Stabilizing and strengthening the upper arm is essential to improve coordination, maintain good body posture and to develop fine motor skills. The activities which strengthen the upper arm also helps to reduce hyper activeness, stress, stereotypical behavior and improves cognitive skills as well.
Let’s see 20 fun and effective activities to strengthen the upper arm
- Bear walking
- Elephant walking
- Commando crawling or belly crawl
- Crab walking
- Tapping balloon activity
- Bowling activity
- Static and rope ladder climbing
- Ball throw and catching activity
- Throwing and catching a weighted ball (medicine ball), depending on the child’s strength
- Throw and catch physioball
- Hang a ball and ask the child to hit the ball using hand or bat
- Basketball activity
- Place a ball on the bat or board and ask the child to walk across while balancing the ball without falling.
- Positioning the child prone on an elbow and performing a suitable activity
- Prone on palm position with any appropriate activity
- Tummy activity -The child is made to lie on the prone position without stabilizing the shoulder (like in 14 and 15), the child has to perform the activity, for example, stacking rings, throwing balls, etc.
- Lying prone over the physioball and performing any activity of the child’s interest.
- Make the child lie over or sit on the scooter board and ask the child to ride using the upper arm
- The child can be asked to carry a basket filled with sandbags or any other weighted objects
- Hanging over the monkey bars
POINTS TO REMEMBER
- Hydrate the child before starting the physical activity.
- While the child is performing the exercise, look for the signs of fatigue and breathing difficulty if any sign is encountered stop the activity immediately.
- For the activity to be effective, it is essential to deliver the instructions in a simple and structured manner. Do not urge the child to do the activity.
- Always encourage the child while performing these activities because they might lack interest, unsure what they are doing and sometimes stressed so reward the child with positive words or positive gestures like clapping.
- Instead of giving the physical exercise as it is, include the child’s favorite activity along with this so that the child feels interesting to perform the exercise for the set time.
- It is recommended to give a break after each physical activity.
Hlo autispark,my son always doing hand flapping.plz tell me solution.
Please refer the blog on Hand Flapping from here: https://autispark.com/how-to-manage-hand-flapping/
All articles are really helpful , very informative. Thanks a ton .
It’s very useful for our kids