Obstacle courses are great because they can be made anywhere, and with whatever you already have. At Circle Creek Therapy, we use obstacle courses as a tool during Speech, Occupational, & Physical Therapy.
Since obstacle course are only limited by your imagination, the possibilities are endless. But if you are looking for a creative way to do a certain task that pertains to one of our disciplines, you are in the right place. Below are some ideas that you can use to target some of your child's goals, while still time still having fun at home.
Speech Therapy: Obstacle courses are a great strategy for speech language pathologists to use because they are fun, but still useful. Our SLPs use obstacle courses to give our kiddos motivation to speak, or to practice following directions. For instance, a child with autism has to say a sound, or a word phrase, in order to go through the maze. If they do choose to listen to their speech language pathologist, then they get to have fun while still learning new skills.
Physical Therapy: Physical Therapists can utilize a obstacle course because it can help with coordination. If the obstacle course requires the patient to jump through hoops, or to crawl through a tunnel, then they need to learn how to be coordinated enough to do those activities. They might also incorporate a balance beam, or standing on a "bosu ball", into their maze so that they can target balance.
Occupational Therapy: Like Speech & Physical Therapists, Occupational Therapists use their maze to focus on skills such as coordination or following directions. Since OTs focus on more day to day, or fine motor skills, they might include an activity such as having their patient spin through a maze, and then have them throw a ball at a target at spinning at the same time.
We hope that this information was helpful! But if you're still on the lookout for more information about Circle Creek Therapy, just give us a call at 253.237.3405! We are always willing to answer your questions.