As parents, we want the best of everything for our children. We want them to grow up healthy and happy and I’m sure like me, your always on the look out for practical parenting tips to ensure that you raise them in the best possible way.
Whist there’s no rule book on how to do it right, a key thing in promoting healthy child development formula is the importance of play. Playing offers an ideal opportunity for parents to engage with their children. Some activities that rely on your child’s sense of balance such as playing with an indoor swing for kids, can help improve the way they walk, their balance and other gross motor skills. I’ve highlighted five reasons why swinging is good for your child.
1. Improve Sensory Skills
The body is composed of different senses and each plays a significant role in a child’s developmental growth. It involves multiple stimulations from touching, smelling, tasting and body awareness to hearing sounds and reacting to bright light. All these senses should come together for your child to respond appropriately to everything that surrounds them.
Sensory integration is essential for children to communicate, behave and develop well. One way to improve your child’s sensory systems is to expose them to different activities. Swinging is a great activity for this as moving back and forth can provide light sensory stimulation.
Your child would be more able to interpret the messages from different parts of their senses because swinging has a powerful impact on the brain’s ability to process information. These sensory systems serve as the building blocks to many other skills essential for your child’s growth.
2. Increase Attention Span
Perhaps, you are one of those parents who tried pleading with your kids to sit down and make them focus on something. Most children nowadays have a shorter attention span due to excessive exposure to gadgets. If you suspect your child has a poor attention span, a break from using devices might be the right way to start.
Swinging is an excellent way to help children focus. It has been widely used in therapy for children diagnosed with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder). The act of swinging helps children refocus their brain to engage in structured activities.
But while it is usual for kids to have short attention spans, you need to be aware too if your child’s inattention is already a problem that needs to be addressed. You can also start by learning what the expected attention span for your child’s age is.
3. Boost Relaxation Skills
Children could easily be irritated by random things such as loud noises, tags touching their skins, socks on their feet to name a few. They are called sensory issues, which most children tend to grow out as they age. But even if the problems do not go away, swinging helps children to calm down and focus less on their irritants.
The back and forth movement of a swing sends messages to the brain which are soothing to children. It is why babies and toddlers quickly go to sleep when you put them in a safe, enclosed swing. Because of this, if your child has been overstimulated at school or any activity, you could use at least one swing activity a day to relax their mind.
4. Develop Motor Skills
Motor skills are another ability that children need to acquire. They are categorised as gross and fine motor skills. Gross motor skills are used for large movements such as sitting up, standing, and walking, while motor skills involve smaller actions, like playing small toys and handling fine objects and writing.
Mastering these skills is vital for children’s growth and independence. Fortunately, swinging activities can help your child develop both skills. Children strengthened their gross motor skills as their legs and arms were pumping on a swing. Gripping and finger coordination during swinging is also working on their fine motor skills.
With poor motor skills, children might have difficulty in exploring the world around them, which could also help with many other areas of development. Maybe you could use something like a hammock or any other swinging tool to bond with your kids while helping them to develop good motor control.
5. Enhance Body and Spatial Awareness
As your child grows, they not only navigate the world around them but also learn about themselves. While they are playing and falling all over, they are developing more body and spatial awareness. Body and spatial awareness is the ability to understand the location and movement of their bodies in space.
These spatial awareness skills are built as your child decides where to sit on a swinging platform, so they don’t fall off and balance their bodies as they swing. They would be able to explore their environment successfully as they differentiate between left, up, down, and other concepts.
Takeaway
While a swing brings many benefits to our children’s development, we still need to be careful in using them. Swinging activities may not work well on your child, even if they have been useful to other kids. Remember that every child is different.
This is a collaborative post
