Fun With Balloons!
Balloons are an easy tool you can use for activities your child will love and build necessary skills such as:
Visual Motor skills
Gross Motor skills
Coordination and Bilateral coordination
Body and Safety Awareness
Gradation of Force (judging how soft or hard to hit something)
Here are 5 easy ways to use balloons at home!
Toss and catch activities for when throwing a ball may be too difficult
Level 1: Keep your hand on the balloon and mimic the path the balloon would take if it were thrown
Level 2: Toss and catch the balloon back and forth with your child. You can also try throwing the balloon at different heights so the child has to reach up, down, left, or right.
Level 3: Jumping on trampoline or standing on dynamic surface
Keepy uppy!
Level 1: Use a large balloon, toss balloon to child and retrieve the ball after they hit it
Level 2: Keep the balloon off the ground by tapping or hitting it with any parts of your body, can take turns hitting the balloon or play as a team to reach a certain goal number (ex: 10x or 1 minute)
Level 3: Using any part of your body except your hands or using an extension of your body such as a racket. Can also alternate between hitting the balloon with left and right hands
Use a tennis racket
Level 1: Use hand over hand assistance to help your child use the racket to hit the balloon
Level 2: Hit back and forth with a partner. If solo, use the racket to hit the ballon in the air keeping it off the ground
Level 3: Have the child stand on a dynamic surface such as a trampoline. If solo, can alternate between using left and right hands
Pump-up the balloon using a hand pump
Level 1: Put the balloon onto the hand pump assist your child by putting your hands over theirs to mimic the proper movements of pumping up the balloon
Level 2: Place the balloon on the hand pump and have the child pump it up on their own, assisting when needed
Level 3: Have child to all parts of this task independently, assisting when necessary
Sensory Exploration
Fill the balloon with flour and tie to create a stress ball/fidget tool
Fill the balloon with water and allow child to throw or squeeze it to watch it “pop”
Place water balloons in freezer as an experiment to see what happens! When balloon freezes, unwrap the rubber balloon exterior and can have child touch the cold balloon!
