Key Points:
- Balance involves maintaining controlled body positions during static and dynamic activities, requiring the integration of the vestibular, visual, and proprioceptive systems.
- Sensory processing activities and muscle-strengthening exercises, such as playing catch and engaging in playground activities, contribute to the development of balance skills.
Balance refers to the capacity of maintaining a controlled body position during static and dynamic activities. Although this skill comprises many developmental milestones that go from birth to five years old, most children master basic balance skills around preschool age. Achieving balance is no small feat! As the American Academy of Pediatrics states, balance requires the combined and then integrated efforts of three different systems in the body. In this article, we’ll take a look into each one of them, and how they contribute to your kid’s development of balancing skills.
- We are born with a vestibular system that is a blueprint for the balancing skills. This complex system is formed by tiny organs located in the inner ear. That’s why if you have an ear infection or labyrinthitis, you experience dizziness and loss of balance!
- The visual system is particularly helpful in developing balance during toddlerhood as your kid starts adventuring into walking and exploring the world in two feet.
- The proprioceptive system refers to our brain’s capacity to sense how and where we are positioned in a place, both as a whole and with each specific body part. This is the reason you can close your eyes right now and still know where your feet are! It is based on touch, memory and perception, relies on muscles and joints, and takes a bit more time to mature than the first two.
Activities that help develop sensory processing and strengthen muscles help to develop balance skills. More direct ideas for exercising balance include playing catch, going up the stairs and down the slide in the playground, trying to move in all fours like an animal, hopping, etc. You can also improve your kid’s visual-motor coordination by drawing and making age-appropriate craft projects.
