The wheelbarrow walk is a great upper extremity strengthening activity. You can make it easier or harder depending on where you put your hands that are holding their legs. Holding at the hips is the easiest position for the client, and at the ankles is the hardest. You can then hold anywhere in between to get the best results.
To make a game out of wheelbarrow walking I put a puzzle at one end of the mat or room, and the puzzle pieces at the other end.
You start at the pieces side, pick out a piece and put it in their pocket or on their back. Then the client has to wheelbarrow walk down to the puzzle end, fish the puzzle piece out of the pocket and put it in the puzzle. Go back for more pieces until the puzzle is finished.
It takes visual perception for the puzzle, and upper extremity motor control to get the puzzle piece in and out of a pocket.
Materials:
- Puzzle
Skills:
- Upper extremity strength
- Visual perceptual
- Upper extremity motor control
- Heavy work
- Proprioception
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Trackbacks & Pingbacks
[…] a great upper body and trunk strengthening tool, and it is easy to incorporate it into a game. When wheelbarrow walking, you are strengthening your arms and your trunk since you have to activate a co-contraction through […]
[…] on her feet instead of her knees, but she’s working on it. Practice makes perfect. As for the wheelbarrow walk, make sure the child keeps her back straight and bottom slightly lifted, and opt for holding her […]
[…] Glad you got the info you need. Think of things as layering and overlapping so one issue impacts all the others. For now, lots of wheelbarrow walking on his hands. Crab walking, bear walking Lots of manipulative tasks–play doh, digging in the dirt/making sandcastles (lots of hand digging and patting); put together a container of rice and put small items in it that he has to dig through and find. Can also you a beans or other dried items. Wheelbarrow walk | Therapy Fun Zone […]
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