Heavy Work Calms Kids

Do you know that feeling you have after a good workout? It likely feels a little different for everyone, but it’s a good feeling! For me, it’s that my muscles are a little fatigued, I can feel my blood pumping, my brain feels sharper, and I feel somehow simultaneously calmer and more energized. It doesn’t necessarily have to be from a solid workout either…a brisk walk or carrying heavy things…anything that provides that physical activity can give me those results. I suspect most of us have had this same experience. Activities that give these types of feelings are referred to as “heavy work” by the Occupational Therapy world.

Let me provide a quick disclaimer: I am not an Occupational Therapist. Not even close. My degree and background are strictly in teaching. I have not studied OT at all except in my own Google research. If you find today’s blog to be intriguing or potentially helpful for you, please do your own research or consult an actual OT. They’ll be better at this than I am!

I can, however, give you a brief and simple overview of heavy work and why it’s important. I can also give you some suggestions for including it in your child’s routine.

For the purposes of this blog, we’ll define heavy work as anything that requires effort from our muscles - it’s generally some form of lifting, pulling, or pushing. Heavy work provides us with proprioceptive input - which is essentially body awareness. It helps us to know how much force to exert on objects, and where our body is in relation to things around us. Just like our auditory system receives messages from sounds we hear and sends them from the brain, and then the brain sends back messages making sense of those sounds, so the proprioceptive system receives input when we use our muscles and sends that information to the brain, and the brain sends messages back to our muscles making sense of the input. Our brain can then tell our muscles what’s going on and what to do.

Rolling out cookie or pie dough is great Heavy Work!

This is particularly important for children. If they do not receive enough proprioceptive input, they will not be able to use all of their muscles appropriately. They might be clumsy and constantly knocking into things, or they might use their hands with too much force…It may also manifest as difficulty focusing or disorganized executive function skills….sound like any of the young children in your life? These are all very common problems. The current generation of young children, across the board, engage in far less heavy work than previous generations. As electronics have made our lives physically easier, we have suffered in other ways. Our job, as parents and educators, is to address this deficit and give our children and students what they need to thrive and develop a strong proprioceptive system.

This is where heavy work comes into play! (Ha - see what I did there? Many heavy work activities can be built into play or introduced as play.)

Our sweet, spirited Big Girl is just that…very sweet and also very spirited. She has always been someone who thrives with a higher level of heavy work in her life. We have not always known that, though. The first extracurricular activity in which we enrolled her was ballet. Hahahahahahaha! - she hated it. We tried hard to pay attention to *why* she hated it. (It’s boring! It’s slow!). So we put her in soccer. (Too much running!) T-ball also was too slow-paced. Then we tried gymnastics…that was more of a hit, but still wasn’t always the big win we expected it to be.

Big Girl literally climbing the walls.

And then…! We discovered rock climbing classes. Since she’s always climbing trees and couches and walls, we thought this would be a hit. And was it ever! Nothing has ever seemed to regulate her so well, and she’s never enjoyed something so much. My point here is that different types of heavy work are best for different individuals. The same things are not going to work for everyone.

You can try including a variety or heavy work in your child’s life, and see what is a good fit. Have them help you carry groceries or pull wet laundry from the washer to the dryer. Let them go to town on a trampoline, or give them lots of time to swim! Let them (gasp!) climb UP the slide! Work on those monkey bars skills or have a pillow fight - you get the idea, I think. Anything that activates large groups of muscles for a decent amount of time counts as heavy work. The reason I don’t specify activities or length of time or amount of “weight” is because not everyone has the same requirements. What is too much for one is not enough for another. Some experimentation will be required for you to find the balance that regulates your individual child.

It is also worth noting that not every child needs a ton of heavy work or proprioceptive input. However, if you have a child who can’t focus or who frequently jumps around or crashes into things, there’s a good chance heavy work could help…those are good signs that they may be seeking more proprioceptive input.

Now when I say “regulates”...what does that mean? What exactly does heavy work do for my child? Or for me, for that matter?

The actual definition of regulate is “to control or maintain the rate or speed of [a machine or process] so that it operates properly.” You can regulate the temperature of a house, you can regulate a group of people (maintaining law and order)...and you can regulate your own emotions and responses to outer stimuli. A regulated individual will be aware of their own emotions and will be able to use all of their executive function skills to respond to other people and events.

On the other hand, an individual who is not regulated (not operating properly, relating back to the first definition I mentioned), may respond with a “fight or flight” response without really thinking. A child who is not regulated may have trouble focusing on tasks, controlling their impulsive behavior, and controlling their bodies.

These, sadly, are often the children who end up with negative labels or adjectives attached to them. They’re the wild ones…and it’s often through no fault of their own. A child whose needs are not met will not be able to regulate themselves. Heavy work is a fantastic way to meet many childrens’ needs and allow them to function to the best of their ability.

Mr. Middle insisted on carrying his own apples at the apple orchard!

We recently started exercising as a family in the mornings. Let. Me. Tell. You…I am not an athlete. If you read enough of these blogs, you’ll find stories of me struggling up a mountain on a hike, huffing and puffing behind a stroller…and extolling the virtues of baking and reading. We all have our strengths. But I will not be the parent that holds my child back…and Big Girl, she’s an athlete. Like I said above, she is someone who needs a lot of heavy work and for better or worse, there’s very little of that in first grade. And it was starting to show. So now, all five of us drag ourselves out of bed a little earlier and turn on the dance music. We take turns picking songs (which is an exercise in charades for Mr. Middle), and we move our bodies! There’s a lot of jumping on the couch, a lot of “the floor is lava,” a lot of hanging from the doorway gym, a lot of goofy dancing…a whole lot of fun, actually! (P.S. the doorway gym is the end-all-be-all of Heavy Work for small spaces and nasty weather days!)

Big Girl doing her thing on the doorway gym during our morning family exercise!

Exercising has made a huge difference in our mornings, and not just for Big Girl! Hubby and I have more neurons firing after our little family workouts, the kids are in good moods (HALLELUJAH), and we are all a little peppier. We even sometimes get out the door for the bus on time! (Also a group exercise.)

So if your child is in need of some help getting or staying calm, if they need some help focusing, or being less anxious…break out the heavy work. I’d love to hear how YOU get some heavy work into your child’s day…or into your own! What are you all doing out there to get those muscles moving and those brains and nervous systems feeling good? And please, if you know someone that you think this might help, won’t you share it?