Rocking horses have amazing benefits for your children. Who would’ve thought as the kid’s rock away that they are developing some important health and cognitive skills? Here we take a look at just why these toys are important for your child’s development. At bettaplay, we have a huge range of different rocking toys including spring rockers and rocking horses.
Rocking horses can improve mobility and balance
When a child is on a rocking horse they need to use their leg and core muscles to make that backwards and forwards movement. While doing this your children are learning how to balance which is very important for them as they learn to walk and run. They also develop fine motor skills and they hang on to handles, which develops their hands and fingers. The whole movement teaches coordination between hands, arms, legs and feet.
Rocking horses calm and soothe children
Children with sensory processing disorder or sensory integration dysfunction use rocking chairs to calm down and give themselves that much needed calm and soothing space to relax.
Rocking horses are also excellent for children with autism as one of the ways that they calm or organize the input from their day is by rocking, so rocking toys are a must for these kids.
The back and forth motion of rocking horses can calm any child. If they’re getting a bit hyper, get them on their rocking horses and you’ll be amazed at how quickly they calm down. If you think about when our kids are babies, rocking is often used to calm and soothe.
Who doesn’t want a calm child? Use them before bed or after school if your child is a bit overwhelmed. You can even put a rocking horse in your child’s cubby house, as the peace and quiet of their cubby house, with a rocking horse, will really help them to bring themselves back down.
Rocking horses encourage creativity
What will your child become on their rocking horse? Will it be a cowboy riding across the wide open spaces chasing the baddies on the train, or will they be sailing the seas to capture the pirates, will they be a pilot flying high in the sky keeping their passengers safe or will they be the bus driver or an animal drinking at the watering hole. All this pretend play develops language and thinking skills, social and emotional skills as well as creativity!
