Balance & Coordination Overview

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

What is Balance?

Balance is a biological system that enables us to know where our bodies are in the environment and allows the body to maintain a desired position. Normal balance depends on information from the inner ear, other senses (such as sight and touch) and muscle movement.

Our sense of balance is specifically regulated by a complex interaction between the following parts of the nervous system:

The inner ears monitor the directions of motion, such as turning or forward-backward, side-to-side, and up-and-down motions.
The eyes observe where the body is in space (i.e., upside down, right side up, etc.) and also the directions of motion.
Skin pressure receptors such as those located in the feet and seat sense what part of the body is down and touching the ground.
Muscle and joint sensory receptors report what parts of the body are moving.
The central nervous system (the brain and spinal cord) processes all the pieces of information from the systems listed above to make some coordinated sense out of it all.

(Medical Author: William C. Shiel Jr., MD, FACP, FACR )

Why are balance and coordination skills important to practice?

Age appropriate balance and coordination allows a child to have more fluid and agile body movements when performing motor activities. As listed above, the body needs input from multiple systems: the ears, eyes, skin, and muscles and joints. What better way to help integrate all of those systems together than through play and other large motor activities? These activities are great at encouraging the right amount of input our bodies need to help integrate all the systems to help achieve balanced and fluid motor patterns. Children who are able to demonstrate proper form of a gross motor movement allows for less energy expenditure and helps to minimize fatigue. Children with good balance and coordination are less likely to become injured as they are able to make the correct postural adjustments to minimize falling.

If a child has difficulties with balance and coordination they might:

Fall easily, trip often or can’t ‘recover’ quickly from being off balance.
Move stiffly and lack fluid body movement (e.g. run like a ‘robot’). They may demonstrate more floppy or rigid muscle tone.
Avoid physical activity (e.g. playground use, sports participation).
Be late to reach developmental milestones (e.g. crawling and walking).
Be slower than their peers to master physical skills (e.g. bike riding, swimming or tree climbing). Motor (muscle) planning of how to perform a physical task (e.g. they may start at step three not one) may be more difficult.
Be less skillful than their peers in refined sports participation (e.g. team sports).
Push harder, move faster or invade the personal space of others more than they intend to. They have difficulty with spatial awareness of how they are using or placing their body (e.g. so that they unintentionally invade other people's personal space without knowing it).
Be fearful of new physical games (e.g. swings) or scared of heights that do not faze their peers.
Have difficulty getting dressed standing up (e.g. they need to sit down to get put pants as as they lose their balance standing on one leg).
Have trouble navigating some environments (e.g. steps, curbs, uneven ground).
Tire more quickly than their peers or need to take regular short rest periods during physical activity. They may have low endurance for physical (fine and gross motor) tasks.
Have difficulty with left right discrimination and understanding the differences in direction. They may also have difficulty establishing hand dominance, which is necessary for the refinement of future skills.

Balance & Coordination Overview

What is Balance?

Balance is a biological system that enables us to know where our bodies are in the environment and allows the body to maintain a desired position. Normal balance depends on information from the inner ear, other senses (such as sight and touch) and muscle movement.

Our sense of balance is specifically regulated by a complex interaction between the following parts of the nervous system:

The inner ears monitor the directions of motion, such as turning or forward-backward, side-to-side, and up-and-down motions.

The eyes observe where the body is in space (i.e., upside down, right side up, etc.) and also the directions of motion.

Skin pressure receptors such as those located in the feet and seat sense what part of the body is down and touching the ground.

Muscle and joint sensory receptors report what parts of the body are moving.

The central nervous system (the brain and spinal cord) processes all the pieces of information from the systems listed above to make some coordinated sense out of it all.

Why are balance and coordination skills important to practice?

If a child has difficulties with balance and coordination they might:

Fall easily, trip often or can’t ‘recover’ quickly from being off balance.

Move stiffly and lack fluid body movement (e.g. run like a ‘robot’). They may demonstrate more floppy or rigid muscle tone.

Avoid physical activity (e.g. playground use, sports participation).

Be late to reach developmental milestones (e.g. crawling and walking).

Be slower than their peers to master physical skills (e.g. bike riding, swimming or tree climbing). Motor (muscle) planning of how to perform a physical task (e.g. they may start at step three not one) may be more difficult.

Be less skillful than their peers in refined sports participation (e.g. team sports).

Push harder, move faster or invade the personal space of others more than they intend to. They have difficulty with spatial awareness of how they are using or placing their body (e.g. so that they unintentionally invade other people's personal space without knowing it).

Be fearful of new physical games (e.g. swings) or scared of heights that do not faze their peers.

Have difficulty getting dressed standing up (e.g. they need to sit down to get put pants as as they lose their balance standing on one leg).

Have trouble navigating some environments (e.g. steps, curbs, uneven ground).

Tire more quickly than their peers or need to take regular short rest periods during physical activity. They may have low endurance for physical (fine and gross motor) tasks.

Have difficulty with left right discrimination and understanding the differences in direction. They may also have difficulty establishing hand dominance, which is necessary for the refinement of future skills.