With summer approaching, there are many wonderful activities you can enjoy outdoors and in the community!

Stepping Up
When your child is walking outside in your yard or a neighborhood park, practicing walking up and down a hill or incline helps toddlers develop balance and coordination. You can encourage your child to step up and down from your doorway, the curb, or steps at a playground. This is

great practice on one or two steps at a time as your child is learning to climb steps. If they’re already doing many steps with ease, try practicing on different surfaces and heights to strengthen their leg muscles, coordination and confidence!

Getting Sandy
Playing in the sand at home or at the beach is such a wonderful experience for the whole family. When your child walks on sand barefoot, they’re building strength in the muscles of their feet and developing balance skills. This is a great sensory experience as well as an opportunity to feel, stand and walk on different textures. When a child is playing in the sand with their hands, exploring the texture and scooping sand into a bucket, they are using fine motor muscles in their hands and developing hand-eye coordination. Don’t worry if they dump out the bucket and start again; dumping and filling containers is an important developmental stage for toddlers. They’ve learned they can put one thing into another and empty it! Children learn through repetition, so they’ll keep practicing until they understand how the sand fits into the bucket, pours out, and can go back in again.

Summer Support
As you’re enjoying all these fun outdoor learning experiences with your child this summer, you can also ask your child’s Early Intervention team for additional ideas and support tailored to your child’s individual development and goals. Our Early Intervention programs operate year-round, and your child’s Primary Service Provider and Care Coordinator will continue all regularly scheduled appointments throughout the summer months. While all services are provided in the child’s natural environment, most often your family home, you can also meet with your provider in a community setting, like a park, to work on outdoor play routines. If your child is turning 3 soon and you’re exploring transition options with the Department of Education, they can also process your child’s transition information throughout the summer months here in Hawaii. If you have any questions about summer services, session locations or transitions, please let your Care Coordinator know how we can support you.

Would you like to share your story?
We would love to hear your Early Intervention experiences and share them with other families in the community in future newsletters. If you’d like to share a story, please contact your Care Coordinator or program office.

Sunscreen Tips
Summer fun can mean sunscreen struggles. Trying to apply sunscreen evenly can be very challenging – applying it evenly on a child with sensory issues can at times feel impossible. Here are a few tips for sunscreen application:

1. Begin introducing the routine of applying lotion into your child’s daily routine at a young age.

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