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outside play sets for children
Outside play sets make it possible for children to improve their coordination skills and have a blast at the same time!

Playing on outside play sets is a major benefit to coordination skills. In order to help your child develop good coordination skills that will benefit them in sports and long-term healthy habits, get them outside to play, a LOT. It might seem simple, but more play today might change your child’s life tomorrow!

Coordination skills begin to develop when your child starts moving.

What are coordination skills and what can they benefit?

There’s a reason why back in the day, you’d see kids who were bookworms were almost always bad in sports. They didn’t spend enough time outside playing and their coordination skills took longer to develop.

Your child can be book smart and body smart. But it’s important that young children, starting from toddler-hood, get outside and play.

Outside Play Sets Make Exercise Fun for Children

Having an outside play set in your backyard will begin to promote a lifelong love of physical activity, keeping them in better health for the long run. In fact, the right play set will make kids forget video games and T.V’s even exist!

Coordination skills means the ability for arms and legs to work together in conjunction in order to make productive bodily movements.

Two important types of coordination skills for young children are: bilateral coordination and hand-eye coordination.

Bilateral coordination is the ability to use both sides of the body together to perform tasks such as: hand-over-hand up a rope, using a rolling pin, catching a ball, or drumming. Children with poor bilateral coordination may struggle with shoelace tying, cutting paper with scissors, or stringing beads.

Hand-eye coordination is the ability to guide the hands with eye movements. More obvious examples of good hand-eye coordination include catching a ball or hitting a ball. But children with poor hand-eye coordination may also struggle with handwriting.

Importance of Physical Coordination

Elements of good coordination have been identified as balance, rhythm, spatial orientation, and the ability to react to auditory and visual stimulus.

Why Playing on a Outside Play Set Develops Coordination Skills

To a seasoned parent, it is probably obvious how an outside play set helps children develop these skills. But to the new parent, wondering if the play set is just an expensive toy, here are some of the skills your children will get from daily or regular use.

slide play sets outside
Whether it’s sliding down a slide or climbing up a rock wall, outside play sets allow children to work on their strengths and weaknesses.

Sliding down the slide, can develop both bilateral and hand-eye coordination. Climbing the ladder and then sliding down, using both hands to grip, while eying their destination will develop both of these types of coordination.

Children often like to learn to run up the slide. Around pre-school/pre-k age, 4 and 5 year olds begin to run up the slide. This is a balancing act that requires strength, balance, bilateral coordination and hand-eye coordination. It’s one of the ultimate playground feats.

The rock wall and monkey bars are another great area of coordination development. Both of these areas of the play set require strength and coordination.

The rock wall will help finely tune bilateral coordination as children begin to climb the wall, using hands to grip and feet to climb. Once they’ve mastered it going up, they typically will begin to climb down, further developing coordination skills, including also the hand-eye coordination. After all, you’ve got to check the next rock with each climb.

The monkey bars, one of my 5-year-old daughter’s favorite areas of the playground definitely develops strength as well as hand-eye coordination. You should see the look of pride on her face as she makes her way across the monkey bars. I can also see a lot of coordination skills developing as she deftly uses her eyes to track, hands to grip, and body to coordinate all these movements in the span of only a few seconds.

Playing Outside on Play Sets Help Ensure Long-Term Coordination Success

outside play sets for kids
Outside play sets will coordinate your child for success early on!

Childhood is the perfect time to play on outside playsets to improve coordination skills. It is important to begin to develop coordination skills in the early years while neurological plasticity is high and physical movements have not been ingrained. This is why daily or consistently regular movements on a play set will help your child’s coordination and physical abilities become a long-term success.

Past the age of 16, coordination skills become almost impossible to develop. So start your child early and often gaining these coordination skills.

Like I always tell my daughter, the more you practice, the better you get!

Resources for Mom & Dad

How can you improve your child’s coordination skills?

Coordination & Movement Skill Development for Kids

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