We’re all back in the swing on school after a nice holiday break off! With the transition back to school comes a shift in priorities, back to classes and schoolwork, and we know all you want to do is set your child up for success in the new year! Many kids have trouble keeping their posture upright throughout the day, and good, supported posture is one of the key elements leading to good focus while in school. Though you might not be able to do much about this while they are in person, you can adapt their environment to support them while they are remote learning. Here are some things to look for and tips to get you started:

1. When nice posture turns into not so nice posture
   1. If you see your child starting the day with nice posture but then see their spine taking on a C curvature throughout the day, they may be having a difficult time sustaining activation of their postural musculature and they may have trouble with ENDURANCE of these muscles. If this is the case, try placing a small towel roll behind their lower back for additional support when you see them starting to get tired. Then, when some time has passed, you can try removing it and seeing if their muscles have gotten the rest break they needed to work efficiently again!
2. When nice posture is hard to find
   1. If you see that finding a nice, supported spine with good posture is hard for your child to figure out, they may have trouble ACTIVATING their postural musculature. This may be the case if when you have told your child “sit with nice posture” in the past, they assume a Military-esque posture that would be impossible and uncomfortable for anyone to maintain OR they simply can’t find that upright position you’ve seen in blogs and pictures. Often these kids have a pelvis that is tipped very far back and pushed away from the back of their chair. Try placing a small wedge under their pelvis, with the taller end close to the back of the chair and the shorter end toward the front of the chair. This wedge will help place them in a more appropriate position to learn how to activate their musculature, so that when you ask them to try “good posture” again, it isn’t such a big ask. 
3. When they find many different slouched positions
   1. For the child that seems to never sit still but also never sit with supported posture, using a balance disk under their bottom is a great tool to encourage activation of postural musculature on both the front and back sides of their body. Sitting on a balance disk creates the need for the body to sit with active, supported posture to stay upright and on balance. If you are trying this, don’t forget to test it out with supervision to make sure that your child can stay on balance while sitting on the disk so that they do not fall out of their chair.
4. Make sure they are supported by the floor
   1. This one is SO important. Many people don’t know how difficult it is to sit with supported posture if your feet are not flat on the ground. Using the ground can help activate your whole body from the feet upward and creates more stability in sitting because you are not just relying on your bottom to keep you upright (but your legs too)! A nice clue to look for to see if they are supported from the ground up is the presence of 90 degree angles at their ankles, knees, and hips, if you see these angles AND they are sitting upright, you are good to go!

Remember, it is hard for anyone to focus when they are having trouble staying on balance or trouble activating their muscles for the long virtual school day. But, with these tips you can have your child on the path to postural support while learning in no time! You got this parents!

If you liked these tips or want to watch the video for this post, click here:

Happy New Year! We all know what ringing in the new year means, new goals and shiny aspirations! We all hope that with the shift into a new year, we will be able to do things we haven’t done before, reach new heights, and achieve our dreams. With all of our heads in the clouds, we also have to remember that 2020 was a difficult year for everyone and that even though 2021 is a new year, we should cut ourselves some slack and give ourselves more time to work toward our goals along with time to destress. We don’t want to put too much pressure on ourselves, and we don’t want our kids to do this either. For them the new year means a new semester and new topics at school, and they can feel just as much stress from this shift as we adults can! Here are four ways that you and your child can destress and center yourselves with movement for a more successful and calm transition to the new year:

1. Diaphragmatic breathing – This activity can be helpful for anyone, of any age! Just lie on the ground or sit in a chair. Place one hand on your belly and make sure you are “belly breathing”, aka, make sure you can feel your tummy moving up and down every time you breathe. This way you know you are doing it correctly. You can stack your breathing by counting up to five, then down to five. Repeat the counting process about ten times to allow the body time to relax, the heart rate to slow down, and the nervous system to slow down with it!

2. Heavy work activities – this one gives the body a sense of where it is, which works especially well for the kids who seem to physically be in one million places at once, touching everything, bouncing and jumping around, and having difficulty focusing on one task at a time. Heavy work activities can be done by pushing or pulling a loaded wheel barrow, carrying a full laundry basket, or helping stack heavy cans onto low shelves. (PS this is also a great way to get your child to help out with chores as well – its a win win!)

3. Make the “Bubble” – This game uses similar principles as heavy work, and turns it into something fun and interactive you and your child can do together! First, have your child hold their hands in front of them with their palms facing each other. Then you put your hands on the outside of their hands with your palms touching the backs of their hands. Tell them to push out into your hands as hard as they can, and meet the resistance they are giving you (aka give them as much force as they are giving you). Count to 60 together while pushing with force, then slowly release their hands. Tell them to now slowly move their hands apart and together, but don’t change their hand position or let them touch their hands to each other. While they move their hands in and out slowly, it will feel like they are making a large bubble bigger and smaller right between their hands! When they’re ready to be finished with the bubble, tell them to POP it by clapping their hands together!

4. Slow Rocking on an exercise ball – this activity uses the vestibular system (the little system of tubes and fluid in your ears that helps with balance, sensing the body in space, and understanding movement of the body through space). Lie on an exercise ball with the belly downward. The hands will touch the ground with every forward movement. Make sure the rocking is SLOW, if the rocking is too quick, it may have the opposite effect!

If you tried any of these strategies or if you would like more tips on how to stay calm and focused in the new year, email us at info@kidpt.com or message us on instagram @kidpt or facebook @kidptnj.

Many schools are going virtual until after the holidays, and we know what that means… more screen time. We’ve heard a pattern: many parents feel like it is hard for their child to stay engaged in their classroom activities when they are learning through a screen all day, and we hear ya, who wants to stare at a computer screen ALL DAY? Humans thrive through in person experiences, where they get to use every one of their senses, and this especially includes little humans!

Children are learning a high volume of information every day to make sense of their world and their ever changing environments. One great way to supply them with a lot of valuable information for learning and moving is to take them outside. Time outside will give them a break from the screen time and will give them the freedom and space to stretch their legs so they can move! Research says that kids can benefit from being outside for more than just a little fresh air, here are three of the amazing benefits of letting your kids immerse themselves in their outdoor world:

1. Increased activity level: When kids are outside, they have so much SPACE to get their energy out! Many will want to jump, run, and move all around to explore their new and unfamiliar surroundings. This free exploration will let them work on those essential gross motor skills in a new and novel way. Maybe they want to jump in a pile of leaves, try to climb a tree, or run up and down a grassy hill (safely and with supervision of course)!

2. Opportunity for new sensory stimulation: There are so many fun textures, colors, smells, and sounds at the park, in the woods, or at the beach. Playing in any of these places can be turned into a science exploration where kids can learn about why some leaves are waxy and some are soft while feeling it first hand, seeing what the little hairs on leaves look like and how tall they are, and hearing the sound from their fingers brushing a soft leaf compared to a waxy one. There are so many possibilities for learning in a sensorially engaging way!

3. Reduces stress levels and improves attention: A walk in the park or a hike CAN boost your child’s attention, and this has been seen in both neurotypical children and children with ADHD. Even a short walk can do it, researchers discovered that as little as 20 minutes in the park significantly improved attention and cognitive performance (Faber Taylor & Kuo, 2009). Kids have also been seen to associate nature with words such as “calming” and “relaxing” when participating in programs requiring outdoor time (Chawla, Keena, Pevec, & Stanley, 2014).

We hope your family gets to spend some quality outdoor time this fall! We’d love to see pictures of you playing and having a blast out there, so tag @kidpt on Facebook or Instagram or email admin@kidpt.com of you getting your fresh air on!! Stay tuned next week for outdoor distanced activities to keep your kids entertained and moving with their friends in a safe way.

References: 

Faber Taylor, A., & Kuo, F. E. (2009). Children With Attention Deficits Concentrate Better After Walk in the Park. Journal of Attention Disorders, 12(5), 402–409. https://doi.org/10.1177/1087054708323000

Louise Chawla, Kelly Keena, Illène Pevec, Emily Stanley. Green schoolyards as havens from stress and resources for resilience in childhood and adolescence. Health & Place, 2014; 28: 1 DOI: 10.1016/j.healthplace.2014.03.001

by Dr. Ali

Happy November! When we think of November, we always think of good food and family fun! But with November usually comes a changing season and decreasing temperatures too! We understand how tricky it is to be a parent during these hard and strange times, and one concern we often hear, especially now, is “How do I keep my child moving now that the weather is getting colder and they can’t play outside?” 

Have no fear! There are plenty of great activities your child can do to keep moving if you have to stay indoors, even if you don’t have a ton of space to work with! Below is one activity that you can set up for your child that is festive, can be done completely inside on a chilly day, and will keep them working toward achieving a final goal.

1. Color The Turkey
   1. Find a turkey of your choice and print out a blank copy so your child can color it and make it their own! You can also try the dot to dot below! Attach it to another piece of paper or construction paper (you’ll see why later)
2. Feather Scavenger Hunt
   1. Place feathers all around your house, in both high and low places, under buckets or bins, and anywhere in between! This way, when they’re seeking out the hidden feathers, they are doing many squats to get to low feathers, and rising up on their tiptoes to get to high feathers. These are two motions that are great for strength building and balance.
3. Pin the Feathers on the Turkey
   1. Have your child stand next to a wall with one arm above their head touching the wall. Tape the turkey to the spot where their fingers touch the wall. Next attach tape or glue dots to a wider part of the feather. Tell your child to JUMP with the feather in their hand, to stick it onto their turkey, wherever they want to! They may need some help getting the feather to stick but the jumping is the important part here, so give them an extra sticky hand if they need it.
4. Do a turkey dance!
   1. Finally, with their beautiful turkey constructed, do a turkey dance (aka a chicken dance) and start marching your legs and flapping your wings just like a turkey!

We’d love to see your turkeys AND your turkey dances! If you would like to share, tag us or message us @kidpt on Instagram or @kidptnj on Facebook. Gobble Gobble!

This week’s workout theme is a Jumping Jacks Journey!

Try out these three moves and see if you can create a few more of your own!

Movement is always fun, but to build better control we need to keep our awareness on the quality of our movement. Can we move slow and fast? Can we talk at the same time so we know we’re taking deep breaths? Can we keep good timing and sequencing as we go and not just at the beginning?

With our awareness ready, let’s go!

First, let’s move both arms up overhead and back down to our legs. Clap at the top and bottom to make an auditory cue.

Repeat to the letters of the alphabet, count to 10 or 20, or try to match the beat to a metronome (check out free metronome apps).

Next, let’s jump with legs open. Jump slowly. Jump open and freeze. Jump close and freeze. Make each jump a separate movement.

Now its time to put arms and legs together! Keep it slow still. Jump open and arms up- FREEZE! Jump close and arms down- FREEZE!

Once this is mastered, its time to speed it up!

Once Jumping Jacks are mastered, mix it up! Scissor jumps, X jumps, and side ski jumps are great varieties!

Come back next week to try out our next Wednesday workout!

Have fun!

Dr. Joni