When our Oakville Physiotherapists are giving a home program for little ones, they often don’t follow the same “rep / set” scheme as teens and adults. They often resemble more play based activities!
These exercises for our young patients are given for different reasons and have bonus outcomes!
We love giving different animal walking exercises!
Benefits of Animal Walking:
- Bilateral coordination – using both sides in a coordinated way.
- Upper body strengthening
- Lower body strengthening
- Core strengthening
- Vestibular input (input into the brain, inner ear and eye systems)
- Positive carry over into other areas of your child’s activities.
- They’re fun!
A Physiotherapist that works with kids may have a specific purpose for giving a specific animal walking exercise, but all of them are fun to try!
Examples of Animal Walking:
- Bear crawls
- Crab walks
- Frog jumps
- Bunny hops
- Cat crawls
- Snake slither
- Duck waddles
- Donkey kicks
- Elephant swings
- Flamingo hops
- Horse galloping
- Inchworms
If your little one has a lot of trouble with one, not to worry, keep trying and focus on some easier ones to start. These are great for indoor activities in poor weather and on short breaks with virtual learning.
Keep it interesting by having them choose a card with an animal walk, make small scavenger hunt using different movements to go from station to station etc!
Our North Oakville Physiotherapists see kids both in clinic and virtually for physio assessment and treatment. Some things we treat are: development coordination disorder, delayed gross motor skills, hypotonia, toe walking, recovery after broken bones and being immobilized in a cast.
Contact us to book in!