Ask Sarit: I want to work with my client on strengthening his upper extremities and back and improving his balance. When he plays soccer with his friends, he tends to fall or slip quite often.  He does not seem to have the stamina to stand and play with his friends for a long time. This frustrates him and the other kids complain that he plays too rough.  Could I use Timocco to work on that?

Timocco games can certainly encourage children to be active and to play using their arms often at shoulder height or higher. The different games can be adjusted to every child according to their needs. You can choose whether you want to work on motor planning, stamina, visual and audial perception, attention skills or communication skills. Because the games are played by moving the children’s arms, it encourages them to use their upper extremities and core muscles.

Some of the games require keeping your hands fixed in different positions, while others work on hand movement. The advantage of working on fixed positions in Timocco is that in daily activities or in therapy, it is often difficult to convince the child to stay in a fixed position for a long period because it gets boring and is not mentally challenging. Timocco’s games are friendly and inviting and children are attracted to playing them. Since the child is interested in playing the games, they are more likely to endure longer periods of time in fixed arm positions. Another advantage is that kids tend to “lose their sense of time” when playing on the computer.

Therefore, without noticing and while playing, the children work on keeping their hands in fixed positions for a longer time, move their hands above shoulder-height, plan their movements, organize their body’s position in space and strengthen their core muscles.

Hope this helps!

Sarit Tresser, OT
Founder, Timocco