Heavy Work: 5 Simple Activities for Your Preschooler

Alma is an energetic and happy three year old who has just started preschool. Her teachers have noticed that she gets agitated when the classroom is noisy or another child touches her unexpectedly, which is impacting her participation in many group activities. Alma seems to be over-responsive to some types of sensory input. So what can her teachers and parents do to support her? Something that may have a calming and organizing effect on Alma’s nervous system, and help her to better engage in her classroom is regular participation in heavy work activities throughout the day. 

Participating in heavy work activities every few hours throughout the day can help to calm a person’s over-responsive sensory receptors and better engage in structured activities. For many young children like Alma, incorporating opportunities for heavy work before and during the preschool day may help them to better participate with their class.

What is Heavy Work?

We can’t talk about heavy work without talking about proprioception. Proprioception is the body sense that lets us know where our bodies are in space, how to move them and the amount of force we need to act on the objects around us. We can actively engage our sense of proprioception when we participate in heavy work activities. These include things such as pushing, pulling, lifting and hanging, all of which require you to move your body with force.

Helping with Chores

Perhaps the easiest way to engage your child in a heavy work activity is having them assist with household chores. This might include having them help carry bags of groceries in from the store, pushing a full laundry basket through the house, carrying around a full watering can and watering plants in the yard, making the bed or tidying up heavier objects such as a stack of books or large toys.

Water Play

Set your child up (probably outside) with a collection of large containers such as empty laundry detergent bottles, milk jugs or buckets. Provide your child with water (or sand would work as well) and set them up with transporting the water from place to place and pouring it into various containers. Get down on your child’s level and complete the activity with them if possible to help sustain engagement and also provide an opportunity for connection while you’re at it.

Animal Walks

A simple and silly way to engage your child in heavy work is through “animal walks” by pretending to move around the room like a variety of different animals, try slithering like a snake, crawling like a bear cub or jumping like a frog.

Modeling Clay

When you don’t have the space for a full body heavy work activity, heavy work for the hands might be a better fit. Set your child up with some modeling clay or putty that has a good amount of resistance and have them work it with their hands to create different shapes such as snakes, balls and cookies. Sitting and working with the clay alongside your child, talking to them about what you are each making and offering ideas about what you can create will help elevate the activity even more.

Obstacle Course

Create an obstacle course for your child out of household objects and include various movements such as climbing and jumping as much as possible. For example, this might include climbing over the back of the couch, hopping like a frog across the room, crawling on all fours under the dining table, hopping on one leg and then scooting under the bed on their tummy. Having your child help come up with various obstacles and participating with them will help to keep them engaged. 

Incorporating these heavy work activities into your child’s routine can be a great way to start meeting your child’s sensory needs. If your child is struggling to participate in daily activities and is exhibiting signs of sensory sensitivities, it’s important to reach out to an occupational therapist who can provide you with a better understanding of how to support your individual child.