Why Your Toddler Should Play With Balls
The colored balls are indispensable toys for the development of children. Find out why and why they should not be missing in your children’s lives.
Have you ever noticed how kids love to play in a ball pit? Although if you think about it, anyone, regardless of age, also loves to do it. It seems that balls are a toy that has no limits and that each and every one of us stimulates our imagination and our desire to have fun. With the balls you play to kick them, throw them, roll on top of them, bounce them …
The balls improve children’s motor skills, hand-eye coordination, and also improve understanding of individual and social play. Ball games are important to the development of all young children. The skills you learn with the balls will be useful as long as you also play collaboratively and / or competitively.
Index
WHAT YOUR CHILD LEARNS PLAYING WITH BALLS
Allows them to be in control
Small colored balls are easy to find, cheap, and kids use it big. If you also put all the balls in a small inflatable pool, they will still have a much better time. The little ones enhance motor skills and become familiar with the environment. Since children are small they are fascinated by objects that roll due to the continuous movement it generates, just as it happens with balls.
The balls make children feel in control of something that is not just their own movements. Rolling a ball back and forth is a way to build a social bond between two people and it is also a lesson that children learn that is necessary for their development: cause and effect or action-reaction.
They will have new skills
Young children will discover thanks to the balls, the different effects such as bouncing, rolling, throwing, releasing and catching the ball. A ball will remain an entertaining toy whether your child plays independently or with other children. Ball games are also essential for developing social skills, learning to share, following instructions, or even learning to negotiate different rules of the game.
IT IS IMPORTANT TO CHOOSE THE CORRECT BALLS
Young children will be able to discover the abilities of a ball and the different effects it has, as long as the correct balls are chosen. The typical plastic balls to fill inflatable pools are ideal. A ball will continue to be an entertaining toy but it is important first to start playing with the balls with the children so that they learn how to have fun with them.
There is a wide variety of options in the balls, both in size and firmness. Large balls will need both hands to throw, which is a completely different skill than throwing a small tennis ball with one hand. Give your child a chance to practice with both balls . The lighter the better for young children.
THE BALLS MUST ALSO HAVE RULES
It is necessary to establish basic rules on how to throw balls, inside or outside and above all, comply with them. Either it is played indoors or out, or with some balls inside (the small ones) and with others outside, (the ones that are bigger). Rules will also have to be set such as: do not throw balls at people unless it is playing and they are prepared to catch them, etc. Tell your child that throwing the balls too hard can hurt others.
Explain the rules of the balls to your children according to their age and their understanding of the information you can give them.
SAVE THE BALLS
A large box or a basket of nice clothes can be good measures to store the balls so that the colored balls do not end up everywhere. In addition, if it is a beautiful basket, your child may like to have fun when it is time to save the balls if you do it in a game plan, throwing them to see who scores the most. Wicker baskets, laundry baskets, or plastic containers are good ideas. What is important is that the basket is not too deep to avoid accidents and that your child does not fall inside when he wants to catch the balls.
Dr. Tabriella Perivolaris, Sara's mother and fan of fashion, beauty, motherhood, among others, about the female universe. Since 2018 she has been working as a copywriter, always bringing to her articles a little of her experience and experience as a mother and woman.