Therapy balls are a great tool for developing gross motor skills, body strength, postural stability, and bilateral coordination. Occupational therapists often recommend using a therapy ball as a ball chair seat in the classroom, clinic, office, or for home use. Ball chairs facilitate good posture and allow subtle movement (vestibular) input which can be very focusing and organizing to nervous systems. Whether you are looking for standard therapy balls, sensory balls, fidget balls, stress balls, or therapy ball chairs... we have a wide selection of great therapy ball choices for you! O Balls and Rattle O Balls Replacement Plugs for Balls and Seating Cushions Squeezy Grip Resistance Balls Relax Apple Squeeze Ball * Click Photo For Product Pricing And Details Top 10 Reasons You'llLove Shopping With Us! 175+ Fun Products Under $5.00 Gift Ideas & Packages Favorites for Teens and Adults Feeding, Dressing, and Daily Living Pressure Vests & Tools
Sleeping and Sensory Defensiveness Social Skills and Speech Therapy Brushes and Tactile Tools Vestibular, Tactile, and Proprioceptive Weighted Vests and Other Weighted ToolsTake Advantage of These Great Savings While They Last! Ball chairs, therapy balls, and air cushion "wiggle seats" can be an effective seating option for kids who have a difficult time focusing or staying put in their seats. These helpful self-regulation seating devices provide subtle movement input (gentle bouncing and/or rocking) without getting up from your seat! The calming (or alerting) movement input makes it easier for many children and adults to focus in the classroom or office. T-stools are another great seating option that often helps with focusing, while developing balance skills and trunk control. Howdahug seats offer gentle rocking vestibular input and a calming, deep pressure hugging effect. 12" Pleated Disc Cushion Weighted Lap Pads With Fleece Covers Faster Blaster Ball Pump
Rectangular Gel Weighted Lap Pad Velcro Fidget Strips™ (for under desks and chairs) Fiddle Sits Fidget Mats Adjustable Height Round T-StoolsROUND LAKE BEACH, Ill. — An Illinois teacher got creative to help her students with autism. Amy Maplethorpe, who is in the Speech and Language Department at Raymond Ellis Elementary School, made chairs with tennis balls to help students who might have “difficulty processing information from their senses and from the world around them,” a Facebook post by the school said. The school said the tennis balls on the seat and backrest provide an alternative texture to improve sensory regulation. Students with autism spectrum disorder, Down syndrome and sensory processing disorder might benefit from the seats, according to the school. After the post went viral with more than 90,000 shares, the school provided instructions on how to make the chairs to help students. Materials: A chair, one-half tennis balls, fabric, modge podge, paintbrush/paint sponge, and hot glue.
Directions: Take a chair and modge podge the seat and backrest, then place fabric over it. Modge podge over the fabric and wait for it to dry, which takes approximately 20-30 minutes. Then, hot glue tennis balls cut in half to the seat and backrest. When that dries, hot glue the excess fabric underneath the seat and behind the backrest to give it an “upholstered” look. It might also be helpful to hot glue around the tennis balls one more time for an extra hold. And with that, the chairs are done.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."You may be wondering what I'm doing with all of those orb looking things all over their tables... those are their amazing ball chairs! I love how exciting they make my classroom. They are not only amazing for the kids, but they add a little something to the brightness of the room. We were fortunate enough to get almost a full class supply of them through our DonorsChoose page last year. (thanks again to all of our amazing donors! We couldn't do it without you!) If any of you are interested in checking them out they were ordered from School SpecialtyPlease confirm you are in our delivery area Copy desk chief / comics blogger Sensory Seekers are our kids who crave proprioceptive and/or vestibular sensory input. Sensory integration products and activities like therapy swings, balls and trampolines that provide help regulate our sensory-seeking kids with autism and sensory kids with SPD.