Viva la vestibular! Engaging your active toddler's sense of balance

Our vestibular sense is related to balance and posture. Developing this sense, which has receptors in our inner ear, helps us to maintain balance while doing everyday tasks like walking, bending and sitting without having to concentrate on it. This frees us up to concentrate on other tasks while we move around.  

Your toddler needs time and lots of active movement to develop their vestibular sense.  

It is one of the reasons children are drawn to rocking, swinging and spinning. As they get more confident in their body, your toddler will experiment with lots of different kinds of movement, which will build their vestibular sense.  

Dancing is a brilliant way to experiment with movement and gives a perfect opportunity to try out some new twists, wiggles and stretches.   

There are lots of classic nursery rhymes ideal for getting moving, but if you can’t face another round of swinging back and forth to ‘row-row-row your boat’ or turning in circles to ‘ring-a-ring-a roses’ here are some other ideas for you to share with your toddler! 

Gather some friends and family to dance the Hokey Cokey!  

Putting your arms and legs in and out, shaking it all about and then turning around requires lots of adjustment to balance. Perfect for getting the vestibular sense involved.  

Play a short game of Simon Says 

Your toddler might not want to spend long on this game just yet, but take it in turns to be ‘Simon’ and give the other person an instruction to move or balance in a new way for a few rounds. This also has the added bonus of giving your toddler a chance to feel in control and understand why sometimes it is important to listen to others.  

Pick a pop song 

There is nothing quite as joyful as a quick kitchen (or garden, hallway or bathroom) disco, and lots of songs with actions or opportunities to spin around. You can go for a pop classic like Spinning Around by Kylie Minogue, a freeing Samba beat to wiggle to, or whatever your favourite dancing song is and encourage your toddler to join in simply by showing them how much fun it is to dance!