Activities for Home

Try the following at home to promote...
 
Hand Strength and Fine Motor Skills

  • Thinking Putty (Crazy Aaron Enterprises, Inc.) and Silly Putty (Crayola Properties, Inc.)- have child hide and look for small items like buttons and coins in the putty. Squishing, rolling, pulling and poking are great too.
  • Trigger spray bottles filled with water
  • Construction toys like Legos (Lego Juris A/S), and K’NEX (K’NEX Limited partnership group)
  • Tear and crumple paper for art projects
  • Crafts that involve tracing, coloring, cutting and glueing
  • Hole punch designs in paper and for various art projects
  • Tweezer games like Operation (Hasbro, Inc.) and Bed bugs (Hasbro, Inc.)
  • String beads
  • Oragami

Visual Motor Skills 

  • Thematic mazes with varied path widths and lengths
  • Connect the dots; incorporate letter and number sequences
  • Coloring books
  • Step-by-Step drawing books
  • Tracing designs and pictures using tracing paper
  • Cross-word puzzles
  • Scratch Art

Visual Perceptual Skills

  • Puzzles
  • Word Finds
  • Hidden Pictures
  • Tangrams
  • Concentration/Memory
  • Oragami
  • Craft projects that require spatial organization/integration of parts

 


Trunk Strength/Control

  • Catch and throw various sized balls in different positions (sitting, kneeling)
  • Crab soccer and obstacle courses- have child sit on the floor, then raise bottom up and crawl around while playing soccer or moving through challenging obstacles
  • Twister (Hasbro)
  • Climbing on playground structures
  • Swinging
  • Martial arts
  • Dancing
  • Swimming
  • Horseback
  • Yoga

Regulation of Activity Level and Attention

  • Provide a comfortable workspace without distractions (or as little as possible)
  • Try white noise, nature sounds, or soothing background music
  • Provide a preferred hand fidget item; at first these can distract or appear to distract, but can be helpful once the novelty runs out.
  • Air seat cushions provide a dynamic sitting posture which can help busy bodies stay seated and focused longer
  • Opportunities to move to alert and to get “sillies” out: brisk walk/run, jumping jacks, bike ride, playground, swinging, trampoline
  • Heavy work for calming/organizing: carrying/moving heavy but manageable items, climbing stairs/playground structures, hanging from and crossing cross-bars, tug-of-war  
  • Deep pressure for calming:have child wrap themselves in a sheet or give themselves a long hug, massage to back/arms/hands/legs, Sit in a large bean-bag chair, pillows, heavy blankets