Heavy work: an expert strategy to calm your active toddler

Toddlers always seem to want to move just when you need them to be still 🙃 Lovevery’s pediatric occupational therapist, Rachel Coley, has a go-to strategy for those moments: heavy work.

Heavy work is any activity that provides resistance to your toddler’s muscles—for example, pushing, pulling, bouncing, or even chewing. It’s related to proprioception, the sense that helps your toddler coordinate their movements and understand where they are in relation to their surroundings. Though all children can benefit from heavy work, highly active toddlers may need it even more. The pressure against their muscles offers feedback that helps both their body and mind feel calm, much like you may during a soothing massage.  

Your toddler finds their own ways to do heavy work, like crawling under a chair or carrying toys in a basket. But you can give them more opportunities to help regulate their nervous system, especially before a long car ride or an event that requires a lot of sitting.  

6 easy ways to add heavy work to your toddler’s day

1. Push the laundry basket. Fill a laundry basket with some books, toys, or a few weighty blankets, and encourage your toddler to push it across the room. 
2. Pull the laundry basket. Tie a receiving blanket to the heavy basket and show your toddler how to pull it around. Your toddler may get excited about filling the basket with their own choices and pulling it from place to place.
3. Roll down the hill. Rolling provides feedback to various parts of your toddler’s body at once. They could roll down a grassy hill outside or a slope of couch cushions.  
4. Dig in the garden. Shoveling dirt requires your toddler to adjust their force as they dig down and up. This helps them build a mental model of their body as they receive resistive muscular feedback.
5. Do chores together. Toddler-friendly household tasks—like putting books back on a shelf, pulling chairs out from the table to sweep, loading the dryer, and putting raked leaves in a bag—are all productive ways to engage in heavy work. 
6. Allow them to do big motor tasks on their own. When your toddler moves a stool in the bathroom or climbs up into their car seat, they satisfy their sensory needs while honoring their desire for independence.

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