Developing Ball Skills for Young Children

Ball activities are an important part of many children's play, but some children may be afraid of the ball. Therefore, it is important to adapt the play with the “right” type of ball – for example, starting with a beach ball, balloon, or soft ball. Ball activities particularly strengthen coordination and hand-eye cooperation.

Examples of activities that promote ball skills:

• Throw and catch a soft pillow. It's okay to catch the pillow against your stomach. The adult throws to each child and adjusts the throws to the child's level.
• Replace the pillow with a beach ball or a large, soft ball, and practice catching with hands.
• Roll a ball towards a target, for example, bowling pins made from empty soda bottles. Draw lines on the ground at different distances from the bottles, and let the child choose where they want to stand.
• Throw a ball through a hula hoop. The distance is adjusted for each individual child.
• Target practice with hula hoops on the floor, using beanbags, pebbles, crumpled newspaper, stuffed animals, and similar items as throwing objects.
• Sew slightly larger beanbags and use them to practice throwing and catching.
• Throw and catch large and small balls together with an adult, who adjusts the difficulty and distance according to the child's skills.
• Let the children pair up, each pair with one ball:
• Throw a ball against a wall or a target.
• Balloon games where several children participate, and everyone has their own balloon: