Why is balance important?

Physical therapy

﻿Hello, my name is Sophie Brazier, I'm a children's physiotherapist. Thank you for taking the time to join me today for our lesson. So we are in unit five, and this is lesson two, and we are looking at balance and coordination. And in today's lesson, we are going to be looking a little bit closer at why balance is important. So we'll begin with that first, and then I will ask you to do an activity that will get you thinking about your balance, and it is actually quite a fun game to play. So for the activity, you don't need any equipment, you just need yourself, and it can be quite a nice game to play with other people, so if you've got siblings or some friends you could play it with, that's a good idea, and your parent or carer could be the person playing the music because it's going to be musical statues. So if you want to get yourself ready, and then we can make a start with today's lesson. I would just like to give you a little message from our team. We as therapists have tried to think of the best way to continue to support children, young people, and their families. So you may be watching this as a child by yourself, or you might be with a parent or carer. We will be exploring topic areas that we regularly provide advice and support on across all ages and abilities, and each lesson, we will aim to give you some ideas and activities that can be carried out either at home or in school. You may already have specific programmes that you're using or advice that has been given to you by your child's school or therapist, so please make sure that you're using any information I'm giving you alongside anything you already have. And if you do have any questions or would like help tailoring this to their needs, then please make sure you get in contact with your local therapy service. So in lesson one in this unit, we looked at what is balance, and now we're just having a little think about why is your balance important? Why does it really matter? So balance provides the body with the stability it needs to maintain postures and move. So it helps keep you still, but then it also helps you keeps you steady whilst you need to move, so it has lots of roles really. And it helps us to keep steady when we want to move a body part, such as our head, an arm or leg. So a simple way to think about it is for walking. We need to be able to move our limbs, but our middle needs to be steady to keep us up on our feet. So balance is super important, and it keeps us in a position that is better for us, for activities that we use every day, so eating, drinking, being able to see, being able to listen and just being able to communicate and also learn. And it helps us because it prevents us from falling and from injuring ourselves. So it helps us stay up on our two feet and balance enables us to perform everyday activities, such as sitting, standing, changing position, walking, going up and down stairs, and participate in physical activity and sport. So balance is really involved in everything that we do. So I was trying to think of an activity that we could do to get you thinking about your balance, and this one I used to love when I was little, and it's called musical statues. So what you need to do is you need to have some music. So you need a parent or carer to play the music for you, and then without you knowing, they choose when they want to stop it. And what you're doing before the music stops, so while the music's playing, is you need to be moving around, making some shapes. So you could be making any shape you wanted, you could be jumping, you could be running around, you could be creating star shapes, you could be crouching down, you could be on all fours. So I want you to really move around and make different shapes, and then when they stop the music, you've got to freeze like a statue. And think about your balance in these positions. Can you hold this position? So don't correct your position when the music stops. I want you to stay in that position, and then you have to try and hold that position and really think about your balance and what's going on in your body. So if you pause the video now, you might like to go and have a go at that activity, and then you can rejoin me afterwards and we'll have a look at some further options. So let's just think about the activity of musical statues a little bit more. If you did find it tricky in standing, then please do simplify the activity. You can do it in a seated position and move your arms and legs, so you're still taking part in the activity, but you're just seated and you're changing your position. So you still got to keep your balance in a seated position, but it's just a slightly different way to do the same exercise and activity. And if you found that too easy, or you want a bit more of a challenge and you wanted the activity to be extended, then my suggestion is, so I want you to make bigger shapes with your body. So this way, you need to be changing your position quite regularly. So I would say, be down on the floor, crouch down, be up high, make a star jump shape, make a spotty dog shape, make any kind of shape that you want, but change the position really dramatically. So when the music's paused, you have really got to work on your balance in those position and really think about your balance. And also you can move faster, so move in and out of positions faster, so that when the music has stopped, you will have to work on your balance a bit more. And keep the activity going for a bit longer if you found that when you played at first, you played for a few minutes, and you felt that was too easy and you want a bit more of a challenge, then play it for longer. So have a little think about those options. And if you want to go and play it again, you can, and then rejoin me afterwards and we'll end the lesson. How did we get on with the musical statues? I hope you gave it a try and enjoyed yourself. So that brings us to the end of our lesson today. So thank you very much for joining me, and I hope you found it useful. Please join me next time for unit five, lesson three, where we will be looking at what is sitting balance. So if you would like to join me, then that would be great. So all that leaves me to say now is have a great day, take care, and I will see you soon. Goodbye.

Why is balance important?

Why is balance important?

These resources will be removed by the end of the Spring Term 2026.

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