Homemade activity to quicken his reflexes

His therapist reminded me of a game which can train him to quicken his muscular reflexes. From young until now, he can be quite slow in using his fine motor to do things. Not always, but often enough for me to notice. He has definitely improved over time & practice, but it's still delayed.

This morning, in his suit, we did various things on the circular swing. I started off by having him lie on his tummy on the swing. He was rocked him back & forth at varying speeds whilst giving him a label (flying like superman) so he registers the action with the label for future purposes.

To make it fun, I got my imagination going. He's a bird. He's a helicopter: chop, chop, chop. He's just himself with superpowers flying with the sound: aaackkk, aaackkk, ooo, ooo (he chose that sound effect). He's flying over the garden, over the trees, over to his kindergarten to join his friends.

This was in preparation for him to eventually be able to lie on his tummy on a moving swing and throw objects (ball, rings) at a target placed on the floor. The idea is that he has to anticipate the rhythm, plan & time his movements to throw it. I did not reach that stage this morning. That was not my intention today.

After swinging him on his tummy, I tried variations to reach that eventual objective. I put him back on the floor. This time, an empty box was placed on the swing instead & had the swing moving back & forth. I got some old picture cards out for him to throw into the box when the box on the swing got near to him. He could only place a few cards in (less than 5). I found it tricky cos being a circular swing, it's hard to control the swing so it moves purely front & back, without moving sideways.

So I changed the game. I got on to the swing with him (otherwise, he'd not want to play anymore) and I positioned myself such that I had good control of the swing using both my legs/feet. That minimised the sideways movement. Then, a box of cloth balls (that aren't bouncy) was placed on his lap. His legs were hanging over the edge of the swing. The target: a big laundry basket placed on the floor in front of us. We played a few rounds of this. He could throw (more like drop actually) quite a few in.

I did this activity at home cos we didnt head out to the park. It was very hazy & hot. And he isnt as keen anymore to use the equipments there.