Ten Therapy Tips For Parents in the Fast Lane
April 18, 2011 in Ask the Occupational Therapist, Featured, Insider Insight by Dr. Tiffany Showalter
Do you ever feel like you live in your car? Are you dashing to soccer practice, ballet classes, and the baseball field while trying to fit in your home program for your child’s fine motor skills? Well, keeping a few simple items in your car or in your home, you can work with your child on hand strengthening, using both hands together, hand-eye coordination, grasp, and in-hand manipulation. These skills are important building blocks for handwriting, cutting, and other school related fine motor tasks. Try using a large Rubbermaid container with a lid to hold the items to make them easily transportable.
Materials:
- Large piece of felt
- Felt letters or shapes
- Plastic containers with lid, Kool Whip or margarine
- Plastic jar with screw top lid
- Jumbo pop beads
- Bubble wrap
- Large uncooked macaroni noodles
- Shoelace
- 10 pennies
- 10 clothespins
- Old magazine
Activities:
- Place felt on vertical; for example, back of car seat or attached to wall. Let child make pictures, designs, or words using the felt letters and shapes. Good designs to try include making houses, people, the child’s name, or spell the signs that you pass along the way.
- Remove the lids of the plastic containers. Have your child pour macaroni noodles between the two containers, trying not to spill.
- Child removes and then replaces clothespins around the edge of the plastic container by pinching/squeezing the pins with their index finger and thumb.
- Pull apart and then assemble pop beads.
- Pinch bubble wrap between index finger and thumb to make popping sound.
- String the macaroni on a shoelace.
- Place lid on plastic container. Child picks up pennies on at a time and slides them into slit cut into lid one at a time. Next, have child use only one hand to pick up approximately three pennies, one at a time, while continuing to hold each of them in that one hand. Next, have child place them into the bank one at a time without dropping.
- Tear pages out of an old magazine. To make it more difficult, tear out pictures of blue things or things that start with the letter “A”.
- Place pennies and macaroni in jar. Remove screw top lid. Have child fish out the pennies or macaroni and place it into the other plastic container, leaving one in the container. If this is too difficult, only place macaroni in the jar and do not sort the items.
- Tear strips out of the magazine, scrunch up using one hand, and then toss at the open plastic container to make a basket.
Disclaimer: I hope you enjoyed reading this article. Please remember you are reading this information of your own free will and are taking the information at your own risk. The author is the legal copyright holder of this material it may not be used, reprinted, or published without my written consent. This information is for entertainment and informational purposes only and is not intended to provide or circumvent medical, legal or other professional advice.
Some children may demonstrate difficulties or delays with fine motor development due to developmental delays or medical diagnoses such as Cerebral Palsy, Autism, or Down Syndrome. Other children may develop fine motor difficulties from a lack of opportunity and practice. Children are spending much less time playing with fine motor manipulatives and constructing crafts, instead choosing to play video games and watch television. This can result in poor development of the muscles in the arm and hand which further leads to handwriting and cutting difficulties when in school.
