In My Therapy Bag | Natalie from Beyond Basic Play

Today I have Natalie from Beyond Basic Play stopping by to share a must-have item in her therapy bag. Natalie is a pediatric physical therapist working in the Los Angeles area and she always has tons of fun ideas for therapy. Read on to see how Natalie uses bubbles in her therapy sessions.

What's in my therapy bag?

Bubbles! Bubbles are a favorite tool for pediatric therapists!

So why bubbles?

The #1 reason is that they are a great distraction if your kiddo is having a hard time participating or focusing on an activity. I usually use bubbles as my last resort to save a treatment session. I just use them to blow around and play. Bubbles seem to be fascinating for patients of all ages, so they are very versatile.

Some PT reasons for why I love to use bubbles:

Great activity for reaching up above shoulder height. They are useful for reaching overhead because now your kiddo has a lot of objects to reach up for. A few ways I use this in PT sessions:

• I use this with my kiddos who are lying down working on reaching up. 
• kiddos who are working on sitting balance, where I challenge them to reach up overhead and maintain their sitting balance
• kiddos who are working on their standing balance, which is challenged by reaching overhead

Great for working on standing balance while reaching in different directions. I blow bubbles all around my patients to encourage them to change direction and turn and reach while in standing.


Good to work on standing balance with kicking and standing on one leg. I encourage kiddos to kick the bubbles while they are in the air. I also encourage them to stomp on the bubbles as they get close to the floor in order to practice standing on one leg.

Good to practice running and jumping. I encourage kiddos to run through the bubbles and wave them all around and to jump up and try to pop the bubbles.

Here are some recommended bubble items to use in therapy:

No spill bubble tumbler - A must-have item if you use bubbles in therapy, because I guarantee that every kiddo will want to hold the bubbles themselves and try to blow bubbles on their own. These are great because they can be moved in any direction and rarely spill.

Bubble gun - another great item to blow a lot of bubbles if you want your kiddos to chase them or jump up for bubbles​.

*Links to Amazon are provided for your convenience and are affiliate links. 

Connect with Natalie:

Blog: http://beyondbasicplay.wordpress.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BeyondBasicPlay
Twitter: https://twitter.com/NatalieDPT

Have an item in your therapy bag that you'd like to share? I'd love for you to share it in an upcoming post! Just send me an email, AbbyPediatricOT {at} gmail {dot} com for more information. Open to all therapists! You don't have to be a blogger to participate!