Why is coordination important?

Physical therapy

﻿Hello there, my name is Sophie Brazier. I'm a children's physiotherapist. Thank you for joining me today and giving up your time to listen to me. So today we are in unit five and this is lesson 12. And what we're going to be doing is we're going to be continuing looking at coordination. But today we will take a more of a focus on why is coordination important? So what we'll do is we'll have a look at that first and then we'll have a look at an activity and the activity we will do, you don't need any equipment, you just need yourself, but you may need a parent or carer to help you. And the activity will be a ice skater pose. So, don't worry, it sounds challenging, but there will be options for everybody. So there'll be something for you if you need it. So if you want to get yourself ready, and then we can get going today. 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. In 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 we looked in the previous lesson, lesson 11, about what is coordination. And now we'll have a look at why it is important. So why is coordination important? Well, it allows us to perform everyday activities and it helps us to move well. So it's really involved in our movement control and how we execute our movement. It's so that we can do more than one thing at a time. And also it creates variety in our movement and it means that we can move different body parts at the same time. And also along with balance, it helps prevent us from falling and from getting injured. So coordination really does enable us to perform everyday activities. So these are things such as sitting while eating and drinking. So your body is stable, so your balance is keeping you stable, and then you're being able to use your coordination to coordinate that movement of the two things at once, so being still and using your arms to eat and drink. So reaching up, so somewhere like the fridge, so if you've got something up high, you're got to maybe balance, but then you've got to coordinate your limbs while your middle part of your body is staying still. Going up and down stairs. So we do that movement quite automatically, a bit like walking and, but it is a really coordinated movement. So that's something to think about. And it's another example is perhaps waving when standing. So you're using just maybe one arm, but you're keeping your body still, or you could be waving your two hands. And walking and changing direction. So you might be walking down the street and you might have forgotten something and you turn around. Or you might be doing some physical activity. So participating in sport and lots of sports involve different amount of coordination. So coordination is really involved in every movement that we do and in everyday life. So now I'd like you to watch me demonstrate this activity, and then you can pause the video after that and have a go at the activity yourself. So this is an ice skater pose. So if you've ever been ice skating, it's a little bit similar to that. So you're going to imagine that you're, I guess, you're either an ice skater skating fast, or like a speed skater position. So, you're going to start with your feet shoulder width apart. You're going to then step and cross your right leg behind your left and stretch and reach out your right arm to about shoulder height. Then bend your body forwards like you're going to skate and you're going to bend and lower your left arm to your right thigh So you're almost turning. And that's where you get momentum when you're skating. And then you're going to repeat on the other side. So you might think, goodness me, I don't know how to do that from that description. So please watch the demonstration now, and hopefully it will become a bit clearer. I will now give you a demonstration of the ice skater pose. So this exercise will challenge your balance a little bit and you can start off doing it slowly. And then there's some options as how to extend it as well. So your starting position is your both feet like this, and then you're going to bring your right foot behind your left. And you're going to put your right arm out. So you're going to bend like you're skating. And then this arm comes down. So you're racing forward. And then you swap to the other side. And then you're going to swap to that side. So I'm just going to turn the camera so you can see what my legs are doing. So my starting position, and I'm going to come back and then I'm going to skate the other way. and then skate, skate. And then what you can do is start speeding it up. And then if you get a bit faster, you can start jumping onto that side and jumping that way, like you're skating. So you're taking that leg, taking that leg. And then you can travel with it if you like. So you could do this way, like you're skating, and then you're going to go back this way. Okay, so give those a try. If you pause the video now, you can then have a go yourself. And then if you rejoin me afterwards, we'll carry on with the lesson. So how did you manage with that? If you'd like to extend it or simplify, here are some ways you can do that, that are written down. So you can make it more challenging by increasing the speed, so by changing side to side quicker. You can move your legs and arms all at the same time. So you want to be, rather than stepping through it and doing it really slowly, do it in one movement and then always jump to the other side. So it's a much quicker action than just stepping through it. Then you're going to bend forwards further. So almost lower into the pose a little bit more. Increase the length of each step, so just do a bigger step. And then jumping to change positions. So you can speed this up as well. And also just increase the number of times you repeat the exercise. So you could perhaps do 10 on each side, and then you can increase that as you are able. So to make it easier, you can decrease the speed, do it for a short amount of time, you could just move your legs, but keep your arms still. So just do the skater legs and keep your arms by your side. Or you could move your arms, but just keep your feet still. So you could do one or the other, and you can take some smaller steps, just to make it a bit easier, and really follow the sequence slowly stage by stage. So just do it, stepping it through and walking it through rather than jumping and increasing the speed where you might get a bit muddled. And the last one there, practise in front of a mirror. So this can just help because it can give you some visual feedback. So pause the video, have a go at those options, and then see what works better for you. And then you can rejoin me afterwards. Well done if you gave the activity a try and I hope you were able to find an option suitable for you. So now we have reached the end of our lesson. So I'd like to thank you for joining me today. Please join me next time for lesson 13, where we will look at another activity that involves in coordination. So have a great rest of your day. Please take care of yourself. and I'll see you very soon. Goodbye.

Why is coordination important?

Why is coordination important?

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