Exercises can quickly become boring, and the child will not want to do them. So turn them into games whenever possible.
LOOK FOR WAYS TO MAKE IT FUN!
a good ROM exercise for fingers
Just a bit more and you can ring the bell!
One good way is to involve the children in games with other children. Try to think of ways to adapt games so that they help to stretch the joints and exercise the muscles that most need it.
A boy with cerebral palsy rolls a ball so that a girl with juvenile arthritis can kick it. This helps her to straighten her knees, and to strengthen the muscles that straighten them.
In the picture below, children play ball to help María, a girl with juvenile arthritis, stretch her stiff joints and muscles.
Can you see how the 2 children on the left are helping Maria with ‘range-of-motion’ exercises?
Which of Maria’s joints are they exercising?
Answers:
The children form a triangle, so that to catch the ball Maria has to twist her body to one side, and to throw it she has to twist to the other side. This helps loosen her stiff back and neck. Also, sometimes they throw the ball high so that she has to lift her head and raise her arms high to catch it.
This way María exercises her neck, back, shoulders, elbows, wrists, hands, and fingers. And the play helps her forget the pain of movement—pain that often makes range-of-motion exercises seem like punishment. But this way she has fun.
