OT Activity of the Day
Finger Gym
Target Age Range: 4 and up
Give those little fingers a work out! This activity is great for promoting fine motor manipulation and visual motor skills.
I used play doh to hold the pipe cleaners in place, though you could use tooth picks if you don't have pipe cleaners, and then just some beads. I started the activity by color sorting, though I gave up on that quickly. I had so many other colored beads it was becoming more work just to sort out and find the beads that I needed. But if you have the extra prep time and would like to work on color identification and matching, feel free to provide only matching beads, or have the kids sort out the beads that they need!
Other adaptations: To work on visual scanning as well, break the play doh into smaller pieces and place the play doh and pipe cleaners out on different parts of the table. Then provide only matching beads and challenge the child to scan the table to find the match.
Enjoy!