Hello students and families,
I hope you are all doing well and staying healthy. I miss you all. I am going to be adding some activities on here for everyone. I will be sending your teacher some specific ideas that you are to try to complete weekly. I can be available via email or zoom during the week. So just let me know how I can be of assistance during this difficult time. Please reach out with any questions.
here are some fun videos if you want to get moving from
Dan The OT and Cosmic Kids
Please supervise children when they are on YouTube.
Fine motor activities to improve writing and manipulation skills.
- Cut pictures out of newspapers or magazines. You can take a large black marker and draw a line around-the picture to give a guideline.
- Put together small beads, Lego's, Tinker Toys, Lincoln Logs, and the like.
- Knead Play dough or clay. Build objects/shapes with them.
- Hide small objects in the play-dough and find them.
- Play pegboard games.
- Gather small objects from around the house (small buttons, beads), place them in a container, and pick them up off the floor with a pair of tweezers and place them back in the container.
- Play with any toys that contain manipulation of small pieces.
- Squirt water bottle outdoors on the sidewalk. Colored water looks great on the snow.
- Use a meat baster and have a cotton ball race across the table with your child.
- Finger paint with Jell-O or Cocoa on a paper plate.
- Use small marshmallows and toothpicks to form letters.
- String popcorn, buttons, or beads to make necklaces.
- Using a hole-punch, let your child create a design on a piece of paper.
- Have your children clip clothespins to a container.
- Play tug-of-war with a (coffee stirrer) swizzle stick, holding it with the thumb and index finger only.
Working at vertical surfaces (at/above eye level), such as...
- with tabletop easels, erasing, coloring on chalkboard
- painting/drawing on adjustable floor easel
- washing windows
- wipe down shower or tub
- paint with water on side of house
Resistive tools or toys, such as...
- clothespins
- spray bottles
- use curvy cut scissors to cut putty/play-dough, thick paper or cardboard
- Play Doh Factory presses and molds
- Use rolling pins to flatten cookie dough/play-doh
- color/draw with crayon on textured surface or rubbing plates
- bingo/dot markers
- paper punches
- spray nozzle on garden hose
Heavy Work Activities: (i.e., proprioceptive input) are used for children with sensory processing difficulties to help increase attention, decrease defensiveness,and modulate arousal.
Proprioceptive input is the performance of tasks that involves heavy resistance and input to the muscles and joints, and is essential in helping our bodies assimilate and process both movement (vestibular) and touch (tactile) information.
Heavy work activities include:
- Whole body actions involving pushing, pulling, lifting, playing, and moving
- Oral actions such as chewing, sucking, and blowing
- Use of hands for squeezing, pinching, or fidgeting.
This resistive input obtained through heavy work activities is generally organizing and can improve attention, arousal level, body awareness and muscle tone, as well as decreasing defensiveness.
Proprioception is a form of sensory input to the muscles and joints which makes us aware of our "position in space" (i.e., where we are in relation to other objects or people). Children who have difficulty interpreting proprioceptive input have trouble grading and planning their movements and regulating their level of arousal. You may see a child who accidentally breaks things often, appears clumsy and uncoordinated and may have an excessive need to crash and bump into objects, walls and people. If they are seeking out excessive proprioceptive input, they are looking for a way to calm and organize their nervous system. They may seem disruptive, full of excessive energy, or even unsafe. These are the crashers, jumpers, movers, and shakers!
Keep in mind, the type of heavy work activities, timing and duration is most effective when directed by a professional (such as an Occupational Therapist) knowledgeable about this type of proprioceptive input. These are intended to be ideas to incorporate during the day. It is also important to note which activities calm your child, arouse them, or over arouse them. This is very unique to each individual and must be observed and treated as such!
You want to choose activities THEY are interested in and that IMPROVE their state of arousal to its most functional point.
Gross Motor Activities, Carrying objects, such as...
- groceries
- animal backpacks
- kids fanny pack
- stacking or moving chairs/books
- baby's diaper bag
- ANYTHING with weight to it
Pushing or pulling objects and activities, such as...
- toy shopping cart, laundry basket
- kids wagon, tug of war rope
- putty press/play dough (flatten putty on wall or desk/table)
- toy vacuum, mop/sweep floor with a mop, broom and dust pan for kids, shoveling snow with a kids snow shovel
- raking leaves, dirt etc. using a kids wheelbarrow, shovel and broom pushing/pulling self or others on a jumbo scooter board
Jumping and bouncing on/with items, such as...
- on a trampoline
- on an old mattress or soft area
- into bean bag chairs, on a therapy ball (with adult assistance of course), on a hopping ball
Climbing/hanging on things, such as...
- on jungle gyms/Geo-Dome, monkey bars
- jungle climber with swings, hanging rings and trapeze
- "Twizzler"
- rock walls, outside on rocks or trees
- up ladder and/or slide
- climbing rope
- climbing/cargo nets
"Sandwich"/ Squishing activities...
- make a child "sandwich" between floor pillows or cushions, roll child up in mat or heavy blanket as a "hot dog"
- give child heavy blankets, weighted blankets, or sleeping bags (for children)
- at bedtime
- bear hugs
- firm towel dry after baths, wrap up tightly
- roll an giant gym/exercise ball on top of them while they lay on the floor
- dont forget Twister!
Crabwalk (hands and feet on floor, belly up) games, such as...
- relays
- soccer
- volleyball (in crabwalk position kicking balloon with feet in air)
Blowing activities, such as...
• wind instruments
• bubbles
• balloons, blow air through a straw
• kazoos, whizzers, and other noise makers
