Andrea Meador MSOT, OTR/L

Yoga for kids is a great calming activity that can help build/maintain your child’s strength, endurance, balance, flexibility, and provide some relaxation during this challenging time. Yoga can be completed anywhere-inside your home or outside if the weather permits! Parents can also participate in yoga with your kids! This could be a great activity for a rainy day, or a nice outdoor activity when the sun is shining! See below website link for the benefits of yoga for kids! There are many!

Therapeutic Benefits of Yoga for Kids

Here are some nice videos from YouTube that will guide and walk you and your kids through many different yoga positions and breathing techniques!

Happy Spring families! As we begin the spring season, it comes with a lot of rain and a chance to see rainbows! This activity helps to integrate or develop use of both sides of a child’s body. For this activity, kids will be seated on the floor or sidewalk ideally in a cross legged seated position (criss cross applesauce-as some kids may know!). Next have the child start with either the left of right hand with a marker or chalk, starting at the same side of the body (starting with right hand, start at right side of body near hips). Have the child grasp the marker/chalk and hold down on the sidewalk or paper and draw across the body to the opposite side near hips. Next, use the opposite hand to complete the next line of the rainbow. Alternate colors between lines of the rainbow. Have fun!

Skills Addressed:

• Crossing midline (crossing over each side of the body)
• Trunk stability/control
• Fine motor development (grasp)

Materials Needed:

• Marker, crayons, or chalk if completing on sidewalk
• Large piece of paper, newspaper, or sidewalk/driveway

The purpose of the activity is to keep the balloon in the air for as long as possible. You can modify the activity if playing with one or multiple people! Someone begins the activity by tossing the balloon in the air, either one person can hit as many times as possible and count how many hits before it falls to the floor, or can toss between 2 or more people and count the amount of hits to keep the balloon in the air.

Reaching up to hit the balloon works on arm strength, upper body range of motion, shoulder stability, core control, visual motor skills, and bilateral coordination. When playing the game while standing, you can work on standing balance, weight shifting, and lower extremity strength. It is fun to add some extra difficultly to this activity, if you have a trampoline you can have your child jump on the trampoline while trying to keep the balloon in the air!

Another modification you can make it to add a device to hit the balloon with or a target to hit the balloon into. You can add paddles, pool noodles, a stick, and aim to get the balloon into a basketball hoop or basket!

Materials needed:

• Balloon

Skills:

• Upper extremity strength
• Lower extremity strength if standing
• Balance
• Trunk or core control
• Shoulder stability
• Core strength
• Motor planning
• Coordination
• Visual motor skills

Obstacle courses are a great way to have your child problem solve, sequence steps, memorize, and move their bodies in various ways! Obstacle courses can be designed based on items you have available in or outside of your home. Obstacle courses can be as simple as you would like them to be, or more complex requiring multiple steps if you would like to challenge your child! I recommend completing the obstacle course 3-5 times, for the older children they may be able to complete a 4-6 step course, while younger children may complete a 2-4 step. The below link has great ideas if you would like to see more examples: https://playtivities.com/obstacle-courses-for-kids/

Examples of Obstacle Courses with suggested materials:

1. Outdoor Idea 1: Hopscotch, frog jumps, walk on chalk line, jump on one foot: materials needed: sidewalk chalk
2. Outdoor Idea 2: Jump in and out of hula hoop 5 times, hula hoop 30 seconds, summersault 2 times, and 10 jumping jacks. Materials needed: Hula hoop
3. Indoor Idea 1: 10 wall pushes, bear crawl across hallway, wheelbarrow walk with partner, spin in circle 3 times. No materials needed.
4. Indoor Idea 2: Crawl through tunnel or tent (can make a tent too!), 10 jumps, carry heavy backpack across room, 10 sit ups. Materials needed: blankets for tent or tunnel, backpack or heavy object.

During this time that K-12 schools are closed, special education is here to support your family. Please email me if you have specific questions or concerns regarding occupational therapy: meadora@dearbornschools.org. Dearborn Public Schools Special Education department is following state and national guidelines and is currently developing a further plan of support during this time of closure. In the meantime, feel free to contact me should you need support, I have also posted ideas of activities under the “pages” link at the bottom of the page. There is also a helpful list of websites under “links” that can also be used as a resource for families. I will be sending an email to each family of the students I service to ensure families have my contact information. I will also be posting activities on my blog throughout the closure.