board. Allow them to use a wall for balance if it’s difficult at first. Ask your child to place both feet on opposite sides of the board to balance. Now rock the board a little and encourage the child to try to rock it themselves. Extend the activity by asking the child to stand sideways on the board and repeat the same motion.
Stability Ball Game: Yoga or stability balls are great for core strengthening! Scatter a bunch of little balls or toys around a small area, then grab some kitchen tongs and a bowl big enough to hold the small toys. Help your child lie down on the stability ball on their tummy. The goal is to collect all the small balls using the tongs and transfer them to the bowl.
Simon Says: This classic game can be a great way to sneak in therapy with loads of fun. Some good PT things Simon can say are:
Bend your knees
Stand on one foot
Touch your toys
Stomp your feet
Pretend to sit on a chair
Jump as high as you can
Hop on one foot
Stand on your toes
Ninja Warrior: Can you step over or army crawl under these laser beams without touching them? If you touch it, you will have to start the mission again. Make 7 to 10 long strips of masking tape and go to a narrow hallway. Place the strips of tape at different heights and angles between the two walls. Have your child standing when climbing over the laser beams and army crawling when going under. Alternate going over and under each laser beam to make this activity more challenging.
Stickers On Your Foot: Grab a balance ball, a piece of paper with a piece of tape, and a sheet of stickers. Hang the piece of paper on a wall within reach of the balance ball. Let your child put as many stickers as they want onto the bottoms of their feet. Then, while sitting on the balance ball facing the wall, they take the stickers off of their feet one at a time, sticking them onto the piece of paper on the wall. Keep your hands nearby (but not touching) their back in case they fall over. Staying balanced on top of the ball while reaching down to the bottoms of the feet will strengthen their core muscles while having so much fun they won’t even notice they are doing work!
Make a Basket: Start with your child lying down on their back. Place a shallow basket down by their feet. Instruct them to raise their legs up to near vertical. Place a bean bag or small stuffed animal in between their feet and instruct them to lower it down slowly into the basket. Set a goal for how many they can successfully lower down into the basket, raising the number each time you do this activity. This can be a fun activity to do as a contest between siblings as well. Who can fill the basket the most in five minutes?
While having fun, all of these activities can help tremendously with crawling and walking, balance and coordination, core strength, gross motor skills, mobility, and flexibility. It’s important to remember that during early childhood development, kids learn by playing. Often, physical therapy will involve toys and games for kids to use. It’s essential to provide an environment that is fun and engaging because it can be a lot of hard work to strengthen muscles and learn to do new things.
If your Tiny Hero is not motivated to do physical therapy at home, find a toy that is particularly special to your little one and only let them play with it during or after at-home therapy. This will help them get excited! If all else fails, remember that activities such as teaching them how to ride a bike, swim, or bounce a ball are all helping to increase their physical strength and gross motor skills. Try to have some fun and take advantage of activities that you already need to do while adding a slight PT twist to it.
