balance boards

[Guest guest]

Hi Andy,

This is a " new one " for me.

Can you give me a website or phone number for where I could get

more info on this and/or buy one??

thanks!

Moria

RESPONDING TO:

Message: 1

Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2001 06:36:49 -0000

From: AndyCutler@...

Subject: Re: Ritalin vs. Aderal

<snip>

There are also balance boards - basically a board laid over rocking

chair rockers. Tossing a bean bag back and forth - especially when

reaching across the body to catch it on the " wrong " side - stimulates

the attention centers of the brain strongly since all the 'wiring' to

do the various tasks involved in this goes through them.

Balance boards cost maybe $50 and use much less space than balance

beams.

Andy

[Guest guest]

Balance boards and crossing over the body and much much more is addressed

in Carol Kranowitz's book " The Out of Sync Child " She also has a follow

up book of 101 Activities. Both are great resources but the Out of Sync,

in my mind, is essential reading for most of our AS kids.

Sharon in Virginia

[Guest guest]

Hi

Beverly,

I am

from Rice Lake , Wisconsin and I would like to take some training on using the

balance board. Do you know where and when the best & closest training

will be?

Thanks

for help!

Betty

From:

[mailto: ] On Behalf Of Bev Hunter

Sent: Wednesday, October 22, 2008 3:17 PM

Subject: balance boards

Hi

everyone,

My

name is Beverly Hunter and I work with the Balance Board. I recently

posted some information on the balance board and how we use them at our

camps/conference/clinics. Thank you for all the responses.

I

have been asked to give some feedback regarding the different kinds of balance

boards that we have on the market right now.

There

are quite a few and they all are working with the vestibular system and the

proprioception system, so they are all good. They just aren't all what we

need in regards to what we would like to work on with our children

with sensory and vision challenges.

Many

balance boards are built for the sports industry to help our athlete keep

themselves toned, alert, strong and adaptable to many different positions in

space. They need to train their bodies to keep reaching new levels of

skills, just like many of our children need to start at the basics

and train their bodies just to deal with gravity, space, focus and

coordination. I have met many OT's and physical therapy who have

used the balance board for strengthening the body after injuries and to

activate the vestibular or proprioception systems. I have seen many

different balance boards in gyms and sports stores. Not very many of them

are what we want.

To

start at the basics we need to find a board that will deal with static balance

and symmetry. This means we need a board that the child will

have a chance to be able to be still on. We do not want a board that will be to

hard for them to keep balanced from side to side. Since we are

symmetrical beings we want to start with a board that deals with sending

information up each side of the body (left and right) equally to each

vestibular system within that inner ear. We want both hemispheres

involved with receiving and organizing the information our two side

are sending AND we want to involve both eyes equally. Eventually we want to be

able to stand still on the board with eyes closed. (If a person can not

stand still on a board with eyes open, do not ask them to close their

eyes.)

My

oldest son is a natural athlete but he could not stand on the board with his

eyes closed. Within 10 seconds he would tip and fall off. This was

our first clue in figuring out why he could not go to sleep at night.

Once he closed his eyes he became frightened because he did not know where is

body was in space. As long as his eyes were open, he knew where he was. It was

a great breakthrough for us, unfortunately he was already 12 or 13 years old

and he had struggled with this since birth.

Whether

we are sitting or standing we want a board that we can be dynamic or static

on. If we are training vision then we want to be able to keep the board

still. The round boards or ones with too high a curve are too hard for

this. They are used more for proprioception work. We want the eyes

level as much as possible and we want the gravity line to over the body as much

as possible.

I

hope this helps.

Beverly

Hunter

[Guest guest]

What type of balance boards do you suggest to use and where can you get them? Thanks! Rich

[Guest guest]

Beverly,

Can you

post a picture of what an appropriate balance board would look like? Also,

does your husband sell them?

Thanks,

Betty

From:

[mailto: ] On Behalf Of Bev Hunter

Sent: Wednesday, October 22, 2008 3:17 PM

Subject: balance boards

Hi

everyone,

My

name is Beverly Hunter and I work with the Balance Board. I recently

posted some information on the balance board and how we use them at our

camps/conference/clinics. Thank you for all the responses.

I

have been asked to give some feedback regarding the different kinds of balance

boards that we have on the market right now.

There

are quite a few and they all are working with the vestibular system and the

proprioception system, so they are all good. They just aren't all what we

need in regards to what we would like to work on with our children

with sensory and vision challenges.

Many

balance boards are built for the sports industry to help our athlete keep

themselves toned, alert, strong and adaptable to many different positions in

space. They need to train their bodies to keep reaching new levels of

skills, just like many of our children need to start at the basics

and train their bodies just to deal with gravity, space, focus and

coordination. I have met many OT's and physical therapy who have

used the balance board for strengthening the body after injuries and to

activate the vestibular or proprioception systems. I have seen many

different balance boards in gyms and sports stores. Not very many of them

are what we want.

To

start at the basics we need to find a board that will deal with static balance

and symmetry. This means we need a board that the child will have

a chance to be able to be still on. We do not want a board that will be to hard

for them to keep balanced from side to side. Since we are symmetrical

beings we want to start with a board that deals with sending information up

each side of the body (left and right) equally to each vestibular system

within that inner ear. We want both hemispheres involved

with receiving and organizing the information our two side are

sending AND we want to involve both eyes equally. Eventually we want to be able

to stand still on the board with eyes closed. (If a person can not stand

still on a board with eyes open, do not ask them to close their eyes.)

My

oldest son is a natural athlete but he could not stand on the board with his

eyes closed. Within 10 seconds he would tip and fall off. This was

our first clue in figuring out why he could not go to sleep at night.

Once he closed his eyes he became frightened because he did not know where is

body was in space. As long as his eyes were open, he knew where he was. It was

a great breakthrough for us, unfortunately he was already 12 or 13 years old

and he had struggled with this since birth.

Whether

we are sitting or standing we want a board that we can be dynamic or static

on. If we are training vision then we want to be able to keep the board

still. The round boards or ones with too high a curve are too hard for

this. They are used more for proprioception work. We want the eyes

level as much as possible and we want the gravity line to over the body as much

as possible.

I

hope this helps.

Beverly

Hunter