Scarves: 5 Play Ideas to Boost Gross Motor and Communication Skills

Scarves are beautiful to look at and feel, they inspire imagination and movement. Perfect for lifting the mood and adding some novelty, we use scarves at home and in the clinic most days. Give your baby or toddler a little space and they will amaze you with the creative ways they come up with to play with scarves. At Walky Talky Hub in Perth, we often use scarves as part of our therapy services to support movement, coordination, and communication skills in babies and toddlers.

How Scarves Support Gross Motor Communication in Babies and Toddlers

Scarves can be a simple but powerful tool, helping children develop gross motor skills and early communication through playful activities.

1. Cruising Challenges with Scarves for Gross Motor Communication

For babies who have perfected cruising (sideways walking) along a solid surface like a coffee table scarves can be tied together to create a cruising balance challenge. A chain of scarves tied across a playpen, or 2 secure pieces of furniture creates an interesting rope for your baby to hold onto and cruise along. This exercise is particularly good for those more cautious bubs on their way to walking who don’t want to try standing alone or stepping but are ready for a little challenge.  Holding the chain of scarves helps your baby feel what it is like to wobble a little and regain balance and builds their confidence in this position.  In our Perth physiotherapy services, this activity is often used to strengthen balance and coordination.

2. Walking and Movement Milestones with Scarves

Your baby is walking, now what? Some of the next mini milestones are being able to stay balanced walking whilst;... carrying toys, moving the arms and moving between standing and squatting. Scarves inspire all these movements spontaneously! Try;

• Putting scarves in 2 baskets one on the floor and one on a little table to encourage movement between positions.
• Grab a scarf yourself and model butterfly wings while walking 
• Or “hide” scarves around the play space and encourage your bub to find them to encourage change of directions and walking on different surfaces.   

These activities are included in our Perth physiotherapy services to encourage independence and motor planning.

3. Pretend Play with Scarves to Encourage Gross Motor Communication

An essential part of child development, pretend play is when your child is using an object to represent something else. It helps develop imagination, language skills, problem solving and so much more! Scarves are a wonderful tool to inspire some pretend play. Think superman capes, blankets, table cloth, baby carrier, cubby house...the options are endless! As an open ended toy, allow your child to figure out what they can use the scarves for, you’ll be amazed what they might come up with. Follow their lead and comment on what they’re doing using simple language. Take a scarf yourself too and copy what they are doing for a fun way to get involved in their play. In Walky Talky Perth therapy services, scarves are often incorporated into pretend play to support both movement and early language skills.
Learn more about pretend play skills development here.

4. Active Play with Scarves for Daily Gross Motor Skills

For optimal health toddlers and children should spend 3 HOURS a day engaged in active play. Supporting parents to find this time easily each day is a passion of Walky Talky. Some toddlers will very easily chase a ball, ride a scooter or bike, or just run and climb for this time without any encouragement. Others are drawn to more sedentary play and need a little more encouragement. Scarves are a wonderful incentive to active play; swishing them while dancing, using them as pony tails and galloping, flapping fairy wings or turning them into a cape and zooming off to a superhero rescue. If your toddler isn’t drawn to more traditional “sports” equipment like balls and balance beams see if scarves spark that enjoyment of movement in them instead! Our Perth based Physiotherapists love to help parents find ways to promote active play and gross motor skill development.

5. Peekaboo with Scarves to Support Early Communication Skills

Peekaboo is often one of the first games that babies will learn to play and because they love repetition, they will want to play it over and over again! Peekaboo teaches object permanence - the idea that something/someone is still there even when you can’t see them. This is an important language pre-cursor skill as we need to learn that we can ask for things that we can’t always see!

Use the scarves to hide your face and play peekaboo with your baby. They might try to copy you with a scarf too! In our Perth speech therapy services, we often use peekaboo with scarves to encourage early communication skills and parent-child interaction.

If you are looking for good quality, beautiful scarves to add to your collection we love the range at Possum Kids. They are an Australian small business that stocks a gorgeous range of colourful hand-dyed play silks that will inspire both you and your baby to play!