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Having a Ball
Child Development Through Play By Mark Stackpole
Trish Muse, a mother and certified strength and conditioning specialist from Alexandria, Va., uses sports and fitness balls in her professional life, but she also incorporates them into her play with her young son. "I used to have a ball that looked like a puppy and when it rolled, it panted, barked and made noise," she says. "My son loved trying to catch it and loved hearing it roll across the floor."
Aside from the fun and physical development, Muse has seen that playing games with balls can encourage all sorts of positive emotional and social development as well. "Kids learn to take turns, play well with others and play for the fun of it without any labels or competition of any kind," she says.
While young children have an affinity for this type of play, Margolis advises that they will need some introduction as to how it all works. "Toddlers like the fact that balls can be thrown away and then come back to them," she says. "However, they may be afraid at first of balls being thrown at them, and they will need to learn gradually how to catch them. They start trying to catch balls with their whole bodies, then their arms and finally with their hands."