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Fun and Effective Hand and Shoulder Strengthening Exercises

Core (trunk) strength and stability is crucial to provide a solid base of support for your child’s body to allow their arms and hands to move freely and perform precisely. Without adequate core strength, a child may have a difficult time maintaining an upright seated position with appropriate postural control. This may lead to easier fatigue when sitting at a desk as well as more difficulty using their arms and hands precisely. In order for your child’s hands to work well, good upper body strength as well as shoulder girdle strength is important.  Stability at the shoulder muscles in a necessary component for your child’s coordination, postural control, and fine motor skill development. This stability in their upper body and shoulders allows for fine motor tasks, such as writing, cutting, and lacing, to be carried out easier as well as increasing their performance with these tasks. Listed below are hand and shoulder strengthening ideas and activities to do around the house to improve your child’s overall upper body strength, which is so important to help with those fine motor skills! Have fun!!

Hand Strengthening

  • Play dough or clay: The more they manipulate it, the better. You can find homemade recipes or silly putty adds an extra level of resistance.
  • Rubber bands: See how many you can stretch around a can, or make a geoboard (rubber bands stretched around pegs to make different shapes).
  • Hole punch: Just punch holes in paper using different shape punchers. The paper punches can be used as snow, confetti or for making crafts!
  • Kitchen tongs: Pick up stuff around the house with them. Watch Inspector Gadget for inspiration, if old enough ☺ Or pretend to be robots.
  • Clothespins: Have kids hang stuff up, like art, good grades, or chore lists, on a clothesline.
  • Tweezers: Use these to pick up extra small objects. These are smaller than tongs so it takes more coordination, but they’re easier to actually squeeze. Play the board game Operation for surgical precision practice!
  • Eye droppers: Use them for a water activity or a science experiment – by squeezing to fill up or drop a water bead out.
  • Syringes: Use these for water activities for increasing 3 finger pinch strength.
  • Paper: Start with tissue paper, work your way  to computer paper, then go for construction paper – tear small pieces and roll them into little balls (using pointer finger and thumb if possible) to use in a craft or to have a mini “snowball” fight.
    • For overall grip strength, crumple up an entire sheet of paper to see how tight it can be rolled using just one hand (tip: use newspapers or old papers you’re planning to recycle). Or buy a cheap “trash can basketball hoop” to make a game out of it.
  • Spray bottle: Enlist your child’s help with spraying/misting plants at home or spraying down a chalk or white board to clean it.
  • Sponges: Practice squeezing the water out of a sponge when washing a car, chalk board, or dishes.

Shoulder Strengthening

  • Wall push-ups: Stand a foot from the wall, reach arms out straight so flat hands connect with wall.  Now, bend arms while leaning forward and then push back out. Do as many as possible – try for at least 10!
  • Climbing Trees/Monkey Bars:Have your child work on using their upper body to climb trees or hang and swing on obstacles around or outside your house.
  • Wheelbarrow Walks: Hold your child’s legs while they wheelbarrow walk using their arms. See if they can wheelbarrow walk while laying over an exercise ball on their stomach!
  • Complete activities laying on their stomach on the ground: Laying on their stomach on the ground, have your child complete activities to increase their core/trunk and shoulder strength.
  • Balloon Volleyball: Use an item around the house like a bat, racquet, or  fly swatter to hit a balloon. Create a middle net or imaginary net to hit the ball over back and forth.
  • Washing windows/cars: Washing windows or a car can improve upper body strength because it involves reaching above their head and against gravity.
  • Draw, color, or paint on a vertical surface: This also encourages reaching against gravity to increase upper body strength as well as improve wrist extension for handwriting tasks.
  • Play catch with a large ball or exercise ball: Encourage throwing a large ball or exercise ball back and forth or around a circle. Practice bouncing or tossing as well!

-Kelsey Shanks, OTR/L

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Patient Reviews

LLA Therapy

Patient Reviews

Crystal Scheibe

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Great place, glad we found them. Been going to Medina over 2 months now and he loves Lauryn and Kyler. Wish they had more ABA therapy places available... live in Wooster and long drive everyday.

Karrie Swan LaRock

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My 11 year old son has dyslexia and has made noticeable gains in working At LLA THERAPY. Katie is strong in her approach toward him and also keeps him comfortable enough to perform well. We will continue visiting both the Fairlawn and Hudson offices and recommend them highly.

Ron Monroe

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My 9 year old just completed about 9 months of weekly speech sessions (due to his stuttering) with Matt Hagge at LLA and we are thrilled with the experience and results. What I thought might be a negative (what kid really wants to go to speech class?) was made very positive by Matt, and my son never hesitated or complained when we talked about class. He really enjoyed it and really took what Matt taught him to heart. His speech has been greatly improved and we definitely recommend LLA. Thank you so much!

Heather Dougherty-Pantoja

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My son’s Occupational Therapist, Jess, is an amazing OT! She gives practical tips on working with my son at home and school!

Terri Apgar

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I cannot say enough good things about LLA Therapy. My daughter was a client of Teal Simmons’ for approximately 2 years and was just released from speech therapy! She was diagnosed with Apraxia in 2015 and worked with Teal twice a week. Through Teal’s application of PROMPT therapy, my daughter had age-appropriate speech after one year. All of the staff we interacted with at LLA were absolutely wonderful. They really care about what they do and making sure your child achieves their goals.

Kelli Geisler Davisson

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LLA Therapy has been an excellent experience for my son as well as my family! My son always asks, "When can I go see Ms. Jeannine again, is it Monday??" He has also made huge gains in only 5 months! I would highly recommend LLA and have already shared my experience with friends looking for services!

Victoria Hansford-Price

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We are so grateful for our Speech Therapist Ms.Teal. We have seen a great improvement with our sons confidence and communication abilities since we have started "Prompt" therapy. What we love the most about LLA and Ms. Teal is that Kohl feels comfortable and relaxed which has played a critical role in his progress. Thank you Ms. Teal for all you have done.

Laura Lee Hogsett

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They have helped in numerous ways. Speech, OT and behavioral. I've had numerous compliments on my son's progress thanks in very large part to LLA. I would recommend LLA before I recommend our local children's hospitals, though they are good, they don't have the staff that LLA does.

Amy Furukawa

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We had a great experience with Matt Hagge at LLA! Our Middle School age son was becoming very conscious of his voice, which is nasal due to a cleft palate. Matt helped him to better form his sounds and project his voice in a way that makes the unavoidable nasality less noticeable.Our son is more confident and outgoing & even took on a speaking role in the church play. Matt has the perfect personality to relate with our son, and we would recommend him to anyone needing speech therapy services!

Jessica Havalotti

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LLA Therapy has been an excellent experience for our daughter. I would highly recommend LLA. Miss Grace was so amazing and I can't believe how quickly our daughter showed improvement. Thank you!
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