Balance and Coordination Activities Supporting Attention and Focus

This article provides helpful balance and coordination activities needed for better attention and focus in the classroom. Integrated Learning Strategies (ILS) is a learning and academic center. As a reminder, ILS is not a health care provider and none of our materials or services provide a diagnosis or treatment of a specific condition or learning challenge you may see in your child or student. If you seek a diagnosis or treatment for your child or student, please contact a trained professional who can provide an evaluation of the child.

Developing balance and coordination begins almost at birth. As babies grow, they build many important foundational skills through balance and coordination activities in the first year of life. These foundational skills are connected to future academic learning elements, even though you may not realize it when a baby is developing.

From infancy to toddlerhood, balance and coordination begins to improve rapidly as the baby learns to do the following:

• Crawl
• Stand
• Walk
• Skip
• Jump
• Run

During these development stages, the child becomes involved in more complex and difficult balance and coordination activities. Before you know it, the child is participating in activities that require more balance and coordination as they learn to play sports and play on the playground.

How Balance and Coordination is Connected to Learning

Many parents don’t always understand how balance and coordination is connected to their child’s learning process. Most of these skills come naturally for many children. However, for some kids, poor balance and coordination can lead to trouble in the classroom. Children who struggle to attend and concentrate may also have trouble with the following:

• Body awareness
• Balance and coordination
• Crossing the midline
• Core strength

Balance and coordination activities help children improve these foundational skills so they have more control over their body. When children work on developing their balance and coordination, the brain is free to focus on other tasks rather than keeping the body from moving.

As balance and coordination improves, the child can utilize their body to do the following:

• Sit upright in the chair rather than slumping or laying on the desk
• Fidget less and doesn’t fall out of their chair
• Retains information taught in the classroom
• Completes tasks and can follow-through with directions

Signs of Poor Balance and Coordination

If a child hasn’t fully developed their balance system or has an immature central nervous system (CNS), the brain may have trouble processing information and can’t express itself in an organized way. As a result, the child may experience ADHD-like symptoms or lack the ability to stay focused. In addition, they may also have one or more retained Primitive Reflexes contributing to delays in balance and coordination.

When it comes to learning in the classroom, you may start to see some of the following gaps or setbacks:

• Has trouble performing physical tasks
• Poor muscle tone or body tends to be limp
• Has trouble with sports and playground activities
• Experiences difficulty when writing letters and numbers
• Can’t sit still in their chair and is often distracted by noises or students around them
• Falls easily or trips often
• Experienced developmental delays as a baby or toddler
• Tends to push, shove or invade personal space in social situations

Research shows children with ADHD or ADHD-like symptoms often showed delays in motor development and balance and coordination. Children who work with an Occupational Therapist or Pediatric Therapist often show improvements as they participate in more balance and coordination activities.

Balance and Coordination Activities

Children who become actively involved in balance and coordination activities between the ages of 0 to 12 years old develop better balance maturation. These types of activities can dramatically improve and sharpen the child’s attention and focus skills along with their overall learning ability.

As your child or students engage in balance and coordination activities, it’s important to work on skills that support the child’s upper body and lower body. Activities that target the both the child’s static and dynamic balance will support neural development and the child’s ability to better learn in the classroom.

The balance and coordination activities listed below are for parents, teachers and therapists to help their children and students improve their balance and coordination. Activities and equipment recommended should be adjusted or adapted to the level and ability of the child.

If you are unsure if your child or students need additional support with balance and coordination, try a few of these balance tests here.

For all balance and coordination activity ideas, complete the form below and we will email you the download link. Remember to check your junk or spam folder in your email inbox for the activity download. For trouble accessing or downloading the activity list, please email info@ilslearning.com.

References

Konicarova, J., Bob, P., & Raboch, J. (2014). Balance deficits and ADHD symptoms in medication-naïve school-aged boys. Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment, 10, 85–88. https://doi.org/10.2147/NDT.S56017

Meachon, E. J., Schaider, J. P., & Alpers, G. W. (2023). Motor skills in children with ADHD: overlap with developmental coordination disorder. BMC Psychology. 2025 Jan 18;13(1):53. doi: 10.1186/s40359-024-02282-8

Nathan Watemberg 1, Nilly Waiserberg, Luba Zuk, Tally Lerman-Sagie (2007) Developmental coordination disorder in children with attention-deficit-hyperactivity disorder and physical therapy intervention. Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics, 29(6), 453–460. DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-8749.2007.00920.x

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Integrated Learning Strategies is a Utah-based center dedicated to helping mainstream children and children with learning challenges achieve academic success. Our services provide kids with non-traditional tutoring programs within the Davis County, Kaysville, Layton, Syracuse, Farmington, and Centerville areas. Areas to find Integrated Learning Strategies include: Reading tutors in Kaysville, Math tutors in Kaysville, Common Core Tutors in Kaysville, Tutors in Utah, Utah Tutoring Programs