Inside you'll find sensory activities you can do with one simple piece of equipment: a scooter board!
The determination in his eyes was intense.
His tongue was posed like Michael Jordan going up of a dunk.
My son takes his scooter board games seriously.
And the secret is, he has NO IDEA he's getting tons of sensory input that will help him succeed with the rest of his day.
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Sensory activities are a way of life at our house. Getting the right sensory input can mean the difference between a day of meltdowns or a day of happy memories.
(Wanting to know how to rock at sensory parenting? Tired of trying random sensory activities and not seeing them improve behavior? Check out our in depth course Sensory Parenting 101!)
One of our most versatile tools for getting sensory input is the Scooter Board
1. Pulling On Tummy
The basic act of laying the child down on their tummy and having them pull themselves around with their hands is a hidden goldmine of sensory input.
Being in the prone position and having to lift ones head is incredibly beneficial to the brain. (One of the many reasons tummy time and other sensory activities for babies are so beneficial.)
The pulling/crawling motion is considered heavy work for the arms and helps a child regulate because of all the proprioceptive input. Not to mention all the vibration the child will feel in their trunk as they move is a great source of sensory input. The movement that vestibular seekers crave can also come from this basic move on the scooter board.
Wish you understood all the sensory lingo so you could help your child avoid meltdowns? Sensory Parenting 101 was designed for parents like you!
2. Follow an Obstacle Course
Feel free to get creative on this one. Create any kind of obstacle course that your child has to navigate on the scooter board. They can continue to do it in the prone position, or try flipping over and doing a modified crab walk of sorts.
If you need more sensory obstacle course ideas using objects around your house, check out this post.
3. Relay Races
Come up with any kind of relay that will have your child traveling from one side of the room to the other. We like to combine sensory activities with our learning activities. (Homeschool mom hack 101!) Think any kind of matching game. Upper case letters to lower case letters, words to pictures of the word, math equations to their answers, etc.
Want to discover more versatile sensory toys for your kids? This is the ultimate list of sensory toys for kids.
My middle son is a puzzle fanatic so we did some of those while on the scooter board and he just ate it up.
The benefits of using a Scooter Board
Increase your child's time on the equipment by making it fun with some of the above ideas.
If you're looking for more sensory activities and how exactly to use them to bring about happy kids, click here to get access to the "behind the scenes" of our blog. We'll send you some snazzy FREE sensory activity printables too! They're all organized by type of input AND by ones that use no equipment, common household equipment, and specialized equipment like the scooter board.
Diana Fitts says
As an OT, I love using swings or scooters for stomach activities like these. As this post proves, you don’t need a fancy therapy gym to do therapeutic activities. Even the simplest things can be therapeutic.
Best,
Diana