adl Archives - Therapy Fun Zone

Toddler age Potty Training Tips

Here are some tips that have helped me with potty training both my own kids and some of the kids that I have worked with. Naked Time · Have some “naked time” at home when able to be well supervised. You want your child to feel what…

Activities, ADL, child, dressing, elementary school age, fine-motor, OT, tying, visual perceptual

Teaching Shoe Tying: Tips and Tricks

Tying shoes is a very complex skill that can be very difficult to learn. There are so many skill areas that are used when tying shoes, that if you have a deficit in one of those skills, then you will have trouble tying shoes. Not only does it…

Activities, ADL, bimanual, child, Craft, dressing, elementary school age, fine-motor, OT, ribbon, spring, tying, visual perceptual

Tying Ribbon to Make a Spring Tree

I loved the activity that I did where the kids had to tie ribbon onto a stick to make a tree. The activity turned out beautiful, and it really targeted the tying skill, which is usually a pretty difficult skill to attain. Since then, I have…

Activities, ADL, bimanual, child, cooking, Craft, elementary school age, fall, feeding, fine-motor, Food, Materials, Motor Planning, Nature, OT, season, Sensory, sensory motor, summer, visual perceptual, winter

Pine Cone Bird Feeder and Spreading with a Knife

Spreading can be a challenge for many kids, so here is a fun activity that helps practice. You use a pine cone and attach a wire or string to the top of it so that you can hang it once it is finished. You then spread peanut butter all over the…

Activities, ADL, bimanual, child, elementary school age, hand strengthening, hygiene, Motor Planning, OT, preschool, sensory motor, visual perceptual

Car Wash

When the weather is warm, it is always fun to play in the water. Here is a fun activity that has water play, with some self-care skills and fine motor skills all mixed into one activity. When washing your hands, you use visual perception…

ADL, cooking, OT

Cooking For Therapy

I am working on doing a feeding group and integrating some simple food play/cooking/interaction. With the population that I am working with, there will not be a lot of full blown cooking involved, but we will have fun with food. We will…

Activities, ADL, bimanual, child, elementary school age, fine-motor, hand strengthening, in-hand manipulation, OT, preschool

Digital Piggy Bank

I love using money in therapy, since it provides lots of opportunity to work on fine motor skills and visual perceptual skills. I had a little client that had a great time putting coins into this digital piggy bank. The benefit of this…

Activities, ADL, bimanual, buttoning, child, dressing, elementary school age, favorite toys, Motor Planning, OT, preschool, visual perceptual

Practice Buttoning with Felt Sandwich

I was inspired by making the buttoning pizza to make more food that requires buttoning. I see a whole line of fun button food in my future. Here is a sandwich that I made. It is very similar to the button snake and button oreo that I made, but…

Activities, ADL, bimanual, buttoning, child, dressing, elementary school age, favorite toys, fine-motor, Motor Planning, OT, preschool, visual perceptual

Practice Buttoning with Felt Oreo Cookies

I was inspired by making the buttoning pizza to make more food that requires buttoning. I see a whole line of fun button food in my future. Here is an oreo cookie that I made. It is very similar to the button snake, but looks like an oreo. One…

Activities, ADL, bimanual, buttoning, child, dressing, fine-motor, Motor Planning, OT, preschool, visual perceptual

Button Snake

When learning to button, it is easier to button large buttons on fabric that you are holding rather than fabric that is on your body. In order to practice this skill, I made a “button snake”. It is a very simple activity of squares…

Activities, ADL, buttoning, child, Craft, dressing, Duck Tape, fine-motor, hand strengthening, Motor Planning, OT, preschool, Recycled, toddler, visual perceptual

Button Push Ins

When working on buttoning skills, there is a progression of skill mastery. Pushing buttons or coins into a container is the first step. Putting coins into a piggy bank slot is the easiest, and then pushing buttons or coins into a recycled butter…

Activities, ADL, bimanual, buttoning, child, Craft, dressing, elementary school age, favorite toys, fine-motor, Motor Planning, OT, Paper, preschool, visual perceptual

Felt Pizza to Work on Button Skills

I have a client that needs to work on buttoning skills, and I found that I do not have many buttoning activities that are appropriate and fun for older kids. When I heard another therapist mention that the pepperoni pizza buttoning activity…

Activities, ADL, bimanual, child, christmas, Craft, elementary school age, fine-motor, Food, holiday, Motor Planning, OT, preschool, toddler

Ice Cream Cone Christmas Trees

One of the Kindergarten classes that I visited today was making Christmas Trees out of ice cream cones. First you get a sugar cone, the kind with the pointy tip. Then you spread green frosting all over the cone. You can use red licorice…

Activities, ADL, child, elementary school age, fine-motor, Motor Planning, OT, Sensory, teenage, tween - middle school

Cake Pops, a cooking activity with sensory and fine motor

I have seen these cake pops around the internet, and they look so cute. I thought that it would be fun to have a holiday party and decorate cake pops. Instead of a cookie party, we would do cake pops. As I was making them,…

Activities, bimanual, child, christmas, Craft, Craft, elementary school age, fine-motor, Food, holiday, in-hand manipulation, Motor Planning, OT, Sensory, teenage, tween - middle school, visual perceptual

Graham Cracker Gingerbread Houses

When I used to work in an outpatient clinic environment, I used to have the kids make these gingerbread type of houses out of graham crackers. It was a fun, christmasy activity that was good therapy at the same time. It was also…

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