Squeeze your stress away with these cheerful, soft colorful balls. Spikey Gloves Set of 4 Ultra soft gloves are covered with stretchy spikes for a cool and fun experience. This colorful, easy to grasp ball contains multi-colored beads that will catch your eye as they... Easy to grasp ball comes with four clear rattles containing colorful beads. Wonderful for sight and... Glow in the Dark Snowballs- 6pk Turn on the lights and turn on the fun with these soft plush snowballs. Easy to catch, hold and throw. They can be individually inflated, are easy to grip, thanks to the... Delightfully tactile balls in appealing colors and designs. Knobbly, groovy and dimply. Lights and Sounds Ball Set The balls in this set bounce, light up, or make fun sounds! Set includes: Rattle Ball, Small Boing... Shake, rattle and roll this colorful ball! Soft gel exterior is removable, allowing you to open up... Boing Ball - Small Watch this white rubber ball change color when you give it a squeeze!
It’s filled with 6... Boing Ball - Large Squeeze, throw, or bounce these spiky rubbery balls and see flickers of light! Tools for professionals (e.g. occupational therapists, psychologists, teachers, social workers, counsellors, physical therapists, speech-language pathologists, or nurses) to use in their therapy work. Sensory Tools requires additional information from you in order to purchase any of the products in this category. Please follow these steps: 1. Download the Professional Qualifications Checklist 2. You may print out the form, fill it out by hand, and fax the completed form to us. 3. Alternately, open the PDF using Adobe Reader, fill it out online, save the form, and email it to us. We cannot process any order for professional products without your professional certification info. Thank you for your understanding. Summer on the Farm Summer on the Farm Enrollment Technology - The Hive Through an anonymous grant, Keystone was able to construct a one-of- a-kind classroom called the Cog Room.
Emphasizing and building on the child’s need for play, physicality, self-soothing, and neurological organization, the Cog Room provides daily opportunities for children to swing, twirl, bounce, climb and fall in a safe and fun environment. Keystone believes deeply in the importance of allowing time and space for each child to organize neurologically, emotionally and physically. Sensory integration is natural for many of our children and difficult for a few. The beauty of having the Cog Room on site is that its use is not only a part of Keystone’s daily schedule, but also available on demand when specific children or groups of children need to shift focus and/or reorganize mental and emotional behavior. As each child is physically challenged or soothed, the success is immediately apparent; behavior is modified and/or cognition is fluent, edging out frustration or confusion. This fluency, both behavioral and cognitive, transfers into the classroom, social situations, and ultimately becomes a personal model for appropriate action in daily life.
Mid-line issues can be addressed, as well as many learning skills specific to processing, proprioceptive and vestibular issues. Most existing traditional desk chairs are replaced by a ”ball chair,” which is an exercise ball encased in a chair frame. These chairs allow the children to maintain focus, organize neurologically, and keep their cerebellums engaged while working at desks. Plus, they are bouncy and fun!Tennis Channel's got the story of Illinois teacher Amy Maplethorpe, who lined some of her classroom chairs with tennis balls in an effort to provide relief to her autistic students. (Full disclosure: Tennis Channel is owned by Circa's parent company, Sinclair Broadcast Group.)Maplethorpe showed off her chairs in a Facebook pic that's been shared over 91,000 times.Maplethorpe modified her chairs by cutting tennis balls in half and affixing them with craft-store staples."Sensory seating is used for students who may have difficulty processing information from their senses and from the world around them," reads the post on Raymond Ellis Elementary School's Facebook page.
"Tennis balls on the seat and backrest provide an alternative texture to improve sensory regulation. Students with autism spectrum disorder, Down syndrome, sensory processing disorder, etc. may benefit from this seating option."Tennis community still reeling over outdated German anthem verseIn more sobering news, the tennis community is still reeling after an outdated stanza of the German national anthem, which has been associated with the Nazi regime, was sung during the opening ceremonies of a Fed Cup quarterfinal Saturday.As Tennis Channel notes, the outdated stanza "translates to 'Germany, Germany, above all, above all in the world,' which became identified with Adolf Hitler's Third Reich."'Worst thing' to happen to Andrea PetkovicCompeting in that match was Andrea Petkovic, a Bosnian native who was raised in Germany. "I thought it was the epitome of ignorance, and I've never felt more disrespected in my whole life, let alone in Fed Cup, and I've played Fed Cup for 13 years now, and it is the worst thing that has ever happened to me," she said, according to Bleacher Report.USTA issues apologyThe U.S. Tennis Association apologized in a statement: "The USTA extends its sincerest apologies to the German Fed Cup team and all of its fans for the performance of
an outdated national anthem prior to today's Fed Cup competition. In no way did we mean any disrespect. This mistake will not occur again."Balance Exercise Ball Chairs BE THE FIRST TO KNOWStudents in Jane Canaday's kindergarten class bounce, wiggle and fidget all day long. But that's OK, it's all part of the plan. Two weeks ago, in an effort to improve focus and give kids exercise at the same time, Canaday exchanged regular chairs for exercise balls, also called therapy balls, in her class at Mendenhall River Community School. As a special education preschool teacher, Canaday had used the balls to help individual students with core strength, and to help active kids get the "sensory input" they lack while sitting still. So last February, faced with a class full of wiggly kindergartners, she borrowed exercise balls from the school's gym and collected data on kids' ability to stay on task before the balls were introduced and after. "As a kindergarten teacher, I see these kids all the time who are wiggling all over the place and can't sit in chairs for the life of them," she said.
"And their P.E. time is really limited, so I was trying to think of more ways to help kids with their physical fitness." People told her she was crazy for giving the balls to kindergartners, but the data was surprising, she said. One girl had a hard time sitting on a chair, and couldn't get her work done. After she began sitting on a ball, however, she became one of the first students to finish her work. Canaday also said she noticed an overall improvement in focus, both on the chairs and off. "It gives active kids sensory input and helps calm them down," she said. It really does make a difference." Kids seem to be unanimous in liking the balls better than chairs. "I like them because you get to bounce on them," said 5-year-old Eva Sturm. "They're comfy," said Toby Russell, 5. Ambrosia Woodgate, 5, and Grace Hudson, 6, agreed. "It's fun because you get to bounce," Hudson said. She also said it was easier to concentrate. "Because you can kind of wiggle on it."
Various studies around the country have shown the balls to be effective in increasing focus among kids with attention deficit disorder. They have also been incorporated in some classrooms in other states. As in Canaday's pre-school special education class, they are sometimes used on an individual basis within the Juneau school district, but only one other class uses them on a regular basis – teacher Janalynn Ferguson’s second grade class at Glacier Valley Elementary, which began using them in October. Ferguson reports similar behavior improvement, with kids speaking out-of-turn less frequently. Canaday had to give the balls back to the gym at the end of the last school year, so she began saving her supply money, had a fun-night fundraiser, and got donations from parents to purchase 25 exercise balls at $400 total. Twenty-two of the balls are 55 centimeters in diameter, though normally, kindergartners require 45 centimeters, she said. Three are adult sized, at 65 centimeters (normally, adults require 55 centimeters, she said.)
Ground rules are important. Canaday said she spent two weeks leading up to the balls' introduction going over those rules: your bottom stays on the ball, your feet stay on the ground, and the balls are to be used as chairs only. Also, Eva Sturm's father put sand in the balls to help them stay in place. Some kids have an easier time than others abiding by the rules, but Canaday said those who've had a little difficulty with it are getting better, though one kid does sit in a chair. "Maybe for some kids, the balls are too stimulating. You have to watch that," she said. Later, once the ground rules are solidly in place, she hopes to do other kinds of exercises with the balls. And she plans to use the balls next year, too, but will start with chairs for a month, so that she can first teach kids the rules. "I'm hoping other teachers will try it because I really think it makes a difference in kids' ability to stay focused," she said. "And building core strength is really important."