We grew up with games and toys like Lincoln Logs, Hot Wheels, Barbie Dolls, and Chutes and Ladders. When we were children, we loved playing with these toys and were oblivious to the fact we were learning important skills while playing. As we know, children love screens. We didn’t have access to screens when we were children like children have today. Screens are everywhere and it is difficult to escape them. This blog highlights different toys to help limit your child’s screen time. With present day technology being at its best, the American Academy of Pediatrics urges play as a prescription, or antidote, to screen time. Their advice: limit screen time, make time for unstructured play, and choose toys that inspire imagination.  

We’ve built a guide of go-to, educational toys that children gravitate toward:

1. The Melissa and Doug Learn to Play Piano: 

Purpose and Benefits: Teaches fine motor coordination skills, sound discrimination, core stability, listening, concentration, self-regulation, and memory.

2. Magna-Tiles

Purpose and Benefits: Encourages creative thinking, color, shape, & symmetry discrimination, mathematics, social play, and fine motor skills.

3. Fisher-Price Laugh & Learn Smart Stages Piggy Bank

Purpose and Benefits: Grows and develops language in English and Spanish through numbers and songs. Features different levels to help progress learner in skills.  Uses action words and phrases such as ‘open’. Fine motor skills, color discrimination, counting, and animal recognition is also a plus!

4. Feed The Woozle

Purpose and Benefits: This Game utilizes fine & gross motor skills, body awareness, reading and word recognition, counting, turn taking, and multiple step directions.

Bonus! Cooperative game play!

5. The Learning Journey: Space Match

Purpose and Benefits: Social play, turn taking, shape & color discrimination, matching, and memory are all focuses of this game.

Bonus! The Learning Journey: My First Grab It comes in many different versions that all teach different learning aspects. Check out The Learning Journey for puzzles, numeracy, matching, and imaginative building.

The list of toys that grab attention and make learning fun is endless. Other toys to make the list:

• Kinetic Sand
• Play Doh with molds
• Train and Tracks sets
• Marble Run
• Hoot Owl Hoot
• Zingo
• Catch the Fox

These games and toys help children to continue to put building blocks of various skills upon their already existing foundation. Giving a child the opportunity to play is one of the best gifts that can be given. It is crucial that we share the joy of social interaction with children and connect with each other through play.

The winter season brings us colder temperatures and that Chicago wind chill. That means bundling up so we stay warm out there! Gloves, hats, boots, and jackets can be a challenge for children with decreased fine motor skills, visual-motor skills, body in space awareness, and coordination. Here are some tips on how you can assist your child with their cold-weather self-help skills in order to promote their independence. 

Gloves: Using glove or mitten clips that attach each glove to each jacket sleeve is an easy way to set your child up for success. Cue them to utilize their opposite hand to “catch the fingers” of the other hand into the opening of the glove. “Pull down, down, down,” and they should be set!

Hats: Keeping their hat in one of the jacket sleeves is another great organization and setup strategy. First, cue them to find the opening of the hat where their hands will go. Then prompt them to use both hands to hold the hat on each side to again, “Pull down, down, down,” over their head. Using a mirror could be helpful for this one! 

Boots: Prompt them to hold the opening of the boot with one hand on each side. They should “catch the toes” of their foot before “pulling up, up, up”! 

Jackets: There are two popular methods for kids to don their jackets more independently. First is the “Hood Method”. Cue them to put the hood on with the jacket hanging behind them. Then, prompt them to reach behind their body with one arm at a time to slip into the sleeves. Next is the “Flip Over Method”. Assist them in orienting their jacket with the inside facing up on the floor and with the hood closest to their feet. Cue them to bend over, slip their arms into the jacket, then flip it over their head as they stand up. Keep in mind that this method requires a bit more range of motion in the upper extremities. A fun way to work on the tricky part of engaging the zipper is making it a game as you assist them in using two hands: one hand to hold the zipper (“garage”) all the way down and the other hand to hold the other side (“car”). They can “park the car in the garage” and then “close the garage door” by pulling the zipper up! 

The purpose of this blog is to educate others on infant massage and the benefits of learning infant massage by a certified instructor.  Infant massage has many benefits for infants and even older children.  Infant massage, originally developed by Vimala McClure, combines elements of Indian and Swedish massage and principles from yoga and reflexology.  Massaging your child promotes a secure attachment between you and your child, develops a sense of trust and confidence, and creates feelings of being respected and valued.  The most important aspect to know when learning infant massage is to always ask your infant or older child for permission to begin massaging.  Other than promoting a positive relationship with your child, massages help stimulate the body and may relieve pain.  

Massaging your child is beneficial because:  

• Physical touch helps stimulate the digestive system, resulting in relief of gas and constipation. 
• It relieves cramping, growing pains, or muscular tension.  
• Massage helps relieve painful symptoms of minor illnesses, such as aches, fever, congestion, and asthma-related breathing problems. 
• Infant massage promotes relaxation, which may support sleeping patterns, regulation, and behavioral states. 
• It reduces stress hormones and may increase concentration. 
• Massage helps stimulate mind and body awareness and promotes your child to explore their senses.   
• Childhood massage supports bonding and attachment between you and your child. 

 At different ages, your child may respond to being massaged differently.  For the older child, you may tell a story to the child, talk about the body parts, sing a song, or make a game out of it.  Always respect your child’s choices when offering a massage and just go with the flow!   

Why Take a Class? 

Chicago has many opportunities to learn infant massage as a parent.  If you are interested in taking classes, you should always check to make sure the class is with a Certified Infant Massage Instructor (CIMI).  The class focuses on basics of child development, learning the strokes, practicing the strokes, and adaptations of the strokes for the older or growing child. Taking a class will help you learn and understand your infant or child’s body language and cues, improve your ability to support your child with all the benefits listed above, improve the bond and relationship with your child, and even promote your relaxation as a parent!

Yoga has several well-known benefits, including relaxation, strengthening, balance, and motor coordination. There are also many researched benefits of yoga as an intervention to address typical gross motor challenges for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), which typically include limited postural stability, limited motor control, balance deficits, gait abnormalities, and decreased bilateral coordination. 

Below, we have outlined several physical therapy goals that can be addressed through yoga: 

Strengthening

Yoga is a great tool for global strengthening, as it requires you to maintain anti-gravity positions for a prolonged duration. By holding static poses, you are targeting isometric strength, which is required for functional activities requiring static control. Decreased core strength is commonly seen in children with ASD, which affects their ability to sit upright throughout the school day. By engaging in a regular yoga routine, children will target the postural stability muscles required to maintain upright sitting, which will assist them in engaging in academic learning activities.  

Recommended pose: Plank or down dog 

Plank or down dog requires your child to maintain an anti-gravity weight bearing position, which promotes global upper extremity and core strengthening and stability.  

Balance

Yoga incorporates several poses requiring your child to maintain a static pose for sustained duration while maintaining a narrow base of support. Yoga also addresses dynamic balance, as it requires you to flow and transition between various poses, while maintaining stability through your upper and lower extremities. By practicing poses requiring static and dynamic balance, your child will be able to transfer these skills to functional activities of daily living, including dressing, stairs, gait, and stepping over obstacles.  

Recommended pose: Tree pose 

Tree pose involves standing on one foot while maintaining hands together at midline or stretched over head.  

Motor Control

Yoga incorporates a variety of poses, flowing in sequence from one to the next. Yoga also incorporates several multi-step poses, which will allow your child to develop body awareness and motor control while flowing throughout their sequence. Children with ASD typically present with rigid or “clumsy” movements and require increased time for motor planning. By practicing multi-step motor sequences, your child will be able to develop motor control, bilateral coordination, and fluid transitions.  

Recommended pose: Vinyasa 

Flowing between a sequence of postures, flowing from one to the next.  

Example: Mountain > forward fold > plank > upward dog > downward dog 

Relaxation and Body Awareness  

Limited body awareness is a common challenge for children with ASD, which directly affects their ability to engage appropriately in gross motor activities. Yoga can be used as a tool to bring awareness to your body through relaxation and diaphragmatic breathing.  

Recommended pose: Shavasana/Corpse Pose 

Lay on your back with your hands on your stomach. Bring awareness to your breath while feeling your belly rise and fall with each inhalation and exhalation. 

 Try it at Home! 

There are several ways you can incorporate a yoga routine at home with your child. Yoga is a great way for you and your child to promote a healthy lifestyle while working towards your child’s physical therapy goals. A few options are listed below: 

• Yoga Pretzels (Yoga cards) 
• Super Stretch App 
• Youtube/On Demand 

Resources: 

Radhakrishna, S., Nagarathna, R., & Nagendra, H. R. (2010). Integrated approach to yoga therapy and autism spectrum disorders. Journal of Ayurveda and integrative medicine, 1(2), 120-4. 

Memari, A. H., Ghanouni, P., Shayestehfar, M., & Ghaheri, B. (2014). Postural control impairments in individuals with autism spectrum disorder: a critical review of current literature. Asian journal of sports medicine, 5(3), e22963. 

Ament, K., Mejia, A., Buhlman, R., Erklin, S., Caffo, B., Mostofsky, S., & Wodka, E. (2015). Evidence for specificity of motor impairments in catching and balance in children with autism. Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 45(3), 742-51.

Physical activity is an important component of your child’s development and keeps their heart, lungs, and bones healthy. Music is a wonderful and motivating way to get your child moving. Incorporating your child’s favorite songs will help them see moving as fun and lead to the development of healthy habits for life!

Moving while singing along or listening to songs also helps pair your child’s language and motor systems to further develop their skills. These activities also require no additional equipment as many fun movement songs can be found on Youtube*, and all you need is your body to get moving!

*While your child may enjoy watching the videos at first, it is recommended that you practice moving along while listening – rather than just watching – to limit screen time and encourage improved body awareness and initiation of movement.

Some excellent songs to work on movement, coordination, and body awareness include:

• Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes: This song works for both younger and older children. It is an excellent way to learn different parts of the body and improve motor coordination. For older children, you can sing the words out of order for an added challenge!
• If You’re Happy and You Know It: This is an excellent song for younger children to work on basic body awareness as it incorporates clapping, stomping, and jumping.
• We Are the Dinosaurs/The Ants Go Marching: Work on your child’s marching skills to improve strength, postural control, and coordination as they march around the house.
• Shake Your Sillies Out: This song includes a variety of movement skills, such as clapping, jumping, jogging, and reaching to work on motor planning, bilateral coordination, strength, and direction following. It is also an excellent way for your child to get some extra energy out prior to working on more seated tasks (mealtime, homework, etc).
• Five Little Monkeys: This is a favorite for many children. Dance to this song to improve leg strength and jumping. You can even crash into a pile of pillows/cushions as they “fall off the bed” for added sensory input.
• The Hokey Pokey: This is an excellent song to progress to from basic body movements. It encourages children to learn their left from their right and in versus out. Again, this is a great song to help with understanding language. You can use visuals to differentiate left from right or in from out as your child is learning these.

Finally, you can play freeze dance with your child to get them active and moving and work on direction following. Freezing in silly positions also works on stability and strength!