March 2016

AM PM Time Telling with Shopkins

March 2, 2022March 15, 2016 by Colleen Beck OTR/L

Here we used a small manipulative to teach the difference between am and pm. Am and pm activities are great for helping kids to understand time and management of time. Much like this rock clock activity, the use of small manipulatives helps to build skills such as eye-hand coordination through play. It’s another activity to teach time to kids that uses fun and imaginative play!

Am PM Activity for Kids

I stepped on one again.

A little plastic toy that seems innocent enough, but it’s actually much like stepping on a hot knife. Aka a LEGO.

Only after you’re limping from the wounds of stepping on it, this cute little plastic toy just smiles back at you.

Shopkins.

If your house is like mine, you’ve got a zillion Shopkins in tins, in plastic sorting containers, and escaping onto the floor only to stab innocent passing feet in the night. They are little pieces of pink plastic figures that are…a little strange…and your kids know ever single name and every single one they own.

So, how do you battle the never-ending Shopkins fad? If you can’t beat ’em (Because they sure are beating up my feet!), then you join ’em!

We used our Shopkins in a learning activity to practice time telling skills, including differentiating between AM and PM.

Teach am and pm with shopkins or any small toy using this hands on approach to teaching time.

am pm activities, am pm for kids, am pm sorting acivity, am pm visual

AM PT Sorting Activity

In this activity, we used small toys to sort between am and pm activities. The AM/PM visual was a great way to get buy-in for our kids. They LOVE Shopkins. But you could use any small figures in this same activity.

This post contains affiliate links.

For this activity, we used our (Amazon affiliate link) Shopkins on a hand drawn clock. I pulled out a few colors of play dough to use as movable clock hands.

As we moved the hands around the clock to different positions, I had my daughter tell me the ways to read the clock. We used both hours (10:15) and words (a quarter after ten) to describe the time.

We then added the Shopkins to the activity. I had my daughter grab one of the Shopkins. I moved the hands around the clock to a new time and then asked my daughter to tell me if the Shopkin would be used in the am or the pm.

Depending on the position of the clock hands, a Shopkin could be used in an AM or PM activity: A toast Shopkin would be used at 8:15 AM and not 8:15 PM. The Slippers Shopkin would be used at 11:45 PM and not 11:45 PM. The cake Shopkin would be used at 2:30 PM and not 2:30 AM.

Use small toys to sort am and pm activities.

My daughter had fun coming up with different scenarios with all of the Shopkins.

We got a lot of time telling practice and the cute little plastic toys stayed safely on the table and off of the floor where they could cause me any more foot injuries!

Learning with Small Toys

Mini-figures like Shopkins or small animal toys are great manipulatives for learning concepts.

With small toys like mini-figures, children get the buy-in and motivation to play with preferred toys and characters.

However, there is the fine motor benefit happening too. Children can play with small toys and incorporate fine motor development such as:

Eye-hand coordination
Precision
Graded grasp
Pincer grasp
Separation of the sides of the hand
Eye-hand coordination
Wrist development

By placing the small toys onto a specific spot they develop motor and precision skills that can be carried over to functional tasks…not to mention the play factor!

A final note on AM PM activities

When kids are confident with time concepts such as AM and PM and the passage of time, they are more confident in time management and other executive functioning skills. Read more about using a timer in handwriting and timed tasks to encourage time management during a functional task.

Teaching kids how to tell time and AM PM differentiation with Shopkins and a hands on learning activity for math.

Do you have Shopkins all over your house, too? Let me know if you use Shopkins in a time telling activity like this one! I would love to hear about it.

Colleen Beck, OTR/L has been an occupational therapist since 2000, working in school-based, hand therapy, outpatient peds, EI, and SNF. Colleen created The OT Toolbox to inspire therapists, teachers, and parents with easy and fun tools to help children thrive. Read her story about going from an OT making $3/hour (after paying for kids’ childcare) to a full-time OT resource creator for millions of readers. Want to collaborate? Send an email to contact@theottoolbox.com.

Intrinsic Muscle Strengthening Play Dough Mat

March 12, 2024March 14, 2016 by Colleen Beck OTR/L

I wanted to share a resource we’ve had on the website for many years. It’s a simple intrinsic hand strengthening play dough mat. We use this printable play dough mat to build strong pinch and grip strength by targeting the intrinsic muscles of the hands. Intrinsic muscle strength is needed for endurance and dexterity in the hands, so it’s a major factor in fine motor skills.

Check out our other free play dough mats that we have on the website for more tools for hand strength.

Another resource for this skill area is our blog post on alphabet play dough balls.

Another activity to strength the muscles in the hand is an intrinsic muscle tong activity.

The intrinsic muscles are the ones within the hands. Rolling balls of play dough works on the intrinsic muscles and builds the development of a tripod grasp, improves arch development of the palm, and encourages use of the skilled side of the hand.

I share a lot of play dough activities. We also have a lot of play dough recipes here on the site. When we get kids involved in making play dough, they are building hand strength and endurance in pinch and grasp, so it’s a win-win. Because, after one makes a batch of playdough, then they must play! And, when we play with play dough, we are building stronger hands. OT professionals love this therapy material! And then there are all of the fine motor activities that go along with the play dough. A blogging friend suggested I do something with 365 days of play dough. I’ve got enough ideas that I could share one a day with you and still not be done!

Intrinsic Hand Strength with Play Dough

Play-Doh isn’t just for fun; it’s a fantastic tool to help your child’s hand strength and fine motor skills. And, that’s why we as occupational therapy providers love it!

By rolling small balls of Play-Doh, kids work on their intrinsic grasp and muscle strength, and they don’t ever realize it. This activity boosts their pinch strength and dexterity. It’s simple yet effective. Just have them use their fingertips on a Play-Doh mat. It’s a playful way to enhance their hand’s intrinsic muscle strength, vital for everyday tasks and their overall development.

Play-Doh is a fantastic tool for your child’s hand strength development. While they roll small balls of Play-Doh, they’re working on intrinsic strengthening of the hand.

We’ve created a simple play dough mat to support this skill. By rolling play dough balls into different sizes with just their finger tips, kids build that strength and dexterity.

These hand intrinsic exercises are crucial for building intrinsic muscle strength in their hands. As they engage in these intrinsic hand muscle exercises, you’ll notice improvements in their grasp, pinch strength, and overall dexterity. It’s a fun, engaging way to support their fine motor skill development.

Play dough is awesome.

It’s awesome for building intrinsic muscle strength. It’s awesome for working gross motor muscle strength. It’s awesome for proprioception to the hands. It’s awesome for working on handwriting, scissor skills, and pencil grasp. It’s a great treatment tool in Occupational Therapy clinics and it’s a great manipulative in learning activities.

Do you (and your kids) love play dough as much as we do?

I’ve got a creative way to build the intrinsic muscles of the hands using play dough and a play dough mat. This play mat is designed to work on the muscles needed for a functional pencil grasp and endurance in maintaining that grasp. It’s designed to work on the dexterity needed for coloring without fatigue. And it’s designed to be fun for little ones who need to work on these areas.

Be sure to check out this article on how to use emotions playdough mats to support fine motor strength and emotional self regulation.

Hand strengthening intrinsic muscle strengthening with play dough and a free re-usable play dough mat.

This post contains affiliate links.

Here are more resources for strengthening the intrinsic muscles of the hands:

Space Play Dough Mat

Astronaut Play Dough Mat

Play Dough City

Ice Cream Play Dough Mat

Toy Theme Play Dough Mat

Play Dough Bird Mat

Roll and Write Play Dough Mat Bundle

Numbers 1-20 Sky/Ground Play Mats

A-Z Sky/Ground Play Mats

A few play dough ideas I know you will love:

All the Red Crayons in the Box Play Dough

Crayon Floam Dough

Gold, Silver, and Bronze Metallic Crayon Play Dough

Play Dough Farm

Play Dough Color Match

Play Dough Cupcakes

Play Dough Color Match

Play Dough and Rocks Proprioception activity

Crayon Salt Dough

Patriotic Crayon Salt Dough

Crayon Shaving Art

How to Use a Play Dough Mat for Intrinsic Hand Strength

To use this play dough mat, you’ll first laminate the paper or slip it into a sheet protector sleeve. Then, show your child how to fill the circles with play dough by rolling small balls of play dough with the thumb, pointer finger, and middle finger.

There are different sizes of circles on the mat, requiring the child to roll small or large play dough balls. This encourages more reined intrinsic muscle use.

You can use the mat in several ways:

Allow the child to fill the circles with play dough with random colors.
Assign different sized circles to different colors of play dough. This provides a visual scanning component to the activity.
Write numbers or letters in the circles, providing a visual scanning and letter order cognitive component.

The main point is to use those fingertips to roll the play dough into small balls. By encouraging an open thumb webspace and fingers extended at the PIP and DIP joints, with a flexed MCP joints, the intrinsic muscles are are in action.

If you want to see this positioning, place your hand into a “duck bill” shape where the thumb and the tips of the fingertips are touching like a duck opening and closing it’s bill. This is the intrinsic muscles at work.

Free Play Dough Mat for Building Hand Strength

This play mat is available for FREE only for our Play Dough is Awesome newsletter group. (This is a different email list than our regular subscribers. If you’re on our subscriber list, you’ll still need to sign up for this one to receive the play dough freebies coming your way!)

Have fun!

Working on fine motor skills, visual perception, visual motor skills, sensory tolerance, handwriting, or scissor skills? Our Fine Motor Kits cover all of these areas and more.

Check out the seasonal Fine Motor Kits that kids love:

Letters Fine Motor Kit — Summer Fine Motor Kit

Kit de motricidad fina de verano — Summer Fine Motor Kit

Or, grab one of our themed Fine Motor Kits to target skills with fun themes:

Want access to all of these kits…and more being added each month? Join The OT Toolbox Member’s Club!

Paprika Natural Play Dough Recipe

July 11, 2019March 12, 2016 by Colleen Beck OTR/L

This month’s sensory dough is all about the natural ingredients. We made this paprika spice play dough one rainy afternoon and can’t get enough of the rich scent while playing. We used a basic stove-top recipe that uses all natural ingredients (except for the processed white flour) and was a fun experiment in natural sensory play dough!

Paprika Natural Play Dough Recipe

This post contains affiliate links.

This recipe is easy to make, using a basic (and classic) stove top recipe.

1 cup flour
1/2 cup salt
1 cup water
2 Tbsp oil
2 tsp Cream of Tartar
2-3 Tbsp Paprika

On the stove top, heat all of the ingredients, mixing constantly When the dough pulls together, turn it out on a floured surface. Knead the dough until smooth.

Now play!

We used this dough in a few different play activities. My Toddler loved this dough and I’m happy knowing that if she tastes a bit, it doesn’t have all of the extra ingredients that store bought dough has.

Have you made Natural Play Dough? What kind?

Stop by and see the other Natural Play Dough recipes from the Sensory Dough blogging team:

Natural Play Dough with Natural Dye | Lemon Lime Adventures

No Cook Lemon Scented Natural Play Dough | Natural Beach Living

Natural Chamomile Playdough Recipe | Frogs and Snails and Puppy Dog Tail

Paprika Natural Play Dough Recipe | Sugar Aunts

Share this on Facebook!

Looking for more sensory play dough recipes? Try these:

These are fun: Fizzy Soda Dough, Almond scented salt dough, orange zest salt dough, and gingerbread salt dough.

Craft Stick Tweezers to Help with Pencil Grasp

July 11, 2019March 11, 2016 by Colleen Beck OTR/L

I have a fun DIY for you! These craft stick tweezers are easy to create and a workout for finger muscles. We made them in a rainbow of colors and you can use them for color sorting while working on the fine motor skills needed for handwriting and small motor tasks like managing clothing fasteners.

Build fine motor skills including pencil grasp using these homemade DIY tweezers made from craft sticks.

How Do Using Tweezers Help With Handwriting?

You might know that I love to share easy, manageable tips on how to help kids with handwriting and pencil grasp. Recently I shared a quick tip on strengthening the lumbrical muscles for more effective pencil grasp and endurance in handwriting. Today, I’ve got an extension on that activity, using tweezers.

So how do tweezers help with pencil grasp and handwriting?

When a child uses tweezers to pick up small objects (using an appropriate grasp on the tweezers, of course!) they are building the skills needed for a tripod grasp. A functional pencil grasp includes the thumb and the first and third fingers or the thumb and the first, second, third, and fourth fingers. These grasps allow a child to move and advance the paper with small motions at an appropriate speed for writing legibly.

Using tweezers is a great way to build the muscles needed for these grasps on the pencil. When using a pair of tweezers to work on pencil grasp, be sure to position the tweezers as if it were a pencil. Encourage the child to bend the tip of their thumb to build the thenar muscles of the thumb, while ensuring an open web space. The resistance of squeezing tweezers develops the arches of the hands which are needed for a curved palm while holding a pencil. An extended wrist provides the most functional position for writing or tweezer-ing.

DIY Craft Stick Tweezers

Full disclosure: Affiliate links are included in this post.

Making these colorful tweezers are so easy. We used rainbow craft sticks (ours, we received from www.craftprojectideas.com). You’ll also need small rubber bands and a small craft pom pom.

To make the tweezers, stack two craft sticks together and position the pom pom in between at one end. Add two rubber bands to the end of the tweezers.

A larger crafting pom pom will make the tweezers wider at the opening. This will increase the amount of distance needed for grasping small items. This is a great way to grade the activity.

Watch this video to see the full how-to:

Now get to building those hand muscles!

Additional benefits to using tweezers in fine motor tasks:

Visual Scanning
Peripheral Vision
Hand-Eye Coordination
Development of the Skilled side of the hand
Stabilization of the ulnar (or power) side of the hand

Love this idea? SHARE it on Facebook!

Looking for more ways to build the hand muscles for an improved pencil grasp? Try these:

Fine Motor Play Dough Intrinsic Muscle Strength

Pencil Control Exercises

Pre-Writing Handwriting Lines

Pencil Grasp Trick Thumb IP Flexion

Thumb Opposition

amzn_assoc_placement = “adunit0”;
amzn_assoc_search_bar = “true”;
amzn_assoc_tracking_id = “sugaun-20”;
amzn_assoc_ad_mode = “manual”;
amzn_assoc_ad_type = “smart”;
amzn_assoc_marketplace = “amazon”;
amzn_assoc_region = “US”;
amzn_assoc_title = “My Amazon Picks”;
amzn_assoc_linkid = “6f3c21b98ef4d0fbed62fbcaf0f65a6c”;
amzn_assoc_asins = “B0018N4CM0,B000BLJEKU,B000NNGNKA,B0074MIAXG”;

Spring Robin Sensory Bin

August 28, 2023March 10, 2016 by Colleen Beck OTR/L

Spring is in the air! We’ve been lucky to have a few days of warmer weather and have been outside playing the hours away. Of course we had to create our first outdoor sensory bin of the season! This Spring Robin Sensory Bin is sure to get you in the mood for Spring. We used a few items that you might have seen before on the blog and put together a quick and easy bin for sensory play. Because nothing says Spring like minimal prep!

Kids will love this Spring robin sensory bin with corn filler.

This post contains affiliate links.

Spring Sensory Bin Idea

So, last year we made these egg carton robins. They are back and made the perfect addition for our Spring sensory bin. I kept it simple and added only a field corn and black bean filler. You could use any of our sensory bin filler ideas.

We have a big bin of this stuff ready to go for sensory play. It’s a great tactile sensory material that little hands love to dig through. I poured it all into our water table so both of my girls could play easily in the bin. The height is perfect for my one year old.

To make the robins, follow these directions. Be sure to make the worms, because we used them in the sensory bin today. I hid a few in the field corn and placed the rest on the top of the sensory bin. My four year old had fun burying the worms and then scooping up big piles of corn to find them. She practiced a few preschool math concepts like one-to-one correspondence by counting out the worms. She put them one by one into the separate robins on the egg carton. My 1 year old had fun just playing in the field corn. This was a great sensory experience for her!

Having our sensory bin outside on a warm spring day was so much fun and a great way to kick off Spring!

Tinker Toys STEM Pulley

November 15, 2022March 10, 2016 by Colleen Beck OTR/L

This week in our Early Learning series, we’re covering STEM. Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math are all over the place these days. And there is good reason, we love this occupational therapy toy, too. STEM learning is present in classrooms, summer camps, after-school programs, and even library programs. As a benefit, STEM fine motor activities build coordination and hand strength. Today, I’m sharing classic STEM. This is the STEM of my childhood and one that I’m so excited to share with my kids: Tinker Toys!

We used the classic toy, Tinker Toys with STEM concepts to create a Tinker Toy pulley. Now, this was fun!

Build a Tinker Toys Pulley system and explore STEM concepts in learning with kids.

Tinker Toys STEM project: Build a Pulley

This post contains affiliate links.

We were lucky enough to find a set of Tinker Toys at a garage sale but they are available here. Our set is a little beat up (And it even has original container from years gone by!) but it worked for building a pulley system. This was a hit with my kids as we discovered and explored all four parts of STEM education:

Science with Tinker Toys– We talked about the physics behind a pulley system, including the load and the effort required to make the pulley work. Our pulley was designed to pull a string along a strait path to carry a load from one point to another. We talked about energy with our pulley.

Technology with Tinker Toys– I’ve read that the technology portion of STEM learning can relate to any product made that meets a need or want, including items like a pencil or a chair. Our technology was the machine (the pulley) that could transport items from one place to another. We created a machine to do a job.

Engineering with Tinker Toys– Tinker Toys might be one of the most classic engineering toys there is. Children of all ages have used these building toys to create whatever their imagination could dream up. We were able to engineer a pulley system with trial and error to find the right height, length, and support for our pulley. After trial and error, we determined that our pulley needed a better base of support. To adjust for lack of width in the base, we added play dough to hold the legs in place.

Math with Tinker Toys– For our pulley, we tried different lengths of string. We measured the lengths and decided on the best length to pull clothes pins from one point to anther. We then added more clothes pins and noted how much the string drooped when we added more pins. We then had to adjust the distance of the pulley legs to accommodate the weight. What a great way to combine math and engineering in this “tinkering” STEM activity!

NOTE: Our clothes pins were multi-colored but I’m not able to find that exact item anymore. You are able to purchase individual colors of clothes pins, here.

Looking for more STEM activities for kids? Try these:

Love this idea? SHARE it on Facebook!

Tell me, did you play with Tinker Toys as a kid? Have you ever made a pulley as a child?

Join our newsletter subscriber list for lots of freebies! Sign up HERE.

Intrinsic Hand Muscle Strengthening with Tongs

August 11, 2022March 8, 2016 by Colleen Beck OTR/L

Handwriting legibility and hand strength are closely tied. You might say they go hand-in-hand. (I had to go there!)

This easy fine motor tong activity is designed to build some of the muscles needed for managing a pencil. The intrinsic muscles are the muscles in the hand that define the arches of the hands, bend the knuckles, and oppose with the thumbs.

Among these muscles are a group called the lumbricals. The lumbrical muscles have a job to bend (flex) the MCP joints and extend (straighten) the PIP and DIP joints. When the lumbricals are in action, the hand might look like it is holding a plate with the big knuckles bent and the fingers extended.

Use kitchen tongs to work on the lumbrical intrinsic muscles of the hands to build strength in handwriting, using tongs for this color search and hand eye coordination activity for kids.

Lumbrical Muscles of the Hands and Handwriting

This post contains affiliate links.

The lumbrical muscles of the hands are important in handwriting. They are used to hold the pencil in a functional grasp. Advancing the pencil in an upward motion using the joints of the fingers require strength and endurance of the lumbrical muscles. Forming letters like upstrokes in cursive letters and the re-trace of letters like a, d, g, h, m, n, p, q, r, u, v, and w require upward pencil strokes.

Hand strength can be developed through many creative, hands-on activities, like blocks and rubber bands or rolling balls of play dough. This kitchen tong activity is another fun way to work on important skills.

A quick and easy way to develop and strengthen the lumbricals is a tong activity like this one. Use a large kitchen tong utensil to grasp items. We used this kitchen tong, but any large tong would work for this strengthening activity. Foam blocks are a nice size and make a great hand-eye coordination exercise for children with the tongs. Fill a bin with water and add in the foam blocks. Ask your child to grab the blocks as you call out colors for a color identification activity.

Idea: Re-use the blocks to build MORE fine motor skill development like we did here.

Using tongs to work on handwriting

It is important to notice the position of your child’s hand on the tongs in activities like this one. You want to see a slightly extended wrist and tongs UNDER the hand to work on lumbrical muscle strength. This is different than a task geared toward building precision and thumb intrinsic muscle strength.

More intrinsic muscles needed in handwriting:

The muscles: flexor digiti minimi, abductor digiti minimi and opponens pollicis & digiti minimi are referred to as the hypothenar muscles work to stabilize the ulnar side of the hand during handwriting.

The muscles: abductor pollicis brevis, flexor pollicis brevis and
opponens pollicis work to rotate the thumb for manipulation of the pencil. Adductor
pollicis strengthens thumb opposition.

Looking for more ways to use tongs and fine motor tools in learning? Try these:

Painting Sugar Letters from Still Playing School
Fine Motor Long Vowel Activity from Learning 2 Walk
Alphabet Water Sensory Game from Mom Inspired Life
Pom Pom Color Match Game from Raising Little Superheroes
Plastic Egg Fine Motor Activity from Something 2 Offer
Water Bead Pick Up Game from Play & Learn Every Day
Bead Necklace Fine Motor Practice from Schooling a Monkey

Looking for more strengthening exercises for hands? Try these:

Magnetic Spoons and Handwriting Game

Pencil Grasp Trick Thumb IP Flexion

Thumb Opposition

Fine Motor Play Dough Intrinsic Muscle Strength

Pencil Control Exercises

Pre-Writing Handwriting Lines

Large Fine Motor Threading with Recycled Spools

July 19, 2019March 7, 2016 by Colleen Beck OTR/L

Looking for a fine motor activity that uses the small motor movements of the hands needed for skills like beading, handwriting, and managing clothing fasteners? Sometimes, it can be difficult to get a kiddo to work on those areas when the very task you need to strengthen is one that is difficult to do.

Sometimes an activity that is a little bit different is the very thing needed for kids who need to work on fine motor skills. This jumbo threading activity uses cardboard ribbon spools (and we do love our recycled crafts!) and can help with fine motor skill development in a big way.

Use large pipe cleaners and recycled ribbon spools to work on fine motor skills on a large scale.

Large Fine Motor Threading Activity

Using small beads to thread on string or pipe cleaners is an excellent way to build pincer grasp, tripod grasp, bilateral coordination, hand-eye coordination, and in-hand manipulation. But if if is hard for a child to do these tasks, they may not want to participate in small beading as much as their parent, therapist, or teacher may like. These cardboard ribbon spools are a fun way to build the skills needed for fine motor tasks, in a different way.

This post contains affiliate links.

Besides the recycled cardboard spools (which hold ribbons), all we used for this activity were large fuzzy pipe cleaners. Ours came from www.craftprojectideas.com.

This is an easy busy bag type of activity for kids. Set them up with a tray of spools and pipe cleaners while mom grabs a cup of coffee. OR, for the Occupational Therapists in the crowd, this makes a nice multi-purpose activity for the OT treatment bag.

Simply show your kiddo how to thread the large pipe cleaners onto the cardboard spools. Using different sizes of spools requires different motor movements of the hands, but using several sizes promote graded grasp patterns. Threading the pipe cleaners into the center of the spools allows the child to thread with a tripod grasp on a larger scale. Children can hold the spools with their non-dominant helper hand in a whole hand grasp.

Add more skills to this threading task by stacking the spools to work on precision. Ask your client or child to hold the edges of the spools to incorporate a spherical grasp. Threading by size encourages beginning math skills with visual discrimination and visual scanning.

Areas worked on with this activity:

Bilateral hand coordination

Hand-Eye Coordination

Crossing Midline

Tripod Grasp

Whole Hand Grasp

Visual Discrimination

Visual Scanning

Love this post? Share it on Facebook!

Looking for more Fine Motor Activities for Kids?

Magnetic Spoons and Handwriting Game

Pencil Grasp Trick Thumb IP Flexion

Thumb Opposition

Hand Dominance and Fine Motor with Scooping and Pouring

The Benefits of Coloring

Clothes Pin Exercises and Pinch Grasp Types

Homemade Pegboard Activities

Be sure to sign up for our newsletter to receive activity ideas like these right in your inbox. Join us!

In-Hand Manipulation and Money

July 11, 2019March 2, 2016 by Colleen Beck OTR/L

Moving the pencil within the tips of the fingers to switch from writing to erasing.

Passing small beads from the palm of the hand to the finger tips.

Holding a stack of coins in the palm while counting out the amount needed to pay for an item.

These are all in-hand manipulation tasks, and can be a problem when it comes to performing functional tasks related to these fine motor tasks. Sometimes a child appears clumsy with their small motor movements. They use two hands for tasks that normally require just one. Today, I’ve got a fun way to help with these difficulties by working on in-hand manipulation skills using coins.

Try these in-hand manipulation activities using coins to work on the fine motor skills needed to write with a pencil, manipulate small items like coins and beads, and manage fasteners like buttons and shoe laces. Great ideas for kids from an Occupational Therapist on this blog!

This post contains affiliate links.

The Three types on In-hand Manipulation

There are three types or components of in-hand manipulation.

Translation is using your fingers to moving a little item from your palm to your finger tips (or your fingertips to squirrel the item into the palm). When you hold a coin in your palm and manipulate it to your finger tips to push it into a piggy bank or vending machine, you are demonstrating palm-to-finger translation.

Shift is moving an object using the pads of your fingers…adjusting the pencil grip is demonstrating finger shift. Another example might be manipulating a button or a zipper with the finger tips.

Rotation is rolling an object using the fingertips. Examples of rotation are rolling a pencil in your fingertips, turning a pencil over to use the eraser, or opening a bottle top by rotating the lid on your finger tips.

These fine motor skills are needed for functional tasks like managing a pencil or crayon during handwriting, opening containers, managing coins or small items, manipulating a spoon/knife/fork, adjusting the paper when cutting with scissors, and fastening buttons or shoe laces.

How to use coins to work on in-hand manipulation:

Rotate the coins between the pads of the thumb and pointer finger/middle finger.
Grab a handful of coins and place them into a slotted container.
Pick up coins one at a time and “squirrel away” into the palm.
Push coins into a piggy bank or slotted lid (Slice a hole in a recycled plastic container like a yogurt container)
Slice a slit in a piece of cardboard like we did below. Using a small piece of cardboard allows you to hold the cardboard when pushing the coin through the slot. Read on:

In-Hand Manipulation Activity with Coins

I grabbed a piece of cardboard from a pizza box lid. Cut the cardboard into a manageable sized rectangle and use a sharp knife to cut a slit. Make sure the slit is vertical as this is similar to a coin machine and encourages efficient positioning of the wrist and fingers for functional use.

To work on in-hand manipulation needed for functional tasks, use play money to press the money through the slot. Ask your child to grab up a handful of the coins and push them through the slot one at a time. Using the non-dominant hand to hold the cardboard is an exercise in bilateral hand coordination, making this a great pre-handwriting exercise. (Use this activity as a writing warm-up exercise!)

When a person writes, they need to hold the paper steady with their non-dominant hand while manipulating the pencil with only their dominant hand. They need to adjust the pencil motions, twirl it around to erase, pinch and “crawl” up the pencil to adjust small movements in the hand as they write on the paper. Holding the cardboard in the non-dominant hand prevents the child from managing the money with both hands.

While pressing the coins into the cardboard, work on money and change making skills like we shared here.