August 31, 2021

Tear Paper for Fine Motor Skills

November 7, 2023August 31, 2021 by Colleen Beck OTR/L

Did you know you can tear paper to improve fine motor skills using materials you already have in your home? I have an incredibly easy fine motor activity to share: tearing paper! When kids tear paper, they are developing fine motor skills like grasp, hand strength, eye-hand coordination, bilateral coordination, and more. So often, parents are looking for easy ways to help kids develop fine motor skills, and the very material that can improve all of these areas is found right in the home. Let’s break down tearing paper as an amazing fine motor activity for kids.

Tear paper to build fine motor skills and to use in occupational therapy activities like improving coordination, visual motor skills, and more.

Did you know that a fine motor activity where a child tears up paper builds hand strength, motor planning, and so much more?

Tearing Paper for Fine Motor Skills

Tearing paper a simple fine motor activity that requires only scrap paper and your hands. In fact, tearing paper actually helps children develop so many essential skills: hand strength, hand eye coordination, precision, refined movements, bilateral coordination…

When a child tears a piece of paper, they improve hand strength and endurance in the small muscles in the hand.

The intrinsic muscles are used to tear up paper and these set of muscles located within the hand are important in so many fine motor skills, including those important to handwriting and coloring, managing buttons and zippers, manipulating pegs, and more.

When paper is torn, the hands assume a great tripod grasp which is effective and a mature grasp for writing and coloring.

To hold the paper, the non-dominant hand is assisting in the tearing and encourages appropriate assistance for tasks like holding the paper while writing, and managing paper while cutting with scissors.

Then, to tear a piece of paper, the dominant hand does the majority of the “work” to tear with precision and force, but also along a “line” while tearing.

Just look at the skills kids develop with a tearing paper activity:

Other benefits of tearing paper

Not only is ripping paper as a fine motor strategy, tearing off pieces of paper can support sensory needs, coordination, and visual motor skills. When you tear a pieces of paper, so many skills are being developed…

Hand dominance- Holding paper with stability using a non-dominant hand to support the paper, and a dominant hand to make refined tears supports development of bilateral coordination skills. Depending on the intricacy of the paper tear line, more refined motor movements are used. This is a strategy to support graded precision skills.

Sensory Processing- To rip paper, strength and coordination is needed. This process offers heavy work through the finger joints, wrist as a stabile joint, and coordination and stability in the shoulder girdle. Heavy work, or proprioception allows us to know where our body is in space. But the benefits of heavy work can be calming and organizing. Ripping paper can be a sensory diet tool for some individuals.

Visual Motor Skills- To tear paper, visual motor integration is a required part of the puzzle. This includes eye-hand coordination, visual tracking, visual attention, and other areas of visual processing.

Tearing paper is an amazing fine motor activity for kids to build coordination and hand strength.

Tear a piece of paper to build sensory motor skills with an inexpensive therapy tool.

Paper Tearing Activities

In this paper tearing activity, we use recycled artwork to create Torn Paper Art that would look great on any gallery (or family dining room) wall! All you need to do is rip paper to develop skills.

Tearing strips of paper is especially a great fine motor task. To work those fine motor skills, start with some junk mail or recycled paper materials and practice tearing.

Tear paper into strips- To tear a long sheet of paper, you need to grasp the paper with an effective, yet not too strong grasp. Tear too fast, and the paper is torn diagonally and not into strips.

Make slow tears in the paper- Tearing the paper slowly while focusing on strait torn lines really encourages a workout of those intrinsic muscles.

Tear different weights of paper- Paper comes in different thicknesses, or weights. Practicing tearing different thicknesses really hones in on precision skills. We tore an 9×11 piece of painted printer paper into long strips, lengthwise. The thin paper isn’t too difficult to tear, but requires motor control. Thicker paper like cardstock or cardboard requires more strength to grip the paper. The thicker paper also requires a bit more strength to tear with accuracy and precision. Tearing paper that is thicker like cardstock, index cards, or construction paper adds heavy input through the hands. This proprioceptive input can be very calming and allow kids to regulate or focus while adding the sensory input they need.

Tear paper into shapes– Use the paper to create simple shapes like a circle, square, etc. You can make this task easier by drawing pencil lines and ripping paper along the lines. This is a fantastic way to build motor planning skills. Or, work on visual perceptual skills and try ripping paper into shapes without a template.

Vary the texture of the paper– You can add a sensory component and use different textures of paper. Try painted or colored paper. Try printed paper or a rough paper like last year’s paper calendar. Try ripping cardstock or textured crepe paper. Or, use graph paper as a thinner grade to address a different resistance. We cover all the ways to use graph paper in therapy goals and tearing paper is just one idea.

Work on tearing paper fringes- Tearing into the edge of the page, and stopping at a certain point requires refined motor work. It’s easy to tear right across the page, but requires precision and coordination to stop tearing at a certain point. To grade this activity easier, try marking the stopping point with a pencil mark.

Ripping paper has so many benefits! Did you know that when you tear a piece of paper so much work is being done?

Tearing Paper Exercises

There’s more to tearing paper than just making a mess…Occupational therapy practitioners use this fine motor tool as a way to improve hand strength and other underlying skills that we’ve talked about in this blog post.

But once you have the paper torn into pieces, did you know that you can use those torn paper pieces in fine motor work?

Check out our video on tearing paper. In it, we cover what happens when you tear paper (why occupational therapy providers love paper tearing as a fine motor tool), and then you’ll see specific finger strength exercises and finger dexterity activities you can do with the paper pieces.

tearing paper is a fine motor skills workout for kids.

Types of paper to use in tearing paper activities

There are many benefits to using different textures and types of paper. Let’s take a look at some of the possible types of paper. These are materials that you may already have in your home.

Varying the paper type in torn paper activities can help to grade an activity, or make it easier or more difficult. These are great ways to vary the amount of fine motor strength and precision needed, thereby improving fine motor skills and visual motor skills.

Types of paper to use in tearing paper activities:

Junk mail
Old phone books
Recycled newspapers
Magazines
Flyers from school or the community
Printer paper
Notebook paper
Cardboard
Recycled food boxes (cereal boxes, tissue boxes, etc.)
Paper bags
Tissue paper
Crepe paper
Toilet paper
Paper towels
Napkins
Paper plates
Recycled artwork
Used coloring books
Cardboard tubes (toilet paper tubes, paper towel rolls)
Old calendars

Tear up pieces of recycled artwork to create a new art medium.

Torn paper art

This ripped paper art is a craft that is so simple, yet such a fun way to create art while working on fine motor skills.

Tear paper into strips to work on fine motor skills with kids.

You’ll need just a few materials for ripped paper art:

Paper (Any type or texture will do…old crafts, kids artwork, or paper that has been painted)
Glue
Paper to cardstock to use as a base
Your hands!

We all have piles of kids’ artwork that is gorgeous…yet abundant. You keep the ones that mean the most, but what do you do with those piles of painted paper, scribbled sheets, and crafty pages? You sure can’t keep it all or your house will become covered in paper, paint, and glitter. We used a great blue page to make our torn paper art.

Making the torn paper art is very simple. It’s a process art activity that will look different no matter how many times you do the activity.

How to create torn paper art:

There is more to this therapy tool than just tearing a piece of paper…Use these tips.

Select a variety of paper colors, materials, and textures.
Tear a sheet into long strips. This will become the sky of our artwork.
Use white paper to create cloud shapes. Tear the paper into shapes.
Use green cardstock or other material to create grass. Tear small strips into the paper but not through to the edge. Create a fringe with the paper.
Glue the torn paper onto the base page in layers.
Use your imagination and have fun!

A few tips for creating torn paper art

Have a variety of paper types, colors, and textures available. Some ideas include using junk mail, recycled artwork, cardstock, construction paper, printer paper, crepe paper, cardboard, cereal boxes, etc.

Use your imagination. You can start with an idea to create or you can go with the flow of the art creation and start without an idea.

If you have trouble coming up with an idea for your torn paper art, try some of these:

Create a torn paper landscape
Create an object from ripped paper textures
Make a torn paper abstract artwork
Copy real life objects and make representational art
Create a ripped paper still life
Use all one color of paper in different textures to make a monochromatic artwork
Make abstract portraits
Tear the paper into shapes to make geometric artwork
Explore art concepts such as size, shape, color, lines, form, space, texture
Explore multimedia: Incorporate printed paper, painted paper, glossy paper, cardboard in different textures, crayon colored paper, etc.

Tear paper into strips of ripped paper to work on eye-hand coordination in an occupational therapy activity with recycled materials.

Tearing paper builds fine motor skills and endurance in fine motor precision, making it a fine motor workout!

Ripping paper is a fine motor activity for kids in occupational therapy or working on fine motor skills at home.

More paper activities

Try making this paper helicopter to work on fine motor skills and visual motor skills.
Fold a paper football and work on eye-hand coordination with sight word practice.
Improve eye-hand coordination using paper in various crafts, activities.
Improve finger isolation, arch development, and hand strength with these folded paper crafts.

Tear and paste activity with blue paper and green cardstock to create a torn paper collage.

We used one of the long strips of green cardstock to create grass by making small tears. Be careful not to tear the whole way across the strip! What a workout this is for those hand muscles.

Use recycled art like painted paper to create torn art collage while building fine motor skills in kids.

Next glue the blue strips onto a background piece of paper. Tear white scrap paper into cloud shapes. They can be any shape, just like clouds in the sky!

Tear paper to help kids strengthen fine motor skills.

Grab a piece of yellow cardstock and create a sun. This is another fabulous fine motor workout. Tearing a circle-ish shape and creating small tears really works those muscles in the hands.

Glue the sun onto the sky and enjoy the art.

More paper activities that build skills:

How Folding Paper Builds Skills

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!

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.

Fun Buttoning Activities

November 7, 2023August 31, 2021 by Colleen Beck OTR/L

Using a few fun buttoning activities is powerful when it comes to teaching kids how to button. When you add fun button practice to the functional task of learning to button a shirt or pants, kids can gain independence. Let’s check out some fun buttoning and unbuttoning activities that kids will love. Get ready to fasten a button and build skills!

Today, I’ve got a creative way to practice a fine motor task that is often times a tricky for little fumbling fingers: teaching kids how to button…and with a recycled egg carton no less!

Read more for creative tips and tools to practice buttoning with kids: As an Occupational Therapist working with kiddos, I often times had children (and adults!) with goals to improve functional skills like buttoning and managing clothing fasteners.

The best thing (to me) about OT is helping folks to work towards independence in meaningful activities and encouraging self-confidence in function through fun and creative ways.

Imaging fumbling to fasten buttons in a row on a shirt or jacket. Trying to push that little button through the hole of the shirt, but struggling. But, you have to keep working on it, because it’s something you want to do yourself. But it’s just so hard. Still, you keep trying. Over and over again. It’s just not fun.

That’s where fun button practice activities come into play!

This egg carton buttoning activity is definitely fun and works on a task that can get real boring, real quick.

There is something a little more happy about these buttons and a recycled egg carton. It’s part of our 31 Days of Occupational Therapy series and it’s been a big hit in our house, lately.

Teach kids how to button with this cute egg carton buttoning activity! This is fun to make while working on fine motor skills and helping kids with a difficult self-care task.

Skills needed for buttoning

First, let’s talk about why buttoning a shirt is so hard for some kids. When teaching a child to button a shirt or unbutton clothing, sometimes breaking down the task of HOW to button is the hardest part.

You really need a lot of skills in order to button a shirt.

Both hands need to work together in a coordinated manner while doing different movements.
Buttons are small in most cases and require a good grasp to hold the edge of the button
Hands need intrinsic hand strength and arch development to hold the button and push it through the button hole.
Then there is the other hand working to hold that button hole, with bilateral coordination.
But first, you need to make sure the buttons and holes are lined up correctly.
There is a lot of problem solving and sequencing involved in buttoning.

All of this is done while wearing the shirt and at an awkward position, while looking down. If any of these areas are a problem area, then buttoning a shirt immediately becomes much more difficult.

Teach Kids How to Button

There are a few ways that make learning the steps of buttoning a bit easier:

Practice unbuttoning first.
Break down steps of buttoning.
Use consistent verbal and physical cues when helping the child button.
If aligning buttons to the button holes is a difficult task, show them how to take this part a step at a time, by lining up the bottom button to the bottom hole.
Practice buttoning from bottom to top. The child will have more room to work and a better view of the buttons at the bottom of a vest or shirt.
Practice buttoning with shirts/vests that are not visually distracting. Use a white shirt with colored buttons. You can also add a dot of paint to buttons to make them stand out.
At first, practice buttoning with a shirt laying on the child’s lap or table, and positioned like it would be on their body. Practicing with a different shirt on the table gives the child more room to see the buttons and how their hands are working than if they are buttoning on their body.
Then, practice with an over-shirt, with the shirt on their body.
Practice with larger buttons.
Iron the button and hole edges of the shirt for a stiffer material to work with.
Practice with a jacket that is made with a thicker material, like corduroy.
For younger kids (age 3) you can snip the button hole just a little to make buttoning easier.

Backward Chaining in Buttoning

Backward chaining is a therapy term that refers to breaking down a task in order to teach specific skills. In learning how to button or unbutton, therapists can use backward chaining to teach kids how to do each step of buttoning in a sequence.

Backward chaining encourages success in buttoning by starting with the last step.

You can teach buttoning skills this way by working on just this last step with your child until they have mastered it. Then, work on the previous step. Gradually, add more steps to the buttoning task until they are able to complete the whole process.

Backward chaining encourages self-confidence and success in learning new skills.

Buttoning Activities

This buttoning activity uses a recycled egg carton to work on the specific skills needed to fasten buttons. These are great buttoning activities for preschoolers and children struggling with the fine motor components of managing buttons on their clothing.

Try these buttoning activities:

Work on the fine motor skills needed to button by pushing coins into a piggy bank.
Cut a slit in felt and push a coin through the felt.
Push buttons through the lid of a recycled container.
Try these felt buttons to work on precision and dexterity.
Cut slits in paper and push buttons through the slits.
Make an egg carton buttoning activity (below)

Cut a slit in cardstock or construction paper. Push buttons through the slits. Try it with tissue paper, too.
Hold coins or buttons on the edge and press them into play dough so they are standing on their edge.
Thread beads onto pipe cleaners.

RELATED READ: Teach Kids How to Tie Their Own Shoes

Use buttons and paper to work on buttoning and unbuttoning activities. Use these buttoning occupational therapy tips.

Teach buttoning and fastening buttons with this egg carton button activity.

Egg Carton Buttoning Activity

This is a fine motor activity to make the buttoning tool, so get the kids involved in the prep-work! We made a similar egg carton shoe tying tool recently.

Yes, sure. You can work on buttoning and shoe tying with a plain old shirt or shoe. But, sometimes it is good to bring new experiences into the learning process.

Adding a new way to practice makes it less boring and kids will be excited to try working those buttons again and again.

You’ll need just a few materials to make this egg carton buttoning activity:

Amazon affiliate links:

Egg carton
Buttons
Pipe Cleaners
Something to poke holes into the egg carton. I used the sharp end of a Corn Holder.
Ribbon, tissue paper, paper

Attach buttons to an egg carton to work on buttoning skills with kids. Includes other buttoning activities for kids.

RELATED READ: Teach Kids How to Zipper

Start by poking the corn holder into the bottoms of the egg carton. You want four holes for each button.
Then thread the pipe cleaner through one of the holes, and through the button and back down through the egg carton, like this:

3. Bend the pipe cleaner back up through the holes and back down to the inside of the egg carton.

4. Twist the pipe cleaner ends together to secure the button. You will want the button to have some give and not be completely flat against the egg carton.

Work on buttoning activities with an egg carton and buttons.

5. Then, start practicing the buttons.

6. Use a long ribbon with slits cut lengthwise.

7. Practice with the egg carton on your child’s lap or on the tabletop in front of them.

For more buttoning activities for kids, try using paper on the buttons, too. Use tissue paper on the buttons for more refined buttoning practice. We also used squares of cardstock and cut up cereal boxes. Make sure the buttons are not flush against the egg carton.

Buttoning activities and tips to teach kids to button and unbutton a shirt.

More Buttoning Activities

Looking for even more ways to practice buttoning? These are some of my favorite items on the market.

When a child needs to work on some skills for their independence, toys can be the way to go! These toys are great for developing independence in dressing skills. This post contains affiliate links.

Small World Toys Learning – Before and After is great for kids who need to gain insight into concepts of before and after. You can not put your shoes on before you put your socks on. Cognitive concepts can be tricky for children to understand if auditory processing of these ideas are difficult.

This Special Needs Sensory Activity Apron (Children & Adult Sizes) allows the child to manage the clothing fasteners right on their lap. This is so great for children with motor planning difficulties.

You could also use a Montessori Buttoning Frame with Large Buttons Dressing Frame and lay it right on the child’s lap.

Childrens Factory Manual Dexterity Vests – Button-Zipper Combo Vest is a good way to practice buttons and zippers right on the child.

Learning to Get Dressed Monkey is a fun toy for clothing fasteners.

Practice basic clothing fastener skills like buttons, zippers, snaps, and ties with the Melissa & Doug Basic Skills Board. The bright colors are fun and will get little fingers moving on clothing fasteners.

How to teach buttoning to kids including tips from occupational therapy for buttoning skills.

Teach buttoning skills to kids with fun buttoning activities.

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:

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!

Friendship Activities

June 19, 2023August 31, 2021 by Colleen Beck OTR/L

Today, we are covering friendship activities. These are friendship crafts and lessons that support the social emotional skill development of interacting with others by creating close relationships. Friendship activities are great for therapy interventions and as a supplement to social emotional skills. Friendship activities involve learning and using empathy, and activities to support friendship skills are a great way to develop these learned skills.

These friendship activities support the social emotional skill development of interacting with others by creating close relationships. Friendship activities are great for therapy interventions and as a supplement to social emotional skills. Friendship activities involve learning and using empathy, and activities to support friendship skills are a great way to develop these learned skills.

I am excited to share a collection of friendship activities designed to help children establish and build friendships. How do you teach friendship? This can be an abstract concept for kids, but by using friendship skills activities like games to teach social skills, friendship crafts, friendship recipes, and printables about friendship, we can teach children skills like empathy, perseverance, sharing, cooperation, and other essential components of friendship.

Be sure grab these friendship activities for teletherapy:

Writing about Friendship Slide Deck – writing prompts, writing letters to friends, and handwriting activities to develop friendship skills, all on a free interactive Google slide deck.

Personal Space Friendship Skills Slide Deck– Friendship involves allowing personal space, and body awareness and all of this is part of the social skill development that some kids struggle with. Use this free Google slide deck to work on body awareness and personal space.

Friendship Activities

Are you a good friend? Do you make a good friend? Do you have good friends? All of these are such important questions for children who are learning each day the necessary social skills that build lasting friendships. Strong social skills are an important piece of everyday life and the earlier this is recognized, the better social growth and development a child will experience.

Strong social skills are an important piece of everyday life and the earlier this is recognized, the better social growth and development a child will experience.

Demonstrating and recognizing the friendship qualities that makes a good friend and keeps friendships strong is an important skill to have early on in childhood. Children will develop friendships with others from different backgrounds, cultures, lifestyles, and abilities.

Adults have a responsibility to teach children about kindness and friendship to all. Learning this along with how a good friend acts and behaves and what is the right and wrong way to treat a friend is essential for strong social skill development.

Friendship activities can help children begin to explore the friendship qualities and behaviors that are important to learn how to be a good friend, if they make a good friend, and recognize do they have a good friend.

Read on for some creative ways to engage children in learning friendship skills.

Teaching Friendship Skills to Kids

There are many wonderful activities that can be used to help children develop friendship skills. What are some of the specific skills that are needed for building and maintaining friendships?

Empathy
Acceptance
Sharing
Listening
Asking questions/being interested
Helping others
Responding to social situations
Communicating
Turn-taking
Cooperating
Solving problems
Perseverance
Being supportive
Trustworthiness

Some of these concepts are very abstract.

Using concrete examples, modeling, social stories, and activities that provide examples of these social skills can be powerful.

One way that I’ve loved to help children with social skill development in hands-on, and memorable ways is through play. To bring real-life visual examples that provide an opportunity for conversation and discussion is to use children’s books to inspire exploration of friendship skill development. Here are children’s books and activities that develop friendship skills.

Use the books to inspire discussion and play-based exploration of concepts such as empathy, acceptance, and differences.

Another way to address abstract concepts is through play. Use everyday toys to explore and develop turn-taking, communication, sharing, and problem solving.

Or, address turn-taking with blocks as kids communicate and practice taking turns.

Explore differences with this friendship sensory bottle.

These other friendship activities will give children the time to play and read to help them build a better understanding of good friendship behaviors and how to demonstrate them. Let’s take a look…

Sensory Friendship Activity

Friendship Countdown Chain

Friendship Ice Cream Cone Throw

Friendship Recipe

Food is always a fun way for children to learn! Using food is a great way to explore different friendship characteristics while making a tasty friendship treat to eat!

These recipes include food items like cereal, fruit, chocolate, and nuts. Be sure to always check for food allergies and especially peanut or nut allergies, if you include these in your treats.

Freight Train Activity – This mesmerizing book teaches basic concepts of shapes and colors, but can be expanded to discuss differences, awareness of others.

Friendship Treat Recipe

Friendship Snack Mix

Friendship Fruit Salad

Friendship Games

Games are another fun way for children to learn important skills like sharing, empathy, making friends, kindness, differences, and more. What child doesn’t like games?

Engage children in these fun games that include a version of I Spy with monsters, bean bag activities played in a group while in a line or a circle, tossing of a yarn ball to say why someone makes a good friend, and activity ideas in a cooperation blog post that includes elements of friendship.

What Makes a Friend? Monster Game

Core Strengthening Friendship Activity

Friendship Yarn Game

Cooperation: 12 Group Activities for Kids

Friendship Crafts

Friendship activities such as those that support the development of social emotional skills through crafts are always a hit. In occupational therapy, crafts are a creative way for children develop motor skills, executive functioning, and emotional regulation, but they are also a fantastic way for kids to express themselves, share and create with others, and develop their skills.

These friendship crafts incorporate all of these elements while focusing on friendship to include spreading kindness, sharing, turn taking, and giving.

Empathy Activity– Use beads and a children’s book to explore empathy.

Super Friend Capes made with tee shirts.

Friendship Rocks Fingerprint Hearts made with rocks and fingerprints.

Friendship Flowers made with construction paper.

Foam Heart Friendship Necklaces made with foam hearts, beads, and yarn.

Beaded Friendship Bracelets made with beads and stretchy cords.

Friendship High Fives made with handprints and construction paper.

Secret Friendship Messages made with white crayons and revealed with watercolor paints.

Friendship Printables

In the classroom, therapy room, and hallway are great places to display friendship posters that show the importance of friendship and help create a positive classroom and school community. They show how to be a good friend and how not to be a good friend as well as help children to gain an understanding of good friendship qualities.

Friendship Posters

How to Be a Friend Posters

Friends Play Dough Printable

Friendship social stories

Social stories, or printable, hand-held stories that describe situations can give kids a concrete plan for everyday tasks. Using social stories to explain social situations is a great way to help kids with abstract concepts.

There are many nice templates out there that cover aspects of friendship, but for the most part, a social story should be individualized for each child.

This article on Autism and Friendship Skills includes important research on this topic to explore, but when it comes to using online social stories, they may not always be appropriate. Writing a social story for your child will be far more effective when you use the images, vocabulary, and terms that make sense to YOUR child or client, and the specific situations that are appropriate to your individual child or client.

Friendship Activities with Books

Mentioned briefly above, using books to help kids explore friendship is an incredibly rewarding way to pair friendship activities with the world of books.

Parents can cozy up with a child under a cozy blanket, for a calming and regulating experience of reading books togeter. Then, there is the oppourtunity to communicate about the characters, their friendships, and their conflicts, and their social situations that they had to navigate.

Through books, families can look at the pictures and come back to specific concepts again and again. And, adding hands-on, multi-sensory play experiences brings those concepts home.

In the resource, Exploring Books Through Play, you’ll do just that.

This digital, E-BOOK is an amazing resource for anyone helping kids learn about acceptance, empathy, compassion, and friendship. In Exploring Books through Play, you’ll find therapist-approved resources, activities, crafts, projects, and play ideas based on 10 popular children’s books. Each book covered contains activities designed to develop fine motor skills, gross motor skills, sensory exploration, handwriting, and more. Help kids understand complex topics of social/emotional skills, empathy, compassion, and friendship through books and hands-on play.

Click here to get your copy of Exploring Books Through Play.

Regina Parsons-Allen is a school-based certified occupational therapy assistant. She has a pediatrics practice area of emphasis from the NBCOT. She graduated from the OTA program at Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute in Hudson, North Carolina with an A.A.S degree in occupational therapy assistant. She has been practicing occupational therapy in the same school district for 20 years. She loves her children, husband, OT, working with children and teaching Sunday school. She is passionate about engaging, empowering, and enabling children to reach their maximum potential in ALL of their occupations as well assuring them that God loves them!

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