Benefits of our Short Slide

Introducing Gymboree Play & Music’s Short Slide!

This short, smooth, wooden ramp is used in our classes for climbing, balancing on, cruising around, and obvious sliding down.

The Benefits

• Sense of balance

  • Balance is a staple part of your child’s development, it refers to the ability to keep a controlled position or posture when completing a task. This could be sitting, walking, and of course climbing. Our short slide allows babies from newborn up to pre-schoolers to practice these skills by sitting on it, climbing on or even across it as it as it also doubles up as a bridge.

• Body control

  • Our short slide is excellent for working on body control for your little ones. In our sensory class we will lie little one on a soft blanket and gently pull them down whilst supporting their torso. As they get older they’ll sit with support, then ultimately they’ll slide independently. We will also explore tummy time and climbing up it to improve body control. Using a piece of equipment such as our short slide is so important in early life as it supports baby gaining the strength to hold their head up. It’s the foundation on which the development of all your baby’s other movement is based.

• Hand-feet co-ordination

  • Really young non-mobile babies can work on their hand and feet co-ordination when we place them on top of the slide and hold a favourite toy just out of reach and encourage them to move gently towards it. When they start crawling they can move up the slide or use it as a bridge.  When they get to their feet they can also cruise around the edge or our short slide.  With older ones we can also encourage stomping and clapping at the same time as they slide or climb. Having good hand and feet co ordination is vital for your little one to reach all their milestones and our short slide is an excellent starting point.

• Gross motor development

  • To develop gross motor skills your little one needs to engage in activates that involve movements of the large muscles of the arms, legs and their torso. Our short slide is excellent for this for little ones of all ages, and we can always increase the challenge by adding a mat for speed or adjusting the height higher or lower.

• Bilateral co-ordination

  

  • Bilateral co-ordination refers to the ability to co-ordinate both sides of the body at the same time, for example crawling and walking. Most little ones begin to master the art of walking from roughly a year onwards but in fact we encourage crawling for all ages on our short slide regardless if they are walking or not as crawling helps to develop the foundations necessary for future activities such as reading, writing, and physical activities.

• Sense of touch

  • Touch is one of your baby’s key senses, especially in the early weeks of their lives.  We use the short slide as a platform for sensory stations, adding on various textures and sensory objects so little ones can really start to explore with them. As your little one grows throughout the programme we may add in questioning such as ‘can you pick out the spiky ball?’ or ‘where’s the soft duck?’ so they start to distinguish the difference between objects.

Back to our Rainbow Barrel.  Next up it’s our Tubee!