5 Multi-Purpose, Lightweight Items for Your Therapy Bag

A day on the life of a traveling school based therapist goes something like this.  Pack up a bag at home of equipment and tools  (i.e. toys, games, paper and activities) that you will need for your therapy sessions.  Some of the equipment may not be easy to carry since many therapy sessions incorporate gross motor, fine motor and sensory activities.  Load it into your car.

Stop at school number 1 and get everything out of your car, equipment and paperwork requirements.  Carry all of your stuff to the school door.  Get buzzed in or use your card to unlock the door.

You rush into your therapy room, classroom or hallway carrying all your equipment.  The therapy session begins and you grab a few things out of your bag if needed.  Document the session and on to the next student(s).

Pack everything up, lug it back out to your car and you head to the next school only to go through the entire routine again of carrying stuff into the school.

Or maybe you are one of the lucky school based therapists who have one school and perhaps even an office or therapy room.  Regardless, having some lightweight items that you can carry that are versatile is a must.  Here are 5 items that are lightweight, easy to transport and can be used for a variety of activities:

1. Painter’s Tape – You can do so many things with a roll of painter’s tape.  Set up obstacle courses.  Use on the wall to throw a ball at a target.  Here is a previous post on 5 gross motor activities to do with painter’s tape.
2. Plastic Cups – Use as targets, stack them, kick them, throw a ball at them, jump over them, turn them over, transfer objects into them, etc.
3. Balloons – Use for various gross motor games, eye hand coordination activities, balance activities and more.  If your school does not allow balloons, then toss a beach ball in your bag.
4. Ebooks on the iPad – Save Your Therapy Source books directly to your iPad.  Use for reference for activity ideas that require no equipment.  Use an app that you mark up pdf’s on your iPad.  You can find free or paid apps that allow you to mark and draw on the iPad with pdf documents. Therefore, if you have ordered some of our visual motor electronic books you can now store them on your iPad and have the children practice visual motor skills using the iPad instead of paper.
5. Exercise cards or Yoga Poses – Laminate the small cards and you have a great selection of gross motor and strengthening activities that take up very little space in your therapy bag.  Check out Yoga Poses, Core Strengthening Exercise Program, Physical Activity Cards and Games, Classroom Activity Posters or 25 Bilateral Coordination Activities.

What is your favorite multi-purpose, lightweight item to toss in your therapy bag?