The occupational therapists in the Camas School District have created this website in an effort to pool resources and information into one singular location for the benefit of our students and parents during this challenging time. We are hoping to continually add content as it becomes relevant and necessary for students and parents and we hope you find something that helps your student and your family! Thank you, Nick Calais, Laura Meyerhoff, Kristen Mitchell, and Sharon Peddie, Camas School District OTs.
Occupational Therapy (OT) is concerned with improving a person's ability to perform their “occupation” and daily life/personal skills. In the school setting, a child’s occupation is to be a student and a developing child. They must be able to learn to attend; to use classroom tools (pencil, scissor, glue sticks, and such); to participate in games; to work in both groups and independently; to help in their personal care; and many other areas.
You can help your child to be ready for his/her “occupation” by making sure they address all areas of development when they play.
OUTSIDE! OUTSIDE! OUTSIDE!
The importance of gross motor or big movement activity and play is the basis for fine-motor and visual perceptual skills. Body awareness and coordination develops from your child's trunk, arms/legs/neck, and then the hands/feet/eyes.
Get outside with your kids, have them jump, crawl, climb, run, push, carry, pull, roll, balance, go backwards, go up, go down, go sideways, all of these actions help to build strength, coordination, body awareness and more!
You can add these activities to daily play, household chores, and any outdoor adventures!
Activities to Improve Visual Perceptual and Visual Motor Skills
Completing dot-to-dots (connect the dots)
Mazes (Lots of printables online)
Complete the drawing
Look at an item and try to draw it
Hidden pictures (Highlights.com)
Word searches
Jigsaw puzzles
Copying and making patterns
Games – Memory, Chutes and Ladders, Perfection, Connect Four, Boggle, Scrabble, Kerplunk, Uno, Upwords
Show a shape that is not complete and have student draw what shape he/she thinks it could be.
Search for items in a telephone book, map, dictionary, or encyclopedia
Copying information from a book (i.e. recipe, definitions, etc.)
Pegboards – different shapes. Vertical, horizontal, square, rectangle, diamond, cross, hexagon, octagon and parallel.
Etch-A-Sketch
Writing Skills
Drawing within the lines
Tracing patterns
Solving a maze
Completing geometric designs
Completing capital letters
Matching pictured objects
Drawing/Imitating vertical, horizontal, cross, circle, square, diagonal, triangle, and rectangle.
Rubbing: Tape small cardboard cut out figures or forms to table in front of child. Place paper on these and use crayon or colored pencil using even, slanted strokes from lower left to upper right.
Aluminum Foil Painting: Put hand lotion, shaving cream or pudding on foil. Have child copy letters in the hand lotion
Finger Painting
Sand or salt trays – trace letters
Pegboards – different shapes. Vertical, horizontal, square, rectangle, diamond, cross, hexagon, octagon and parallel.
Clay, putty or play dough
Complete drawings and writing on an inclined surface or tape it to a wall for vertical surface drawing
Fine Motor
Travel size games
Marbles
Pick up sticks
Stringing beads
Placing coins and beads into containers with small openings
Snack such as Cheerios, raisins and other small snack foods
Puzzles
Craft projects
Lite Brite
Etch-A-Sketch
Coloring books
Perler bead (fuse bead) activities
Scissor activities
Hi-Ho Cherrio
Operation
Kerplunk
Multiple games with small parts to manipulate
Hand/Arm Strength
Rolling, pinching and building with clay and putty
Squirting items with a squirt bottle
Picking up items with tongs
Squeezing a stress ball (can be made using a balloon and play dough)
Making cookies and other baked goods that need to be kneaded by hand
Crab walking
Wheelbarrow walking
Animal walks (student can make them up)
Swimming
Shoe Tying:
Use two different colored shoelaces for practice
Select one method and make sure that everyone teaching your child uses this method. Once learned, alternate methods can be taught.
The two-bow method is effective because it is repetitious, as both strings do the same. However, when making the final tuck, there are 4 strings to keep in position.
The single bow and then wrap the string method may take a bit longer to learn because the two strings are handled differently, but once learned it is quicker.
To keep laces tied, use flat cotton laces rather than round ones.
New on the market are laces with bumps. They look like a long string of pussy-willow buds! Amazingly they don’t come untied!
https://www.amazon.com/Caterpy-Laces-Ultimate-Tie-Shoelaces/dp/B06VTMVJJ3
Credit to Vestal Central School District for adaptation/ideas for this welcome