Hand Strength

OT Activity of the Day:

Feed the tennis ball!

Target Age Range: 3 and up

This is a client favorite.  In the past I've typically paired the tennis ball and beads with therapy putty, however the tennis ball is such a hit it can stand alone!

Here I've added dice to the mix and we have ourselves a little game.  First you take the dice, and shake them (in both hands, we want to work on that bilateral coordination) and roll them.  Then you take that amount of beads and feed the tennis ball one at a time. This is a very simple game and puts emphasis on improving the strength and manipulation in those little hands.  This is great practice for those kiddos who struggle with writing endurance and overall control.

Enjoy!

Shoulder Stability

OT Activity of the Day:

Color on the wall!

Target Age Range: 4 and up

Shoulder stability is important in the development of fine motor skills, most importantly, handwriting.  It's hard to use our hand muscles and control a pencil when our arm and shoulder are having a hard time maintaining their position!

A great way to focus on shoulder stability is to color on a vertical surface.  Now I know not everyone has a giant chalk board on their wall, so I used some painters tape and taped a picture to the wall as another example.  You can have your child sit on a more stable chair or you can use a therapy ball, or they can even stand up.  By placing the crayons, or chalk, on the floor, the child is not only working on shoulder stability, but they are also using their trunk muscles to bend over and pick up and put down the crayons.

Color and Enjoy!  

Yoga!

OT Activity of the Day:

Yoga memory game

Target Age Range: 4 years and up

So I found these images on Google, printed them off, cut them out, and glued them to paper. I now have a yoga memory game!  This game is great for those kids who struggle with coordination, motor planning, regulation, and short term recall.  You can play this game one of two ways, for example: you can have your child do the poses that they match right away, or you can save all the matches and do the poses all together at the end.    

For some yoga moves! https://www.sclhealth.org/blog/2019/07/learn-all-about-the-benefits-of-yoga-for-children/

Namaste and enjoy!  

Hole Punch Activity

OT Activity of the Day:

Hole punch fun!

Target Age Range: 3 and up

Improving handwriting is often what a pediatric OT is known for.  When a child comes in for handwriting help, most often the difficulty stems from a lack of hand strength and stability.  For these kiddos, in addition to remedial handwriting work, I also focus on building up their hand strength.  A hole puncher is often a very fun way of doing this.

Here I have made a lady bug and a snake.  I have put together and cut out 2-3 pieces of construction paper and used a hole punch in the top layers for the spots!  Not only are we working on improving hand strength but also bilateral coordination, a skill necessary for displaying appropriate cutting skills. 

Add an element of writing and create a story about your bug.  Enjoy!

Cutting Activity!

OT Activity of the Day:

Popsicle Fun

Target Age Range: 4 and up

By the age of 4 most children should be ready to start cutting out more complex shapes like circles.  A great way to practice this skill is to expose your child to various cutting activities.  Here I've made a popsicle out of construction paper and then decorated the popsicle with small pieces of paper and stickers.  

This is a great way to not only work on scissor skills, but you can also work on improving fine motor manipulation but adding the stickers, small pieces of paper that you need to glue and anything more you can think of!  

For the older kids you can add an element of writing by asking the child to describe and write what they made! Enjoy!

Improving Fine Motor Manipulation and Strength

OT Activity of the Day:

Building with Clothespins and popsicle sticks

Target Age Range: 4 and up

On my latest trip to Michael's I found these popsicle sticks and clothespins.  While I bought them for other uses, I found a few examples on Pinterest of children putting them together and building with them.  

This is such a great idea for so many reasons.  For starters, using clothespins is a great way to improve fine motor manipulation and strength, skills necessary for writing and completing other fine motor tasks (scissors, buttons, shoe tying, etc...).  It's also a great way to use one's imagination and build structures that basic blocks may not allow.  Lastly, it's a great way to practice problem solving, how are you going to use both these tools to build your structure?  

A fun rainy day or downtime activity for the summer!  Enjoy!

Improving Fine Motor Manipulation

OT Activity of the Day:

Dot Markers

Target Age Range: 2 and up

Around the age of 2 children start to learn to unscrew a twist top.  This skill will help them open a lid to a jar, turn a door knob or even unwrap small pieces of candy, yum!  To help facilitate this skill and the coordination of their little wrists, fingers and palms I often use dot markers.  Dot markers are great because each marker has a screw top as a lid.  These are motivating and fun and a great way to place emphasis on this skill set!   

I found these dot markers and coloring book at Michael's.  Enjoy!

Improving Fine Motor Manipulation

OT Activity of the Day:

Lego letters

Target Age Range: 3 and up

Legos and play doh, two kid favorites joined together for a perfect match!  This is a fun way to work on fine motor manipulation and letter formation in young kids.  Add more play doh and you can even work on creating words, or small phrases, for the older kids! You can press the legos into the play doh with the bumpy side down or the open side down, both will leave a fun print behind.  

This is a fun way to work on letters over the summer and throughout the school year!  Enjoy!

ImprovingWriting and More!

OT Activity of the Day:

Writing and tactile play

Target Age Range: 6 and up

This is a great handwriting and tactile activity for kiddos.  It's fun and works on so many different skill sets at the same time.  First you'll need a dark bag of some sort and then you can walk around the house and place random but identifiable items in the bag.  The object of this game is to then have your child stick their hand in the bag and grab an item.  Have your child think about what that object feels like, they can write down their tactile observations, and then guess what that item may be.    

This works on the child's ability to use their tactile sense only to identify something.  This skill is important because it is the same skill children need when digging around in their backpack or desk for an item.  Not only that but this activity expands on their ability to use descriptive language, critical thinking skills, and writing.  If you have a group of children you can subtract the writing portion and have one child describe what they're feeling to the other children who then have to guess what the object might be.  

Enjoy!

Improving Fine Motor

OT Activity of the Day:

Painting with empty toilet paper rolls

Target Age Range: 2 and up

Here's a fun twist on painting, especially for the little ones who have yet to establish a tripod grasp.  All you need is some regular paper or a large sheet of paper, paint, a paper plate and an empty toilet paper roll.  Stamp the empty toilet paper roll in the paint and then stamp it on the paper.  You can make all sorts of designs, experiment with mixing colors and just have fun while working on simple sequencing and grasping patterns!  

Enjoy! 

Improving Fine Motor Skills

OT Activity of the Day:

Paper plate fish

Target Age Range: 4 and up

Grab a paper plate, some scissors, crayons and you too can make a paper plate fish.  This is a great way to work on improving scissor skills, crayon use, and fine motor manipulation.  All you have to do is color the paper plate, cut a triangle out of the side for the mouth and it's a fish!  

You can make guide lines for your child to cut on or they can cut any shape mouth they would like.  Again, crayons target your child's hand strength and endurance so sneak those in instead of markers if possible.  Feel free to add other manipulatives into the activity by using stickers, hole punchers, tearing small pieces of paper, and anything else you can think of!

Enjoy! 

Sensory Fun!

OT Activity of the Day:

Painting with spaghetti

Target Age Range: 2 and up (no eating!)

So now that I'm looking at this picture again, it looks a little suspicious.  In hindsight, maybe red was not the best paint choice for this picture ha.  But this is nothing more than cooked spaghetti that I dyed red with red paint.  To paint with spaghetti all you have to do is cook the spaghetti and drain it.  When it's cool enough, place the spaghetti in a bag with paint, mix it all up and you have the beginnings of a masterpiece.

This is another great sensory experience for kids.  Some kids will love this and dive right in, while some may be more hesitant.  For those that shy away from messy play you can always add a fork or paint brush for them to use.  Eventually they may become more comfortable and use their hands, but until then allow them to use these simple strategies for comfort.

Enjoy!

Sensory Fun!

OT Activity of the Day:

Sensory Fun!

Target Age Range: 2 and up

A rice and bean bin is like a portable sandbox, it can be played indoors and outdoors.  If you play with the bin inside, I would recommend laying out a large sheet to place the bin on top of to make clean up that much easier!

Most kids love this activity so it's easy to make it more educational without the kids actually knowing.  Here I've hid letters from a letter puzzle in the rice and beans.  My client will then have to dig through the rice and beans, find the letters and then place them into their correct spot.  This is great for letter recognition, visual motor skills, and exposure to sensory play.  You can always use magnetic letters and place the letters on a baking sheet once found and work on sequencing.  You can also practice writing the letters afterwards!  

Enjoy!

Improving Fine Motor Skills

OT Activity of the Day:

Hand Octopus

Target Age Range: 2 and up

This craft can be scaled up or down depending on your child's abilities and age.  All I did was trace my hand with a crayon, cut out the hand and glue it upside down on another piece of paper.  I added an underwater backdrop to create an octopus swimming in the ocean!  It's a fun way to work on cutting, coloring, gluing and tracing.  Here are all the ways this activity can be completed:

1. For the younger kids, you can help them trace their hand and cut it out.  With the younger kids, you can place more emphasis on drawing the underwater theme and even practice those prewriting strokes: circles for bubbles, lines (horizontal and vertical) for the sand or seaweed, even a cross for an anchor and square or triangle for a boat or submarine.

2.  For older kids, you can work on bilateral coordination by having them trace their own hand on a piece of paper and then cut it out.  You can even have your child write a sentence or two about their underwater picture or maybe what the octopus is thinking.

Of course you can always add your own spin on this activity, the idea is to have those little hands using crayons, scissors, and glue!  

Enjoy!

Improving Fine Motor Skills

OT Activity of the Day:

Happy 4th of July!!

Target Age Range: 5 and up (though you can easily scale this down for the younger hands)

All you need is a paper plate, some markers, scissors, a hole puncher, and something to hang the paper plate with.  If you don't have a hole puncher, rest assured you can easily make a hole with some scissors.  

First you use the markers and decorate the plate however you would like, I used patriotic colors, but you can do whatever.  Then you use the scissors to cut the plate in a spiral, I used a gray marker to make a guide line for cutting and it blends in nicely.  Last you use the hole puncher, or a pair of scissors, to make a hole in the center of the plate and then hang it up!  All this targets marker use, cutting skills, and hand strength if you use the hole puncher.   

Your kids can help decorate the house for the holiday and work on their fine motor skills at the same time!

Happy 4th of July! Stay safe and have fun!

Improving Hand Strength

OT Activity of the Day:

Racing Fish

Target Age Range: 3 and up (It's really for any child that can work a squirt bottle, some 2s may have no problem)

Fill up a large container, or baby pool, with water, fill up 2 squirt bottles with water, throw in some floating toys and you have yourself a hand strengthening race!  Place the floating toys at one end of the container or pool, then you and your challenger have to use the squirt bottles to spray the toys to get them to move.  So much fun your child won't even know they are working on improving their hand strength!

Enjoy!

Sensory Fun and Regulation

OT Activity of the Day:

Bubble Art

Target Age Range: 2 and up

Want a fun twist to bubbles?  Pour some bubble solution (or bubble juice as I like to call it) into a small container and then add some food coloring.  Mix it together and you have colored bubbles! Now it's hard to see in the air, so lay some paper (preferably something larger than one sheet) on the ground and you can watch the bubbles pop on the paper and make art!

Not only is this fun in general, but blowing bubbles is a great way to calm kids down.  So maybe couple this activity with an outdoor activity that has the kids all revved. 

Enjoy! 

Improving Fine Motor Skills

OT Activity of the Day:

Paper ripping

Target Age Range: 2 and up

Who doesn't like ripping paper? It's fun, easy and great practice for those fine motor skills.  It focuses on improving the pincer grasp, wrist/forearm rotation and bilateral coordination.  All these skills are necessary to succeed and have fun in preschool and elementary school as they help with efficiency in writing and cutting.  So today, ditch the markers and crayons and substitute colored paper and glue! 

Enjoy! 

Improving Hand Strength

OT Activity of the Day:

Save the Animals....and Halloween toys.....I mistakenly thought they would float, they don't.

Target Age Range: 2 and up

This is always a hit.  Grab a plastic container, place plastic animals and other toys inside and fill the container with water.  Place the container in the freezer overnight and ta-da, you have a block of ice with animals trapped inside.  To save the animals, use spray bottles filled with luke warm warm water and spray away!  As the ice melts you can free the animals one by one.  This is a great activity to build strength in those little hands and fingers!  

Enjoy!

Improving Fine Motor Manipulation and More!

OT Activity of the Day:

Legos

Target Age Range: 3 and up

From my experience, I've found that just about every kid loves legos.  Whether it's the fancy lego sets that challenge you to build the Millennium Falcon or just your Classic containers, they allow kids the opportunity to enter the magical world of imagination.  Not only are these sets fun for all, but they target some pretty key areas of development for children.  Here are just a few:

1. Fine motor manipulation- These things can be pretty tiny, so your child has to hone in on the fine motor abilities that allow them to manipulation these small objects.  That translates into better tool (pencil and scissors) use in school.

2. Visual Motor Skills- Most legos sets will come with a booklet of building instructions for different animals or structures.  This is great for your child's visual motor skills.  Can they accurately duplicate these objects?  It's also great for sequencing (following all the directions in order), and problem solving (hmm it doesn't look like it goes there, where else would that piece go?). 

3. Group development- I've used these sets in social skills groups before and have challenged the children to take turns describing the instructions to their peers.  Not only were the kids working on descriptive language, but also following directions and cooperation.  I've also challenged the children to build one object together (something they can all agree on) and each take turns placing legos on the structure as they see fit.  The challenge being that no one can tell the other where to place their lego and you may not move a lego after it's been placed.  Great practice for flexibility, cooperation and allowing all voices to be heard.  Fun all around!

Enjoy!