Clothespin Clipping on a Coffee Can!

Here's another clothespin activity that took no time at all to whip up!

Skills Addressed:

• bilateral coordination
• pinch strength
• manual dexterity
• cognition for color matching
• visual motor
• visual percpetual

 Look Closely:  The same three fingers that your child uses to pinch the clothespins are the same three that he or she will need to use to hold a pencil, button a shirt or unscrew the toothpaste lid!

Materials Needed:

• Coffee Can or similar container-keep the lid
• Colored Clothespins
• Pictures (approximately 1 inch in size) You can either color them to match the clothespins you have or print them out accordingly.
• Glue

Steps:

1. I colored the pictures (8) to match clothespins that I had.

2. Glue the pictures around the can.

3. Let dry. The kids were at work within 10 minutes!

The can provides nice storage for the clothespins when not in use!

Pinching Power!

What a great activity to work on finger strength, dexterity, color identification and matching! Thank you, Julia V. for sharing this great DIY fine motor activity!

Julia used the following materials:

•  A wooden ruler
•   Paint (your choice).  I like that Julia used colors beyond the traditional primary colors!
•   Traditional clothespins (super cheap!)
•   A black Sharpie

1. Julia painted the ruler into approximately one inch sections using a variety of colors.  It will probably take two coats.
2. She separated the colors by a black line.
3. She painted clothespins to match.  You could do 2 clothespins for each color, one for each side of the ruler.

It's that simple!  Watch for more clothespin activities and

share your favorite clothespin games!

Love Your Leftie!

Hey, Lefties!  Today is your Day!

Did you know that approximately 13% of our population is left-handed? For the most part, they have had to adapt to living in a right-handed world!  I remember growing up and watching the lefties struggle with the pencil sharpeners where you inserted the pencil on the left and turned the handle on the right side.  How awkward would that be for us righties to crank it with our left hands?  

Many kids have chosen their hand dominance by the age of three and most by the time they enter school.  A good indicator for hand dominance is observing which hand a young child feeds herself with, either finger feeding or with utensils.  Also take note of which hand she uses to manage toys such as a hammer with the pounding bench or a hand puppet.  Often, eye and leg dominance correlates to hand dominance.  Pay attention to which eye she holds a telescope or camera up to or which leg she uses to kick a ball or to balance on one leg.  If your child hasn’t picked a hand, yet, be sure to place feeding utensils and other toys at her midline so that you do not influence the use of one hand over the other.  Most importantly, never force your child to be right handed!

My nieces are lefties.  Emma, who is 12, reported that the worst thing about being a leftie is “writing in pen, because it smears!” Have you seen those lefties who hook their wrists?  I believe it’s a combination of improper paper position as well as trying to avoid smearing what they’ve written.  

(Guess who this is?!)

Show your lefties some love with the following considerations:

•   Sit to the right of your leftie friends; teach your leftie to sit at the left end of a table or row

•   Look for workbooks or notebooks that are bound at the top

•   Teach your leftie to position his or her paper correctly!  The top left corner of the paper should be higher.  

•   Help your child establish strategies to avoid erasing her work as she moves along the chalkboard or whiteboard.  Positioning her hand underneath her writing will help.

•   Teach her how to tie her shoe laces by sitting across from her so that you’re not teaching it “your way”.  

•   Position handles of cups, mugs, pitchers and saucepans toward the left hand.

•   Provide your child with left handed tools and equipment for school and leisure activities:

1.   Left-Handed Scissors are a must!
2.   Consider modifying the computer mouse to reverse the buttons
3.   Hopefully, they no longer have those right-handed desks!
4.   There are leftie guitars, knives and golf clubs!  Look around to find something to make life a little easier for your leftie!

Michelle Yoder, OTR/L

 This is a great activity that doesn't take much time!

Keeping with our Olympic spirit, this painting activity works on your child's in-hand manipulation skills, primarily his ability to control the arches of his palm.

First, get a large sheet of paper or five paper plates, one for each color.

Next get 5 plastic cups.

Then, place a quarter size dollop of paint on each plate or around the paper. You'll need: black, blue, red, yellow and green paint.

Find your canvas; a standard piece of paper works!

Using a plastic cup, roll the rim around the paint or some kids like to "stir" it in a circular motion.

"Stamp" the cup onto the paper following the Olympic Ring Design:  blue, black and red on the top row, yellow and green on the second row.  Be sure to overlap the yellow onto the blue and black and the green onto the black and red.

To add a bilateral and tactile component, have your child trace around the cup like a stencil to form the Olympic Rings.  Then, she can use her fingertip to dab on paint to color the rings.

The finished product that will make them proud!

If you're feeling like some abstract art, try this version of the Olympic Rings!



We're going for the gold!

We are all fired up about the Olympics!  The children have reported their favorite sporting events with such detail!  

We are competing in our own personal best Olympics at Touchstone!  To get us started, we've made our own Olympic Rings!

Try this at home, it's easy! 

To get them started:

1.  Cut out 5 square pieces of paper in blue, black, red, yellow and green.  The squares are 4 inch by 4 inch in size.

2.  Next, make a semi-circular shaped stencil as a pattern, 3 1/2 inches tall.

Now it's their turn:

1.  Have your children fold the squares in half.

2. Next, trace around the stencil on the outside and inside.

3.  Keeping the paper folded, cut out the semi-circle on both lines.

4.  Finally, glue the rings on the paper as shown above.

 Thanks, Ms. Courtney!



Just Add Water!

Not only is swimming a great way to beat the summer heat, but it has many other benefits!  First and foremost, it gets the kids away from video games and the television and gets them moving, which is heart healthy! It is a great life skill, as it keeps them safer when they are near water if they know how to swim.  Swimming is a great social activity, too!  After all, who doesn’t enjoy a good game of Marco Polo?

Therapeutically, I recommend swimming to strengthen a child’s core, improve endurance and increase bilateral coordination.  In addition, swimming provides tactile input. I often hear parents tell me that their child with sensory issues loves to sit on the bottom of the pool!

Now, just what is bilateral coordination, and why is it important?  Bilateral coordination is important for children as many daily activities require the use of the two sides of our body.  Sometimes, a task requires both sides of the body to do the same thing, like in jump roping, rolling playdoh into a snake with a rolling pin or playing with a zoom ball.  Other times, our body must alternate the movements on each side, like when crossing the monkey bars, bike riding or swimming.  At times, a task requires the two sides of our body to work together to perform different skills and movements on the opposite sides of the body.  Examples of this level of bilateral coordination would be:  cutting, placing toothpaste on a toothbrush, buttoning a shirt, tracing around a stencil and writing.

Whether your child is doing the doggy paddle or mastering the butterly, you can be assured that the two sides of his brain are "talking", and thus, the two sides of the body are learning to work together.  As well, he is experiencing all of the other benefits that swimming has to offer. So, while your child is excited to cool off and go diving for those dive sticks, sit back with an ice cold lemonade and a smile knowing he is reaping the therapeutic benefits, too!

                 

Michelle Yoder, OTR/L

Man's Best Friend Receives OT!

If people believe it works for their dogs, then surely they would think it works for children!

I was in a pet store a few weeks ago and saw this anxiety vest for dogs.  I had never seen such a thing.  Well, I had for children, but not for dogs! Of course it makes sense to me, but what perplexed me is that people continue to shoo-shoo the use of pressure vests for children with Autism, ADHD and sensory issues, but yet it must be o.k. for our pets?!

Then, I was at the fireworks the other night and heard a friend of mine ask her husband if he had put the vest on their dog, Jada.  My ears perked up and I asked what kind of vest and she responded, “A thunder vest for anxiety”.  I asked her how it worked and she said, “It works well for thunder, so we’re trying it tonight for the fireworks!” And there you have it!

So, how does it work?  Deep pressure touch reduces sensory hypersensitivities and helps to calm and organize the nervous system.  For my friend’s dog, Jada, the loud noises bother her.  Think about our children with sensory hypersensitivities who respond well to big bear hugs, or who like to be buried under the sofa cushions. They are seeking out this deep pressure input.  These children may respond well to a deep pressure vest!

There are weighted compression vests out there and you can find one like the one above at Fun and Function. A weighted vest should be 5-10% of the child’s body weight and the weight should be well distributed throughout the vest.  Wearing time may be anywhere from 20 minutes to 2 hours at a time, with 2 hour breaks in between wearing times. I only recommend that the child wears the vest during times when he or she is expected to sit still, pay attention or learn. I never allow the child to wear the vest outside to play or at recess.  The wearing schedule for pressure vests is not so stringent, but the child may accommodate to the sensation, so I still advise to only wear the vest for up to 2 hours at a time.

Massage, stacking large bean bags on top of your child and rolling a large ball on top of your child to make a pizza are just a few other ways to provide your child with deep pressure input.  Ask your OT for other ways to provide your child with deep pressure input! We all know, calm kids=calm parents!

Michelle Yoder, OTR/L