Raising an Extraordinary Person!

From Sarah Guy, COTA!!

Here are two great little routines that I found from Raising an Extraordinary Person. Roxy who is 8) and I had so much fun doing them today! For some kids 45 seconds might be a bit long for some of the activities so you can adjust accordingly. It’s a good idea to do movement activities such as these at least twice a day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon.

https://hes-extraordinary.com/morning-workout-for-kids 

Here is another good one.

https://hes-extraordinary.com/improve-emotional-regulation-just-7-minutes-per-day

For kids who are sensory seekers (kids who are on the move all the time) intuitively we typically try to calm them down. However, it’s important to remember that these kids need more activity, not less, to satisfy their sensory needs. Activities should include a lot of vestibular and proprioceptive input. 

Here are some ideas:
*Note: it is a good idea to include ways to engage their brain while doing these activities below and provide lots of changes to head position and stops and starts. Simply jumping on a trampoline may actually wind them up rather than regulate them. So for example, you could have your kiddo jump on the trampoline while counting by 2s until 30, then crash onto couch cushions or a mattress on the floor, then bear walk to grab a stuffed animal, and then back to the trampoline for more jumping (this time counting by 5s). 

Vestibular input for fast, intense, arrhythmic swinging, jumping, bouncing, or rolling such as:

Swinging on a swing from a single point
Log rolling
Forward rolls
Trampoline jumps
Bouncing on a therapy ball
Upside down bowling (with head down and rolling ball between legs to target)
Sliding down the slide head first
Scooter rides
Yoga moves that get the head upside down.

Proprioceptive input of pushing, pulling, climbing etc. 

Get and give blanket rides pulling each other around the room on a blanket
Carry books, groceries, or the like
Climb up the slide
Tug of war
Wall pushes
Yoga
Push ups
Sit ups
Jumping Jacks
Crawl or run over couch cushions on the the ground
Jump and crash onto the couch cushions
Jumping on a trampoline
Mopping the floor
Washing windows
Scrubbing...well anything!
Dusting
The chores idea is limitless!

After doing some of the above then you can give your kiddo some calming deep pressure input such as:

A massage
Rolling a therapy ball over them
Squish them between couch cushions
Pillow fight
Brushing with joint compressions

For kiddos that are more on the over-responsive type or anxious about movement activities it is best to start with deep pressure input such as mentioned above. Also it is important to keep vestibular activity slower, linear (back and forth), rhythmic, and predictable such as swinging on a swing from 2 points or rocking on a rocking chair. After that some proprioceptive activity is a good idea.