Hot Potato

Skills:

Physical: quick and accurate toss and release, upper limb coordination, hand-eye coordination, reaction time

Cognitive: selective attention, visual processing

Social: turn taking

Number of participants:

2 or more

Equipment:

small-sized ball or bean bag

Description:

  1. children quickly pass around a ball/bean bag without holding it in their hands for more than 1-3 sec

Wheelchair friendly?

Yes

Modifications to make the activity easier:

Change the environment: decrease the distance between the children to decrease physical demand

Change the task:

  • allow child to hold the ball for longer to decrease physical demand 
  • have the children sit during the activity to decrease physical demand

Modifications to make the activity harder:

Change the environment: increase the distance between children to increase physical demand

Change the task: with 2 balls, have the children try to have one ball catch up to the other ball to increase physical, cognitive and social demand

Change the equipment: have children play with 2 balls to increase physical and cognitive demand

Goal examples:

  • the child will be able to toss the ball/ bean bag to their friend within 3 seconds of catching it, 3 out of 4 times
  • I can catch and throw the ball/ bean bag to my friends