bimanual skills Archives - Therapy Fun Zone

Activities, bimanual, Craft, Craft, fine-motor, Motor Planning, OT, scissor cutting, Shapes, visual perceptual

Scissor Cutting Shapes: Pizza

When working on cutting skills, it is fun to create something out of what you cut. This week I had some of my students make some pizza. I made a template for the shapes needed to make the pizza, and they traced the shapes, cut them out and glued…

Activities, bimanual, child, elementary school age, fine-motor, hand strengthening, Motor Planning, OT, preschool, scissor cutting, visual perceptual

Slowing Down With Scissor Cutting

I recently was doing an evaluation, and the student was just snipping at the paper as fast and furiously as she could. When I tried to help her position the paper or the scissors better, she just pushed me away and kept snipping. She gave…

Activities, ADL, buttoning, child, dressing, elementary school age, fall, felt, OT, preschool, season, spring, summer, winter

Seasons Button Tree

I have added another button activity to my arsenal of fun things to button. This one is a seasonal tree, so you can button on the different seasons. It includes white snow for winter, green for spring, orange and red for fall, and fruit of red…

Activities, bimanual, child, christmas, Craft, elementary school age, felt, fine-motor, holiday, in-hand manipulation, Materials, Motor Planning, OT, season, visual perceptual, winter

Felt Christmas Tree

Here is a fun little Christmas activity of decorating a Christmas tree with felt ornaments. I got a styrofoam cone from the craft store and wrapped green felt around it. I then cut out some ornament shapes from different colored felt. You could…

Activities, bimanual, child, Craft, Craft, elementary school age, fine-motor, hand strengthening, Handwriting, in-hand manipulation, Motor Planning, OT, Paper, scissor cutting, Shapes, visual perceptual

Coloring and Cutting Shapes for a Picture

For this activity, we are incorporating very simple coloring and cutting of easy shapes. Then you can put those shapes together to make a pretty picture to take home. Two simple designs to choose from are a flower or a butterfly. With…

Activities, ADL, adult, bimanual, child, christmas, Craft, Craft, Crossing Midline, elementary school age, fine-motor, holiday, in-hand manipulation, Materials, Motor Planning, OT, ribbon, scissor cutting, season, teenage, tween - middle school, tying, visual perceptual, winter

Ribbon Christmas Tree

This ribbon Christmas tree activity is the most awesome therapy activity ever. It incorporates practicing tying into a nice craft that looks beautiful when it is done. The kids all loved it, and they were all very proud of what they had accomplished.…

Activities, bimanual, featured guest, OT, Resources, Therapy techniques

To cast or not to cast? Constraint Induced Movement Therapy

This is a guest post, written by: Corey W. Stone, MS, OTR/L; Treating Therapist – UAB Pediatric Neuromotor Clinic When people ask me about constraint therapy I never feel like they truly understand what I am talking about. “You mean…

Activities, activity printable, ADL, bimanual, child, cooking, Crossing Midline, elementary school age, feeding, Free Printable, hand strengthening, OT, Pom Poms or cotton balls, preschool, Printable, Range Of Motion, scissor cutting, toddler

Play with Scooping Ice Cream for Skill Development

Scooping is an important skill to have, and can easily be worked on in a fun and playful way. I decided to have fun with it with an ice cream scooping session, using large home made pom poms as the scoops of ice cream. I neglected to make toppings…

Activities, bimanual, hand strengthening, Motor Planning, OT

DC Comics Games

I was invited to join the DC Comics Fan Families for an event that they were holding this summer during the San Diego Comic Con. I only participate in events if they can relate to therapy in some way, and I found several items at the DC Comics…

Activities, activity printable, bimanual, child, Clothespin Activities, elementary school age, fine-motor, games, hand strengthening, Handwriting, Motor Planning, OT, Printable, tween - middle school, visual perceptual

New Awesome Clothespin Tower Games

When I am looking at the basic clothespin game that has been used through the ages, most of them are simple matching games on the side of a can. I wanted to take the concept of my flat clothespin games, and merge it with the concept of the can…

Activities, adult, bimanual, child, elementary school age, games, Motor Planning, OT, Product Review, sensory motor, teenage, tween - middle school, visual perceptual

Ogo Sport

I saw the Ogo Sport Disc during some random internet shopping, and they looked like they would be fun to play with. I did not realize how fun they would be though until my son started playing with them. They are round discs that have…

Activities, ADL, bimanual, child, dressing, elementary school age, fine-motor, Free Printable, OT, preschool, Printable, tying, visual perceptual

Shoe Tying Printable Practice Shoe

When practicing shoe tying, it is best to have the shoe sitting in front of the child either on the floor or the table. I don’t always have a shoe with me (I have been known to take my own shoe off to use for practice), so I made a shoe printable…

Activities, activity printable, bimanual, child, Clothespin Activities, elementary school age, fine-motor, games, hand strengthening, Handwriting, Motor Planning, OT, Printable, spring, summer, tween - middle school, visual perceptual

Garden Bugs Fine Motor Game

I started working on a craft for cutting out bugs, and it morphed into a complete game that includes catching bugs and using clothespins to hold the bugs in the bug jar. I am thrilled with the little bug jar, and they can stand upright using…

Activities, child, Crossing Midline, elementary school age, fine-motor, hand strengthening, Motor Planning, OT, Product Review, Reach and grasp, teenage, tween - middle school, upper extremity strengthening, visual perceptual

Free Standing Wall Marble Maze

I love marble runsfor a variety of reasons, and have posted about many different kinds. There are the plastic free standing ones that you put together, there is the fabric marble maze, and there was a wall mounted marble run, and the cardboard…

Activities, bimanual, fine-motor, games, Product Review

Monsuno toys

I was sent a Monsuno toy pack to try out and share my opinion. I was interested in them because they are little plastic tubes that hold a little toy in them and then you play a game with them. Putting the Monsuno character into the capsule…

Activities, bimanual, child, crazy cubes, elementary school age, fine-motor, games, hand strengthening, Handwriting, OT, Product Review, tween - middle school, visual perceptual

Crazy Cubes bowl and write

I put out a challenge a couple of weeks ago to have people send me ideas of ways to use Crazy Cubes in therapy. They just seemed to lend themselves perfectly to therapeutic activities, but I wanted more than just what I would come up with. …

Activities, bimanual, fine-motor, games, OT, Product Review, visual perceptual

An Activity/Game Challenge Using Crazy Cubes

I am proposing a challenge to all of you creative therapists and parents. I found these funky little toys called crazy cubes while perusing the toy aisle at Target. If you have kids you may have seen the commercials. There…

Activities, bimanual, child, elementary school age, fine-motor, Motor Planning, OT, pipe cleaner, pool noodle, preschool, summer

A Tree Made From A Pool Noodle and Pipe Cleaners

This was kind of a spontaneous activity. I had pool noodles, and I had pipe cleaners that I was planning to use to thread the letter beads onto, so I stuck the pipe cleaners into the pool noodles to make a tree. The tree worked beautifully to…

Activities, bimanual, child, Craft, elementary school age, fine-motor, hand strengthening, OT, Paint, summer

Painting with a mister for bimanual strengthening

I got this little Personal Mister at the target dollar spot a couple of months ago, and decided to use it to paint. It is a great tool to work on bimanual skills and hand strengthening because you have to use two hands to pump it up. After…

Activities, bimanual, child, elementary school age, fine-motor, Handwriting, Motor Planning, OT, visual perceptual

Motor Control With Magnet Paths

A fun activity that we did at a Zaner Bloser workshop that I went to while at the OTAC spring fling, were these pages with paths on them. You place a metal piece on the path (I used a metal nut) with a magnet underneath. Then you move the magnet…

Activities, bimanual, child, elementary school age, fine-motor, Materials, Motor Planning, OT, Recycled, recycled, visual perceptual

Cardboard Marble Maze

Here is a low tech visual perceptual marble maze made out of a cardboard box and some straws. This one is fairly simple, but it can be useful for those who have trouble with motor coordination as well as visual perception. I used a cardboard…

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