Standing on one foot

• You can start this activity by having your child hold onto a sturdy surface such as a small chair, a railing in your home, a wall or a counter that is at their height.
• Demonstrate what you want your child to do. Hold onto the surface and lift up your leg with your knee bent slightly and your foot behind you. You don’t have to bend your knee a lot.
• Then have your child stand at the surface holding on with two hands. Help them to lift one leg to the correct position if they cannot do it.
• Hold the position and count for 5.
• Have them try on their own with support as needed, progress to independence.
• Try both legs.
• If the above is easy for your child, have them hold the surface with one hand, don’t help them lift their leg or have them move away from the surface.
• The goal is to have your child stand on one leg in the middle of a room. Try to increase the time they stand on one leg from 1-5 seconds.

Some games to play for standing on one leg are:

• Pop a bubble with one foot while they hold onto a surface. Blow a bubble and keep it on the bubble wand. Present it to the child’s foot so they have to lift it up a little to pop the bubble.
• Marching games where your child has to keep their foot off the ground while lifting up their knee.
• Trace your child’s feet on paper. Cut the foot out and they can draw on it. Then use that foot for them to stand on while the other foot is in the air.
• Practice kicking. You can use empty plastic bottles for your child to knock down with a ball in the house or just knock down the bottle with a kick. In order to kick they have to stand on one leg.