Occupational Therapy Activities - Fine Motor Skills

I love, love, love this activity. It addresses cutting skills, bilateral coordination, and fine motor since the kids have to push the Q-Tips into the balls. I can't wait to do some for a bridal or baby shower, or just to have at home! What you need:

Lots of Q-Tips, cut in half (any brand will do)
Styrofoam Balls
Scissors (strong enough to cut Q-tips)
Food coloring + water
Thick, wired stems from silk flowers (unless you plan to hang these)

You may be able to buy all of the above at the Dollar Store, but you probably have these items already in your kitchen! You can have the kids cut the q-tips in half, then have them push them into the ball to make the "poms." This has been posted on many a craft site or blog and most people mix the food coloring and water, then dip the q-tips into the food coloring after they've been pushed into the ball. One person thought it would be easier to dip the q-tips first, then cut them and push them into the ball. That makes sense when you have time to let them dry, but I think in a school setting you may have to push first, dip second ;) But feel free to try it either way and let me know how it turns out!

What kid doesn't like popping bubble wrap?? I love it myself ;) For this activity the bubble wrap with the larger bubbles works better. I cut sections about the same size as a regular sheet of paper for a group activity. I wrote letters, numbers, and shapes randomly on the bubbles with a Sharpie so the ink doesn't smear. After giving each student one, I called out what item to look for then had them pop the bubble using a pincer grasp. This was good for scanning, perception, strengthening and grasp. Some of the kids had trouble popping the bubbles with a pincer grasp, so I would have them just press down on the bubble with index, middle, and if needed the ring finger together.

I found another cool idea on a craft blog where kids can play Bubble Wrap Bingo. It was presented as a neat travel game for road trips, but it can be used whenever. Here's a link: http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/how-to-make-a-recycled-bubble-121176.

Anything that makes noise is usually a winner with kids. Making paper plate maracas is very easy - you just need paper plates, dried beans, a stapler, markers or crayons, and anything else you would like to decorate it with. You can have the children cut strips of paper to glue on like streamers. Or you could glue on googly eyes or little gems or other crafty things that you can get at our fav the Dollar Store :)

Have your child decorate the bottom of two paper plates with crayons, markers, jewels, glitter or stamps. Staple the edges of the two paper plates, insides facing together. If you would like to add ribbon streamers, staple those in at same time by laying the ends between the plates before stapling. Leave a small opening for the beans. Add about a handful of dried beans or rice and then staple the opening closed. Voila! Paper Plate Maracas!!

This is a neat activity we found online used fine motor skills, visual perception, and improved hand strength. You use an old Pringles can and poke holes through the lid. We colored hole protectors the same colors as our sticks (or you can buy colored hole protectors) and put them around the holes. The kids push the sticks through the same colored holes. This was great for the pre-school and kindergarten kids on our caseload with low tone (hypotonia) or who had poor core strength. It wasn't too easy for them to push the sticks through, and they worked on matching colors. You can use other items besides sticks like pencils, straws, even pipe cleaners. We covered our can with bright yellow contact paper - you could design yours in a ton a fun ways as well.

This is another good activity for kids who need hand strengthening. One little princess (she always has on the cutest, amazingly coordinated outfits on. You can tell her mom has a ball buying her clothes!) who has Down's Syndrome did a great job with this activity and the Pringle's can sort. You need a variety of sizes of the little puff balls aka pom-poms you can buy at the Dollar Store, and any plastic container with a lid. Cut different size holes into the lid. The child needs to figure out which hole it would be best to push the puff through. Make all of the holes slightly smaller than the puffs so the kids really have to push to get them through. Simple but fun!

Okay we know eating paint chips is dangerous, but this is another kind of paint chips - the paint cards you find at home improvement stores. A sweet lil man in Kindergarten who has low tone and issues with visual perception enjoyed this activity. You just need colored paper clips and matching colored paint "chips." He sorted through a pile of clips to find five or six paper clips of one color and slide them onto the corresponding paint card. This is a good tabletop activity while sitting on a stability ball chair. And during one session when we co-treated with PT, we had the student hop on one foot and bend down to pick up a trail of paper clips, then match them to the cards at the end of the trail.

Simple and fun while developing fine motor skills. We used a plastic yarn needle (they have them for kids) and yarn and put dots all over a Styrofoam plate in a "design" then had the student thread the needle through. Our "design" came out basically like a web, but if you're talented you could map out things like a star or other shapes where they have to go back and forth and around the plate. Or you can not use dots at all and see what the kid comes up with :) I've also seen people just have the child do a whip-stitch around the edge of the plate. You could see if the student can thread the needle himself as well.