Proprioception. It's your child's awareness of his or her body in space. We all have, in our joints, muscles, and so forth proprioceptive receptors. These receptors send signals to our brains to let us know when we are moving as opposed to staying still. They let us know where our body parts are in the first place! For an example, let's try a little experiment. In just a moment, I'll ask you to close your eyes and put your hands over your head. I will then ask that you touch your ears, put your hands back over your head, then touch your nose, and then open your eyes. Go ahead and do that now...
Where you able to do that? The answer, most likely, is, "yes." Our brain knows where our body parts are, without looking. It just knows. It's how we are able to drive a car, pushing our foot down on pedals when we can't see our feet or the the pedals. This is all proprioception.
When a child is having difficulty with their proprioceptive system, they may appear to be off-balance often. Similarly, they may seem clumsy or prone to accidents. Sometimes, children will act wild and crazy, flopping their body around in all sorts of ways that we would consider inappropriate or, maybe, dangerous to themselves or others. Maybe a child is prone to hitting, kicking, or pushing. The reason could certainly be that he is just trying to feel that impact of his body on something else to ground him a bit and make him feel the way that our brains naturally want to feel.
Activities that can help children with proprioception are often called, "heavy work," or "deep pressure," activities. They might involve wearing a weighted vest or using a weighted blanket, carrying heavy toys around, climbing, getting good squeezy snuggles, stomping, jumping, wheelbarrow walking, wall pushing, and on and on. The sky is the limit. Just think of activities that are going to provide the muscles and joints with some good, hard, deliberate stimulation. It could be a life changer!
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