Colleen Beck OTR/L

Colleen Beck, OTR/L is a pediatric occupational therapist and the owner and author of The OT Toolbox website. She manages all of The OT Toolbox social media accounts and runs the popular newsletter. Read about Colleen's experience and career as an occupational therapist, including how The OT Toolbox began on our About The OT Toolbox page: https://www.theottoolbox.com/about-us/ Colleen created The OT Toolbox in 2011 and since then has written thousands of blog posts designed to support therapy providers, educators, parents, counselors, admin, and caregivers in promoting the healthy development of kids. Check out Colleen's blog posts below:

P and Q Reversals

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Letter p and q reversal tips and tricks

In this article, we’re discussing p and q reversals. Writing letters backwards can mean a letter p is mistaken for letter q, and in functional reading and writing, letter reversals can mean errors and lower confidence in kids. Let’s take a look at some strategies occupational therapy professionals use to work on letter p and q confusion.

Tricks for p and q reversals and tips to fix these commonly reversed letters.

Letter P and Q Reversals

I’m going to start by saying there really is no magical cure for children who reverse or invert their letters. I wish there were as that would ease a lot of the frustration a child must endure and alleviate the extra effort a child must exert to get to the end game of reading and writing letters and numbers accurately.

However, there are a few tips and tricks that might help a child as they go through the learning process whether you are addressing this issue in the classroom, in therapy sessions, or during at-home learning.

We’ve talked about Results with Multi-Sensory Strategies for B and D Reversals, let’s now talk about other frequent letter reversals that are common for children – letters ‘p’ and ‘q’. These letters look just as similar to one another like ‘b’ and ‘d’, which really makes it confusing for kids.

Mind your P’s and Q’s

Take a look at this image that gives a nice visual perspective of what b, d, p, and q might look like to a kiddo as a chair is still a chair. Working through this confusion can be tricky, but there are a few good tips and strategies that might help lessen the frustration and thus build a simple learning avenue as children work through and master the formation of these two letters.

Understanding Left and Right Directionality

First of all, we must begin by ensuring the child understands left and right directionality on their own bodies and has progressed to analyzing objects, symbols, letters and numbers. You should also check to see if they can identify the left and right sides of the paper as a precursor to emphasizing letter directionality. 

Teach Letters in groups

Next, teach letters in identified groups so as to make the teaching of the letter forms easier and more simplistic thus making it less difficult for a child to reverse or invert letters. Letter order and multi-sensory teaching of letter formations is focused on in the Learning without Tears™ curriculum and First Strokes™ curriculum, both of which were developed by an occupational therapist.

In the Learning without Tears curriculum, the letter ‘p’ is a diver letter and the letter ‘q’ is a “magic c” letter therefore they are taught at different times. 

hand dominance and letter reversal

Next, look at the child’s hand dominance patterning. Hand dominance can play a part in letter reversals in written expression.

Do they have a solid left- or right-hand dominance? If not, here are a few hand dominance activities that might help.

Do they demonstrate a cross or mixed dominance? If so, this could serve as an issue when learning letter formation strokes. Check to see if this is the case with the children you see. 

Cues for P & Q reversal

Lastly, look at how you are verbally and physically guiding that child to form letters based on their hand dominance. If you are right-handed and they are left-handed, you need to be keen to knowing how to describe the letter formation patterns that are relevant to their hand dominance.

Why? If a child is left-handed and forming the letter ‘p’, they will stroke downward from top to bottom (if they were taught correctly), frog jump to the top, and then push their pencil outward to the right followed by curving around and pulling back inward to the downward stroke.

If a child is right-handed and forming the same letter, they will stroke downward from top to bottom, frog jump to the top, and then push their pencil outward to the right and then curve around pushing their pencil inward to the downward stroke. 

How to Fix P and Q Reversals

Now three quick reminders for teaching remediation:

  • Address only one letter at a time and ensure the child has a full understanding of that letter before moving to the next letter. 
  • When using visual aids, consider the hand dominance of a child whether it be in actual hands-on learning or how you are verbally describing the formation. Also, consider this when you explain how to identify and recognize the letters.
  • Be understanding to the way a child might need to form a letter to recall the correct formation patterning as some left-handed children must form the letters more segmentally to keep on track, but they can still keep the same pace as their right-handed peers. 

Multisensory Activities for P and Q reversals

Here is a list of fun tips for teaching the difference between targeted letters of ‘p’ and ‘q’ that might help some of the kiddos you know. If one tip or strategy doesn’t work, that’s o.k., try another. Multi-sensory strategies can always aid a child in learning letter and number formations and will further encourage the use of visual memory and kinesthetic or muscle memory. 

  1. Create glitter glue or pipe cleaner stick ‘p’ and ‘q’ letters on index cards to finger trace with eyes open and then upgrade to doing so with eyes closed. 
  2. Create ‘p’ and ‘q’ rubbing plates with the use of dried bottle glue letters on index cards.
  3. Create large ‘p’ and ‘q’ letters on the floor using painter’s or masking tape and have the child walk or pull themselves on a scooter board to go over the lines. Bump up this skill to include walking or driving on the lines with their eyes closed thus working on kinesthetic memory.
  4. Create sandpaper ‘p’ and ‘q’ letters on index cards to finger trace.
  5. Have child draw the letters in the air with whole arm movements and a pointer finger while verbalizing the stroke patterning otherwise known as air writing. Do this with eyes open and closed. Shift to doing so with elbow resting on table-top and using their wrist and pointer finger to form the letters in the air. 
  6. Have child form letters on foam sheets in a repetitive fashion to further build motor memory. 
  7. Have child form the letter ‘p’ with pipe cleaner pieces and the letter ‘q’ with q-tips as the name of these materials begin with ‘p’ and ‘q’.
Help kids with p and q reversals with q-tips and pipe cleaners
  1. Place letter models underneath screen or plastic canvas material for the child to trace over with their finger. Upgrade to have the child form letters on these materials with their eyes closed. 
  2. Use letter play dough mats to form the letters and then use a golf tee or small pieces of straw to make dots (holes) on the letter lines to correctly form the letters.
  3. With the lights dimmed or turned off, have the child either trace over a large ‘p’ or ‘q’ wall letter using a flashlight or a laser light. An alternative would be to have the child roll a ball on the tape letter using correct formation. Try the use of a weighted ball to provide more muscle input while forming the letters. 
  4. Write the letters ‘p’ and ‘q’ on 8 ½” x 11” paper, then have the child use ink stamps to stamp trace over the lines.
  5. Make the letters using craft sticks and play dough curved lines to create the letters using different colors to represent to the different letter lines. 
Correct p and q reversals with play dough and popsicle sticks
  1. Form letters in a sand tray, shaving cream tray, sprinkles tray, finger paint tray, or rice tray. 
  2. Draw letters on the back of the child’s hand while their eyes are closed or on their backs and have the child guess the letter that was formed.
  3. With straight lines drawn on paper, have the child place a circular dot sticker on the side of the line that represents the letter you call out such as b, d, p, or q. An alternative would be to have the child draw the curve on the side of the line for the letter being called out.
  4. Play tic-tac-toe with the ‘p’ or ‘q’ letter that they are working on learning. 
  5. Create small straight lines on paper using pretzel sticks and have the child place a circular food item such as M & M’s, Skittles, Froot Loops, or Cheerios to create the letter they are working on or that you call out. To check their own work, they compare a correctly formed letter model and compare to the ones that they created. If they are right, they get to eat the food items they placed to form the letter accurately.

Visual Cues for Fixing P and Q Reversals

Visual strategies can assist a child with the learning process if using visual means is an avenue that provides a good outcome for the child. Some children learn best with this system, while others use it more as a supplement to support their learning.

In this list you will find a variety of ideas using the visual system and have access to a few free visuals that might trigger the ‘just right’ clue a child needs to identify and form the letter they need. They are created with the adult and the child in mind as they include wall posters and quick reference cards that are small enough to post on a desk-top or in a notebook. 

These activities could be separated into letter p activities and Letter q activities as well. Use them in isolation when working on individual letter formation.

  1. Thumbs-down images to self as a ‘p’ and ‘q’ visual depiction.
  2. Palms to self with fingers pointing down and thumbs pointing outward with the space between the thumb and the fingers serving as ‘p’ and ‘q’ representation.
  3. Form circles with the fingers (such as looking through binoculars) with forearms pointing down and inward toward torso providing a visual representation of ‘p’ and ‘q’. 
  4. Create a mask that looks like eyeglasses which is made using paper letters of ‘p’ and ‘q’. 
  5. A bed image with the letters ‘p’ and ‘q’ being the bed frame in two ways: 1) being legs of the bed and 2) use of the words ‘peace’ and ‘quiet’ because the story goes, “With sleep comes peace and quiet”.
  6. Picture of a prince and queen facing each other with emphasis placed on the heads being the curved lines and the bodies serving as the straight lines and then the train of the queen’s dress could further represent a tail on the letter ‘q’, if desired. 
  7. Simple visual and verbalization that ‘p’ sees or looks at ‘q’. 
  8. Use different colors to form the letters such as a green straight line and a red curved line for ‘p’ and then different colors for ‘q’ such as a blue straight line and a yellow curved line. The different colors can be more easily recalled by some child rather than using the same colors for each letter. On the other hand, some children can do well with the same colors being used. It may take some exploration on your behalf as the instructor. 

As you review and explore all of the multi-sensory strategies and visual supports in this post to give a child what they may need to master ‘p’ and ‘q’ letter formation, take the time to also consider the basic elements that might be impacting letter reversals as these are important foundational factors to fully understand and consider.

Regina Allen

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!

Multisensory Learning: Emotion Activities

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multisensory learning emotions activities for preschoolers

In this blog post, you’ll discover 4 Multisensory Emotion Activities for Preschoolers that utilize multisensory learning and exploration to promote emotional intelligence for kids in the preschool age. Let’s take a look at these social emotional activities for children ages 3-5. In this blog post, you’ll learn how to teach children about emotions through hands-on learning activities, designed to help children remember how to process their feelings even in times of stress. Simple activities like emotions playdough mats can support skill building in playful and fun ways.

multisensory learning emotions activities for preschoolers

Multisensory Learning: Emotion Activities

When children are overwhelmed, they don’t listen to reason. Learning new skills through play, using multi sensory forms, help children recall these skills at a moments notice. 

What happens when you sit your child down to teach them a new skill? Do they remember what they learned 5 minutes later? Do they seem interested in listening to you talk to them or would they be more engaged in their learning if they actively solved a problem with you. 

If we use at least two of the following 4 components to teach new emotion skills, children (even adults) will remember better. 

  1. Touch/Tactile
  2. Sight/Visual
  3. Sound/Auditory
  4. Movement

Why do children learn how to manage their emotions better when they learn a new skill in multiple ways?

Multisensory Learning

Multisensory learning engages all the different parts of our brain and our body! An amazing article discusses Multisensory Learning is an Effective Strategy for Teaching Students How To Read.

As they dive deeper into the topic of reading, they describe the neuroscience behind multisensory learning as: “the human brain has evolved to learn and grow in a multisensory environment.

According to the whole brain learning theory, all brain functions are interconnected for this reason. We remember how to do things best when the directions we’re given engage multiple senses.

The definition of multisensory learning, then, is using the neuroscience behind how we learn to teach lessons that engage two or more senses.

Most educators add audio or visual multimedia into their assignments, but multisensory learning can also include tactile, smell, and taste-related materials. As long as the activity engages multiple areas of the brain, it can help students develop stronger memories around how to do it.”

The definition of multisensory learning is using the neuroscience behind how we learn to teach lessons that engage two or more senses.

Multisensory Learning for Emotions

As we teach children how to respond to their feelings and the feelings of others, we can use tactile, visual, movement and auditory cues to make these activities more meaningful and memorable. 

Let’s take a look at some ways that using the senses as a tool supports development in these multisensory learning emotion activities based on sensory systems.

Tactile Experiences and Emotion Activities

When you hear the word “pumpkin goop” how do you feel? Do you instantly cringe? Do you think about the pumpkin seeds inside a pumpkin and feel hungry?

Touching something directly affects the touch receptors on our skin. This signal moves through our body to the thalamus, which relays information to our brain! This powerful sense helps our brain understand what we are doing and associates an emotion that goes along with that activity (such as “eww,” or “this is hot!”)

When we have a positive experience learning a new skill through touch, our brain remembers that feeling and makes it easier to recall the experience. If we use tactile activities within our teaching approach, children will be able to remember what they did and why, making recalling new skills easier. 

Children engage longer with tactile experiences. 

Visual Processing and Emotion Activities

When children are toddlers, they need lots of hand gestures to know what to do when given a direction. Seeing an action helps them understand. When children are learning how to name objects, showing them pictures of objects (or showing them the object) allows them to associate the name of the object. This is true for all learning activities. Looking at visuals that explain a new concept, such as emotion faces or letters in a book, help children remember.

Per this article, 65 percent of the population are visual learners. Hearing a direction or sound  goes into our short term memory, while seeing something goes into our long term memory. Per this report, 

“One of the easiest ways to ensure that learners store information in their long-term memory is to pair concepts with meaningful images. Visuals help students make sense out of the content and direct attention, increasing the possibilities that the learners will remember the material.”

Visuals help with faster recall.

Auditory System and Emotion Activities

Listening to music during activities keep us calm and alert. Sounds of nature, environmental sounds and communicative words help our brain remember specific things. Do you remember what song you danced to at your wedding? Or the top 10 hits of 1985? I bet if you hear just one word, phrase or instrumental bridge from any of those songs, you will be singing at the top of your lungs in minutes! 

When children learn new skills, paired with a song, such as “Old MacDonald,”  “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” or “BINGO” they remember the sounds of animals, how to spell BINGO (even if they don’t know how to spell their own name yet) and that the stars are up in the sky! Pairing new skills with sayings or songs help us recall the lesson quickly. Are there any emotion songs that you know?

Auditory supports help children remember easier.

Kinesthetic System and Emotion Activities

According to this link, in an article by Marwa Abdelbary, physical therapist, children are able to remember more when movement is embedded in their day.

She reports that  “studies show that children who are more active exhibit better focus, faster cognitive processing, and more successful memory retention than kids who spend the day sitting still. Keeping the body active promotes mental clarity by increasing blood flow to the brain, making activity vital to both learning and physical and neurological health.”

Learning while moving engages muscle memory and new areas of the brain. 

Multisensory Learning for Emotional Awareness

When you teach  a child a new skill using all of the components, they will remember the best! 

This “Playful Alphabet Curriculum” is a great example on how to teach the name and sound every letter using visuals, tactile, movement and recall games.

It starts with reading an interactive ABC book, then introducing each letter with five different activities: sensory, art, movement and literacy. Each of these activities use a different part of the brain to learn the letter name and sound. 

Teaching children emotion words and how to process their feelings is a very important skill. Let’s teach them using every sense so they can remember quicker.

We previously covered specific strategies to teach teach emotional vocabulary to preschoolers. Be sure to use those emotions words strategies.

Multisensory learning activities for teaching emotions to preschoolers

4 Emotion Activities using multiple senses

These multisensory learning emotion activities use multiple senses to teach preschoolers and engage them in multisensory learning through play and hands-on activities.

Multisensory Emotion Activity #1: Calm down and remember how to problem solve with “Soothing Sammy”

“Soothing Sammy” creates a positive spin on calming down and talking about feelings. This three step program uses tactile, visual, auditory and movement components to teach preschoolers all about their emotions! First, read through the “Soothing Sammy” story, then practice all the different ways to calm down (sipping water, squeezing a ball, jumping, and more!)  After, allow your child to build Sammy’s house out of an empty box, and place sensory calm down items in.

Encourage them to visit Sammy’s house and read his book when they become overwhelmed. Play the Sammy music, create the Sammy mask and complete the calming down activities (like the lavender bubble mix) to help children remember how to calm down when they feel overwhelmed.

Multisensory Emotion Activity #2: Use a fun theme!

This Frog Themed Slide Deck offers a fun frog theme way to work on identifying facial expressions and practicing visual memory skills.

Movement and auditory components can be added to any game, including this amazing frog themed slide deck. After having your kids match the emotions to the pictures, recreate the scene by asking your kids to jump like a frog! Add some music to initiate a freeze dance! When you pause the music, have the child jump like a frog and make an emotion face! What face are they making!

Multisensory Emotion Activity #3: Get clear on facial expressions and emotion names.

Use this Social Emotional Learning Worksheet as a guide.

This freebie is a great way to prompt preschoolers to think about their emotions. Although they will be too young to write, let’s bring in a visual instead, a mirror! Ask your child what makes them sad, then make a sad face in the mirror. If available, take a picture of your child making the face, print it out, and allow your child to make their own facial expression book. 

Multisensory Emotion Activity #4: Move with heavy work.

Add Play Dough and Movement to this adorable Bugs Emotion Set.

Heavy work activates the proprioceptive system and adds kinesthetic value to learning. Using play dough as a heavy work activity helps learning “stick” and makes activities fun and engaging.

These adorable bugs are experiencing lots of different feelings! Have your child make the same face the bug is, then imitate how the bug moves. Does it slither along the ground? Does it crawl or does it fly by flapping its wings. Next, using playdough and a hard surface, have your child make the bug and create its emotion face with a toothpick!

A final note on multisensory learning and emotions…

These multisensory learning emotion activities are designed to help preschoolers develop social emotional skills in fun ways!

Learning new skills through multi sensory activities help children recall their lessons faster. Through visual, tactile, movement and auditory enhancements, any activity can be effective. Teaching new skills through play, using more than two sensory components will help children remember how to respond to their feelings quickly and appropriately in a variety of situations.

Generalizing this skill through multisensory learning experiences will help preschoolers at home, at school and out in the community. 

How can you incorporate these multisensory learning emotion activities into your home or classroom?

Jeana Kinne is a veteran preschool teacher and director. She has over 20 years of experience in the Early Childhood Education field. Her Bachelors Degree is in Child Development and her Masters Degree is in Early Childhood Education. She has spent over 10 years as a coach, working with Parents and Preschool Teachers, and another 10 years working with infants and toddlers with special needs. She is also the author of the “Sammy the Golden Dog” series, teaching children important skills through play.

Executive Function Activities for Fall

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Fall executive function activities

In this blog post, you’ll find executive functioning activities for Fall. This time of year is a great time to support executive functioning development. We’ve shared a lot of executive functioning tips and tricks here on the website, so why not use all of the wonder of Fall and work on skills like impulse control, attention, problem solving, task initiation, and more?

Fall executive function activities for kids

Fall is such a great time of the year! If you live in a climate like mine, from apple picking to visiting a pumpkin patch to going on a day trip to see the beautiful leaves, it’s a great time of the year to get outdoors! Fall is also a great time of year to work on executive functioning skills.

Fall Executive Functioning Activities

Fall can be an exceptionally busy time of the year. Between kids and teens settling into their school routines to fall sports, there is a lot going on. However, there are also many opportunities to work on executive functioning skills during these fun moments! Enjoy these fun, family-friendly opportunities to enjoy the fall weather!

Apple Picking Executive Function Activity

Apple picking is a fantastic family activity. Does your local orchard have a map? Have your child or teen read the map and direct the family where to go in order to get to the apples you want to pick. But how does picking apples help with skills like time management, impulse control, problem solving, etc.?

This helps develop their ability to develop a plan and execute their plan, as well as manage emotional demands, especially if younger family members become frustrated!

It can take great problem solving to find an apple that is not over-ripe, or under-ripe, that is in reach, and will fit into the bag or basket. How can you break own the task of navigating a busy row to find a tree to pick from? Then, how can you determine which tree to select? Then, can you fill your bag with apples before becoming distracted or giving up? All of these mini-decisions and repetitions in cognitive skills are practice for other tasks requiring executive functioning!

When you get home, decide on an apple recipe to make as a family! Divide roles among family members based on skill set. Have someone gather the materials (planning and organizing, working memory), read the instructions (initiation, inhibition, working memory), measure (monitoring), and so on!

Cooking is an engaging executive functioning task that supports development in many areas. To support and promote development of EF skills, try these tips:

  • Break down the task
  • Use a task tracker
  • Write down steps and cross them off as each one is completed
  • Talk it out as a group (including problem solving, what’s next, what I’m doing right now, etc.)
  • Clean up as you complete each step

Support Executive Functioning Skills at the Pumpkin Patch

A visit to a local pumpkin patch is bound to be a great day. Have your child or teen make predictions on how much specific pumpkins weigh, plan out the activities you will do (since many pumpkin patches have additional activities), and navigate the narrow rows with those cumbersome wagons! This is certainly an activity that will work up an appetite—check out these pumpkin cupcakes!

After your trip, plan out how each family member will decorate their jack-o-lantern. Whether with paint or carving, this is a favorite activity for many children that involves skills like planning, inhibition, and initiation.

Use these tips to support executive functioning skills when pumpkin carving:

  • Draw a picture of your jack-o-lantern before beginning
  • Make a list of the supplies needed
  • Cross off each supply as they are used
  • Use kid-friendly pumpkin carving tools
  • Use gloves if tactile sensory input is an issue
  • Talk it out: talk through problems as you go
  • Use a task tracker to complete each step of the process
  • Discuss possible problems that may arise while carving
  • Break the steps down
  • Take breaks between each step

Executive Functioning Activities at the Corn Maze

Another popular fall activity is a trip to a local corn maze. This can be modified based on the corn maze’s difficulty level, as well as whether the location offers a map.

You could work on things like emotional regulation (because the maze is bound to be frustrating!), planning, time management, initiation, inhibition, and so on! For younger children who might not be quite ready for a corn maze, purchase some corn and create a cool stamp art project!

Some tips to support EF challenges at the maze:

  • Be sure the maze is age-appropriate
  • Lay out ground rules
  • Go with a partner
  • Use a map if available
  • Use a marker to draw where you’ve gone on the map
  • Be ready with coping strategies for emotional needs

A final note on Fall Executive Functioning Activities

These activities show how fun and engaging it can be to work on executive functioning skills! Many of these activities also show how activities can be upgraded and downgraded based on a child’s abilities and needs.

Studies show that executive functioning skills can be a key predictor of a child’s success, especially at the middle school level. While fall is full of opportunities for fun, perhaps integrating some of these activities will encourage your child to develop their executive functioning skills so that they can be successful in all areas of their life!

Impulse Control Journal the OT Toolbox

The Impulse Control Journal…a printable resource for helping kids strategize executive functioning skill development. When saying “calm down” just isn’t enough…

When a child is easily “triggered” and seems to melt down at any sign of loud noises or excitement…

When you need help or a starting point to teach kids self-regulation strategies…

When you are struggling to motivate or redirect a child without causing a meltdown…

When you’re struggling to help kids explore their emotions, develop self-regulation and coping skills, manage and reflect on their emotions, identify their emotions, and more as they grow…

Grab the Impulse Control Journal to build organizational strategies, planning, prioritization, habits, and mindset in kids.

To-Do List for Kids

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To do list for kids

In this blog post you’ll discover Strategies to Help Combat Executive Function Disorder including a task completion worksheet, designed as a to-do list for kids. This task tracker worksheet allows kids to keep track of their daily tasks, through development of executive functioning skills like task initiation and task completion.

Free to-do worksheet for kids to work on task completion and other executive functioning skills.

To-Do Lists for Kids and Executive Function

First, let’s cover executive functioning. Does it have to do with how high powered executives function? Not, really, but there may be some meaning behind their title, “executive.” 

According to the reviewers at Psychology Today, executive function is a mental process to help people, plan and execute their goals. They include attention, working memory, problem solving, task initiation and impulse control. 

Development of Executive Functioning skills

About development of executive functioning skills: These functions are believed to be housed in the prefrontal cortex. Because it is right at the front, we know it has to be important, right? Correct. These are the important life skills that one needs to succeed in life. These skills start in infancy but do not fully develop until the 20’s or 30’s! This is the reason your college student is so scattered, impulsive, and needy.

My own observations lead me to believe the prefrontal cortex is becoming developed later and later in a person’s life. Thirty years ago, these processes were well developed by 18. Now “children” well into their twenties are relying on their parents and teachers for advice, or using maladaptive coping strategies for assistance. 

How does this relate to the high powered executive? 

In order to become and thrive as an executive, often at the top of their field, people need to have excellent task management skills, emotional regulation, organization, leadership, and the ability to multitask. Interestingly enough, these are all of the buzzwords included in job descriptions and resumes, because they are the measure of success in a job. 

Children and adults who struggle with these executive function skills are likely to have difficulty managing their time, starting and finishing tasks, following mult-step directions, and staying organized. The coworker with the messiest office, who is always losing things, is often struggling with executive function. 

Does this mean people with executive function disorder (EFD) are less intelligent than their counterparts? 

Not necessarily. While high executive function skills can often be paired with a higher IQ, people with a lower EF learn to cope with their inability to perform these tasks. They use strategies to compensate, and often succeed.

This sounds a lot like Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)! It does. Often those diagnosed with ADD have executive function disorder as part of their set of symptoms. They also exhibit additional symptoms such as impulsive behavior, difficulty with emotional regulation, inability to maintain attention even in an optimal environment or with a preferred task. 

For more information on executive functions and the disorders associated with them, this article in psychology today is informative and thorough in describing EF skills and related challenges.

How to support Task Completion

Now that I have identified that half of my caseload has executive function disorder, what strategies can I use to combat this and help develop these skills? 

Once you identify which of the executive functions are not well developed, each can be worked on individually, or a program of strategies to assist your student with overall executive function is useful. 

The OT Toolbox has some great free printables to assist with strategies for executive function disorder. 

Kids To-Do List

Below, you can access our free Task Completion Checklist. This to-do list for kids breaks down tasks into a list with check boxes. Kids, and the support system they are utilizing (teachers, parents, therapists, caregivers, etc.) can identify and itemize the tasks that the student needs to achieve on a daily or weekly basis.

The kids to-do list is broken down into a list so that the user can see each step. The printable daily task list is open-ended so that steps can be listed out on each line, or multiple steps can be indicated in a single task.

For example, when a student needs to gather their backpack to go to school in the morning, there are several steps to that daily chore. The individual steps can be indicated on the to-do list.

Use the to-do list in a few different ways

  • Add daily tasks
  • Break down complex tasks like getting ready to leave the house in the morning
  • Add tasks that include several steps
  • Include tasks that need to be done several times/day such as turn off the lights when you leave a room

These can be used as stand alone activities, or part of your student’s strategy notebook. In this notebook several activities and strategies can be collected and placed in plastic sleeves for easy access and reference. 

This printable to-do list can be used with older individuals as well, from teens on through adults.

This printable to-do list can also be utilized to support the adult with executive function disorder.

More Task Completion Strategies

If your prefrontal cortex is developed, or you have good executive function, you probably already use strategies to stay on top of your game. I can think of ten strategies I use to make sure I don’t forget anything.

  1. Lists on my phone 
  2. Calendars 
  3. Reminder messages on my phone 
  4. Written schedule 
  5. Routines 
  6. Alarms 
  7. Sticky notes 
  8. Asking other people to be accountable to remember their own appointments 
  9. Putting things away in the same place each time 
  10. Staying organized and clean 

Even though my executive function skills are well developed, stressful situations can destroy even the best skills. Therefore I have many strategies in place so I do not forget important events, where I put things, which students I am seeing, what is on the grocery list, and so forth. 

This comes naturally to me as I am an organized person. For others, this will be challenging, and needs to be taught. Start to develop these strategies and coping mechanisms while your students are young. 

There are other resources available on the OT Toolbox, such as the impulse control journal by Colleen Beck. Details about The Impulse Control Journal:

“This 80 page impulse control journal for kids to keep track of their day 

  • 30 Drawing Journal Pages to reflect and pinpoint individual strategies
  • 28 Journal Lists so kids can write quick checklists regarding strengths, qualities, supports, areas of need, and insights 
  • 8 Journaling worksheets to pinpoint coping skills, feelings, emotions, and strategies that work for the individual 
  • Daily and Weekly tracking sheets for keeping track of tasks and goals
  • Mindset,Vision, and Habit pages for helping kids make an impact
  • Self-evaluation sheets to self-reflect and identify when inhibition is hard and what choices look like
  • Daily tracker pages so your child can keep track of their day
  • Task lists to monitor chores and daily tasks so it gets done everyday
  • Journal pages to help improve new habits 
  • Charts and guides for monitoring impulse control so your child can improve their self-confidence 
  • Strategy journal pages to help kids use self-reflection and self-regulation so they can succeed at home and in the classroom 
  • Goal sheets for setting goals and working to meet those goals while improving persistence 
  • Tools for improving mindset to help kids create a set of coping strategies that work for their needs

Click here for more information on The Impulse Control Journal to support completion of daily tasks.

Do not despair! Most children grow up to be functioning adults. They leave the nest (or basement) eventually, and find their way. We can however do our part in teaching these strategies early and consistently, so they fly out of the nest instead of falling head first. 

Free To Do List for Kids

Want a copy of this task completion worksheet? Print off this to-do list for kids and support development of executive functioning skills, for any age!

Free To-Do List for Kids

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    Victoria Wood, OTR/L is a contributor to The OT Toolbox and has been providing Occupational Therapy treatment in pediatrics for more than 25 years. She has practiced in hospital settings (inpatient, outpatient, NICU, PICU), school systems, and outpatient clinics in several states. She has treated hundreds of children with various sensory processing dysfunction in the areas of behavior, gross/fine motor skills, social skills and self-care. Ms. Wood has also been a featured speaker at seminars, webinars, and school staff development training. She is the author of Seeing your Home and Community with Sensory Eyes.

    Forest Animals Worksheets for Skills

    by
    free forest animal worksheets

    In this blog post, you can grab a fee set of forest animals worksheets for building skills in several fine motor and visual motor areas. Develop cutting, coloring, and visual perceptual skills all in one task! The forest animal activities include bear, fox, and even a forest mushroom to work on scissor skills, coloring, and visual perception.

    Free forest animal worksheets to address coloring, scissor skills, and visual perception with a woodland animal theme.

    Forest Animals Worksheets for Therapy

    Children have the attention span roughly equal to their age x 3-4 minutes. According to this site, a five year old can hold his/her attention for about 15 minutes before wanting to change tasks.

    As a practicing therapist, working with non-typical students, I find this is a stretch. In my experience, children can attend for about ONE minute for every year they age. This being said, finding activities that build multiple skills at once, such as cutting and coloring in one task is key. 

    The free download below, is just such an activity. When kids complete the forest animals coloring and cutting pages, they develop many skill areas:

    • Hand strength (coloring and cutting)
    • Scissor skills
    • Bilateral coordination
    • Pencil control
    • Line awareness
    • Spatial awareness
    • Visual perceptual skills
    • Attention
    • Visual memory

    With electronics taking over classrooms, it is especially important to take time to work on building foundation skills such as cutting, coloring, pasting, and visual perception using hands-on activities such as these Scissor Skills Puzzles.

    Too many young children do not have the right fine motor skill development, creating maladaptive pencil grasp, poor handwriting, or inability to manipulate fasteners. 

    It is often difficult to motivate children to work on cutting and coloring. Because it is a challenging task with many opportunities for failure, it is often avoided by children. Math, while presenting many challenges itself, is predictable and steady, thus a more preferred task for those who struggle with visual motor development.

    Free Forest Animals Worksheets

    The Forest Friends Scissor Skills Puzzles are great worksheets to build fine motor skills such as cutting and coloring, while also developing visual perceptual skills. 

    You will find ways to make tasks such as Forest Friends Scissor Skills Puzzles engaging, interesting, and motivating to each individual learner. A few colored markers, some glitter, and a theme your child enjoys, can make the difference between a positive and negative task.

    These worksheets can be adapted and modified to meet the needs of several types of learners. Consider these ideas to grade this activity: 

    Change the Scissors to address various skill areas: 

    ● Change the scissor size or tool: small toddler scissors are just right for tiny hands. 

    ● Self opening or loop scissors are another way to make cutting easier for those learning to cut, or lacking the intrinsic hand muscles to open and close scissors. 

    ● Did you know left handed people cut in a clockwise direction while their right handed friends cut counter-clockwise? This allows the helper hand to support the paper adequately while cutting. 

    ● See this article on developing scissor skills for more ways to develop cutting skills using this free download.

    Change the Paper to address various skill areas:

    ● lightweight paper is much more difficult to stabilize than heavy weight construction or cardstock paper. 

    ● Colored paper may be easier or more difficult for children to work with because of color contrasts. 

    ● The page can be laminated first, using wipe off markers to color in the design. This is a great way to make this page reusable. Cutting the pieces before coloring it may be necessary. Although this takes away the cutting task, it may be a great adaptation for children who are not able to cut yet. 

    Use various Writing utensils with these forest animal worksheets:

    ● There are endless possibilities for coloring. Markers, crayons, colored pencils, paints, watercolor, chalk, or dry erase pens all provide different input, and require different levels of fine motor skill to manipulate. 

    ● Small one inch crayons are excellent for developing those tiny hand muscles. 

    ● Chalk, with its grainy texture, provides sensory feedback and can be a positive (or negative) experience 

    ● Markers glide easily, requiring less precision and grip strength ● Change writing utensils to appeal to different students and improve their level of motivation. 

    Use the Forest animal worksheets to address Visual perception: 

    ● Puzzles are a great way to work on visual perception.

    ● Figure ground, parts to whole, and visual closure are important to academic development. 

    ● Many adults are unable to complete puzzles or find missing objects because they can not perceive parts to a whole. They only see the forest, not the individual trees. 

    For more cut, paste and color activities, check out this Animal Alphabet workbook! 

    To improve cutting skills, this scissor skills workbook is also available.

    With children’s limited attention span, and increasing demands on therapy time, an all in one activity that develops cutting, coloring and visual perceptual skills at the same time is an efficient and fun way to build the fine motor foundation.

    Download the free forest animals worksheets

    To use these forest animal color and cut puzzles, enter your email address into the form below. Start working on fine motor and visual perceptual skills in man different ways!

    Free Forest Animals Worksheets

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      Victoria Wood, OTR/L is a contributor to The OT Toolbox and has been providing Occupational Therapy treatment in pediatrics for more than 25 years. She has practiced in hospital settings (inpatient, outpatient, NICU, PICU), school systems, and outpatient clinics in several states. She has treated hundreds of children with various sensory processing dysfunction in the areas of behavior, gross/fine motor skills, social skills and self-care. Ms. Wood has also been a featured speaker at seminars, webinars, and school staff development training. She is the author of Seeing your Home and Community with Sensory Eyes.

      Easy christmas ornaments for kids to make

      by
      Christmas crafts for kids

      If you are looking for the perfect Christmas ornaments for kids to make, then you are in the right place! Crafting ornaments with kids is a holiday tradition, but when you use these inspiring ornament ideas, kids will also develop skills in a big way. Incorporate these ornament activities into your therapy.

      These are the best Christmas ornament crafts for kids to make in therapy, the classroom parties, in preschool, or at home while building fine motor skills.

      ‘Tis the season for ornament creation!  That’s right, the Christmas tree is either up or on its way and with that comes the family decorating event.  Who doesn’t like adorning their family tree with your children’s wonderful ornament creations!  Occupational therapy practitioners absolutely LOVE a good Christmas ornament that is chocked-full of therapeutic benefits!  

      Ornament Ideas that Build Fine Motor Skills

      An ornament creation that addresses important skills like finger and hand strength, manipulation, finger isolation, force control, bilateral coordination, planning and sequencing, grasp, body awareness, tactile tolerance, and well, social engagement is the right therapeutic activity for the season. 

      In this post, these fun and creative ornament activities will engage any child and help therapists to address important skills while also utilizing simple materials that can be found either at home, lying around the therapy room, or in the classroom. 

      If you simply cannot find the materials, most can be found in nature, at a dollar or craft store, in a recycle bin, or simply by asking a friend or neighbor!  Most activities just need a few materials or supplies and will make great memories for years and years to come. 

      Below is a list of varied ornament creations, which utilize a variety of crafting materials. You’ll find ornament creations ranging from easy to more difficult making some easily completable by younger kids to those that involve more skill and more time for older kids.  So read on and get festive this holiday season! 

      These are some of the best Christmas ornaments for kids to make because they build fine motor skills in a big way!

      Bead Ornaments

      Using beads promotes a precision grasp, in-hand manipulation, separation of the sides of the hand, a tripod grasp, and arch development. Use these bead ornament ideas as a new favorite thing on the Christmas tree!

      Cardboard Ornaments

      Cardboard is a material that develops hand strength when tearing, ripping, folding, and cutting. Use cardboard to make ornaments that will look stunning on a holiday tree.

      Craft Stick Ornaments

      Craft sticks are a crafting material that can be found at the dollar store and builds motor skills in a big way: bilateral coordination, eye-hand coordination, and more. Stick them together to make a snowflake ornament or a triangle shaped reindeer face. Add a bit of hot glue to make those craft stick ornaments last for years and years!

      Paper Ornaments

      Kids can make ornament crafts using paper and create a great gift that will delight grandparents or parents, and use simple materials. Plus, manipulating paper offers opportunities to tear, rip, fold, glue, and paint. All of these build sensory motor skills and hand strength in kids. 

      Pine Cone Ornaments

      Pine cone ornaments are an easy ornament for kids to make. Paint them to make a tree or a snowman, or add craft pom pom or sequin as decorations, and this DIY ornament will bring a smile for years. 

      Pipe Cleaner Ornaments

      Pipe cleaners are a fun Christmas ornament for kids to make because they encourage use of bilateral coordination, motor planning, and precision in the hands. Bend them into Christmas trees, Santa, or a bell shape for an easy DIY ornament. Add buttons, beads, or bling for a sparkly fine motor activity that will look great on the tree.

      Craft Pom-Pom Ornaments

      Craft pom poms are found at the dollar store, making these ideas frugal and fun Christmas ornaments for kids to make. Add a bit of embroidery floss to create a pom pom banner or a dangling loop of pom poms!

      Ribbon Ornament Ideas

      Kids can make Christmas ornament crafts with ribbon to work on fine motor precision, coordination, and in-hand manipulation skills. Managing and placing a ribbon with glue or sequins adds so many fine motor experiences.

      Salt Dough Ornaments

      Mixing, stirring, kneading, and rolling salt dough is a great way to build hand strength while crafting during the holidays. Try these fun, sensory holiday crafts:

      Washi Tape Ornaments

      There is fine motor power in using tape! By peeling and sticking pieces of tape, children develop hand strength, separation of the sides of the hand, bilateral coordination, wrist stabilization, and much more.

      Yarn, Thread, and Twine Ornaments

      Cutting and managing yarn, twine, and thread materials builds precision, dexterity, in-hand manipulation, eye-hand coordination, bilateral coordination, and many more fine motor skills. Try these string ornaments with kids:

      Miscellaneous Material Ornaments

      Using materials such as acrylic paint, wood slices, clay, or even puzzle pieces make lovely Christmas crafts that develop big fine motor skills. These are great ornament crafts for school parties, classroom fun, the therapy caseload (when attention spans are running low this time of year!) or even with preschoolers!

      Christmas Activities Using Ornaments

      Also, would you like some bonus activities that include the use of ornaments?  I’ve included a fun list of activities that children can perform at home, during therapy, and even in the classroom. They work on a variety of skills that children either need to build or develop while engaging them with some festive motivational fun! Take a look:

      1. Christmas Ornament Memory and Sorting Game | The OT Toolbox
      2. Tubes and Christmas Baubles | Happy Toddler Playtime
      3. Ornament Scooping | Toddler Approved
      4. Christmas Tree Balance Activity | The Inspired Treehouse
      5. Candy Cane Counting with Beads | Fun Learning for Kids
      6. Christmas Coding STEM Challenge | Little Bins for Little Hands 
      7. Christmas Ornament Balance Game | Happy Toddler Playtime
      8. Decorate the Christmas Tree Activity with ABC Ornaments | Hands On As We Grow
      9. Ornament Toss | Learn As You Play
      10. Hanging Ornaments | D.I.Y. Unlimited Fun
      Regina Allen

      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!

      Introducing The OT Toolbox Member Therapy Club

      by
      The OT Toolbox therapy club membership

      Many readers of The OT Toolbox have asked for a place to access all of our downloads in one place. They’ve requested a subscription to our most popular products. Readers have requested a way to access our blog posts without the distraction of ads. And now, that resource is here! Already, many occupational therapy professionals are now grabbing the variety of benefits inside the club. Although helping others is the most significant benefit, many other amazing privileges are derived when joining this long-awaited membership club. Let’s take a look at the new resource here on the website: the brand new occupational therapy toolbox membership!

      The OT Toolbox members club membership for occupational therapists is an occupational therapy club that offers tools to help kids develop.

      Today, I wanted to share with you, as the creator of The OT Toolbox, more about one of my biggest goals for this website.

      Since it’s creation, the mission of The OT Toolbox has been to help therapy professionals, parents, educators, (and anyone working with children) to help the kids they love and serve, to thrive and develop skills. My goal has always been to provide therapists, educators, and parents with the resources they need to help kids thrive…at a free or low cost while saving you time so you can help those children.

      Occupational Therapy professionals go through years of schooling, and then fieldwork placements. However, once they are out in the field, that education and learning as a professional doesn’t end. OT professionals attend continuing education courses, attend professional affiliation meetings, and are constantly learning and developing as a professional. Many go on to gain additional certifications or degrees. And there are fabulous communities of OT professionals to be found on Facebook and other social media outlets.

      These are face-to-face and virtual spaces where you can find resources, ask other OTs questions, and grow as a professional through a community environment. But many times, therapy professionals struggle to find the precise tools to serve their clients. 

      • We spend hours outside of the job looking for activity ideas.
      • We purchase treatment materials with our own money.
      • We spend evenings and weekends surfing blogs to access downloads and find the information that we need.
      The OT Toolbox Member's Club for occupational therapy professionals and anyone serving kids.

      The OT Toolbox Member’s Club

      All of this is the WHY behind The OT Toolbox Member’s Club.

      My goal for this website has always been to provide therapists, educators, and parents with the resources they need to help kids thrive…at a free or low cost while saving you time so you can help those children.

      And, The OT Toolbox has provided that resource. But now it’s even better.

      Get new therapy resources each month in this occupational therapy club.

      New Therapy Resources Each Month

      Therapy professionals, educators, parents, and anyone helping kids develop skills pay for materials and resources out of their own pocket. I wanted to over-deliver valuable tools that can be added to their “toolbox” without spending an arm and a leg each month. With the Member’s Club, members will get new materials each month. They can click right on a button and download what they need.

      New resources cover all areas: handwriting, cursive writing, letter formation, pencil control, executive functioning skills, visual perceptual skills, fine motor skills, life skills, scissor skills, gross motor skills, self-regulation, social emotional skills, functional tasks like self-care, keyboarding, and more.

      New resources are a benefit of both Level 1 membership and Level 2 (premium) membership.

      One perk of the OT Toolbox Member's club is access to our hundreds of downloads, with the click of a button.

      Therapy Downloads all in one place

      >>>I wanted to take all of the free downloads on the site and make it faster to access. Therapy professionals are looking for materials in their precious down time. That time after working long days should go to family time, self-care, and rest…so you CAN serve your clients at the level they need. I wanted to offer an option to get those materials like handouts, printable materials, worksheets, slide decks, and e-books right away. Without entering your email for each one, having to go to your inbox to get it, and then spending time surfing the site to find another complementary resource.

      This is a benefit of both Level 1 membership and Level 2 (premium) membership.

      Therapy Kits are themed PDF packs of occupational therapy resources and tools to support kids' development.

      Monthly Therapy Kits

      >>>I wanted to take our most popular products, our Fine Motor Kits, and offer them on a subscription level…so you pay one price and get a year’s worth of materials and themes. So the kids that love these activities can complete fine motor, handwriting, cutting, executive function, self-regulation, social emotional TASKS again and again and not realize that the fun, themed activity they are doing is actually helping them grow and develop as an individual.

      Monthly Therapy Kits are a benefit of our premium, Level 2 membership.

      Exclusive Coupon Codes

      >>>I wanted to offer VIP readers (the ones that love this site and keep coming back), our best discounts. 

      Both levels of membership receive a coupon code for 20% items in our shop. This coupon code can be used over and over again. (Exclusions apply: The code does not apply to Vendor Products, resources created by outside therapy businesses and hosted on The OT Toolbox shop.)

      You can now read The OT Toolbox in an ad-free experience when you join the OT Member's Club.

      AD-Free Blog Content

      >>>I wanted to take all of the information found on The OT Toolbox and make it easier to read. Easier to access. And easier to consume. I wanted to offer an ad-free environment for readers to access the information on this website.

      Ads are a necessary part of the internet. It’s what keeps this site running so we can pay the hosting bills and email service providers. It’s what allows us to pay contributor writers, who offer their expertise and experiences in blog posts. Ads are what pay for the systems and technology so we can create and deliver free downloads. So they are a must for delivering great materials…but I wanted to make the content so easy to digest that you can implement it right away and help your kids’ thrive.

      Ad-free content is a benefit of Level 2, premium membership.

      All of this is WHY the OT Toolbox Member’s Club has come to be!

      A Club for Occupational Therapists

      And when I say a “club for occupational therapists”, I really mean ALL OTs: OTs, OTAs, OT students, and OT faculty.

      But, in reality, this therapy club benefits the child. It has materials and resources for anyone that works with kids on accomplishing skills: professionals that work with therapists, parents whose children receive or potentially receive OT, educators, counselors, advisors, speech therapy professionals, physical therapists, physical therapy students, and others in the speech language or physical therapy profession.

      As “helpers”, much of our time is spent managing full schedules, offering consultation, and dealing with payor sources. The time to create resources and find fresh intervention material is just not always available.

      …if you serve a child who is developing skills, or you have a passion for helping kids with or without disabilities, this therapy club is for you.

      Our occupational therapy club offers monthly resources, and many more benefits.

      Introducing: The OT Toolbox Member’s Club

      The Member’s Club is a membership program that is designed to help you simplify your life while helping the kids you serve, every day.

      Inside The Member’s Club we deliver activities that are designed for kids from toddlers-teens. AND we design handouts for educational purposes. AND we create tools to make service providers lives’ easier.

      • All of our downloads are in one place, broken down by skill area so you don’t have to enter your email address every time.
      • You can read the entire website without the distraction of ads.
      • You get tons of exclusive & new resources to use each month.
      • AND you get access to a monthly Therapy Toolkit.

      Helping To Teach Others

      Included in the Club are materials to educate others. You’ll find educational handouts and resources that explain why a child might struggle in the way they do. You’ll find “red flag” resources to help determine if your child needs to be seen by an occupational therapist.

      You’ll find a variety of resources and tools to help teach others so that the kids you serve thrive.

      You’ll find educational handouts such as:

      • Handwriting Tips
      • Impulse Control Strategies
      • Sensory Processing Red Flags
      • Visual Processing Red Flags
      • Self-Monitoring Handouts
      • MORE

      Leadership Skills

      Also in the Club, you’ll find therapist resources and tools to help therapists develop professionally. These are the materials needed to develop leadership skills. When we make a targeted attempt to better ourselves professionally, we learn and accomplish goals. This personal growth as a professional better serves those we treat.

      Some of the therapy professional tools include materials such as:

      • Evidence appraisal forms
      • Meet the therapist forms
      • Therapy planning tools
      • Strategies to advance as a clinician (Coming in December!)
      • How to advance clinical reasoning (Coming in December!)
      • Professional Collaboration Strategies (Coming in December!)
      • MORE

      Helping You Be a Better OT

      Inside The Member’s Club we deliver activities that are designed for kids from toddlers-teens! AND we design handouts for educational purposes. AND we create tools to make service providers lives’ easier.

      The therapy Club is designed to support you at any point in the journey – whether you’re just starting out or a seasoned expert at getting kids the “just right” challenge when building skills.

      Kids need fun & engaging activities more than ever. And you need a way to track data each progress period. You need carryover at home. And you need low-prep/no-prep materials. Kids need -more than ever- to address regulation, strengthen fine motor skills, support executive functioning, and more.

      And if you know anything about The OT Toolbox, it’s that we love to over-deliver when it comes to resources.

      I love to support the parents, teachers, therapy professionals, caregivers…everyone working with kids that need engaging tasks that build skills. Take a look…

      And check out how to join The OT Toolbox Member’s Club!

      As a club member, there are two levels of options:

      Level 1 Membership–

      • Access to all of our downloads with one click
      • New resources and tools each month
      • An exclusive coupon in The OT Toolbox shop, to use whenever you want

      Level 2 Membership–

      • Access to all of our downloads with one click
      • New resources and tools each month
      • An exclusive coupon in The OT Toolbox shop, to use whenever you want
      • ADS-Free experience on the entire website
      • 12 Themed Therapy Kits (one each month)
      • One click access to our newsletter subscriber library without entering your password
      There are 2 levels of membership in The Member's Club. Select the therapy club level that works best for you.
      There are 2 levels of membership in The Member’s Club. Select the one that works best for you.

       Reasons to Become a Member

      Here’s what I know for sure…

      Therapists spend a TON of their own personal time on planning therapy sessions, purchasing toys and resources to use in therapy sessions. This membership saves you time, effort, and gives you back your weekends.

      Parents, educators, and caregivers, counselors…anyone serving children needs a structured and focused set of strategies to solve developmental needs in kids.

      Whether you’re serving kids with regulation needs, sensory challenges, handwriting & pencil grasp issues, or other specific need areas, we’ve got you covered on easy, structured, and FUN therapy ideas.

      And I want the same for you.

      This is how I came to create The OT Toolbox Member’s Club.

      I would love to officially welcome you to the OT Toolbox Therapy Club!

      Occupational Therapy Club Tools & Training

      Take a look inside the Club

      Here’s a sneak peek of what your member dashboard looks like and how you’ll access your activity plans:

      The OT Toolbox dashboard is a therapy club for downloadable resources.

      DASHBOARD AREA- When you go to the main dashboard, you’ll see toolboxes for each skill area. Click on the button and you’ll get all of the downloads available on the site for that area. Just click download and you are good to go with the tools you need. There are hundreds of downloads here…

      New resources each month in the OT therapy club

      WHAT’S NEW SECTION- These materials will be new each month, so you get themed tools to use based on the season, holiday, or topic. This month, we’ve got Thanksgiving and Forest Animals activities. But, you’ll also find resources you can use year-round for handwriting, executive functioning, cursive, etc. Each month, those “evergreen” materials will be moved to their corresponding “download library” so you can get them when you need them. And the next month, you’ll find more seasonal materials added to the “what’s new” page. 

      THERAPY KITS EACH MONTH- Then, if you are a premium subscriber (Level 2), you get a Therapy Toolkit each month. This month’s kit is our Thanksgiving Kit. Each month will be a new kit…along with some surprise bonuses..:) 

      OTHER BENEFITS:

      • Plus, when you join the premium level, you get no ads on the entire OT Toolbox website. Readers have asked begged for this feature!
      • Exclusive coupon code that never expires…use it as long as you are a member!

      If you still have questions about the Member’s therapy Club, just reach out to me and let me know.

      Join The OT Toolbox Member’s Club now.

      The OT Toolbox membership therapy club for OT professionals

      FAQ About This Therapy Club

      These are frequently asked questions that have been asked about The OT Toolbox therapy club for Members:

      Is The OT Toolbox website and newsletter going away?

      NOPE! This is a great question. The website and email newsletter is not changing. I’m still planning on all of the blog content, freebies you can download by entering your email address, and everything you’re used to seeing! It will be the same old The OT Toolbox, just with a membership option as well. I’ve had SO many requests for a membership over the years that this is just another option to access and use the materials!

      Are there group membership options?

      YES! There are discounted group options for groups of 5, 10, 20, 50, 80, and larger groups. Just reach out and I can get your clinic, faculty, or small group of friends set up!

      What is the difference between Level 1 and Level 2?

      Level 1 gets:

      1. All of the downloads on our site, instantly. Browse for what you need and just hit the “download” button.
      2. NEW resources each month. These are seasonal and evergreen materials: handouts, activities, worksheets, and so much more.
      3. A coupon code to use any time, as often as you like. Save 20% on products in the shop (exclusions apply: it won’t work on our Vendor Products- the items created by other therapists & hosted on our shop)

      Level 2 gets:

      1. Everything listed above AND
      2. Monthly Therapy Kits (a $140+ value)
      3. Easy access to your subscriber library: just click & you’re in. No password needed

      Will you ever offer discount codes?

      This is something that we have considered, but felt it would be better to offer an occasional bonus incentive to join the membership. For example, when you join before Tuesday the 9th, you will get our Sensory Diet Book & Sensory Diet Workbook ($25 value). This is yours to keep. We will run another incentive in mid-2022 with a big incentive to join. Current members (that’s those of you who join now) will get access to that bonus too. We felt a larger value bonus is more useful than saving $5.

      What are the Therapy Kits in Level 2? What do they include?

      Our therapy kits are the most popular products on The OT Toolbox. They include fine motor activities like clip cards, crafts, toothpick art, glue dot art, lacing cards, scissor puzzles, cutting activities, handwriting tasks, gross motor activities, brain breaks, and so much more. Each kit is a bit different but engaging and fun. Kids love them! Currently we have about 8 seasonal kits.

      The ones that Level 2 Members will get will be all new. This month’s kit is our Thanksgiving Kit, but only because that wasn’t purchased by many folks, so I knew it would be a new resource to so many. In upcoming months there will be new kits, plus occasional bonus kits. For example, there will be a Christmas kit plus a snowman kit because not everyone can use Christmas materials.

      What ages/levels can use the materials?

      The Member’s Club covers all ages. Those working in early intervention will find activities designed to build skills. Those serving kids in K-6 will find materials for fine motor, self-regulation, social emotional skills, gross motor skills, executive functioning, handwriting, and cursive writing. 

      Those serving kids in Middle School or High School will find handwriting, executive functioning materials, and life skills activities. Upcoming months will even find hand therapy materials for those working in pediatric hand rehabilitation! (These materials are FANTASTIC for building fine motor strength and dexterity!)

      I hope this answers some of your questions! If you have any other questions, please reach out!

      Click here to join The OT Toolbox Member’s Club.

      How has joining a therapy club helped you?

      Do you subscribe to Netflix? A bulk grocery store like Costco? Do you get a monthly delivery of curated clothing, or a kids’ craft kit (like Kiwi Crate)? Do you order a monthly delivery of dog food, diapers, or organic chicken eggs? So many of us have monthly subscriptions that fill needs. They make our lives easier. The same is true with The Member’s Club.

      Club Members are saying this:

      “I’ve been looking for exactly this: ideas to help with treatment planning.. they even have a monthly theme ideas.“ 

      “I’m a busy therapist and I need materials all in one place: Somewhere I don’t have to spend hours searching for materials…or entering my email for each resource.” 

      Professionals like you need The OT Toolbox Member’s Club to make lives easier.

      • The Member’s Club takes care of resource creation. 
      • We hold onto a year’s worth of themed materials so you don’t need to search Pinterest or Instagram on your time off. 
      • We cover the most important topics and research and deliver it in digestible blog posts. 
      • We offer monthly kits that save you money and time.

      One thing is for sure. We all have a common goal to help kids develop and thrive as individuals. We have a passion to help children. That’s where this therapy club comes in. 

      If you need additional information, please reach out to contact@theottoolbox-com

      See you inside the 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.

      Instant Results With Multi Sensory Strategies For B And D Reversals

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      b and d reversals

      A common challenge for many children is letter b and d reversals. When kids first learn to write, is is very common for them to reverse letter b and d. Here, we are talking specific multisensory strategies to address reversal of these tricky letters.

      Letter b and d reversals and multisensory strategies for teaching letter reversals.

      b and d reversals

      Letter b-d reversals are very common among children. We see these letters interchanged in reading, in writing, in isolation, and in words or sentences that contain both letters. But why are the letters b and d reversed so often?

      Oh, those dreaded letter reversals and the need to change them, what to do, what to do, what to do.

      Why are b and d reversals so common?

      These two letters are the most commonly reversed letters, and it can even be a normal part of development.

      It’s important to know that it is common for young children such as preschoolers and kindergartens to reverse some letters.  However, by age seven and at the latest age 8, children should be infrequently or not reversing letters at all. If they are doing it frequently and with little success despite remediation, you should consider testing to determine if there are other issues that need to be addressed first. 

      If b and d letter reversal is an issue for a student consistently above the age of 8, a visual processing problem, or dyspraxia, dysgraphia or dyslexia may be present, impacting letter confusion in written work or reading.

      Read about more information on dyslexia and occupational therapy.

      How to Correct b and d letter reversals

      Let’s go over various ways to help young learners by correcting letter b and letter d reversals. 

      Children need to always be taught HOW to form letters, not given worksheets to trace and left to figure it out on their own as this just leads to them piecing letters together with no instruction in proper sequence or stroke direction.  

      This is a PROBLEM! 

      Lowercase b is formed from the top down with a vertical line. Then the round part of the letter is formed. Kids typically get that process. 

      But then, lowercase d is introduced. Sometimes, children also form letter d from the top, down, by starting at the top of the line. They make the vertical line down because that motor plan is established. Then, they need to add the curved portion of lower case d and they have confusion about which way to go. That’s when you see a letter reversal. 

      Part of the issue with common letter reversals like the b/d issue is that the motor plan for each letter isn’t established fully. This occurs in young children as they begin writing and learning correct letter formation. 

      Another issue is that letters are not formed correctly (starting letter d at the top rather than forming the “c” part of the letter first. You can get a better understanding of letter formation in our blog post on how to teach letters and the order of letter formation.

      Children need to be TAUGHT from the beginning how to form each letter with the correct start point, sequence, and stroke directionality. Repeated errors in formation only further reinforce reversals and leads to more difficulty with repairing them down the road.  Don’t allow repeated formation errors, but do seek to work toward good habits in formation.  

      Multi-sensory strategies for b and d  Reversals

      But if you need ideas to assist a child in repairing learned reversal behaviors, take a look at this varied list of ideas and pick what you think will work best for your children. 

      Some intervention strategies will work better for one child while other strategies will work better for another, so always use the one that works best for each child.

      Choose a multi-sensory activity and work on letter recognition as well as formation using visual cues, verbal cues (auditory cues), and kinesthetic input to practice lower case b and lower case d in isolation as well as together.

      • Ensure a child first has solid left and right discrimination on themselves, others, and in space. Incorporate visual spatial relations with movement. Understand that spatial awareness impacts handwriting in many ways. Letter reversals are just one aspect.
      • Teach letters in groups. For example, teach the letter that have similar stroke patterns.  Take a look at how the Learning without Tears™ program does this. For example, they call the first group the “magic ‘c’ letters” this includes: ‘c’, ‘a’, ‘d’, ‘g’, ‘o’, and ‘q’. They all begin with a letter ‘c’ stroke. Then they have a group called the “diver letters” and this group includes: ‘b’, ‘h’, ‘r’, ‘n’, ‘m’, and ‘p’. They all begin with a line down and then swim up and over strokes. Using this approach coupled with the visuals provided helps a child to build a better mental image of some commonly reversed letters. 
      • Connect a frequently reversed letter to another letter of the alphabet that is similarly formed and that the child never reverses, like letter c. Lower case c can be connected to lower case d in formation.
      • Use your finger and form the letter on a child’s back. Have the child guess what letter it is. Follow with having the child air write the letter. End with the child writing the letter on paper. You can place a textured material under the paper such as sandpaper, plastic canvas, window screen material, etc.
      • Create textured letter cards for letter d and letter b. Have child finger trace over the letter forming with correct sequence and directionality. Have them try to do so with their eyes closed and then their eyes open. This builds the motor plan and muscle memory of each letter for the child. 
      • Use the Handwriting without Tears materials to include a small chalkboard with boundaries and have child begin forming letters under the smiley face located in the top left corner. 
      • Mark all of the p’s and b’s red to show that the loop is formed on right (both red and right start with the letter ‘r’) and then mark all of the q’s and d’s green to show that the loop is formed on the left. 
      • Develop consistent use of left and right direction using a variety of media and intervention activities. 
      • Have child first trace a really large letter on the board, form the letter independently, write the letter with eyes closed, and write the letter with eyes open. This increases interest and provides increased feedback. 
      • If a child reverses multiple letters such as: b/d, m/w, p/q, u/n then be sure to address one discrimination at a time. Be sure one set is solid before moving to the next. Note: Be sure to over-teach one letter in each set before addressing the next letter in the set.
      • Use multisensory materials to teach letter formations such as play dough, shaving cream, wikki sticks, puffy paint, hair gel, glitter glue, rice, sand, and yarn.  Be sure the child associates letter forms with the actual letter name so as they form the letter have them state the letter name. 

      Cognitive Cues to addressing b and d reversals

      Use cognitive cues to help a child distinguish letters such as:

      1. The lowercase letter ‘b’ is formed like the uppercase letter ‘B’, but without the top loop.
      2. The lowercase letter ‘d’ is formed with the lowercase letter ‘c’ first and the lowercase letter ‘c’ comes before the letter ‘d’ in the alphabet.
      3. The lowercase letter ‘d’ is formed with the lowercase letter ‘c’ and then add a line to form the letter ‘d’.
      4. The uppercase letter ‘E’ faces the number 3. 
      5. For letters ‘a’, ‘d’, ‘g’, and ‘q’ and the number 9, cue the child to use “c up down” as the method to form these letters and this number. 
      6. Use the b e d image. Show children how the b starts the word bed and d ends the word bed. This can be a positioning imagery that helps with adding a visual to correct reversals.
      7. Use the imagery of lowercase d having a diaper and lowercase b as a ball and bat. This can be confusing for some children as the images can be reversed, but for other children, these images can be motivating. After all diapers can be funny for some kids. Other kids are motivated by the sport of baseball. In this case, it’s about using what motivates the child.
      8. For the number 3, cue the child to use “around the tree, around the tree”.
      9. Consider ‘b’ and ‘d’ eyeglasses formed with fingers (like o.k. signs with final three fingers closed and standing up straight) or draw a ‘b’ and ‘d’ headboard and footboard of a bed as a fun visual cue. This is the order they come in the alphabet as well, ‘b’ before ‘d’. 
      10. Consider using a thumbs down sign on both hands to refer to the letters ‘p’ and ‘q’ as this is how they come in the alphabet, ‘p’ before ‘q’.

      Struggling readers may revers b and d when reading. And, studies have shown that children who made more errors in the letter writing task went on to become poorer readers.

      In this case, continue to work on the multisensory strategies listed above, but also use some of these tips during reading tasks:

      • Show the student how to make a letter b with their left hand by pointing their index finger up and making the round part of the letter with their closed fist. They can then use their right hand to make a lowercase letter d by pointing their pointer finger up and making the round part of the letter d with their closed fist. Then, when reading, show the reader how to use their left hand to point to letter b and to use their right hand to point to the lower case letter d’s. They can do this throughout the reading passage.
      • Encourage the reader to correct sounds when they read a letter incorrectly. Go back and re-read the word and feel the positioning of their lips and tongue as they say the word with the correct letter. Ask them to repeat the sound of letter b and the sound of letter d. This auditory practice will help to instill writing the letters correctly. It’s all about repetition and handwriting practice.

      How to correct b and d reversals

      If a child is still reversing letters after the age of 8, or continues to reverse letters no matter the visuals or tricks that you’ve tried, try some of these strategies listed below to correct letter confusion: 

      Offering visual cues can help!

      • Provide a model of frequently reversed letters on the desktop for the child to reference in the classroom.
      • Provide an index card with straight line down the middle and then write the letters on the card based on where the straight line is positioned within the letter. 

      For example:

        b d p q

      • Provide visual cue cards for the desktop that has pictures of fun reminders such as hands for a pair of eyeglasses or a bed for the letters ‘b’ and ‘d’ or a thumbs down sign with both hands for the letters ‘p’ and ‘q’. 
      • Try multisensory activities like rainbow writing with different materials.

      Take your time to teach the formation of letters and numbers as well as using a multi-sensory approach when teaching the letters. It will always pay off in the end for the child!  

      letter reversal strategies Handout

      Want a free PDF of multi-sensory letter reversal strategies? Enter your email address into the form below to access this printable handout. Use it in your handwriting toolbox to help kids write b & d!

      Letter b and d Reversals Strategies

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        Regina Allen

        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!

        Problem Solving Activities for Preschoolers

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        Problem solving skills in preschool

        It can be frustrating when children act without thinking of the consequences. In this blog post, you’ll learn about the development of problem solving in specific parts of our brain, discover important aspects of executive functioning that impact problem solving abilities, how to teach problem solving to preschoolers, and problem solving activities for preschoolers and young children so they can use words instead of the preschooler’s behaviors or tantrums.

        Best of all, many of our favorite fine motor activities for preschoolers support problem solving skills in early childhood.

        Problem solving skills in preschool

        Problem Solving Activities for Preschoolers

        Before we get into the problem solving activities for preschoolers, and specific strategies to use in early childhood, it’s important to understand the development of the problem-solving process in kids. Supporting small children by giving them the skills to be problem solvers takes time and practice. We’ll get to those specific strategies below.

        But first, does this scenario sound familiar at all…

        I just don’t understand why Johnny keeps throwing the ball in the house. Doesn’t he realized that he could break the window? Johnny is three and he loves to play with his tennis ball in the house. Even though I have told him over and over again that we don’t throw them in the house, I still catch him sneaking them indoors at least once a week. 

        Before we can address problem solving by helping kids look at the big picture and coming up with creative solutions for problem solving issues, we need to understand what is happening developmentally. Self-reflection is a challenging cognitive skill, and for young learners! 

        Let’s take a better look at the development of problem solving skills…

        Development of problem solving skills in preschoolers

        Development of Problem Solving Skills

        It’s through play, observation of others, and practice that young learners are developing problem solving skills in early childhood.

        Problem solving, rational thinking and reasoning are all skills that are controlled by a part of our brain called the prefrontal cortex. Our brains grow exponentially over the first five years of life, but not the part of our brain that helps us with critical thinking and problem solving skills. This part of our brain, called the prefrontal cortex, isn’t fully developed until we turn 25 years old! 

        As babies, we are exposed every day to new experiences, but at this age we don’t comprehend how these experiences affect us and those around us. If only children could think through their problems. This resource on executive functioning skills offers more information.

        Have you noticed that it can be a bit scary when teenagers get their drivers licenses? They don’t always think of “what might happen.” This is due to their prefrontal cortex not being fully developed. 

        But what about our three and four year olds? We know they can count, ask questions and get the cookie off the counter in a very sneaky way when we aren’t looking. In the Early Years study of 2011 called Making decisions, Taking action, they describe the prefrontal cortex entering a rapid period of development, making critical interconnections with our limbic system. (link: )

        This study states “The prefrontal cortex pathways that underlie these capacities are unique to human brains and take a long time to mature. Early connections begin in infancy. Between age 3 and 5 years, the prefrontal cortex circuits enter a rapid period of development and make critical interconnections with the limbic system. During adolescence and early adulthood, the neural pathways are refined and become more efficient.”

        What is so great about this part of the brain anyway? 

        As the prefrontal cortex (that is located behind out eyes) develops over the years, we are able to engage with situations differently, assessing our surroundings in a new way. As we develop these new executive functioning skills, we are able to keep ourselves safe, build friendships and become successful in our careers.

        Related, these friendship activities for preschoolers offers ideas and strategies to support social emotional development.

        This peer reviewed report competed by Merve Cikili Utyun, called Development Period of Prefrontal Cortex, discusses how amazing this part of our brain is, and how each of the three sections control different aspects of our functioning. It states that: 

        “ PFC includes the following Broadman Areas (BA): 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 44, 45, 46, 47. “The dorsolateral frontal cortex (BA) 9/46 has been functioned in many cognitive process, including processing spatial information, monitoring and manipulation of working memory, the implementation of strategies to facilitate memory, response selection, the organization of material before encoding, and the verification and evaluation of representations that have been retrieved from long-term memory. 

        The mid-ventrolateral frontal cortex (BA 47) has implicated cognitive functions, including the selection, comparison, and judgment of stimuli held in short-term and long-term memory, processing non-spatial information, task switching, reversal learning, stimulus selection, the specification of retrieval cues, and the ‘elaboration encoding’ of information into episodic memory.

        BA 10, the most anterior aspect of the PFC, is a region of association cortex known to be involved in higher cognitive functions, such as planning future actions and decision-making. BAs 44 and 45, include part of the inferior frontal and these regions’ functions are language production, linguistic motor control, sequencing, planning, syntax, and phonological processing.

        Finally, the orbitofrontal cortex mostly (BA 47, 10, 11, 13) in the orbitofrontal cortex has been implicated in processes that involve the motivational or emotional value of incoming information, including the representation of primary (unlearned) reinforcers such as taste, smell, and touch, the representation of learnt relationships between arbitrary neutral stimuli and rewards or punishments, and the integration of this information to guide response selection, suppression, and decision making.” 

        Wow! No wonder it takes so long for this part of our brain to fully develop. Problem solving skills in preschoolers take time to develop!

        When Johnny is throwing the ball inside the house, he is thinking about what is happening now, in the present. Not what has happened in the past (when he broke the window at grandmas house a year ago) or that breaking a window might happen in the future. 

        What are some problem solving techniques?

        Solving problems is a skill that all preschoolers need support with. This critical skill doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time and practice to become second nature.

        It’s hard for us, as adults, to remember that children ages 3-5 (preschool-aged) don’t yet have the brain capacity to problem solve on their own, or remember what they learned from a situation a week ago. 

        Just like when Andrew was painting at the easel and his paintbrush got stuck in the container. Instead of asking for help or trying to “unstick” the brush, he screamed.  Or when Sally and Samantha ran outside to grab the red bouncy ball, Samantha screamed when Sally grabs it first. She didn’t see the other red bouncy ball in the bucket next to the bikes. 

        Try some of these problem solving activities for kids:

        Observation- Children need problem solving strategies that they can observe, and then practice in their everyday lives. Let kids see you talk through problems as you “figure out” a solution. This gives children a chance to see a problem-solving approach in real life situations. They get to see problem solving scenarios in action.

        Repetition- Repetition supports brain growth in every area of development including problem solving, executive functioning, motor development, language skills and social development.

        Multisensory Activities- Children learn best with multi-sensory cues, learning new skills through seeing, touching, hearing and experiencing the skills they are learning. In 2013, the US National Library of Medicine published an article titled Neuropsychiatr Dis Treat. stating “The prefrontal cortex acquires information from all of the senses and orchestrates thoughts and actions in order to achieve specific goals.” (link: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3621648/)

        Creative Activities- Solving problems is a skill that all preschoolers need support with. It’s hard for us, as adults, to remember they don’t yet have the brain capacity to problem solve on their own. The best way to teach children how to problem solve, it to create activities that support these new skills in a positive way, that their developing brain understands. This letter to future self is one activity to work on goal achievement even at a young age. Preschoolers can draw a picture of what they would like to do or be as an older child or as a teenager or adult.

        Problem Solving Activities for Preschool

        Here are 3 Simple Ways to Teach Preschoolers to Solve Problems

        1.Teaching executive functioning and problem solving skills in everyday situations will support the growth of a child’s prefrontal cortex. For example, these activities that teach executive functioning at the beach show how much thought and preparation goes into building a simple sand castles.

        • Children have to think about how much sand to use, how to keep it standing, how to prevent sand from getting into their eyes and how to create another one if the one they are building falls down.
        • They must create, plan ahead, problem solve when things get tough and communicate to adults and peers for help.

        What other activities does your child do on a regular basis that requires all areas of the prefrontal cortex to activate?

        2.When children become upset, their emotions become so overwhelming that they can’t think. In order to calm down and problem solve, they need to access a multi sensory way to help them remember how to do that.

        Soothing Sammy gives children tactile and visual cues that remind them how to calm down and problem solve in a developmentally appropriate way. They can be reminded of this positive reinforcement with two words “Sammy Time!”

        By reading the book about the sweet golden retriever, who understands that everyone feels upset sometimes, children are encouraged to use all of the sensory strategies to calm down. They can talk to Sammy about what is happening and think through their problem to create a solution.

        Ashlie’s four year old daughter did just this. She reports: “When Molly was having some big emotions about coloring a picture and needed to calm down, she visited Sammy and returned with a solution to the problem she came up with all on her own (well with Sammy’s help).”

        Click here for more information on the Soothing Sammy resources.

        3.Problem solving requires us to remember what just happened, what is happening now and what do we want to happen next. A preschoolers brain tends to blend all three of these situations together, not able to communicate any of them until prompted by an adult. And as an adult, we are left “guessing” what our children are thinking about. Visual cues are a wonderful sensory communication tool to support both children and adults in the realm of solving problems.

        Using tools like “First/Then” cards to support routine and common situations like transitions and completing tasks. Using visuals clearly communicates what needs to be done, especially if using pictures of real children doing these tasks.

        A Final note about problem solving skills in preschool

        Solving problems are hard for young children, even teenagers, as their prefrontal cortex isn’t fully developed yet. Using multisensory teaching tools to support brain development, practicing tasks that teach executive functioning skills and using developmentally appropriate tools to help children calm down, will help even the most frustrating moments become a bit less stressful for children and adults. 

        As we learn to be more patient with children, understanding that the part of their brain needed to solve problems is just beginning to develop, repeating the same directions over and over again may not be so frustrating. Our children are doing the best they can. It’s up to us to provide them with experiences to help their brains grow and develop. 

        Jeana Kinne is a veteran preschool teacher and director. She has over 20 years of experience in the Early Childhood Education field. Her Bachelors Degree is in Child Development and her Masters Degree is in Early Childhood Education. She has spent over 10 years as a coach, working with Parents and Preschool Teachers, and another 10 years working with infants and toddlers with special needs. She is also the author of the “Sammy the Golden Dog” series, teaching children important skills through play.