Physical therapy equipment for home
Grace Goodfellow, DPT
Physical therapy equipment for home doesn’t have to elaborate or expensive. Often times you have items to help your child reach their goals already in your house. In this post Grace Goodfellow DPT shares all the ways children can progress towards physical therapy goals with common items found at home.
There are so many things around your home that can help your child stay on track developmentally. This equipment and tools do not have to be fancy at all and you probably already have it around your house. Don’t underestimate the power of a couch for a cruising surface, stairs to build leg strength, or a mirror to motivate and engage your little one. And even your school age kids can help straighten up the house by picking up their dirty socks with their toes to work on single leg balance or bear walking around the house. There are so many great things sitting around your house to keep your kiddo on track. Below is broken down by age, some things are listed twice with different uses at different stages.
The Best Physical Therapy Equipment for Home:
2-4 MONTHS OLD:
Now that your little one is getting stronger and has conquered tummy time on your chest, here are two equipment ideas to continue to have your little one progress developmentally.
Boppy Pillow:
Tummy time and weight bearing through arms: you might have already used this during tummy time to help support the trunk of your little one, but now we can focus on weight bearing through their arms to build shoulder and upper extremity strength. Place your child on their chest with their arms over the boppy placing a toy flat on the ground encouraging them to lift a hand and interact with the toy will begin to challenge their upper body strength.
Side-lying play: placing the boppy pillow (long side) at their back will encourage playing in a side lying position, this is a good first step in progress toward rolling later on. Playing in a side-lying position also helps with core and neck strength, make sure to switch playing on both right and left side equally.
Mirrors:
Playing in front of a mirror in all different positions is so helpful to have you little one motivated. In tummy time it will help with next extension strength and in support sitting position will encourage head control with directed eye gaze toward a purposeful position.
4-8 MONTHS OLD:
Towel Roll
Pulling toes to mouth: this is a skill that helps us see the tummy strength of your little one, to help them out you can place a small towel roll or folded towel underneath their bum to assist in getting their feet to mouth, and once they have mastered it with help you can progress the activity by removing the towel roll and continue to encourage them to lift their toes up to their mouths.
Supporting their tummy on all fours: if your little one has progressed toward pushing up on their arms and is beginning to pull in knees underneath hips you can help them strengthen their arms and legs but helping support their tummy, by placing them on all fours with a towel roll under their tummy they can work on their strength for crawling in a more supported position.
Boppy Pillow:
Supported sitting: if your baby is not yet an independent sitter, try placing a boppy pillow around their waist and with you sitting behind them providing support as needed you can move their arms to the toy of the boppy pillow with a flat palm to encourage a modified prop sitting position. Place toys at eye level to promote a lifted head.
Laundry Basket:
Support sitting: similar to the boppy pillow you can place soft items around your child’s waist like blankets or pillow and have your little one use sides of the basket for arm support, pushing them around the room will also encourage good core stabilization.
8-10 MONTHS:
Pillows/Blankets:
Crawling: if your little one has begun to crawl on all fours using a reciprocal pattern, you can begin challenging their full body strength by giving them their own mini obstacle course, try placing pillows around the floor and a blanket over them to create an uneven and bumpy but soft surface. Then place your child’s favorite toys throughout the new surface to encourage crawling over uneven surfaces. You can even get older siblings involved by having them be the motivating person to move toward or to demonstrate.
10-12 MONTHS:
Coffee Table/Couch Surface:
Pull to stand: placing toys up on a couch or coffee table or even a flipped over laundry basket will begin motivating your child to pull to stand at surfaces around your home. One idea is to play with them with an engaging toy in a crawling position then bring that toy up onto an elevated surface. You can help them move from a crawling position by encouraging them to lift an arm to the surface then coming to their knees with their arms on the support surface. When they are first learning you can help them by lifting one leg into a half kneel position, so one knee up and one knee still on the ground and from there they can stand up with little to no help.
Cruising: if your child has to pull to stand on furniture down, encourage cruising along the couch by placing their toy on the other end of the couch.
Multi-Part Toys (such as a shape sorter, placing balls into a bucket):
Squatting to standing: with your little one holding onto one of the surfaces talked about early you can place parts of a toy on floor by their feet, with upper extremity support they will feel confident to reach down and grab the toy, this helps build leg strength and will help build those leg muscles and walking and eventually squatting to pick up a toy without arm support. Ideas of toys: shape sorter, ball drop toy, and stacking cups.
Push Toys/Flipped Over Laundry Basket:
Walking with support: once they are feeling confident in standing supported and cruising you can progress toward taking steps with support. These are two ideas instead of just walking holding on to your hands. A push toy can often be a little too fast at the beginning, so think about wrapping an ankle weight at the bottle on the push toy to make it harder to push and will be less likely to push out from under them. A laundry basket is also an idea having them push it around a carpeted floor or you can slowly start to encourage them to push it by helping propel it forward and waiting for them to take the following steps.
12-18 Months:
Stairs:
Crawling up stairs: make sure to always be present with your child when working on stairs, you want to be sure to be standing behind them to make sure no one takes a tumble. Similar to cruising, often placing a toy just out of reach will motivate your little one to climb up the stairs. Just start with 1 step at a time. This will help build core and leg strength.
Small Step or Stool
Standing up from the floor: with your child kneeling in front of a small step or stool you can help by placing their hands on the step and help by placing one leg up and encouraging them to bring their other leg underneath their hips, and using their arms for support they often will move into a standing position. The stool just adds a level of support when they are first learning this skill.
Sitting to standing: just like sitting in a small chair with their hips and knees bent at 90 degrees, but using a small step for sitting will have your child rely on their tummy muscles compared to external support. This will progress toward learning to stand up from a sitting position working on their leg strength. To encourage coming to stand you might have to start by giving them a hand for support but by placing a toy overhead and forward a little will encourage your little one to come to a standing position.
TODDLERS/PRE-SCHOOL:
Stairs with railing: working on single leg balance and progressing toward taking steps up with arm support, make sure they are able to lead with their right and left leg equally. Also learning to jump is sometimes easier from a step, you can start to teach your child how to jump by holding their hands and jumping off.
Hills and uneven terrains: similar to how we can challenge crawling we can also encourage more proficient walking and better balance by walking over all different types of surfaces. Walking up and down hills will contribute to leg strength and core stabilization. Walking on uneven ground like grassy fields, mulch, or even within the house by placing pillows and obstacles on the ground.
Small step or stool: having your child place one leg up onto a step or stool will help with learning how to balance on one leg.
Balance Bike: helps your child with balance, core strength, and body awareness within space
Tricycles: learning the pedal pattern and propelling the tricycle by themself is great for developing your child's bilateral coordination and leg strength
Ladder and slide: small ladders and slides are a great way to have your child build their core, arm, and leg strength while developing their bilateral coordination while climbing up the ladder.
SCHOOL AGE:
Bikes: works on your child’s leg strength, bilateral coordination, and balance
Bubbles: challenge your older children to pop the bubbles only using their feet, this continues to challenge their balance on one foot
Jump rope: working on their agility, you can lay out a jump rope in a straight line and challenge them to different jumping patterns. Such as, jumping with two feet back and forth, jumping side to side, jumping on 1 leg across down the line in a diagonal pattern.
Other ideas that doesn't include a lot of equipment but will continue to strengthen their muscles:
Playing their favorite game in a plank position, a game such as the memory game, during their turn they have to hold a plank while matching cards, this can help build their arm and core strength. If this is too hard to start with, put a towel roll or pillow underneath their hips, it will continue to challenge their arm and core strength.
Playing a game or doing their homework in a tall kneeling position, so on their knees without their bum touching their heels, this works on core and glute strength.
Animal walks: crab walks, bear walks, frog jumps, running like a cheetah, and starfish jumps.
Playgrounds: don’t underestimate all of the strengthening work your child gets from your local playground, climbing, sliding, swinging, and balance challenges are all great ways to keep your child on track.