We have finally made our way through the cold, indoor times of winter to the warming, sunny days of Spring. In honor of this momentous occasion it seems to be a great time to share some therapy tips around bubbles.
Most kids love bubbles. They are fascinated by their changing colors and floating nature. Because of the immediate engaging nature of bubbles, they are a great tool to use during challenging therapy tasks.
For our littlest kiddos, bubbles provide a new challenge for their vision. Bubbles may not move in expected ways and don’t hold a strong color and so require advanced skills to fix and maintain their gaze on a bubble while tracking it along its path. As they reach to pop the bubbles they add in the concepts of depth perception, coordination, and fine motor control.
For our one-year olds, bubbles can be fun to chase and stomp, helping support gross motor development with avoiding obstacles, increasing speed and coordination, challenging their balance by standing on one leg. All of these types of tasks will lead them to trying out the next most challenging activity they need to grow and develop.
For those kiddos working on speech skills, bubbles are a fun way to try to get their lips and tongue to move in different ways. These skills are necessary to form more complex sounds and words. Additionally, blowing bubbles promotes abdominal strengthening prolonged abdominal use, allowing for increasing length of sentences. Another benefit for speech is that the words “bubble” and “pop” can be easy for words for kiddos that we model whenever we pull the bubbles out.
Finally, blowing out slowly and calmly is a great self-regulation tool that may be helpful for more than just the kiddos who struggle specifically with self-regulation. We all have times that things don’t go our way and we get frustrated, toddlers included. Teaching them ways to safely release their frustration and bring their emotions back to a more even level is a skill they will use for a long time.
These are our favorite no-spill bubbles or make your own bubble solution.
If your kiddo is struggling to meet their developmental milestones or if you have any other questions about how to support your kiddo’s growth and development reach out for an evaluation. Our therapists at Kid Physical have over 54 combined years experience offering specialized, holistic healthcare for children of all ages. Our top priority is providing support for both caregivers and children so that they can reach their highest potential.