Balance beams are a great tool for addressing areas like vestibular sensory input, core strength, balance, visual motor skills, and attention. Here are outdoor balance beams and balance beam ideas that don’t require a playground or fancy equipment. These balance beams for kids are helpful in building the skills needed for reading, writing, visual processing, sensory processing, self-regulation, and more. Read more about balance beams and how they sneak in so many skill areas in a post we wrote on how balance beams help with sensory needs.
Recently, I shared ideas for indoor balance beams. The indoor balance beam ideas are perfect for adding movement and core strengthening to those rainy days that keep the kids inside but the kids are bouncing off those very walls that keep them cozy and dry? I wanted to share some outdoor balance beam ideas that you may not have thought of.
This post contains affiliate links. You don’t need fancy equipment! Use sticks to make a balance beam.
Use 2x4x16 feet or 2x4x8 feet wooden planks to create a large-sized balance beam in the lawn or on the driveway. Large pieces of wood can be found at hardware stores. Moving those large pieces is a workout for kids that can be calming with all of that proprioceptive input!
Not interested in moving big pieces of wood? Try using rocks, patio pavers, bricks.
Try chalk drawn on a driveway or sidewalk. Make the balance beam lines bend and curve to really challenge balance.
Skip the chalk and make a balance beam with the cracks that are already in the sidewalk or driveway!
Use a jump rope or long rope to create a balance beam line.
Use sticks and twigs to make a balance beam in the grass.
Make a narrow balance beam using leaves or wildflowers like dandelions.
Create a balance beam with leaves.
Walk along a fallen log.
Use commercial versions of balance beams that are available, including a portable foam balance beam. This would be perfect for outdoor obstacle courses.
Other ideas include: Make a portable roll-up balance beam using a yoga mat cut into strips (easily add it to your therapy bag!) and balance pods.
Jacks is a classic game. Bounce a ball, scoop up the correct number of jacks, and be sure to catch the ball again! Playing jacks is a great way to sneak in eye-hand coordination skills, grasp, and motor planning. So when we read the book, Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs by Mo Willems this week with the Virtual Book Club for Kids, we were excited to try a dinosaurs version of the classic Jacks game!
Get ready for a FUN kids’ book and an even more fun active game with Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs Jacks Game!
This game is just like the classic game of jacks. Do you know how to play jacks? It’s pretty easy.
Scatter the jacks on the floor.
Toss the ball into the air. Scoop up one jack and let the ball bounce once before catching the ball in the same hand.
Collect all of the jacks in the same way. This is called “onsies”. Then start another round called “twosies” where you will pick up two jacks at a time until all of the jacks are gone.
So, playing Dinosaur Jacks would be the same exact way. Scoop up one dinosaur at a time until they are all gone.
Jacks is a fun and active way to work on so many skills.
Catching a ball is a skill of motor planning. Without a plan to adjust to the way the ball moves, it would be impossible to catch or dodge a ball. It can be quite difficult for children with a lack of body awareness or sensory processing issues to move and create a plan in response to a stimulus such as a moving ball.
Jacks is a game of visual motor integration. Scattered dinosaurs (or jacks) need to be gathered up while the bouncing ball is moving in different planes of vision.
There are many visual processing skills that are used when playing jacks: visual attention, visual memory, visual spatial relationships, and visual figure ground.
Playing jacks requires the hands to move in response to what is perceived and is a challenge to eye-hand coordination skills.
Try using the game of Dinosaur Jacks to help with any of these skills that interfere with handwriting, reading, math, or other functional skills.
Looking for more ways to play and learn with a dinosaur theme? Try these ideas from the Virtual Book Club for Kids team:
This month’s Occupational Therapy calendar explores the season’s finest with a Harvest theme. If you’ve missed this years’ series of calendars, you can check out last month’s calendar for activities that will keep your child occupied with sensory play and experiences well into this month.
Each month, I’ve been sharing creative and seasonal sensory experiences that address sensory needs based on each of the senses. I try to come up with activities that can be modified to address multiple developmental areas such as fine motor skills, visual motor integration, gross motor coordination and balance, and functional skills.
This month’s calendar is perfect for Sensory Awareness month!
October brings with it all things falling leaves and pumpkin spice everything, and it is definitely a sensory-filled month! This month’s activity calendar is full of sensory activities that will challenge the senses. You will find activities based on all seven senses and are fun ways to involve the whole family in indoor and outdoor play. Print out your free calendar, read through the activities and get ready to play!
For more info on the activities below, grab your Harvest Sensory Booklet (It’s a freebie, too! Scroll below to grab your copy.)
Use these harvest themed ideas in sensory diets to address sensory needs. These are creative ways to experience all that Fall has to offer with the whole family.
Take the challenge. Encourage and experience sensory play every day this month.
Print your Fall Sensory Activities workbook and calendar and join us in daily sensory play.
October Occupational Therapy Calendar Sensory Activities
Grab your Fall Sensory Activities booklet to build Fall harvest themed activities into your child’s sensory diet with activities the whole family can enjoy.
Get yours!
This is a great way to challenge the senses and take part in our Sensory Processing Month sensory challenge!
Simply add one sensory activity to every day. These can be simple ideas that the whole family can do. Need ideas? Grab your sensory activity booklet.
What’s in the Fall Sensory Activities booklet?
Fall Proprioception Sensory Activities
6 creative proprioception activities!
Fall Vestibular Sensory Activities
4 creative vestibular ideas for indoor or outdoor!
Fall Tactile Sensory Activities
4 tactile sensory experiences!
Fall Visual Sensory Activities
4 ways to incorporate the sense of sight into fall play!
Fall Auditory Sensory Activities
4 Fall auditory processing ideas!
Fall Olfactory Sensory Activities
5 ways to encourage and use scent in sensory processing!
Fall Gustatory Sensory Activities
4 Fall taste activities!
Are you excited to take the sensory challenge this October? Join us with the activities in your Fall Sensory Activities book today!
Looking for more ways to explore all things sensory this month?
How to incorporate sensory play into playing outside in the fall
It’s a fact that kids are spending less time playing outdoors. From after-school schedules to two working parents, to unsafe conditions, to increased digital screen time, to less outdoor recess time…kids just get less natural play in the outdoors. Therapists have connected the dots between less outdoor play and increased sensory struggles and attention difficulties in learning.
Knowing this, it can be powerful to have a list of outdoor sensory diet activities that can be recommended as therapy home programing and family activities that meet underlying needs.
That’s where the Outdoor Sensory Diet Cards and Sensory Challenge Cards come into play.
They are a printable resource that encourages sensory diet strategies in the outdoors. In the printable packet, there are 90 outdoor sensory diet activities, 60 outdoor recess sensory diet activities, 30 blank sensory diet cards, and 6 sensory challenge cards. They can be used based on preference and interest of the child, encouraging motivation and carryover, all while providing much-needed sensory input.
30 blank sensory diet cards, and 6 sensory challenge cards
They can be used based on preference and interest of the child, encouraging motivation and carryover, all while providing much-needed sensory input.
Research tells us that outdoor play improves attention and provides an ideal environment for a calm and alert state, perfect for integration of sensory input.
Outdoor play provides input from all the senses, allows for movement in all planes, and provides a variety of strengthening components including eccentric, concentric, and isometric muscle contractions.
Great tool for parents, teachers, AND therapists!
Be sure to grab the Outdoor Sensory Diet Cards and use them with a child (or adult) with sensory processing needs!
These Fall Leaf Auditory Processing Activities are great for addressing listening skills in kids with or without auditory processing difficulties. Try these creative ideas at home or in the school yard to easily strengthen auditory abilities for better learning. Perfect for children of all ages and developmental levels, it’s a Fall themed activity that will help kids learn to listen to details!
Fall Auditory Processing Activities
Listening isn’t easy for everyone. For children with auditory processing disorders, learning is difficult. Imagine identifying and localizing sounds in a classroom that is filled with chattering children, scooting chair legs, pencils scratching on paper, and moving, sound-making children. The process of localizing sounds, recognizing sound patterns, discriminating between different letter sounds, and interpreting auditory information can be less than optimal for the child with difficulty processing the sound information that is coming in.
When there are auditory processing difficulties present, a child may tend to have the following problems that interfere with learning:
Poor direction following
Appear confused
Distractibility
Short attention spans
Sensitive to loud sounds
Inconsistently aware of sounds
Poor listeners
To build and strengthen auditory skills, try using leaves this Fall. The crunchy, dry leaves that cover the ground are nature’s sensory tool when it comes to auditory processing needs.
We first talked about the fall leaves that are covering our lawn and read through this month’s Virtual Book Club for Kids book, (affiliate link) Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert. We talked about how the leaves of fall are all different colors, shapes, and sizes but have one thing in common: a great crunch when they are dry!
To do these sensory Fall Leaf Auditory Processing activity, you’ll need a bunch of leaves that have fallen from trees. Dry leaves will work best, so if the leaves are newly fallen, you will want to gather leaves up in advance. Let them dry indoors for several hours or overnight to get a great “crunch”.
Next, spread out the leaves in a big bin. An under the bed storage bin works great for this activity.
Show your child how to squeeze and crumble the leaves using their hands. Ask them to listen to the crunch of the leaves. Notice how the leaves crumble and give off a satisfying noise as they are shifted around in the bin.
Use the dry leaves to address auditory sensory needs:
Where is that leaf? Ask the child to sit in front of the bin (or if you are outside, sit in front of the adult. Ask the child to close their eyes. Using one hand to crunch leaves, ask the child to say or point to the side that the leaf crunch is coming from. Add a high/low and front/back component by moving around to crumble the leaves, too.
Leaf Pattern- Ask your child to gather a bunch of dry leaves. Using a pile of leaves of your own, complete a crunching pattern as you crumble leaves at different speeds and in each hand. The child can then repeat the pattern.
Sound Stop- Crumble and crunch the leaves. At intervals, stop crunching leaves and wait for a moment. Ask the child to say “Now!” when the leaves stop crumbling.
Falling Leaf Sounds- With the child’s eyes closed, crumble leaves high and low above and below the child. Ask the child to determine if the leaves are above them or below them as they determine the location of the sound.
Lots of Sound Leaves- Add other sounds to the background noise: talking, music, rattle toys, birds chirping, etc. Ask the child to determine when the sound of crunching leaves stop. You can also add a localization dimension to this activity to work on auditory figure ground awareness.
Kids can complete these activities on a one-on-one basis or in a group setting. For kids with sensory issues, or those that are sensitive to crumbling leaves, try using gardening gloves while crumbling.
How would you use Fall’s leaves in a sensory or auditory processing activity?
Address sensory needs while experiencing all that the Fall season has to offer! Grab your free copy of the Fall Sensory Experiences Booklet to create sensory diet activities that meet the needs of individuals in a Fall-themed way!
This ice cream gross motor activity is also a fun friendship gross motor activity too! In fact, movement games are a great way to build friendship and establish relationships, especially when team building and problem solving are involved. Here, you’ll find an ice cream bean bag activity that challenges not only core strength, movement patterns, and motor planning (with an ice cream theme!) but also is a fun friendship activity for a group.
The friendship gross motor activities here are bean bag games that would fit nicely with a movement gross motor activity because it’s just another way to improve core strengthening.
The friendship theme is a bonus, making it a fun friendship activity for preschoolers and younger kids developing from parallel play to associative play to cooperative play.
Use this ice cream therapy activity to add a movement break in the classroom, a creative ice breaker game for a group of new friends, and a playful ways to promote friendship with movement.
And even better, bean bag games improve core strengthening through whole body movement and these friendship themed games are one that will build memories.
Affiliate links are included in this post.
Gross Motor Core Strengthening ActivitY
Building core strength is important for so many reasons: attention, focus, and positioning are just a few reasons to strengthen the core. Read more about core strengthening and attention here.
Use bean bag games in Friendship Activities
There are several reasons why bean bag games are a great addition to any kids’ day. These are the underlying reasons why you’ll see bean bag activities in therapy. But, also bean bag games can be beneficial as a gross motor friendship activity, too.
Bean bag games are a great movement and core strengthening activity.
They are an easy way to add a movement brain break to classroom activities.
Movement games foster friendship and invite conversation in groups like classrooms, youth groups, play dates, and birthday parties.
Bean bag games offer repetition with heavy work, adding proprioception for a calming and organizing activity.
Bean bag games offer an opportunity for gross motor visual motor integration skill work, which is necessary for developing the skills needed for handwriting, reading, and learning.
Bean bag games allow a child to build core muscle strength.
Group games with bean bags build problem solving and group interactions.
For our gross motor friendship activity, we attempted to build core muscle strength through repetition of core muscle building, using a gross motor ice cream theme.
This would be a good activity for a group setting, however, you could definitely do this activity individually as well.
We used the ice cream bean bags that we made last summer. Read more about how to make the ice cream cone bean bags here.
While any bean bags would work for these friendship movement activities, we used what we had in the house, and they went perfectly with our book for this week, Mo Willems’ Should I Share My Ice Cream. (Tell me, are your kids as Elephant and Piggy obsessed as mine are???)
Gross Motor Friendship Ideas
Line up your group of kids. We played a few different games and they all involved FUN!
Bean Bag Slide– Kids can line up side by side, facing in the same direction. Start with all of the bean bags to the left side of one child. The first child should reach down and grab one bean bag. They can then slide the bean bag on the floor between their legs, placing it behind them. The child to their right should lean down and grab the bean bag between their legs. They can then place the bean bag on the floor in front of their feet. The child to their right can grab the bean bag and continue it down the line of kids.
Bean Bag Over Head– Kids can sit on the ground one in front of the other. The bean bags should begin in a pile in front of the first child. That child can pick up one bean bag and place it over their head to pass it to the next child behind them. That child can grab the bean bag and pass it over their head to the child behind them. Continue down the line.
2. Bean Bag Side to Side– Kids can sit in a line behind one another. The kids should pass bean bags down the line by twisting at the core to rotate their trunk. Continue the bean bag pass down the line.
3. Bean Bag Toss– Kids should line up in a line by standing up a few feet from one another. One child should pass one bean bag to the next student by tossing a low toss to the next child. Try to keep the bean bag close to the ground but not touching the ground. Continue to pass bean bags down the line.
4. Bean Bag Foot Pass– Kids can lie on their backs in a line. The fist child should use only their feet to pick up one bean bag and pass it to the next child. That child should grab the bean bag using only their feet. Continue all of the bean bags down the line.
Each of these games can be done in a line or in a circle.
friendship activity for preschoolers
By playing a group game, children can build friendships, foster relationships, problem solve, resolve conflicts, learn from others, and establish many other powerful developmental benefits of group activities.
For this friendship gross motor activity, we first, read one of our favorite Elephant and Piggy books, Should I Share My Ice Cream. We then used our ice cream bean bags to play a friendship game together. As we passed the ice cream bean bags, we shared ways to be helpful.
Sharing with a friend is just one way to be nice to a friend. Being helpful at school, making a nice card, or inviting a friend to play are other ways to be nice to a friend. As we passed the bean bags to one another, saying these qualities of a friend allowed us to slow down in the bean bag passing game.
This way, we could build muscle strength with slow movements.
While we used the ice cream bean bags, you could read the book and use any bean bags in your gross motor friendship activity! What are your favorite bean bag games?
This digital, E-BOOK is an amazing resource for anyone helping kids learn about acceptance, empathy, compassion, and friendship. In Exploring Books through Play, you’ll find therapist-approved resources, activities, crafts, projects, and play ideas based on 10 popular children’s books. Each book covered contains activities designed to develop fine motor skills, gross motor skills, sensory exploration, handwriting, and more. Help kids understand complex topics of social/emotional skills, empathy, compassion, and friendship through books and hands-on play.
Colleen Beck, OTR/L has been an occupational therapist since 2000, working in school-based, hand therapy, outpatient peds, EI, and SNF. Colleen created The OT Toolbox to inspire therapists, teachers, and parents with easy and fun tools to help children thrive. Read her story about going from an OT making $3/hour (after paying for kids’ childcare) to a full-time OT resource creator for millions of readers. Want to collaborate? Send an email to contact@theottoolbox.com.
How are we heading into September and back to the routines of Fall already? This month’s September Occupational Therapy activities calendar is full of creative activities designed to build developmental skills through therapeutic activities based around a Fall theme. This month’s Occupational Therapy calendar is perfect for Occupational Therapists’ who are planning for the month in the clinic or in the school-based OT setting.
Here are all of the creative ways to build skills this month:
1. Cutting Leaves– Use Fall leaves (or leaves that haven’t yet turned colors) to work on fine motor skills including scissor skills, bilateral coordination, and eye-hand coordination.
3. Scarecrow Scissor Skills– Create a scarecrow craft while working on scissor skills and eye-hand coordination. We worked on math with this activity, but you could modify it to meet any learning concept.
4.Leaf Hole Punch– This fine motor activity build hand strength and adds proprioceptive input for calming.
5. Fall Fine Motor Activities– Use these fine motor activities to build strength, eye-hand coordination, bilateral coordination, and tool use.
6. Apple Picking– Find a local orchard to pick, climb, bend, toss, and carry buckets of apples. Don’t have an orchard nearby? Create a pretend play scenario using bean bags for apples. This is an awesome core and whole body strengthening and proprioception activity for Fall.
7. Farm Animal Walks– Brainstorm animals from the farm and practice animal walks across the room while incorporating gross motor skills, bilateral coordination, motor planning, and proprioceptive nput into the activity. This is a great brain break activity.
8. Lacing Leaves– Work on fine motor skills, bilateral coordination, and eye-hand coordination with this leaf lacing activity.
9. Leaf Jump– Use artificial leaves or real leaves to create a hopscotch-type gross motor game. Position leaves on the floor or lawn so that kids need to hop and jump from one to another. To add an educational component to this one, write letters or numbers on the leaves. Jumping provides movement and proprioception input that may help with attention in the classroom when used as a brain break.
10. Peel Corn– Husking corn is a great fine motor activity for kids during the Fall season or all summer long! Peeling the husks and corn silk requires a neat pincer grasp and encourages tactile sensory exploration.
11. Chopping Apples– Use apples from your apple picking day (Day 6 above) to create a cooking experience. Cooking with Kids is a great way to build sensory experiences, fine motor development, and cognitive tasks such as direction following and problem solving. Choose a recipe with your kids that the whole family will like. Try this Apple Dumpling Recipe. For kids that are working on fine motor skills, this child safety knife kit is great for kitchen tasks. TIP: Cut the apple slices into strips before presenting them to your child. Peeling the apple will make this task easier.
12. Pumpkin Sensory Bin– Create a pumpkin sensory bin to build fine motor skills in a tactile sensory play activity.
13. Turn over dirt in the garden– This time of year, the garden is winding down. Use the cooler temperatures as an excuse to get the garden ready for next year’s harvest. Show kids how to pull weeds, pull out garden stakes, and turn over dirt to “put the garden to bed”. If you haven’t created a Sensory Garden, start planning next years for a season of sensory input in the backyard.
14. Apple Tree Balance Beam– Make an indoor apple tree balance beam to address motor planning and balance with an apple theme. This is a great activity for building core strength.
15. Fall Sensory Bin– Create an apple sensory bin using materials you probably have in and around your home. This Build An Apple Tree Sensory Bin encourages eye hand coordination and fine motor skills with tactile sensory play.
16. Apple Washing– Head to the nearest Farmer’s Market or grocery store and fill a basket with apples. Wash them off in a sink of water using a fruit and veggie brush. Scrubbing with the brush encourages proprioceptive input while promoting precision to not push too hard to clean the fruit.
17. Football Toss– Grab a football and get ready for Fall sporty fun. Use the football to toss, kick, and even roll the ball to a friend or parent. Encourage your child to get into different positions to throw the ball. Some ideas are: standing, sitting, throwing over a shoulder, tossing between the legs, head down and rolling upside down, and laying on belly.
18. Autumn Art Projects– Get into an creative mode with autumn-inspired art projects. Encourage tool use, direction following, problem solving, and creative process with sensory and autumn art.
19. Leaf Trace– Find leaves from outside. Place them on a piece of paper and trace the outline with a crayon or pencil. This activity requires bilateral coordination, motor planning, eye-hand coordination, and visual perception in order to trace around the leaves. Try doing this activity standing at an easel or chalkboard to encourage upper extremity strengthening and stabilization or while lying on the floor to center and organize.
20. Farmer in the Dell– Doing action rhymes like the Farmer in the Dell (perfect for Fall and before trips to the farm!) are an excellent way to work on so many skills: Fine and Gross Motor, Social/Emotional Development, Speech and Language, Spatial Concepts, Attention Span, and Behaviors. Read more about each of these areas and more here.
21. Fall Tactile Table– Set up a tactile sensory play experience with Fall’s colors and textures. This is a great activity for toddlers.
22. Pillow Jump– One easy way to encourage movement and sensory input while indoors is by using couch cushions. Set up cushions across the floor for jumping, hopping, and squashing for proprioceptive input. Make this a Fall activity by adding a football for target practice at the pillows. Try encouraging hopping and jumping from pillow to pillow while holding a football for more of a balance and core body workout as the hands are holding onto the football. Grade the activity by spacing pillows out more or moving them closer together.
23. Make applesauce– Encourage more cooking with kids by using apples to mix up a batch of homemade applesauce. Use a hand-held food chopper to chop up apples while encouraging proprioceptive input and strengthening. Use a kitchen mallet to work more proprioceptive input into food prep. Adding ingredients like cinnamon is an excellent olfactory sensory activity.
24. Apple Smash Baked Cotton Balls– Sneak proprioceptive input and eye-hand coordination into this FUN apple themed smashing activity. The kids will love this one!
25. Scarecrow Says– Encourage crossing midline, range of motion, motor planning, eye-hand coordination, and direction following with vestibular sensory input in a “Simon Says” type of game. The Scarecrow can be Simon and promote motor movements of all kinds.
26. Wheelbarrow Push– This is a fun activity for building balance, core body strength and upper body strength as well as visual perceptual skills. Use a real wheelbarrow to push and pull fall leaves. For kids who need assistance, parents or an adult can stand behind the child and help them push the wheelbarrow. Don’t have a wheelbarrow? No problem. Make a cardboard wheelbarrow and cart small items around the house.
27. Catch Falling Leaves– If you live in an area where leaves are falling from the trees, use nature in therapy! Try to catch leaves as they fall or try hitting them with a racket or catching with a net. If you don’t have one of those items, use a bucket or basket to try to catch the falling leaves. This activity encourages gross motor skills and visual perception along with motor planning. If you don’t have falling leaves in your area, try making tissue paper leaves and dropping them from a high spot to your child for them to catch.
28. Autumn Gross Motor Play– Try gross motor activities with an Autumn theme for building strength and core strength.
29. Jump in Leaves– Make a pile of leaves and JUMP for proprioceptive input. Don’t have fallen leaves? Make a pile of blankets and pillows for an indoor, pretend play version of this active gross motor activity.
30. Fall Nature Walk– Go outside and explore the season. Climb trees, hike, wade in streams as the Fall weather creates sensory experiences. Talk with your child about the scents, textures, and sounds of the outdoors. Crunch leaves in your hand and under your feet. Pick up and collect items like acorns, pine cones, horse chestnuts, and leaves.
Kids love to move and wiggle. They also need the strengthening that occurs as a result of all of that moving and wiggling. Today, I’ve got fun ways to build the core body strength using music and movement songs and rhymes. These are childhood classics that are fun to pass on to kids!
When children have a strong core (or trunk), they are able to sit up at a desk, play on the floor without drooping or slumping, write with a functional position, and even dress themselves more easily. Strength of the core body is essential for every childhood function, and even allows the child to pay attention more easily.
Core Body Strengthening with Music and Movement Songs
This post contains affiliate links.
Think back to your childhood. Are there games or activities that you recall doing in carefree childhood play? Some of those music rhyming games can be used to work on strength and stability of the body’s trunk.
Try these core body strengthening ideas. I love all of the creative exercises and activities for building strength in the trunk. Plus, these are great tools for posture exercises for kids.
Music and Movement Rhymes for addressing core body strength: I’m a Little Teapot Head Shoulders Knees and Toes Row, Row, Row Your Boat Teddy Bear Teddy Bear Turn Around If You’re Happy and You Know It Hokey Pokey The Wheels on the Bus
Try these rhyming games to work on the strength of the upper body with your kids, all while having fun and inducing giggles!
What should you do when weak core muscles impact handwriting?
Strengthening the core can have a HUGE impact in handwriting!
Do you have any favorite movement and music rhymes from your childhood?
This ice wobble disk is another one of our favorite ice play activities. My kids LOVED this sensory activity. While we did this one outside on a winter day, it would be fun during the hot Summer, too.
You know how there are just some things you show your kids that are instant hits? A surprise trip to an amusement park or ice cream for dinner will instantly bring on on the cheers and be one of those days that kids remember long after the awesome day has passed. This Wobble Balance Ice Disc is one of those things.
Add sensory play to the outdoors with this vestibular activity.
We’ve been sharing fun proprioception and sensory ideas recently for winter play and therapy ideas on our January Occupational Therapy calendar. This ice balance tool is on the calendar and is a balance activity that you really need to try.
Wobble Disc for fidgeting, balance, and core muscle strength
Full disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.
Wobble cushions
come in many shapes and sizes. There are seat cushions that help with attention and fidgeting while seated, balance boards
for vestibular input, and therapy balls
that can provide proprioceptive input. All of these tools are capable of helping kids with sensory needs. A balance disc or wedge provides feedback to a child’s body, allowing them to get their “wiggles” out. They are challenged to make minute corrections to their core body to compensate for movements of the unstable surface. This is a great way to work on balance and core muscle strength deficits that are often seen in children with sensory needs.
Ice balance wobble disc
This was a cold weather activity, although it could be a big hit in the hot summer weather. You could also re-create the experience in a bathtub or baby pool brought into the indoors. Freeze a disk of water in a large plastic bowl. You want the frozen ice cube to be large enough for your child to sit on and thick enough that it doesn’t break when your child sits and stands on it. A large plastic popcorn bowl works well for creating an ice disk. Simply fill the bottom with water and place into the freezer (or outside if it’s cold enough!)
When the water has frozen, run warm water over the outside of the bowl to remove the ice. Then, take it outside for sitting on. Place a folded dishtowel on the ice and have your child sit on the flat surface. They can hold onto the edge of the disc with the towel protecting their hands from the cold ice. Your child can balance and spin on a hard surface like a sidewalk. The snowy balance disk makes a great ice sled, too. If you are doing this activity indoors, bring a baby pool into the house and spin and wobble in the pool.
Wobble Disc for Proprioceptive Input
Sitting or standing on an unstable surface like a wobble disc is a great way to provide proprioceptive input. Ask the child to sit on the ice disc and balance themselves as you hold their hands. You can pull the child along a flat surface to provide proprioceptive input through their arms. Then, ask the child to push themselves along using their legs. They can pull their legs forward or push themselves backwards to incorporate difference muscle groups. For a greater challenge, have the child stand on the disk, holding onto your arms for support. This strengthening activity challenges balance while providing proprioception through the arms and upper body.
Wobble Disc for Vestibular Input
Have the child sit on the ice disc as they are pushed along on a flat surface like a porch or driveway. Have another child push the child on their low back to get proprioceptive input to the pushing child. Practice balancing back and forth in a seated position for more vestibular input.
How to incorporate sensory play into playing outside
Many sensory diet activities can naturally be found outdoors. In fact, outdoor sensory diet activities are a fun way to encourage sensory input in a child’s environment and without fancy therapy equipment or tools.
It’s a fact that kids are spending less time playing outdoors. From after-school schedules to two working parents, to unsafe conditions, to increased digital screen time, to less outdoor recess time…kids just get less natural play in the outdoors. Some therapists have connected the dots between less outdoor play and increased sensory struggles and attention difficulties in learning.
Knowing this, it can be powerful to have a list of outdoor sensory diet activities that can be recommended as therapy home programing and family activities that meet underlying needs.
That’s where the Outdoor Sensory Diet Cards and Sensory Challenge Cards come into play.
They are a FREE printable resource that encourages sensory diet strategies in the outdoors. In the printable packet, there are 90 outdoor sensory diet activities, 60 outdoor recess sensory diet activities, 30 blank sensory diet cards, and 6 sensory challenge cards. They can be used based on preference and interest of the child, encouraging motivation and carryover, all while providing much-needed sensory input.
30 blank sensory diet cards, and 6 sensory challenge cards
They can be used based on preference and interest of the child, encouraging motivation and carryover, all while providing much-needed sensory input.
Research tells us that outdoor play improves attention and provides an ideal environment for a calm and alert state, perfect for integration of sensory input.
Outdoor play provides input from all the senses, allows for movement in all planes, and provides a variety of strengthening components including eccentric, concentric, and isometric muscle contractions.
Great tool for parents, teachers, AND therapists!
Be sure to grab the Outdoor Sensory Diet Cards and use them with a child (or adult) with sensory processing needs!
When the weather is too cold to go outdoors and the kids are bouncing off the walls, you sometimes need to get creative. Maybe you’ve got a few Occupational Therapy students who would benefit from a vestibular movement activity like this snowflake balance beam! This is a great indoor gross motor activity for preschool or older ages.
Balance Beams and the Vestibular System
Balance beams are perfect to address needs in the vestibular system. Our body’s ability to regulate position in space helps us to manage obstacles in our path without losing balance. The vestibular system allows us to move in space without falling or without making us thing we will fall (gravitational insecurity). We’re able to take in visual information, process it, and respond accordingly…all with the help of the vestibular system!
When there is a problem in the vestibular system, a child may appear clumsy, running into objects or people, have trouble with visual tracking, attention in reading and writing, difficulty focusing on a task, and trouble with motor planning in coordinated activities that a child needs to do throughout their day.
Balance beams are a great way to practice and work on vestibular sensory integration into functional activities. A child can work on balance and motor planning as they visually scan their balance beam and track the line they need to walk along.
Balance beams challenge the vestibular system with variances in difficulty. The great thing about this snowflake balance beam is that you can adjust the size and provide many, many alternate activities to work on coordination, listening, motor planning, direction following, and attention.
Snowflake Winter Balance Beam: Making therapy fun!
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Cut snowflakes from paper and place them around the room. Get the kids in on the snowflake cutting for seasonal scissor skill work!
Using double sided tape
, create a balance beam on the with the snowflakes. Arrange them in a line along the floor. It can be a simple strait line or a multi-angled balance beam track. Ask your child to walk along the snowflake line without falling off.
Other balance beam activities that challenge the vestibular system:
Walking on tip to
Walking toe-to-heel
Hopping on one foot
Jumping
Walking sideways
Walking backwards
Crawling
Walking with feet and hands. Encourage direction-following and listening skills by calling out different ways to walk along the snowflake balance beam.
Toss a ball to your child as they are on the balance beam.
Ask your child to change directions as they walk along the beam.
Have the child look up at the wall and not down at their feet as they walk.
Looking for more balance beam ideas? These are some of the best out there:
This Folding Beam is great for storage concerns. Add creative balance beam activities like transferring items from a bucket at one end to a bucket at the other end. Balance Pods can be positioned in any room or activity. Encourage big and little steps by spacing them closely and further apart. Gonge Riverstones are a great challenge to the vestibular system with various sloped sides. Stepping Buckets Balancechallenge motor planning. Place obsitcals in between the buckets for more visual tracking while working on vestibular sensory integration. The BSN Gymnastics Curve-A-Beam can be reconfigured in curved patterns.
Are you looking for more information on Vestibular or Proprioception (and ALL of the sensory systems) and how they affect functional skills, behavior, and the body’s sensory systems? This book, Sensory Lifestyle Handbook, will explain it all. Activities and Resources are included. Get it today and never struggle to understand or explain Sensory Integration again.
Looking for more vestibular activities? Check out our January calendar that has 31 days of vestibular and proprioception activities based on winter play.
is great for storage concerns. Add creative balance beam activities like transferring items from a bucket at one end to a bucket at the other end.
can be positioned in any room or activity. Encourage big and little steps by spacing them closely and further apart.
are a great challenge to the vestibular system with various sloped sides. 
challenge motor planning. Place obsitcals in between the buckets for more visual tracking while working on vestibular sensory integration.
can be reconfigured in curved patterns.
