This page started as ideas for summer OT practice, and then morphed into suggestions for at home leanring during COVID, but these activities are great to do all year round even when we are learning in person at school! I will be working to add more seasonal fine motor ideas throughout the year, so check back regularly!
Practice "school lunch" at home with your kiddos! Have a picnic lunch [or even one at the table] where your child eats a lunch that is packed just the way it would be if they were bringing that food to school. If you child buys their lunch most often, make sure they are familiar with how to open twist top bottles, individual snack bags [i.e. chips, etc.] so that they can be independent when they are eating lunch in the cafeteria!
Shoe tying can be challenging for a lot of our kiddos! The video to the left was made by a pediatric OT (Bethanie Allen) who wrote the book Pirates of the Caribootin. You don't need the book to follow along with this traditional way to tie your shoes!
Learning Without Tears [developer of the Handwriting Without Tears program used with some of my OT students!]
LWT wants to help ensure your students can keep the learning going, even when schools are closed. They have opened their award-winning educational resources to all by providing free access to our online programs supporting handwriting instruction, keyboarding, and early learning skills. They are also providing free resources to help parents and caregivers support learning while children are out of school. You can find access to all our free online products and resources at LWTears.com. This resource is appropriate for all students looking for additional practice with handwriting and keyboarding skills.
Here is a link to instructions for how to access resources!
Other Ways to Practice Handwriting
Try to work handwriting into daily routines
[**specifically during COVID-19 Pandemic**] write letters to send to persons in nursing homes/hospitals
make the grocery list each week
write the line up for a sports team in which they are interested
play games with an added written component (i.e. draw your own Scrabble board and play the game handwritten)
create a secret code or write down secret messages as part of a game
playing games like I Spy and writing the list of items found
For older students who have mastered letter formation, but are working on more complex components of handwriting, try this packet for at home practice!
Promote Self Editing
Multi-Sensory Approach to Letter Formation
Try making letters in a variety of different mediums: salt trays, sand, shaving cream, paint, building them with legos/blocks, etc.
Here is a packet of ideas and printables for multi-sensory practice for letter formation!
Check out this YouTube video "rap" to help kiddos remember the sizing of their letters when writing on structured paper! Click here for more ways to work on letter sizing, writing on the line, etc.
Tip #1 on the blog below from Woo Therapy is to get "down and dirty". So many skills we need for fine motor skills like proper pencil grasp are developed by doing [potentially] messy play activities OUTSIDE! There are tons of other tips in this blog post, so definitely check it out!
All students [grades 3+] should have their own account with their traditional school log in!
Great way to get in some repetitive practice with typing lessons, drills, tests AND GAMES!
The link above with LWT resources also includes free typing programs/resources available now!
Another free online resource for typing if you want to "mix things up" -- this has a one-handed typing option for our one-handed typers!
Students are encouraged to continue racing in order to earn additional cars and upgrades. Teachers & parents can even race against their students!
A space blaster game that allows users to practice typing skills while clearing waves of words. Upload your own text to blast or play through the campaign to beat your high score.
Secondary student parents: encourage your students to develop their typing skills during study hall or flex with these typing courses and games!
This website has a paid membership, but also TONs of free access items and blog posts with great ideas! Check it out! Some of my favorite "freebies" include the summer activity calendars, sensory recipes, mazes for visual motor skills, boxed word activities for handwriting, a bunch of online activities and so much more!
This simple recipe only requires 3 ingrdients and is an easy way to make your own kinetic sand to play with at home. Try building skills using kinetic sand by:
Scooping with a spoon
Pouring from one container to another [bilateral coordination]
Packing it into a bucket, cup or mold
Stamping and then tracing letters in the sand
Hiding items in the sand to find
Try identifying what the object is with you eyes closed!
Movement is key for all kiddos!
Yoga is a fun way to work on motor planning, deep breathing, self regulation and to get some heavy work in!
Here is a link to some yoga cards & some brain break cards!
Cosmic Kids Yoga has great YouTube video options!
Move to Learn short exercise videos.
Go Noodle also has some great ideas for movement breaks on YouTube [your child is probably familiar with some of these!]
ASI Wise has this great daily schedule of deep pressure movement activities to try during social distancing!
The American Occuaptioanl Therapy Association published this page on Learning Through Play with some great simple tips on how parents can support devleopment on skills through the main childhood "occupation" - PLAY! It has been a stressful school year; do no feel pressured to keep your child "working" doing the summer months. There are tons of ways that children learn through play! It's what they do best!
Check out the blog post to the left from an OT who explains many of the same ways that I have used these fun erasers from the Target Dollar Spot to work on fine motor skills and support growth in OT goal skills! Mini erasers are so motivating for kids!
This Autism Helper blog by Katie also discusses ways things found in the Dollar Spot at Target can be used to meet OT-related goals!
Do you have wikki stix at home? These are great [simple & fun!] tools that can be used in a variety of ways to build hand strength, fine motor skill and can be used paired with the free templates linked above [or anything you make!] to also build visual motor skills!
Try these pipe cleaner animal creations for a fun fine motor challenge!
For students working on fine motor control! Maybe try some drawing/writing on a vertical surface [i.e. taped on a wall, an easel, etc.]
Scissor skills can be addressed in so many ways! Don't be afraid to be creative!
What types of things can my child practice cutting with?
Straws [they fling all over the place!] ... maybe you can string them into a necklace/bracelet after cutting into small pieces!
Playdough for added hand strength
Cardboard! What can you turn your left over toilet paper rolls and Amazon boxes into?
For more traditional practice, here is a link to a scissor skills packet.
Puzzles work on so many skills and are fun for all ages! Students work on:
Visual perceptual skills
Problem solving & emotional regulation
Fine motor coordination
Visual motor skills
Sequencing
And more!
You don't have to sit at a table to do a puzzle! You can:
Hide the pieces for a scavenger hunt
Put pieces on one side of an obstacle course and the board to complete it on the other
Hide the pieces in a sensory bin
Lay on your stomach while working
Take turns to address social skills/sharing with puzzles
Make your own puzzles [see video above!]
DIY Puzzles.mp4Cheshire Fitness Zone Pediatric Therapy discusses the cognitive/physical benefits of puzzles for a variety of diagnoses
Thanks For Helping Me Grow is a blog written by an OT who, in this post, is discussing how to provide the "just right challenge" for students through puzzle play.
Don't have puzzles at home? View my video above on how to make your own, or check out these websites for puzzles online:
The OT Toolbox is a great blog resource with lots of activities related to OT skills that can be worked on at home as well! For an example of a great gross motor activity to pair with handwriting/fine motor letter formation activities from this resource, click the picture to the left!
You don't have to use fancy equipment or expensive materials to help kids develop fine motor skills, bilateral coordination, motor planning, and strengthening. Use recycled materials to help kids build these skills! You can use items from the recycle bin: an empty cereal box, egg carton, or even that delivery box sitting on your doorstep. Check out all of the recycled materials crafts and activities here.
Make your own Fine Motor Tool Kit for lots of possibilities at home! [you may already have a lot of these materials at home!]
Backyard Sensory Diet activities for our kiddos that need lots of movement and input throughout the day!
Brain Break ideas to incorporate throughout the day!
This link includes some free printable downloads for tips and tricks with handwriting!
There are SO many skills incorporated in cooking [for ALL ages!] consider including your kiddos in your daily cooking activities.
Check out this blog post from The Inspired Treehouse! One of the best places to build OT skills it OUTSIDE! Take a look at all the creative ways to use side walk chalk!
A lot of my kiddos [especially you secondary, friends!] work on using visual recipes to sequence the steps of making food items or experiments!
Check out these visual recipes to work towards independence in the kitchen at home!
Here is a link to a free visual recipe for Shamrock Mix!
Do you want to try more cooking at home with your student?
Accessible Chef has TONS of great visual recipes to help students gain independence in the kitchen!
That same website even has a place for your to make your own visual recipes if you have family favorites you want to teach your student! They are set up in the same way that the other visual recipes are on the site!
Practice washing dishes with this game!
Sunshine & Hurricane's [a parenting website] shared the above list! Click the link above to read the full blog post with more fun and easy ideas to get kids active at home!
CHORES are a great way to teach your child skills without them even realizing it [and have help getting things done around the house!]. Check out these age appropriate chores above.
This is an important life skill [especially during the current pandemic!]. See the below resources on how to best practice at home!
(2)7 Steps of Handwashing.MOV
