Ball skills: Catching

Occupational therapy

﻿Hi, I'm really looking forward to our lesson today. I hope you are too. Before we get started, this is just a little reminder. We're here to support any approaches you might already be using. And any you work you might have already been set. We know that this lesson is going to be going out to so many different children and families. So if you're not sure about anything or have any questions, then please do contact your usual therapy team. Hi, so, we've already learned how to throw a ball to a target. So today let's work at improving how well we can catch a ball. So why is it so important for us to practise our catching? Well, it really improves how our eyes and our hands work together on different tasks. When we have to catch, we have to quickly plan where we need to be and where we need to put our bodies in order to succeed in the catch. And they're really lots of games and activities that need good coordination between our hands and our eyes. Okay. This is what we're going to need for today. A small object to catch such as a ball or beanbag. You could use a bouncy ball. You can have a adult or carer or someone as your activity partner, so you can throw objects to. And enough space around you. Resume the video once you're ready. So with a responsible adult, I would just see how well you are able to do this activity. Okay. Stand opposite your partner, face each other. Throw a small ball or a teddy to each other. Try and catch it in both hands without dropping it. Keep throwing it back and forth and see how many times you can do this before you drop it. Pause the video now to practise. Okay, for our next activity, we are going to see how well we can bounce and catch while we're standing opposite our parent or adult carer. Okay. For bouncing and catching, you can make sure that there's enough space around you and that there's nothing breakable around you. What you're going to do is take your ball and just drop it and then catch it when it comes back to you, because you'll be able to catch it quite easily. Okay? That is what you're going to do. Then you can stand up and now where you're catching and throwing or bouncing the ball, it's nice and big. Okay? So that's where you can start before you feel more confident. You can also Suspect we'll find how important that is. So all we're going to do, hands close together is bounce and catch, okay? So bounce and catch and if you do this with a bigger ball and do it really close to you, really good way to practise because you're closer down there. Let's start putting it all together High kneeling. Swap legs. High kneeling. Bounce and catch. And then you can stand up, okay? And now you can catch and bounce from standing up position. So I'm going to come close but you won't see my head but you know I'm there, okay. So now we need to use more force when we throw down so we can catch. And catch Okay? Let's watch that again. Throw and catch. Keep it nice and close to you before you try throwing. See what happens when I'm just going to drop it. It bounces quite, quite quickly. Okay so don't whack it. Okay? Let me show you. We are just dropping the ball. Guys, please don't tell Buster I'm using his favourite ball. You'll get me into trouble with him, okay? Bounce. Bounce and catch. This is great cause you can see where the ball's going. Okay. Bounce and catch Then we can do the other hand. Okay? So you're going to bounce, catch with both hands. Drop, catch with both hands. One hand. The other hand. Both hands. One hand. The other hand. What you can also do is bounce and catch, bounce and catch. You can just practise that skill over and over bounce and catch, whoa! Okay? Mine has little lights that helps me see it much better, but you can use any ball. And if you have a bigger ball, which hasn't been eaten by your dog, then you can use that. That would be amazing. Okay. Okay. Pause now to practise. Have fun. Come back to the video when you're finished. There are loads of ways that we can change those activities. So you can make it easier by standing closer to your activity partner or using a bigger ball or object. You can make it harder by standing further away, using a smaller ball or just catching with one hand. And there's some more ideas such as using a flat wall to bounce against to bounce the ball against and then catch it and shouting out to each other, where you're going to throw the object or the ball. Okay. As you saw in the last video, you could use one hand to drop or bounce ball, and then the other hand to catch it. See how many times you can do this. Remember, do the best for you. Practise, practise, practise. And as always, if you'd like to, please ask your parent or carer to share your work on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, tagging @OakNational and #LearnwithOak. See you next time.

Ball skills: Catching

Ball skills: Catching

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