How Water Play can Make You Stronger

In case you missed it, our awesome team of Physical Therapists put on a ‘Water Week’ last week for our last full week of summer break! We love making therapy both fun and functional - bonus points if your child is having so much fun they don’t always realize they are participating in therapy! Many of our occupational and physical therapy sessions were held outside and involved water play last week. Our kids (and therapists) had a great time! Today we welcome one of our Physical Therapists, Megan Lipman, DPT to the blog to discuss how water play can benefit your child!

Here at GASLC, we had the best time with water week during PT and OT therapy sessions. This was a great opportunity to add a little extra "splash" to our therapy sessions while still working on PT goals! So how exactly can water play help make you stronger? 

Great question! First off, we did our water play outside on the playground to set the environment up for strengthening. For example, in order to escape your physical therapist squirting you with a water gun (like me!) you might have to walk up the playground stairs, duck under the slide, or climb the playground ladder. These are all great strengthening activities! Even just walking/running around outside on the uneven terrain helps promote ankle strengthening and improve balance. 

For our younger clients, we used the the water table. The water table is fantastic for working on standing balance, weight bearing through lower extremities, and pre-walking skills. Playing with the water can help with engagement and participation in these skills. 

Thank you Megan and our team of PTs for providing us with easy ways to work on some strengthening during water play at home! As always, if you’d like specific suggestions for your child, please reach out to your therapist or send us a message! We’re here to help.