Here is a fun, simple activity – painting, drawing and writing with baby oil. Materials: baby oil, small cup, cotton swabs, different types of paper and dotted shape cards from Alphabet, Number and Shape Cards – https://www.yourtherapysource.com/alphacards.htmlPurpose: To encourage prewriting skills, handwriting skills and drawing. Promotes visual motor skills.Activity: Just dip your cotton swab in […]
Looking for research to justify school based physical or occupational therapy services during the early school years? Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise published research on 174 Finnish children grades 1-3 that investigated the relationship between cardiovascular fitness, motor skills and reading/arithmetic skills. The following results were reported: children who performed poorly in agility, speed […]
Gait and Posture published some intriguing research on the effects of touch and trunk sway in a seated position. There were 13 healthy, adult subjects who participated in the study. Each participant performed a total of 12 trials of 60-seconds duration in a randomized order, combining the experimental conditions of no-touch, hand-touch (right index finger […]
Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology published research on ophthalmic abnormalities in children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD). A cross sectional data analysis was performed with a coordination test, handwriting test and activities of daily living test used to classify children as having developmental coordination disorder. Out of the 7154 children, 1.8% were classified as having […]
Sue Cecere, PT, MHS and Jodie Williams, OTR/L, MHA work in the public school systems in the state of Maryland. They have developed the Determination of Relevant Therapy Tool (DRTT) to guide therapists when making IEP-driven frequency and intensity decisions. They are seeking current public school OTs and PTs from across the country to participate […]
Do you sometimes feel lost when it comes to assistive technology? The UC Davis Mind Institute offers a collection of FREE webcasts that were previously recorded. Check out the website. There are various topics such as app recommendations for individuals with disabilities, SLP and OT collaboration and technology and autism. These videos can be found […]
Here is a Fall or Halloween activity to encourage eye hand coordination, bilateral coordination, motor planning and gross motor skills in children.1. Create the bat, spider and ghost. For the bat and spider we used half a recycled toilet paper roll, duct tape, google eyes and glued on some wings or 8 legs. The ghost […]
Here is a fun FREE app called Jump Jump Froggy. Download the app and open it up.There are 4 ways to play –Graph Hopper: Jump in place and it raises the graph. Great activity to combine math (graphing) with movement! Also, nice visual to show children progress over time with jumping skills.Jump Jump Froggy: Jump […]
The Journal of Attention Disorders published research on 29 (4 to 5 year old) children and their parents who participated in group sessions with 3-5 children per group. The training sessions consisted of introducing games that would help to enhance inhibitory control, working memory, attention, visual spatial skills, planning skills and motor skills. The parents […]
Here is a super simple but super effective name recognition activity. Begin with writing the child’s name on an index card. Write it a second time on another index card. Cut the first letter of the name off of the index card creating a two piece puzzle to create the name. If the child can […]