Occupational therapy

Welcome to the OT page!

Here you can find activity suggestions and tips to work on fine motor and sensory processing skills.

fine motor

(Un)buttoning

Practice on a shirt or pants placed on tabletop then practice while wearing the clothing item. Look at the way you fasten your own buttons and make sure your child is positioning his/her hands the same way.

- A good precursor to buttoning is putting coins into a coin bank.
- To add an extra challenge you may “hide” coins inside therapy putty or Playdoh and have your child find them first.

(Un)zipping

Practice on a jacket or pants on tabletop then practice while wearing the clothing item.

- To make the zipper components more visible you can place a sticker or paint the pin and slot of the zipper mechanism.
- You may also push and pull a pipe cleaner through the zipper slot to demonstrate the concept. Look at the way you fasten your own zipper and make sure your child is positioning his/her hands the same way.

Pre-Handwriting

Use simple coloring pages and dot-to-dots as a fun way to practice grasp, staying in the lines, and using the correct amount of pressure on the writing implement.

** Tips for hand position: Use a slanted surface such as a 3-ring-binder placed sideways then placing the paper on top of that will encourage wrist position and force the arm down onto the writing surface (versus lifting the arm while writing). Using crayons broken in half will promote the use of an appropriate grasp with the fingers (versus a whole-hand/palmar grasp).

Another idea to promote keeping the arm down is to have your child lie in a prone position on the floor/couch/bed and do the coloring activity in that position. This also helps with postural muscles.

Make letters out of clay or Playdoh

Handwriting

- Trace basic shapes (vertical line, horizontal line, plus sign, circle, square, diagonal lines, triangle)
- Trace letters/name over highlighted letters, whiteboard
- Use a stencil or wikki stix to create raised-borders for tracing
- Trace letters/name with finger in sand, shaving cream, paint
- Trace letters/name on tablet application (“Write My Name” is a great app) and your child can use his/her finger and/or a stylus.
- Play “Hangman” and make sure your child is forming the letters correctly when he/she writes them on the writing surface (whiteboard, paper). You can draw boxes on the writing surface as a visual prompt to make sure your child keeps the letters within the designated space.
- Have your child write his/her personal information (from a visual model if needed).
- Crossword puzzles, Scattergories, online writing games (you can sign up for a free account at www.education.com)

gross motor

Copy Catch Game with Ms. Jesse

Computer skills

If you need to make the task easier you can mask out extraneous info by by blocking out letters on the keyboard or on the visual model. You can also place little stickers on the keyboard with the letters you are emphasizing (e.g. if you are typing the name “JOHN” put stickers with “J” “O” “H” “N” on each of those keys on the keyboard so they visually stand out-- file folder labels work well for this).

WEBSITES

Dance Mat Typing

Free Typing Game

Typing.Com

Visual Perceptual Skills

Eye Can Learn

self-regulation skills

Calming Activities

Heavy Work (e.g. weighted ball, weighted blanket, bean bags, weighted vest)

Deep Pressure (e.g. massage, bear hugs, joint compressions, blanket “burrito", body sock/lycra band, vibrating toys)

Resistive Activities (e.g. wall push-ups, chair push-ups, resistive bands, pop tubes, therapy putty)

Auditory (e.g. slow, rhythmic music or low drum beats)

Oral (e.g. chew tubes, chewy/crunchy foods, resistive liquids through a straw)

**You can make your own weighted items by filling long tube socks with dry rice and tying at the top.

Alerting Activities

Movement breaks (e.g. Simon Says, Follow the Leader, Musical Chairs, catch, dance, Wii, Xbox 360 Kinect)

calming videos

Below are a couple of Meditation Music on YouTube that can be used during the day as background music or a sensory break. Some students like the visual input during a sensory break. This also may help with sleep for those who are having difficulty falling asleep at night. When trying to sleep, it's recommended to have the auditory at a low sound level. Each video is about 1-2 hours long.

Anti Anxiety Cleanse

Emotional Detox

Marimba Meditation Music

Whole Body Regeneration | Full Body Healing

Arts and crafts

You can use items from around the house such as toilet paper rolls and paper plates. If you don't have specific items be creative - you can use tissue paper in place of pom poms and have your kids color in or paint printer paper in place of construction paper.

HOW TO MODIFY TASKS

We want our kids to have the "just-right" challenge. This means that we should modify the activity in order for our kids to be challenged so they are learning something but not so difficult that they are becoming frustrated. You can modify activities by breaking down the process into very simple steps, modeling the activity step by step or assisting as needed.