All movement is good movement, right? But what if some moves have extra benefits? The aim is to create a working blog post highlighting activities you can do at home with school-aged kids to improve their focus, attention and learning ability within a busy and distracting classroom. That is tools that DO NOT include fidget toys. Fidget toys are a big no for many reasons, but the reward and dopamine links are the biggest. They are designed to make to feel good, kids will tell you they feel calm, and this is the dopamine talking. When dopamine is released, the brain is rewarded, and neurones that “fire together will be wired together”. This only reinforced the need to fidget rather than develop the neuropathways to overcome it. So swap your fidget toys with directed gross motor and sensory movement; develop the vestibular, not the fidget.
The Vestibular system is your body’s gyroscope, balance and sense of spatial orientation. The vestibular sense is essential for balance, coordination, eye control, attention, being secure with movement and some aspects of language development. Extending the development of a kid’s vestibular system will directly impact their focus, ability to learn in more challenging settings, sporting skills such as spatial awareness, and improved self-regulation. There are many ways you can add vestibular developing games or challenges into your everyday routine.
The Sock Dance is the perfect way to challenge primary-aged kids to develop balance, coordination and focus. Once they master their socks, try it out on their shoes.
Unique “cheap” toys you can incorporate into play at home can be found in KMART… Who knew?
| Age Range | Benefits and links to learning | |
| Three months-1 | Soft large roller to roll your baby back and forth on. Placing a favourite teddy in front of them for eye-tracking allows them to reach forward, developing depth perception and hand grasp safely. The roller itself will give the baby added sensory development and lymphatic drainage through the gentle pressure of the roller on the skin and muscles. | |
| 1-3 | Vestibular development and core muscle strength are needed to develop spacial awareness and balance. | |
| 2-6 | The balance board is an excellent way to develop balance, core strength, self-regulation and build coordination and movement across the midline. Add throwing and catching a ball, reading sight words or simple mathematical equations for maximum benefit. | |
| 3-8 | Balance obstacle courses are a fantastic way to get kids moving, responding to challenges and starting to take small calculated risks. Teaching your kids how to fall, return to balance and manipulate their body weight not only develops all those mentioned above but the core strength and self-regulation for learning in the classroom. | |
| 4-10 | The maze board is something I wish I had growing up. This balance board develops all the above but challenges midline movement and left/right brain thinking. The movement of the balls in the maze allows the brain to respond to a challenging stimulus and move in creative ways to problem-solve. As a MUM, I would put them on this board for students struggling with learning or showing early ADHD/dyslexic-type behaviours. | |
| 8-14+ | Foam and or texted rollers are a nice transition for older children playing sports. Rolling the body over the roller develops strength but also provides the child with neuro-prophetical stimulation on the body. Leading with questions such as; where is my body in space? What do different textures feel like on my skin and muscles? How can I support my body with strength are the following levels of development for both learning and sport? |
