Balance Activities for Toddlers

Toddlers always seem to have a bump or a bruise due to their lack of balance as they perfect the skill of walking and their desire to go fast!  Here are some suggestions to help your little one improve balance.

• Step in and out of a cake pan or a sturdy cardboard box cut down to 2 or 3 inches high.
• Crepe paper streamer: stand still while making circles, waves, etc. with a streamer.  Fun to do to music.  Standing in a cake pan or box can help the child stand still in one place.
• Contact paper: tape it to the floor sticky side up and have the child walk on it barefoot.
• Daddy Penguin Walk: place beanbag on the child's feet for an "egg".  Try to walk across the room without dropping the egg.  Beanbag can be made easily from an odd adult sock - fill sock 1/4 - 1/3 full with dry beans or rice, then tie the sock off in a knot and fold the extra sock back on itself over the "beanbag".
• Making cookies -- or -- Smashing bugs: child is standing.  Place a ball on the floor in front of him and have him push hard on it with his hands while rolling it back and forth in different directions like when rolling out cookie dough.
• Have child stand with one foot on the bottom step or on a stool.  For smaller children you can use a couple of phone books or packages of paper stacked on top of each other or a plastic storage box turned upside down.  Have the child stand this way while saying a poem or singing a short song.  Practice on each side.  Harder: try this with eyes shut.
• Wheelbarrow walk (child "walking" on her hands with adult holding her hips or legs up).  Help to have a "target" to walk to.
• Sit on a beach ball or similar size ball while singing songs, etc.
• Easier: let some air out of the ball
• Harder: play catch with a scarf or stuffed animal
• Walk on grass, slopes, gravel, bark, sand (Indoors, walk on wrinkled up quilt, pillows, couch cushion or mattress on floor).
• Playing on all sorts of playground equipment.
• Walking up and down stairs.  If child needs help, hold lightly to their wrist (to avoid the habit of the child needing to grip something for balance).
• Silk scarf or similar material, or balloons: play catch with a person, or toss it high and catch it again, swirl it in a big circle overhead, etc. (These materials are easier for young children to catch than balls because they move slower.)
• Use your imagination and some of these ideas to create an obstacle course for your child.