Katie Eggleston Kennedy DPT, physical therapist at the Pineville office of Child and Family Development, emphasizes that we can improve our health and build motor skills not just in a physical therapy session or gym, but in everyday events and activities already happening around the house.

In September, Katie has ideas about apple picking!  

Here are some tips to transform this fun fall activity into an opportunity to sneak in exercise and motor skill building:

• If there is the option to walk rather than drive in, choose it! You‚Äôll get some strengthening, balance challenges walking over the uneven ground, and endurance.
• Reaching on tiptoes for those hard to reach apples‚Ķyou always find the best ones up high!
• Keep bag/basket on ground to promote squatting to put apples in after picking to work those legs. Wouldn‚Äôt want to drop in the apples and bruise them!
• Carrying their own bag/basket of apples for some upper body strengthening.
  

 Happy Autumn!