Encourage the Family to Get Moving with These Apps!
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PSN Team 
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Get Your Family Moving: Fun Apps to Encourage Active Play
Though Punxsutawney Phil did not see his shadow on Groundhog Day, and an early spring was gleefully predicted, for many of us spring feels like an idea that is still quite far off. The idea of getting off the couch and getting ready for spring can seem like a challenge even on the best of weather days. Throw into the mix your child ’s motor challenges, resistance to trying new things, and finding something that the whole family can do together – well, it is enough to make even Phil go back to bed.
We at Bridging Apps struggle, too. With the help of our community, we put together some ideas for getting into the spring time mindset with a few apps that focus on healthy living in creative and family friendly ways. Try some yoga or running moves together, customize an easy to follow “workout” (not therapy!) For your child or create a story about an upcoming spring outing!
NFL PLAY 60
By American Heart Association
The moves of a football player: swift running, reactionary jumping, and quick turns are certainly a simple yet effective way to get a body’s heart rate up. Incorporate these moves with an avatar, a mobile device, and into a game and you’ve got a unique way to encourage kids to be physically active. As a part of the program to encourage 60 minutes of daily physical activity, the NFL Play 60 app is an interesting “exercise” app for children complete with a virtual coach and a purpose: to travel by “running” through each NFL team city on a map to reach the super bowl.
Price: FREE
ExerciseBuddy – Visual Exercise System
By Exercise Connection Corporation
ExerciseBuddy is an app designed to help individuals with autism participate in an exercise program and learn about their body. The app is excellent for parents and instructors to teach children about their body and its systems and help them be a part of a structured physical exercise program. It can be outstanding resource for inspiring young people with and without autism to exercise. Although it is designed with children who have autism in mind,
ExerciseBuddy addresses five components of physical fitness: body image, posture, motor coordination, muscular fitness and cardiovascular fitness. It presents with picture cards and videos of over 130 exercises.
Price: FREE
If you are interested in searching for more apps, creating your own list of apps and sharing them, please go to BridgingApps.org. BridgingApps, a program of Easter Seals Greater Houston, is a community of parents, therapists, doctors and teachers who share information about using mobile devices with people who have special needs.
Cristen Reat is co-founder of BridgingApps and a mother who found success when using a mobile device with her children who have special needs.
Amy Barry is the Content Manager and Editor at BridgingApps and mother of five children.
Image courtesy NFL Play 60
Learn More About Getting Active
- How Do You Get Your Kids Active?
- The Family Factor of Five: Making Time for Fitness (and Actually Doing It)
- Encouraging Your Child to Stay Active Year Round
- 6 Summer Success Steps for Getting Active
- The 7 Habits of Highly Successful Fitness Programs
- Life as We Grow It: Fitness as a Life Skill for Special Needs Populations
- Be Active and Healthy
- Five Fitness Facts for a Fitter Fall
- Fitness Fun: Incorporating Fitness into the Classroom
- Looking for a Fun Family Exercise? How About Parkour!
- Turning Physical Fitness into Fun for Life
This post originally appeared on our March/April 2016 Magazine
