For a child playing ball with his/her peers is a wonderful opportunity for facilitating social interactions and turn taking. Catching a ball however is a complex skill that takes practice. Catching calls into play balance, visual tracking, depth perception, eye hand coordination, motor planning, and anticipatory timing. This can be challenging for a child. Below is a sequence of activities to facilitate catching.
Begin with rolling a ball in sitting. Have the child sit with legs spread, roll them the ball, and give them the opportunity to corral the ball using their hands. This will work on eye hand coordination and timing. Using a larger ball will provide a bigger target and more feedback to the child’s hands. To progress this activity move to a smaller ball.
Once the child has mastered catching the rolling ball a nice next step is to use a balloon to play catch in standing. Using a balloon will allow the child more time to prepare his/her body to catch. In addition the slow-moving balloon allows greater ease of visual tracking. As this becomes easy for the child the challenge can be increased by increasing the speed of throwing/hitting the balloon to the child. This is also a good activity for children who tend to close their eyes or turn away when a ball is tossed to them.
Another fun way to practice catching with greater success to use a velcro paddle and ball. This will work on all aspects of catching while allowing the child greater success. Begin by gently tossing the ball from a distance of 5 feet and increase the challenge as appropriate by increasing the pace and distance. This is a good activity for children that have challenges with manual dexterity to practice catching.
Once the child is ready to begin catching a gently tossed ball it is best to start with a softer ball that will be easier to grip. Try to avoid a highly inflated ball as this will be more challenging to catch initially. Start by tossing the child the ball from 5 feet away gently. Progress by increasing the pace. To increase the challenge progress to a less malleable ball. Also increasing the distance to greater than 5 feet will further challenge depth perception and visual tracking.
Other things to keep in mind is to use a high contrast ball, particularly for those with visual impairment. Also, balls that make sound can also be helpful to allow the child to also use their hearing to assist. It is important to make sure the child’s attention is secured before throwing the ball to them. Calling their name, counting “1…2…3…catch” and tossing the ball on the catch command can assist some children with timing.
If your child is just learning to catch a ball or is having difficulty with this complex task, back up and try some of the above activities to help solidify this skill.
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