Posts

, , , , , , , , , ,

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…
, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Make Your Own Zoom-Ball

Every clinic needs to have a Zoom Ball since it is so great for working on so many skills. You hold the handles and pull them out wide so that the zoom-ball moves along the two strings to the person holding the other handles. In order…
, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Simple matching with clothespins

This is a very simple activity that is easily used with a scooterboard or other motor activity.  You start with clothespins at one end of the room with numbers written on them.  The child attaches the clothespins to the bottom of their shirt. …
, , , , , , , ,

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…
, , , , , , ,

App review: Ready to Print

I got a chance to try out the app Ready to Print over the weekend.  This app just recently came out, and I have wanted to try it out, but sadly, I do not own an iPad.  I hope to remedy that fact as soon as I have some money saved up for it,…
, , , , , , , , , ,

Fabric Marble maze

I have seen fabric marble mazes in catalogs, and decided to make my own as I have a lot of fabric sitting around from other projects, and I am not too bad on a sewing machine.  I was even helping with a children’s sewing class, so thought…
, , , , , , , , ,

Pencil Obstacle Courses from School-OT

To work on pencil control, I created some Pencil Adventures.  When I started making the pencil adventures, I was inspired by the pencil obstacle courses that were created by another Occupational Therapist, Jennifer Dodge.  I now have her obstacle…
, , , , , , , ,

Roll a Shape Game

I was working on visual perceptual games and wanted to get the kids to work on visually scanning to find what they are looking for. To do this, I came up with a game I call Roll a Shape Game, using 12 dice with shapes on them. I also made cards…
, , , , , , , , , ,

Roll a Creature Game

To continue with my dice obsession, I made a roll a creature game that has two dice that have creature body parts on them, and one with numbers on it, as well as some cards with four of the body parts. The object of the game is to roll…
, , , , , , , , ,

Roll a Sentence Game

I am always on a quest for fun and interesting ways to work on writing and school skills. I have been on a bit of a dice kick, so I created a writing game using dice with words on them. The game has 4 noun dice, 4 verb dice, and 4 descriptive…
, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Hammock swing for strengthening

A hammock swing is wonderful for strengthening in many different ways.  My favorite position in a hammock swing is prone with just the head and arms sticking out.  This position forces weight bearing on the arms, and works on full upper body…
, , ,

Vibration For Oral Motor Stimulation

I am seeing a little girl who enjoys eating, but she does not yet move her tongue to the side (tongue lateralization) in order to move her food around in her mouth. I will often use vibration in the mouth to stimulate more tongue and cheek movement.…
, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Summer fun with water and chalk for fine motor

I have been seeing kids this summer for an early intervention program, and have been playing with sidewalk chalk and water.  Some younger kids will have trouble with squirt guns, so we are going to try a regular spray bottle. I broke…
, ,

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…
, , , , ,

More Road Writing

When I was using the road maps with some students, they had a very hard time following the paths, so I decided to simplify it even more. A couple of these kids had trouble drawing a line from one point to another. I figured a good transition…
, , , , , ,

Handwriting remediation using roads

I have several kids that I work with who needed to get back to the basics of writing. Some of them could not even follow a path from one point to another. I got out my car mat, and had them follow the roads with their car and look for the…
, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Paper Rainbow Mosaic

A simple activity that I did a few weeks ago is making a paper rainbow mosaic. I drew the rainbow template and cut it out. I then had my student trace around the curved rainbow lines and cut them out of colored construction paper. We…
, , , , , , , ,

Sentence Memory With Chopsticks

I have been doing this sentence memory activity periodically with a small group of kids. I decided to do it again and add the challenge of chopsticks along with the sentences. To summarize, I have the sentences typed on a piece of paper, and…
, , , , , , , , , , ,

Building with Toothpicks and Gumdrops

I saw this on a preschool activity site, and saw a lot of therapy potential in it. You can have a client build their own designs and structures, or you could have them copy a design that you show them. This is a good activity that incorporates…
, , , , , , , , ,

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…
, , , , , , , ,

What's In Ned's Head?

Many people who benefit from therapy have trouble with stereognosis. Stereognosis is the ability to know what an object is just by feeling it. We do this on a daily basis, reaching into a backpack or purse and pulling out exactly what we had…