Swing

About this visual support

Forward, back, forward again. Swinging gives the body a kind of movement that many children come back to over and over, almost like a hunger for the sway. For other children that same feeling, together with the height and the speed, is exactly what makes them hang back and watch from the side.

When swinging becomes a row of pictures, it gets clear what the body is meant to do: sit down, hold the chains, kick for speed and lean back. A child who wants plenty of motion gets a way to ask for more, and a cautious child sees that they decide how high they go. Nobody has to guess what the next step is.

One concrete trick is to count the swings out loud and agree on a stopping number before you start, so the end never arrives as a surprise. If the child wants help at first, you can push gently from behind and then ease off until they find their own rhythm with their legs. With Routined you can gather the pictures into a small playground routine and add a timer that shows how long the swinging lasts.