Fun With a Balloon!

I've been working on eye hand coordination with some of my students this week, and some of them have difficulty with catching- the ball moves too fast for them, it's hard to track the ball, they have slower processing and reaction times for catching, poor coordination for timing, etc. Use of a balloon can be a fun intervention to work on skills that are needed for eventually catching a ball. Plus, they just love to play with them in general!

Playing with a balloon can improve/address the following:  

• visual tracking (following an object with your eyes)
• eye hand coordination
• body awareness
• motor planning
• bilateral coordination (using 2 hands together)

 For a student who needs to work on motor control, tie a string of yarn to the balloon and tape it to a door frame or the ceiling. 

• Have them hit the suspended balloon. It will come back for them to hit again
• Vary this activity by telling them which hand to hit the balloon with- Put a colored sticker on the back of each hand and call out the color to hit with, or work on the concepts of left and right.
• Make the string longer so that the balloon is at kicking height. Practice kicking skills, use the left and right foot, etc.

Catch a tossed/batted balloon 

• Encourage the student to catch it with 2 hands
• Use a smaller balloon to refine catching skills

Have the student try to keep the balloon from hitting the floor

• Hit the balloon up in the air with one hand, with alternating hands, with both hands together, etc.  
• Have him/her bump the balloon back to you with his/her head, elbow, knee, etc.

Bat a balloon back and forth 

• Vary the activity by having him/her alternate hands when hitting it back and
• forth with you
• Call out which hand they should use to hit it back to you
• Have him/her hit the balloon with an empty paper towel/wrapping paper roll, badminton racket, dowel, etc.
• Have them try to bat the balloon with a different body part (elbow, knee, foot, etc.)