Wii or Kinect for gross motor?

[Violet2]

Does anyone use a Wii or Kinect to foster gross motor skills? Which do you prefer?

DD needs more than just PT and activities like dance. Especially in the cold months where we can't get outside as much.

Thanks

V

[RiverTam]

The Kinect is awesome.  We don't use the Kinect for OT, but I can see how it would be useful for that.

The Kinect is a far superior controller than the control system on the Wii. We have both at home. The Wii is fun, but you use a hand-held controller or a balance board with it. The Kinect is totally different. You don't hold a controller. It recognizes your body movements, as long as you are in an area in front of the controller. The area is about 8 X 8. The result is that the movements you use to control the game are much more natural. It allows the game to use more whole body movements.

Our Kinect came with a game called Kinect Adventures. It's simple but pretty fun. We also purchased Kinect Sports, which has a ton of games. We really like soccer, volleyball, boxing, and table tennis on that one. You can play the sport and mini-games related to each sport. We also bought a came called Dance Central that might be really fun for a kid that likes to dance. It teaches different dance moves and dance routines.

Our YMCA has purchased 4 Kinects to replace the Wiis that they were using in the youth center because they are more active game systems.

[aja-belly]

our kids were not great at the wii, but we have a ps3 now and they ROCK it! 

[LaughingHyena]

My kids enjoy the wii but can get easily frustrated by it. The controller does need some pretty precise movement when selecting games and so on which they found tricky at first (so did I!).

They like the wii fit games using the balance board (ski jumping and the penguin catching fish especially)

[Violet2]

Thanks! We are going to try and borrow my Dad's Wii (they aren't using it) just to play with it a bit.

DD needs to be active plus work on balance and core strength, which have been areas of weakness for her. Trying to get her to stop falling and need something fun to reinforce PT (so far, fun does not include momma making a hopscotch course out of blue painter tape in the hallway, sigh).

I'm really leaning toward Kinect.

V

[RiverTam]

The penguin game on the balance board for the Wii is a fun game and will work on balance.