I’ve decided to add a weekly blog post with some of the tips and tricks (TAT) I use with my pediatric patients. For future posts you can always click on the tag on the right: TATtuesdays.
Soooo my first post is for kids who are older than 3 years old. Around and after 3 years of age, children should start learning how to prepare to catch a ball in standing and gradually improve to catching a ball only using their hands.
Most kids begin by catching a ball in their arms and bringing it into their chest and then gradually use only their hands. If your child is having a hard time learning how to catch just using their hands, you can take away a few variables to make it easier for them to learn the skill first.
One thing you can do is to have your child lay down on their bed with their arms hanging off the edge of the bed. This takes the body out of the equation so they don’t have to worry about their standing balance and can just focus on catching a ball. This also makes it harder for your child to cheat by bringing the ball to their chest, because they only have their hands and arms available to catch the ball.
You can start with a larger ball that has a textured grip like this one:
You can also use an Oball, which has convenient holes to make it easier to grab a ball:
and then gradually go down to a smaller ball like a tennis ball.
Hope this helps anyone who is having trouble catching balls!
Here’s a sample of the position you can have your child lay on their bed.
and hopefully your child will be able to successfully catch a small ball!
Categories: Tips and Tricks Tuesdays