Organized sports are fun ways to hone your child’s social skills and find time for exercise. However, injuries can be a significant concern for parents of toddlers, so what can parents do to ensure the safety of their child in a sport? Your toddler will also need social and emotional support on this new journey. Here’s a guide to organized athletics and sports safety tips to keep your child healthy.
How Can You Prepare Your Toddlers for Team Sports?
Signing up your child starts with you, the parent. What can you do to prepare your toddler for team sports? Here are five strategies to train your tots for this new experience.
Find a Sport They Enjoy
First, it’s vital to find a sport they enjoy. Does your toddler enjoy hitting baseballs off the tee or shooting basketballs into the hoop? Your child may have already expressed interest in a sport despite their young age, so revolve your decision around what they like to do. Picking a sport for them makes it more likely they’ll stick with the hobby for a long time.
Make Practice Fun
Before the season starts, your child may benefit from practice to ensure a smooth transition into organized play. Make these sessions fun by involving the family, whether kicking soccer balls or tossing baseballs. These practices help your family stay fit and provide valuable training for your toddler as they enter their first organized sport.
Making practice fun is critical because it encourages your toddler to keep going. Here are a couple more ways to engage your toddler and prepare them for team sports:
- Colors: While they seem simple, bright colors stimulate toddlers’ senses. Get brightly colored equipment to make their practice more fun.
- Brevity: Toddlers often have short attention spans, so keep practices short. Don’t push your child to go any longer than they want to.
Be a Volunteer Coach
Your toddler has likely spent their entire life around you, so letting another adult supervise them may be difficult. Consider being their coach or volunteering on the staff to give your child familiarity. While being around new people may be intimidating, your toddler will have an easier time when you’re there. As you go through practices and games, your child will become acclimated to these new faces and less dependent on you for comfort.
Find Friends to Play With Them
Another way to increase your toddler’s comfort level in team sports is to find friends to play with them. Do they have neighbors, family friends or preschool classmates they’ve befriended? Communicate with their parents to see if they want to join your child in the same team sport. Being on the same team strengthens their bonds and creates lifelong memories, making them more comfortable in their first team sport.
Encourage Your Child
Above all, your toddler needs encouragement in their first team sport. Your child won’t win professional sports championships at 3 years old, so prioritize positive reinforcement. Encouraging your child to keep going even when discouraged goes a long way — even if you don’t realize it.
At this young age, your toddler’s priorities in sports should be having fun and learning social skills. Pushing them too far can compromise their safety and mental health, so emphasizing positivity is what parents can do to ensure their child’s safety in a sport.
What Essential Sports Safety Tips Should Parents Know?
While introducing your toddler to organized sports for the first time carries risks, you can help your child by following these five sports safety tips.
Find the Right Equipment
Most sports require your child to wear uniforms or use special equipment to play, so find correctly sized equipment for their league. Otherwise, they may risk injury if the items are too heavy or small for their body.
For example, small baseball or softball gloves will feel tight on their hands and can hurt their fingers. Plus, they may deal with skin irritation and strained muscles, so get a mitt that fits. When signing them up for baseball or softball, your toddler will need a glove between 8 and 11 inches to give their fingers space to move and protect their hands. With the correct equipment, they’ll be more prepared for their first day of practice.
Get a Physical Exam
Before your child steps on the field, they need a preparticipation physical exam (PPE). Take your toddler to their pediatrician for this health evaluation to ensure they’re ready for athletic events. The physician will examine your toddler’s physical condition by testing their vision, checking their heart, measuring their blood pressure and identifying other critical metrics.
With this information, you’ll feel more confident sending your child to play organized sports. Additionally, identifying problems now will help you and the coaches know what to expect.
Communicate With Their Coaches
If your toddler has any conditions, communicating with the coaches is essential. Notify them of your child’s needs and limitations to help their understanding and increase your peace of mind. The coach should make accommodations for your toddler if health risks are involved. For instance, you should inform the coach of your child’s asthma to ensure they don’t overwork your child’s lungs.
Research Local Leagues
While picking the right sport is crucial, you should also choose the right sports league in your area. Researching coaches is what parents can do to ensure the safety of their child in a sport because caring adults make the sport more enjoyable for small children.
Ask your fellow parents and community members for their recommendations because their testimonials are crucial. Coaching toddlers requires these adults to know essential sports safety tips, so your choice will be paramount in determining your child’s protection and enjoyment.
Be Cautious
While you want your toddler to have fun, safety should be the priority for your children in their first team sport. Be cautious when your child plays and don’t take any chances. The last thing you want is to see your children injured, as this setback can discourage them from playing.
Monitor your child for injuries and try to catch them early. For instance, concussions are a significant concern for toddlers as young children are susceptible to this brain injury. Symptoms may include headaches and vomiting with blurred vision and drowsiness. If you feel something has gone wrong, communicate with coaches or a physician to ensure your child’s health is acceptable.
Following Sports Safety Tips for Your Toddler
What can parents do to ensure the safety of their child in a sport? Monitor them carefully and surround them with love and encouragement. Signing up your toddler for team sports is exciting but comes with challenges. Follow these preparation and sports safety tips to ready your child for their first athletic team.
