Moving in Supine

A child positioned on his back in a platform swing strengthens his legs by kicking and exploring an Essef Board with his feet.
A child positioned on his back in a platform swing strengthens his legs by kicking and exploring an Essef Board with his feet.
Children need time to practice moving while on their backs. This helps to develop leg, arm, and neck strength, among other things. These movements help the child to gain core strength and allow for the use of arms and hands in combination with vision, touch, and hearing.

Supine Play on the Resonance Board

Here is a simple way to use a Resonance Board and various materials to entice a child to move while lying on his back (in supine). The adult’s role in the this activity is to replace items that are knocked down without commenting until the child takes a break. As the child becomes able to move arms and legs, the items are moved further from his/her body to encourage movements that can lead to being able to turn on the side or roll over.

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Supine Play in a Platform Swing

You may also want to use a platform swing to encourage the use of arms and legs while in supine. In the example below, Patty demonstrates how attaching an electronic keyboard (or other noise-making device) to a chair at the child’s feet encourages him/her to push with legs and explore using feet.

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Kamryn Playing in Supine

In this video we see a child playing independently in prone. She practices rolling to her side and back to prone.

 

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Moving in Supine on a Swing

In this video we see a boy lying in a swing using his arms and legs to play with various materials.

 

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