5 Activities to Improve Core Strength and Gross Motor Skills

Hi Parents! 

I'd like to share with you 5 Activities you can do for your children when at home.

You don't need fancy gym equipment for this or any tools just to develop your child's core muscles and gross motor skills.

We need to help our children improve their core muscles as it is the 'core' of our body we use to do work.

• It connects all the limbs that we use to do our gross motor and fine motor activities.
• If it is strong, it makes the activities easier to do.
• A weak core can be susceptible to poor posture, back pain, poor muscle control, poor or unstable hand coordination, weak limbs, poor gross motor, and fine motor movement.
• It also gives balance and stability to our bodies.

Some children with autism tend to be clumsy, bumping on furniture to furniture, or have a hard time gripping a marker or crayon for writing. They may also show a weak grasp of different materials big or small.

Giving these activities will help your child improve his core strength.

This is good for joint strength, core stability and strength, and body awareness (also called proprioceptive).

This activity requires a focus on posture, coordination, and balance.

Your child may or may not be able to do this in the beginning, but with visual support and encouragement, you can help him be more successful in doing this.

This activity strengthens hands and finger muscles for better fine motor control.

It also develops proprioceptive skills for organization because of weight-bearing.

I used to have a child who has a weak  pencil grasp. But after a few exposures to this activity, he was able to improve his pencil grip in a few weeks of practice.

Try, your child may like it playing with you!

This strengthens the whole body and increases muscle power.

It also supports shoulder health, engages the entire body, and builds core stability.

Make sure your child is not touching his knees on the ground or his elbow when performing this activity.

Stomach exercise is important to train muscles in the pelvis, lower back, hips, and abdomen.

It works together in harmony with all the muscles around the stomach.

It develops balance and stability too. Try to do this activity in a fun way!

You can ask your child to be superman, butterfly, or jet. Incorporate creativity in this activity!

Try to embed this at night before bed so your child's energy is diverted to activities like this and he'll get to sleep early!

This activity is good for body coordination, balancing, building core strength and muscles.

This can also be done before going to bed!

Let your child get tired so he can have a good sleep because his energy is diverted to something his body needs!

You can wobble your knees to make the activity a little more difficult for your child but it does give more exercise for his developing body when you do it!

Remember!

Try to do any one of these activities for at least 15 minutes a day.

You can have two activities in 15 minutes such as doing Crabwalk then wheelbarrow.

Or, you can let your child do one exercise within 15 minutes.

Remember it's not necessary to have 15 minutes, it can be 5 or 30 minutes, depending on your child's attention.

However, in the beginning, you may struggle with him as it is not included in his routine. But once, he gets used to the activity, it will be easy for you to add more actions or activities later on.

You can download the FREE PRINTABLES by clicking the button below.

I included more guidelines inside this freebie.

You can print the pictures and let your child choose which activity he wants to do first.

Letting your child choose gives him control over this activity and gives him motivation to the do task.

If you like this blog article, share it with other parents as well because you never know if you save a person's day by reading this article.

Good luck! I hope you will do at least one activity today.

Watch out for more interesting topics I'm about to share with you!

Bye for now!

AUSOMELY Yours,

Quennie Lim