Not only will your child love playing with bubbles, but they’re also an inexpensive and wonderful way of encouraging various areas of learning and development. Playing with bubbles not only provides the perfect opportunity to develop hearing, speech and language, but it can also help with a number of other important skills.
Skills Bubble Blowing Help With
Talk with your child’s pediatric occupational therapist about the benefits of bubble blowing. They’ll also give you some ideas of fun ways to make use of bubbles. But for now, blowing bubbles can help with the following skills whether your child has a sensory processing disorder or not.
Visual Tracking Skills
Bubbles are an outstanding way of helping your child develop visual tracking skills. We’re not born with visual skills needed for learning and this includes the skills to follow, fix, focus, track, diverge, converge and so forth. These types of skills, like visual perception skills, develop with time.
Fine Motor Skills Development
Once your child is able to grasp, they should have no problem holding the wand. While it can be messy, practicing at holding, grasping and manipulating the wand while dunking it into and out of the container helps develop fine motor skills and control. This skill is important for developing the proper pencil grip, working with tools down the road and writing. Make sure your child uses both hands.
Gross Motor Skills Movement
If your child is a baby, bubbles can be a fun activity for tummy time. While in this position, it encourages your baby to turn their head left, right up and down. These movements help control primitive reflexes which are essential for future coordinated, smooth learning and movement.
Hand and Eye Coordination
Popping bubbles, whether it’s with two hands, one hand a foot, a toe or a finger, all involve developing hand-eye coordination (and foot eye coordination). These early movements help to form the fundamental building blocks of throwing, hitting, catching and kicking that’s involved in ball sports.
And there you have it. When your child is in the mood to blow some bubbles this summer, don’t think it’s just another mindless activity. Not only will you be providing them with hours of fun, but you’ll be helping them build their important life-long skills.