Physical Therapy Exercises

Core strengthening is essential for the progression of nearly all other developmental skills. The core is the center of control for everything else the body does. It’s difficult to balance, perform coordinated movements on both sides of the body, sit up straight in a chair, hold a pencil, control scissors, or jump if you don’t have a strong core. We know that decreased core strength commonly contributes to other issues like delayed motor skill development. The rising trend of children being less physically active during the school day as academic demands in the classroom become more intense. Kids becoming more interested in video games and television than a game of tag in the backyard. Are some factors in why children need to work more on core strength.

Here are a Few Exercises Children Could Try to Help with Core Strength:

• Have your child lay on his back with his knees bent and feet flat on the floor. Have them push hard through their heels to raise their bottom up off the floor.
• Have your little one fly like the superhero and strengthen his back! Have him lay on his stomach on the floor and try to lift his arms up off of the floor so that his upper chest comes up too.
• If you have a small child on your lap, sit on a couch or bed for a soft landing surface. Bounce them up and down a few times and then try to knock them over. The first few times, they will fall for sure. See if you can gradually increase the pressure that it takes to knock them down.
• Getting up is part of the core workout too. See if you can decrease the amount of assistance it takes to get them back to a sitting position.
• Tummy Time. Before they’re born, babies spend 9 months crunched into a very tight space. They need Tummy Time to stretch out their abdominal muscles and strengthen the
  muscles of their neck and back.

What skills will this help the child accomplish? Crawling, standing, walking, jumping, skipping just to name a few. Working on all of these exercises will help your child develop the necessary core strength needed to hit the milestones. A Solace PT can work with your child in the home to make these exercises fun and exciting.