With most in-person interactions and social learning activities replaced by virtual calls, kids and parents are feeling the fatigue from screen time more than ever. Engaging in clases, play dates, and work activtiies over a screen for lengthy periods of time can cause many discomforts, including headaches, distorted vision, sore neck and back muscles, and mental exhaustion. One way to address screen time fatigue is to take brain breaks as needed.
Brain breaks are brief bursts of time that promote physical exercise in order to give the brain a reset. The activities chosen for a brain break can serve two different purposes: to re-energize or to relax the body. Short excursions of movements can help increase blood flow throughout the body and increase the oxygen that’s being delivered to the brain. These physical brain breaks are vital to self-regulation as they provide the sensory input that the body desperately craves. Not a lot of space in your home is needed for brain break activities, and they can even be done in front of one’s own desk. Whether it’s 2 minutes or 20 minutes of time, the ultimate goal of brain breaks is to help kids, and their parents, get into a better mental and physical space so that they can continue engaging and learning.
Here are some examples of what a brain break might look like:
– Stretching and holding different yoga poses
– Creating dance moves to your favorite song
– Doing some chair or wall push ups
– Writing out different exercises on popsicle sticks and completing the ones you pick out
– Playing a game of Simon Says
-Balancing a bean bag or stuff animal on different parts of your body
Click on the links below for more ideas for brain breaks.
However you use the activities in this blog, I hope it brings you some comfort to know you are not alone. We are all in our separate corners of the community, living similar struggles right now. When we can share resources, even virtually, we can stay connected and support each other through this tough time.
Please email us at to learn more about individual sessions for yourself, as parents struggling to re-invent the daily life of our family in your many roles OR to inquire about 1:1 virtual OT or SLP visits for your child, typically covered by your health plan at no cost to you. Find us on Facebook at @BostonSensorySolutions or online at www.BostonSensorySolutions.com
