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:

Scoop, Pour, Transfer Activities

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scooping, pouring, transferring activities

Scooping and pouring.  Toddlers pour, and dump toys (or cereal, a cup of water, a bin of diapers…) as soon as they discover that they can. It’s a developmentally appropriate skill that happens as mobility develops.  When little ones pick up a bowl or cup and turn out the contents on the floor, it may be frustrating to a mama that’s just picked up all of the toys in the house for the third time, but it is such a great function that is the occupation of play.  

These scooping and pouring activities can also help with questions of being ambidextrous or simply having a mixed dominance present.

Today, we’re exploring how scooping, pouring, and transferring materials benefits toddlers and preschoolers, in big ways. You can use this fun fine motor and visual perceptual motor activity with children at the toddler, preschooler, and school-aged levels to improve the precision of skills, practice math, and discover skills, all through scooping, pouring, and transferring small items.  

Use these scooping, pouring, and transferring activities to help preschoolers, toddlers, and older kids develop skills.

Scooping Activities for Toddlers

There are so many benefits to scooping, pouring, and transferring materials. These scooping activities for toddlers are an easy way to help to build motor skills in toddlers and preschoolers, at just the right stage of development. It’s during the toddler years that children develop more motor control, stronger eye-hand coordination skills. They are starting to gain more control of their arms in a coordinated manner, especially when manipulating tools like scoops, spoons, cups, and bowls. It’s through play and the weight of sensory materials that the benefits of scooping, pouring, and transferring of materials builds motor control, more refined movements, and tolerance of a variety of sensory materials.

But, you don’t need to stop at the toddler years. Manipulating tools and sensory materials to pour, scoop, and transfer is great for preschoolers, too!

Ice is a great scooping activity for toddlers to work on coordination and fine motor skills.

Benefits of Scooping, Pouring, and Transfering

Fine Motor Benefits of Scooping and Pouring– By manipulating sensory materials, cups, scoops, and bowls, toddlers and preschoolers refine and build motor experience in fine motor skills. Areas of development include: pincer grasp, precise wrist movements, arch development, wrist extension, and separation of the wrist from the elbow.

Development of these areas promotes a more distal motor control while using the proximal arm (shoulder and elbow) to stabilize and support the movements of the distal arm (wrist, hand, thumb, and fingers).

This separation of the proximal stability from the distal mobility is a needed motor development for coloring with the hand and fingers instead of using the whole arm to move the crayon.

Work on hand dominance and fine motor skills with scooping, pouring, and transferring activiites.

You can show a child of this age how to dump the dry cereal from the scoop into a large tray.  Kids in the Toddler range would benefit from scooping and pouring using larger scoops or small cups.

 In order to scoop food when eating or scooping like in this play activity, kids need precision of very small wrist motions.  

Moving the wrist from side to side is called radial deviation (moving the wrist towards the thumb side) and ulner deviation (moving the wrist towards the pinkie finger side).  

In addition, slight wrist extension (the wrist slightly bent back in the direction of the back of the hand) is needed to accurately and efficiently scoop and pour.

Simply holding the scoop is an activity for grasp development by refining the arches of the hands and intrinsic muscles.

Other areas of fine motor development include

Spoon Scooping Activities

When kids have trouble with holding a spoon to eat, you can try targeting functional grasp patterns so the child can feed themselves. This is possible with spoon scooping activities that target specific grasp patterns. While this can be accomplished through play and scooping play materials, it’s a great transfer of skills to scooping foods.

Check out our video below that shows different activities to support the development of scooping with a spoon. This video is also available on YouTube- Using a Spoon: 3 Activities to Target Grasp Patterns.

Hand dominance with Scooping, pouring, transferring– Hand dominance is an area that they can be working on, depending on their age. It takes experience, or muscle memory through activities to refine and establish a dominant hand or side of the body. By scooping, pouring kids can hold the container, bin, cups, or bowls with their non-dominant hand while scooping and pouring using a spoon, cup, or bowl with their dominant hand.

As children establish a hand dominance, this refined motor coordination becomes easier to control. Toddlers can start with larger objects and larger scoops. Progressing to more fluid or smaller materials like smaller pellets, flour, or liquids can help preschoolers further refine coordination and manipulation of materials.

Self-Awareness Benefits of Scooping and Pouring– Pouring and dumping is discovery and exploration of gravity, weight, muscle control, cause and effect, and self-awareness. Not only are toddlers discover what they can do by pouring, they are learning about their environment while working on so many skills.

Motor Skills Benefits of Scooping and Pouring– Scooping small items is important in development and refinement of motions needed for managing utensils during self-feeding.  This is an important independence step in the Toddler range. The establishment of visual input and motor output results in eye-hand coordination skills.

Also needed is the muscle memory or “experience” in pouring materials. You’ll see this in action when pouring a liquid or something that really “flows”. You don’t want to pick up a pitcher of milk and pour with speed. The liquid will splash out of the cup and onto the floor. It takes motor skill development and experience to know that pouring different materials, liquids, and containers take different amount of force, accuracy, and controlled movements. 

Learning by Scooping and Pouring- Adding in learning objectives makes this play activity a bonus. You can add themed materials, counting cards, letter cards, or sensory bin cards. Add math and reading activities by counting or using sight words. Add sensory bin cards. the options are limitless when making pouring and scooping activities educational. One idea we love is using water beads like in our purple sensory bin.

Scoop and Pour for Bilateral Coordination Skills- When pouring and manipulating containers, a development of bilateral coordination skills occurs naturally. A weighted material is in one hand, while the non-dominant hand stabilizes. This transfers to bilateral coordination tasks such as holding the paper while coloring or writing, using two hands in clothing fasteners, cutting with scissors and holding the paper, and the very functional task of pouring materials in cooking!

Mindfulness Benefits of Scooping and Pouring- There is a mindfulness component to sensory play too. Have you ever tried using a zen garden to rake or manipulate sand using a sand tray? If so, then you know the power of mindfully manipulating sensory materials. This mindfulness activity works with children too. Many children find a scooping and pouring activity fun and relaxing. Use the scooping and pouring activity as a heavy work activity that adds calming proprioceptive input with visual attention. Help kids to focus on the sensory material as it slowly pours from the hands or from a cup to another cup.

If kids are moving too quickly or if they become overly excited with the sensory material, add slow movement, a calm environment, a set of “rules” before beginning the scooping and pouring activity, and a broom to clean up!

Sensory Benefits of Scooping and Pouring Activities– By experimenting with pouring, scooping, and transferring materials, children gain sensory benefits. This occurs through the proprioceptive input from manipulating the materials, as well as tactile sensory input.

I’ve found pouring and scooping activities to be very calming for children.  They love to watch the beads as they fill the scoop and watch them fall into the bowl as they pour.  Other children can become overly excited by the visual stimulation of scooping beads and soon the beads will scatter all over the table.  You can eliminate mess by doing this activity in a large bin like an under the bed storage bin.  

Scooping and Pouring Activities

This post contains affiliate links, but you can use items that you already have in your home.  We used plastic scoops found in food like cocoa powder, coffee, or iced tea mixes.  For the scooping, we used plastic beads that we already had, however, this activity will work with any small item such as rice, dry beans, field corn, pebbles, or sand.  Use what you’ve got on hand to make this activity free!

Materials for this scooping and transferring activity include:

  • Recycled plastic scoops (We do love our recycled materials activities around here!)
  • Small Plastic beads OR other materials to pour and scoop (Toddler-aged kids can use dry cereal or edible items. See below.)

This activity is very easy to set up.  

  1. Simple set out a bowl or tray of beads and scoops in different sizes.  
  2. Show your child how to scoop, transfer, and pour the beads into another bowl.
  3. Play!  

Precautions for Pouring and Scooping Activities with Toddlers

Just be sure to keep a close eye on your little one. Materials like dry cereal are great for starting out. However, if you try scooping activities with other materials like beads, toys, corn, dry beans, etc, it can be easy for them to forget they are scooping beads and not cereal!  

As with any activity found on this blog, use your best judgement with your children.  This activity, while beneficial developmentally, is especially a choking hazard for young children.  Always stay within hands-reach of young children with a developmental activity like this one.

If you are concerned with your child placing beads in their mouth, simply don’t do this one and put it on hold for a few weeks of months.  

Development of Scooping and Pouring skills in Toddlers

Note: Use edible materials for this activity with Toddlers.  Dry baby cereal or broken up finger foods (like Cheerios) are great.  For Toddlers, they will be focusing on simply scooping and pouring with accuracy.    

Grasping pellets (bead-sized items) is a fine motor skill that typically develops around 11 months.  Children at that age can grasp small pellets with their thumb and the pad of their pointer finger, with their arm positioned off the table.  Holding a scoop with either the dominant or non-dominant hand typically develops around 13 months of age.  

Toddlers will use an exaggerated elbow motion when they first begin an activity like this one and until those small wrist motions are developed.  

At around 15 months, Toddlers will be able to scoop and pour from a small scooping tool, although as soon as 13 months, many children are able to complete this activity.  

Managing a spoon during self-feeding happens around this age, as well, as children scoop food and bring it to their mouth.  It is messy, but they are able to get food to their mouth.

Using a scoop to move beads or spoon to eat develops with more accuracy at 15-18 months.

At around 12-13 months, children will begin to develop unilaterality in hand dominance.  They will begin to show a preferred hand that manipulates as the other, non-dominant hand assists in holding the bowl or tray.  

(Other kids don’t define a hand dominance until later.  You can use this activity in the preschool years to work on hand dominance!) You will want to use a wide tray or large bowl for improved accuracy in both scooping and pouring.  Try using a spoon for scooping the cereal pellets, too.  

Scooping, pouring, transferring beads and developing fine motor skills and hand dominance in Toddlers, Preschoolers, and school-aged kids. Plus learning ideas to use in scooping activities. From an Occupational Therapist.

Scooping and Pouring Preschool Activity

In the preschool years, sensory bin play with a concentration on scooping, pouring, and transferring is very powerful. It’s at the preschool age that motor skills become more refined. The dominant hand becomes stronger in preparation of pencil grasp and handwriting. The muscles of the hands are used in coloring and cutting activities.

Preschoolers can use scooping, pouring, and transferring activities for functional tasks and learning activities, but also development of motor skills needed for tool use like pencils, scissors, crayons, etc. Use crayons based on development, as we covered in a resource on the best crayons for young children.

Helping kids establish a hand dominance can be a pivotal moment for addressing fine motor skill development concerns. Kids can refine motor actions by using a preferred hand consistently.

Preschool aged children can refine their scooping and pouring activity using beads.

there are many benefits of scooping, pouring, and transferring. Include scooping activities for toddlers and preschool.

Hand preference in Preschool

While Toddlers begin to show a hand preference, a true hand dominance doesn’t typically develop until 2 to 3 1/2 years.  That is such a huge age range!  That is because while a toddler can show a hand preference, hand usage is experimented with during different activities throughout the Toddler and Preschool years.  

There is typically variability in hand preference as toddlers and young preschoolers poke, pick up, throw, color, and play.  Another consideration is that often times, kids of this age are influenced in which hand they choose by position of toy, location of the adult or playmate, method materials are presented, and sitting position of the child.  True hand dominance may not be completely integrated in the child until around 8 or 9 years of age.   

Knowing all of this, use this activity to practice and play while working on a hand preference.  If your child shows a preferred hand, set up the activity to work on scooping with the typically used hand.  If your kiddo uses their right hand most of they time in natural situations (You will want to watch how they do things on a normal day and in a variety of activities.), then set the bowl of beads on the left side of the child and the scoop on the right side.  

When using pouring and scooping activities in preschool, try these strategies:

  • Show them how to scoop from left to right.  A set up like this one also encourages the left-to-right motion of reading and writing.
  • Use a variety of materials: dry beans, rice, beads, dry cereal, flour, sand, shaving cream, water, etc.
  • Use a variety of scoops: spoons, coops, small bowls, cups, pitchers, mixing cups, measuring cups, etc.
Use beads, scoops, spoons, and bowls to work on scooping for toddlers, preschoolers, and kindergarten to develop fine motor skills.
Scoop words for a multi-sensory learning activity that uses scooping and pouring in kindergarten.

Kindergarten Scooping, Pouring, and Transferring Activities

For children in kindergarten and older, scooping, pouring, and transferring activities are powerful as well! You can use this pouring and scooping activity in math, learning, and sensory play-based learning.  

  • Work on measurement
  • Work on reading, spelling, and letter awareness. This sight word scooping activity is a great multisensory reading activity for kindergarten.
  • Use scooping in math to add or subtract scoops
  • Count the number of scoops it takes to fill a container
  • Use letter or word cards in reading or handwriting activities
  • Work on prediction- Ask them to predict how many scoops it will take to fill different sized cups and bowls. They can count the number of scoops and see if their prediction was correct.  
  • Incorporate addition and subtraction as they move scoops of beads from one container to another.  
  • Address motor skill development- Scooping works on important skills like bilateral hand coordination, including using the non-dominant hand to assist as they would in holding the paper in writing, coloring, and cutting with scissors.
Work on hand dominance, bilateral coordination, motor skills, and more by scooping, pouring, and transferring activities.

Pouring, Scooping and Transferring Activities

Try these various pouring scooping and transferring activities with each age range to develop specific skill areas depending on the individual child:

Use a variety of materials for scooping besides beads to work on fine motor control and dexterity.  Other ideas include wet sand (heavier and great for coordination and strength) and a light material like foam pillow filler (for more coordination and dexterity).

Water Sensory Bin Ideas– Use a bin and water, along with some scoops and other materials to work on motor skills, coordination, and refined movements. Scooping water takes precision and control, but it’s a great functional task for children.

Scoop Nuts– Use seeds or nuts to scoop and work on scooping different sizes, different weights. This is a great activity for graded precision, sorting, and eye-hand coordination.

Scoop Ice– This simple scooping and pouring activity uses just ice, water, and scoops. Children can work on eye-hand coordination skills to scoop up ice within a bin of water to work on controlled motor skills, utensil use, visual tracking, and more.

Scoop, pour, and transfer dry corn– Grab some un-popped popcorn and some bins or spoons to transfer materials from one container to another. This simple scooping and pouring activity is easy to set up and works for all ages.

More fine motor activities you will love

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

Check out the seasonal Fine Motor Kits that kids love:

Letters Fine Motor Kit
Kit de motricidad fina de verano
Summer Fine Motor Kit
Outer Space Fine Motor Kit
Space Fine Motor Kit
Spring fine motor kit
Valentines Day fine motor kit
winter fine motor kit
Winter Fine Motor Kit

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

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

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

Social Skills Checklist

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social skills checklist

Everyday, social skills are a part of every interaction we have with other people. Today, I have a social skills checklist that can be used to identify areas of difficulty and areas of successes related to social interactions, social emotional development, and a way to identify specific areas that impact in social emotional learning. This list of social skills for children can be helpful in breaking down social learning and social skill development.

Social skills checklist for kids development from preschool through adulthood.

Social Skills Checklist

Before we get to the social skills checklist, let’s break down social skills into the components.

This social skills checklist breaks down social abilities and social development in kids.

Included in this checklist are the individual components of social emotional skill areas, or social abilities:

  • Conversational Skills
  • Interpersonal Skills
  • Emotional Skills
  • Social Play
  • Emotional Development
  • Emotional Regulation
  • Peer Interactions
  • Self-Awareness Skills
  • Self-Confidence

You’ll see each of these social and emotional skills areas listed below with a checklist of each area related to social emotional learning. Use this list of social skills to support social emotional development in children.

How to Use a Social Skills Checklist

When we can identify specific aspects of our behavior and actions related to what’s happening around us, we can identify specific thoughts feelings, reactions and responses that impact our interaction in the environment and with others.

Having an awareness of each aspect of social and behavioral responses and internal thinking is a helpful place to start when it comes to promoting social emotional development. Then, we can know where to start by identifying specific areas of need in kids.

By helping individuals identify aspects of social skills, observing social emotional skills in others, identifying expected and unexpected behaviors, we can help the kids we serve to notice and the impact they have on others’ thoughts, emotions, reactions and responses.

By having individuals observe their own behavior, they can recognize how it impacts others, how it impacts participation in functional tasks in various environments, and they can make the connection between emotions, regulation, social skills, and functioning.

A Note About this Social Skills List

Remember that all children develop differently, and when it comes to social emotional learning, there is a close compont of executive functioning. Executive functioning skills down’t fully develop until adulthood. And so, social skill development can occur through adulthood as well.

This list of social skills is meant to be comprehensive. Not all aspects of social skills will be achieved and steps can be skipped or developed in various orders based on experiences. In general, the lists are written in a developmental order, but the segments of social skills (Conversational skills, Interpersonal skills, Emotional Skills, Social Play, Emotional Regulation, Peer Interactions, Self-Awareness skill, and Self-Confidence) can all be developing and occurring at once. These social abilities are all happening at once and are fluid in development.

Use this social skills checklist to identify areas of development, including self and social awareness in one-on-one tasks, peer tasks to function, learn, and play.

conversational Skills

Conversational skills occur throughout almost all functional tasks and environments. From the home, to school, to the community, conversational skills are needed for social interactions all day long.

  • Participates in conversation (verbal and/or non-verbal)
  • Responds to yes/no questions
  • Answers questions
  • Initiate conversation when it is appropriate to do so
  • Initiates conversation around specific topic
  • Adds to a conversation around a specific topic
  • Asks questions around a specific topic
  • Responds to questions around a specific topic without getting off track
  • Makes a variety of comments, related to the topic, without getting off track
  • Ends conversations appropriately
  • Waits to interject in a conversation
  • Maintains appropriate proximity to conversation partner
  • Recognizes the facial expressions of others
  • Recognizes the nonverbal cues, or “body language” of others
  • Requests assistance from others when needed
  • Understands the jokes of others
  • Maintains eye contact during conversations (able or unable)
  • Maintains an appropriate distance when interacting with peers
  • Speaks at an appropriate volume in conversations
  • Speaks at an appropriate volume on virtual/digital conversations online or via a device
  • Considers the perspective of others
  • Notices when others may be struggling
  • Offers assistance to others
  • Verbally expresses their feelings
  • Responds to greetings expressed by others
  • Joins a conversation with two or more people without interrupting
  • Maintains back and forth conversation
  • Initiates greetings to others
  • Provides compliments to others
  • Introduces self to others
  • Politely asks others to move out of their way
  • Acknowledges the Compliments Directed at Him/Her by Others
  • Allows Peers to Join Him/Her in Activities
  • Responds to the Invitations of Peers to Join Them in Activities
  • Allows Others to Assist Him/Her With Tasks
  • Responds to Questions Directed at Him/Her by Others
  • Experiences Positive Peer Interactions
  • Compromises During Disagreements With Others
  • Responds Slowly in Conversations
  • Changes the Topic of Conversation to Fit Self-Interests
  • Misinterprets the Intentions of Others
  • Makes Inappropriate Comments
  • Engages in Solitary Interests and Hobbies
  • Ends Conversations Abruptly
  • Fails to Read Cues to Terminate Conversations
  • Exhibits Fear or Anxiety
  • Regarding Social Interactions
  • Experiences Negative Peer Interactions
  • Engages in Socially Inappropriate Behaviors
  • Exhibits Poor Timing With His/Her Social Initiations
  • Is Manipulated by Peers Engages in Solitary Activities in the Presence of Peers
  • Conversational skills online in email or text messages
  • Conversational skills during times of stress such as tests, games, etc.

Interpersonal skills

Part of interpersonal skills is the self awareness and social awareness involved in peer interactions. Interpersonal skills refers to interacting with others in social situations, classrooms, homes, and the community. Also involved is interpersonal skills on a digital manner, which is a new ballgame for many adults who are raising children in this digital era.

Types of Interpersonal Skills

Interpersonal skills can be broken into several areas:

  1. Listening
  2. Collaboration
  3. Empathy
  4. Problem solving
  5. Conflict resolution
  6. Constructive feedback
  7. Diplomacy

Interpersonal skills enable us to interact with others. These social skill checklist includes aspects of interpersonal skills.

  • Introduces him/herself to someone new
  • Introduces people to each other
  • Makes eye contact (if able/willing)
  • Uses manners
  • Problem Solving related to others in a specific situation
  • Referring back to previous situations where they needed to use problem solving (working memory)
  • Seeks help from peers in a one-on-one setting
  • Seeks help from peers in a group setting
  • Seeks help from adult
  • Accepts consequences
  • Plays a game successfully
  • Wins a game with appropriate behavior
  • Wins a game with appropriate conversation to others
  • Loses a game with appropriate behavior
  • Loses a game with appropriate conversation to others
  • Responds to constructive criticism
  • Shows self-confidence in group situations
  • Shows self-confidence in one-on-one situations
  • Shares with others (when appropriate)
  • Shows ability to compromise
  • Shows ability to cooperate on a problem
  • Shows ability to cooperate on a disagreement
  • Listens to others
  • Takes turns
  • Uses personal space
  • Respects the personal space of others
  • Follows directions in a given situation
  • Works with others to follow directions as a group (walking on one side of the hallway)
  • Identifies/defines problems
  • Generates solutions to problems
  • Carries out solutions by negotiating or compromising
  • Understands impact his/her behavior has on peers
  • Interprets body language in others
  • Interprets or recognizes body language in self
  • Clearly communicates
  • Offers constructive feedback to others in a one-on-one basis
  • Offers constructive feedback to others in a group setting
  • Responds to constructive feedback from others in a one-on-one setting
  • Responds to constructive feedback from others in a group setting
  • Offers input to problem solve
  • Accepts input from others to problem solve
  • Uses given information to problem solve with flexibility

Emotions and Social Skills

  • Understanding emotions in general
  • Identifies emotions in others
  • Identifies emotions in self
  • Able to identify a potential reason for emotional displays in others
  • Able to identify a potential reason for emotional displays in self
  • Justifies emotions once identified
  • Able to regulate emotions with appropriate responses
  • Displays empathy towards others
  • Displays a variety of emotions
  • Identifies likes and dislikes
  • Demonstrates affection and empathy toward peers
  • Refrains from aggressive behaviors toward peers
  • Refrains from aggressive behaviors or self-talk toward self
  • Identify emotional state during a conversation or situation
  • Uses different tones of voice to convey messages
  • Compliments others
  • Appropriately receives compliments
  • Asks for a favor appropriately
  • Apologizes independently
  • Says thank you
  • Gives compliments to peers
  • Gives compliments to adults
  • Flexibility
  • Accepts making mistakes without becoming upset/angry
  • Accepts consequences of his/her behavior
  • Accepts unexpected changes
  • Continues to try when something is difficult
  • Ignores others or situations when it is desirable to do so
  • Conversational Skills
  • Problem Solving
  • Compliments
  • Flexibility

SOCIAL PLAY AND EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Beginning Play Behaviors

  • Maintain proximity to peers within 1 foot
  • Observe peers in play vicinity within 3 feet
  • Parallel play near peers using the same or similar materials (Playing alongside a peer with own toys or games)
  • Imitate peer (physical or verbal)
  • Take turns during simple games (e.g., rolling ball back and forth). We have a great resource on teaching turn taking skills.

Intermediate Play Behaviors

  • Play associatively with other children
  • Shares toys during play
  • Changes play with flexibility
  • Respond to interactions from peers such as accepting a toy from a peer;
  • Answers questions during play
  • Return and initiate greetings with peers (e.g., wave or say “hello”).
  • Know acceptable ways of joining in an activity with others (e.g., offering a toy to a peer or observe play and ask to join in).
  • Invite known peers to play
  • Take turns during structured games/activities (social games or board games)
  • Ask peers for toys, food, and materials

Advanced Play Behavior

  • Play cooperatively with peers
  • Game play with rule following
  • Game play with problem solving when rules are broken
  • Make comments about what he/she is playing to peers
  • Organize play by suggesting play plan
  • Plays the role of a leader during peer play
  • Follow another peers play ideas
  • Plays the role of a follower during peer play
  • Turn taking during structured activities
  • Take turns during unstructured activities
  • Invites unknown peers to play (age-appropriate unknown peers in settings such as playgrounds)
  • Give up toys, food and materials to peers
  • Offer toys, food, and materials to peers

EMOTIONAL REGULATION

Emotional regulation is broken down into several areas when it comes to different social skills. this includes internal self-regulation as well as self-regulation during peer interactions, group interactions, problem solving, and flexibility of emotional regulation. A component to these concepts is working memory.

In these ways emotional regulation is related to executive functioning skills.

  • Understanding emotions
  • Identify likes and dislikes
  • Identify emotions in self
  • Label emotions in self
  • Identify emotions in others
  • Label emotions in others
  • Justify an emotion once identified/labeled
  • Demonstrate affection toward peers
  • Demonstrate empathy toward peers
  • Ability to demonstrate intense fears
  • Uses tone of voice to convey a message

Self Regulation and Social Skills

  • Allow others to comfort him/her if upset or agitated
  • Self regulate when tense or upset (using self-regulation skills independently)
  • Self regulate when energy level is high (using self-regulation skills or strategies)
  • Use acceptable ways to express anger or frustration (e.g., states they are upset or asks to take a break)
  • Deal with being teased in acceptable ways (e.g., ignore, walk away, tell adult)
  • Deals with being left out of group
  • Request a “break” or to be all done when upset
  • Accept not being first at a game or activity
  • Say “no” in an acceptable way to things s/he doesn’t want to do
  • Accept losing at a game without becoming upset/angry
  • Deals with winning appropriately
  • Deals with losing appropriately
  • Accept being told “no” without becoming upset/angry
  • Able to say “I don’t know.”

Flexibility of social interactions

  • Accept making mistakes without becoming upset/angry
  • Accept consequences of his/her behaviors without becoming upset/angry
  • Ignore others or situations when it is desirable to do so
  • Accept unexpected changes
  • Accept changes in routine
  • Continue to try when something is difficult

Problem Solving in social situations

  • Claim and defend possessions.
  • Identify/define problems.
  • Generate solutions using working memory or with innovative thought generation
  • Carry out solutions by negotiating or compromising
  • Seek assistance from adults
  • Seek assistance from peers
  • Give assistance to peers
  • Identify when assistance is needed for self
  • Identify when assistance is needed by others

Self-Regulation and Group Interactions

  • Participate in group interactions
  • Respond/participate when one other child is present.
  • Respond/participate when more than one other child is present.
  • Respond/participate in a group of children WITHOUT adult supervision
  • Respond/participate in a group of children WITH adult supervision
  • Use appropriate attention seeking behaviors (e.g., calling name, tapping
  • shoulder).
  • Follows the rules of a group
  • Remain with group during group tasks
  • Follow the group routine
  • Follow directions during group settings
  • Make transition to next activity when directed
  • Accept interruptions/unexpected change
  • Take turns with others in group settings
  • Work collectively as a group to solve a problem
  • Interact with group members
  • Refrain from breaking off into smaller groups
  • Refrain from gossip or turning other group members against one another

Peer Interactions

  • Invites peers to join them in activities
  • Joins peers in activities
  • Takes turns during games or activities
  • Takes turns in situations such as waiting in line, using the bathroom etc.
  • Maintains personal hygiene
  • Interacts with peers during unstructured activities
  • Interacts with peers during structured activities
  • Asks questions about others
  • Asks questions to to continue a conversation
  • Engages in one-on-one interactions with peers
  • Interacts in groups of peers
  • Maintains the “give-and-take” of conversations
  • Expresses sympathy for others
  • Expresses empathy for others in conversation
  • Expresses empathy for others in action
  • Acknowledges the interests of others
  • Limits negative conversations about others
  • Responds to negative conversations about others

Self-Awareness Skills

Self-awareness is an important part of social emotional learning and development of social skills. Self-awareness refers to the ability to understand one’s own emotions, thoughts, and values. This ability to be self-aware influences how an individual responds to situations. Self-awareness also impacts behaviors.

Self-awareness is greatly related to emotional regulation, the limbic system, and fight/flight/freeze concepts.

Self-awareness involves body awareness, confidence, an awareness of interests, strengths, and weaknesses in given tasks.

Self-awareness skills include:

  • Identifying personal strengths
  • Identifying personal weaknesses
  • Identifying one’s emotions
  • Identifying and developing interests, likes, and dislikes
  • Demonstrating an awareness of feelings and values
  • Having self-confidence
  • Understanding the concept of over-confidence
  • Being able to differentiate between abilities and inabilities
  • Examining prejudices and biases
  • Experiencing self-efficacy
  • Having a growth mindset

Social Confidence

It’s through the development of self-awareness skills that social confidence forms. When we are able to be aware of ourselves and build in the areas listed above, confidences in our abilities to react, respond, and use regulation strategies follow. This is one aspect of social confidence.

Another aspect of social confidence refers to develop self-esteem and an ability to interact with others in a variety of situations. This can happen in established friendships, new friendships, established and known settings, and new or novel settings.

Social confidence refers to these aspects of social skills:

  • Having confidence in our emotional response
  • Being yourself
  • Participating in new settings
  • Participating in new activities
  • Reaching out to others who the child doesn’t know
  • Participating in activities even through there is a chance of failure
  • Trying again after failure
  • Learning new things
  • Being supportive to others
  • Not worrying about what others think of one’s actions
  • Not worrying about what others may think of one’s behaviors

How to promote Social Skills in Kids

Take a look at the lists of specific social skills in this checklist. It is hard to think of any daily task that doesn’t require some aspect of social skill development. From interacting with family, the community, peers, there are tasks occurring all day long that require social skills.

Use this social emotional learning worksheet to work on identifying emotions and to drive social skill development.

Use these social development toys to promote social skill progression.

For more ways to pinpoint areas of development in kids, try the Impulse Control Journal. This comprehensive resource outlines daily interactions and allows children to identify how they’ve behaved or responded to situations.

Children can identify aspects of social situations that have worked well, and aspects that they can improve upon.

The Impulse Control Journal has activities and tools to support and develop mindset, habits, goals, interactions, working memory, and much more.

Click here to get your copy of this resource today.

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.

Another fantastic resource that can help develop social and emotional skills is the activity book, Exploring Books Through Play.

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

The book Exploring Books Through Play, has 50 different activities based on popular children’s books. Each book is used for 5 different activities that cover a variety of areas: sensory play, crafts, gross motor activities, fine motor activities, handwriting, scissor skills, and so much more.

This book is designed to address emotional regulation and connecting with kids.

social emotional activities for kids

WHAT’S INSIDE EXPLORING BOOKS THROUGH PLAY?

We have handpicked these easy and hands-on activities to help kids develop essential social emotional learning skills.

As classroom curriculum becomes more focused on academics, social and emotional development can get lost in the shuffle. This book focuses on abstract concepts of friendship, acceptance and empathy. By using children’s books that foster understanding of these concepts through pictures and stories, we can help children understand and see these emotions in action. What if you could use books and interactive activities to teach friendship? What if you could read a book that centers on accepting differences and create or make an activity or craft that helps children see acceptance in action. What if you could explore emotions through story and interactive play? In this book, you will find books that cover abstract concepts and use play to build social and developmental skills.  The 10 books covered include:

  • A Sick Day for Amos McGee
  • Boy + Bot
  • Little Blue and Little Yellow
  • Red: A Crayon’s Story
  • Chrysanthemum
  • The Day the Crayons Quit
  • Leonardo the Terrible Monster
  • The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend
  • Whoever You Are and Penguin and Pinecone

Want to help kids learn more about complex concepts such emotions, empathy, compassion, and differences?

Creative book activities that help kids develop fine motor skills and gross motor skills, while exploring books.

Exploring Books Through Play uses children’s literature as a theme to engage in fun, hands-on activities that help children and adults delve deeper into the characters and lessons, bringing the stories to life and falling further in love with literature. Read a story and then bring the characters to life while learning and building skills. Each story offers unique activities designed around central themes of friendship, empathy, and compassion.

Each chapter includes 5 activities for each of the 10 children’s books. The activities are perfect for children ages 3-8, can be used in small groups or as a whole class, and are easily adapted to a home or classroom setting.

Click here to get the Exploring Books Through Play resource.

A final note on social skills lists

These social skills checklists are to be viewed as educational and informative resources. If you suspect a child or individual of any age has trouble or regressions in any of the areas listed, be sure to seek out individualized support via a pediatrician, therapist, or other professional.

In addition, for the toddler-aged children, changes, regressions, or lack of development as typically expected when it comes to social and emotional skill achievement can be a toddler behavior red flag that should be explored in greater detail.

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.

Tear Paper for Fine Motor Skills

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Tear paper fine motor activity

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

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

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

Tearing Paper for Fine Motor Skills

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Other benefits of tearing paper

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

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

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

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

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

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

Paper Tearing Activities

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tearing Paper Exercises

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

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

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

tearing paper is a fine motor skills workout for kids.

Types of paper to use in tearing paper activities

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

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

Types of paper to use in tearing paper activities:

  • Junk mail
  • Old phone books
  • Recycled newspapers
  • Magazines
  • Flyers from school or the community
  • Printer paper
  • Notebook paper
  • Cardboard
  • Recycled food boxes (cereal boxes, tissue boxes, etc.)
  • Paper bags
  • Tissue paper
  • Crepe paper
  • Toilet paper
  • Paper towels
  • Napkins
  • Paper plates
  • Recycled artwork
  • Used coloring books
  • Cardboard tubes (toilet paper tubes, paper towel rolls)
  • Old calendars
This torn paper art is a paper tearing activity for kids that uses recycled artwork to build fine motor skills and motor control while tearing paper.

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

Torn paper art  

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

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

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

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

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

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

How to create torn paper art:

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

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

A few tips for creating torn paper art

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

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

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

  • Create a torn paper landscape
  • Create an object from ripped paper textures
  • Make a torn paper abstract artwork
  • Copy real life objects and make representational art
  • Create a ripped paper still life
  • Use all one color of paper in different textures to make a monochromatic artwork
  • Make abstract portraits
  • Tear the paper into shapes to make geometric artwork
  • Explore art concepts such as size, shape, color, lines, form, space, texture
  • Explore multimedia: Incorporate printed paper, painted paper, glossy paper, cardboard in different textures, crayon colored paper, etc.
Tear paper into strips of ripped paper to work on eye-hand coordination in an occupational therapy activity with recycled materials.
Tearing paper builds fine motor skills and endurance in fine motor precision, making it a fine motor workout!
Ripping paper is a fine motor activity for kids in occupational therapy or working on fine motor skills at home.

 More paper activities

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

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

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

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

Tear paper to help kids strengthen fine motor skills.

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

Tearing paper activity for kids

 Glue the sun onto the sky and enjoy the art.  

More paper activities that build skills:

Folding paper

How Folding Paper Builds Skills

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

Check out the seasonal Fine Motor Kits that kids love:

Letters Fine Motor Kit
Kit de motricidad fina de verano
Summer Fine Motor Kit
Outer Space Fine Motor Kit
Space Fine Motor Kit
Spring fine motor kit
Valentines Day fine motor kit
winter fine motor kit
Winter Fine Motor Kit

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

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

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

Fun Buttoning Activities

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Buttoning activities for kids

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

Buttoning activities for kids

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Skills needed for buttoning

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

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

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

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

Teach Kids How to Button

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

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

Backward Chaining in Buttoning

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

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

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

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

Buttoning Activities

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

Try these buttoning activities:

  • Work on the fine motor skills needed to button by pushing coins into a piggy bank.
  • Cut a slit in felt and push a coin through the felt.
  • Push buttons through the lid of a recycled container.
  • Try these felt buttons to work on precision and dexterity.
  • Cut slits in paper and push buttons through the slits.
  • Make an egg carton buttoning activity (below)
  • Cut a slit in cardstock or construction paper.  Push buttons through the slits.  Try it with tissue paper, too.
  • Hold coins or buttons on the edge and press them into play dough so they are standing on their edge.
  • Thread beads onto pipe cleaners.

RELATED READ: Teach Kids How to Tie Their Own Shoes

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

RELATED READ: The Ultimate Guide to Teaching Kids to Dress Themselves

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

Egg Carton Buttoning Activity

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

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

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

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

Amazon affiliate links:

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

RELATED READ: Teach Kids How to Zipper

  1. Start by poking the corn holder into the bottoms of the egg carton.  You want four holes for each button.  
  2. Then thread the pipe cleaner through one of the holes, and through the button and back down through the egg carton, like this:   
Teach kids how to button with this cute egg carton buttoning activity! This is fun to make while working on fine motor skills and helping kids with a difficult self-care task.

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

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

Work on buttoning activities with an egg carton and buttons.

5. Then, start practicing the buttons.  

6. Use a long ribbon with slits cut lengthwise.  

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

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

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

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

More Buttoning Activities

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Teach kids how to button with this cute egg carton buttoning activity! This is fun to make while working on fine motor skills and helping kids with a difficult self-care task.
How to teach buttoning to kids including tips from occupational therapy for buttoning skills.
Teach buttoning skills to kids with fun buttoning activities.

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

Check out the seasonal Fine Motor Kits that kids love:

Letters Fine Motor Kit
Kit de motricidad fina de verano
Summer Fine Motor Kit
Outer Space Fine Motor Kit
Space Fine Motor Kit
Spring fine motor kit
Valentines Day fine motor kit
winter fine motor kit
Winter Fine Motor Kit

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

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

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

Friendship Activities

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friendship activities

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

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

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

Be sure grab these friendship activities for teletherapy:

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

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

Friendship activities to help kids develop social skills for friendship skills. Includes friendship recipes, friendship crafts, social stories information, and more.

Friendship Activities

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

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

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

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

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

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

Teaching Friendship Skills to Kids

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

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

Some of these concepts are very abstract.

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

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

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

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

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

Explore differences with this friendship sensory bottle.

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

Sensory Friendship Activity

Friendship Countdown Chain

Friendship Ice Cream Cone Throw

Friendship Recipe

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

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

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

Friendship Treat Recipe

Friendship Snack Mix

Friendship Snack Mix

Friendship Fruit Salad

Friendship Games

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

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

What Makes a Friend? Monster Game

Core Strengthening Friendship Activity

Friendship Yarn Game

Cooperation: 12 Group Activities for Kids

Friendship Crafts

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

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

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

Super Friend Capes made with tee shirts.

Friendship Rocks Fingerprint Hearts made with rocks and fingerprints.

Friendship Flowers made with construction paper.

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

Beaded Friendship Bracelets made with beads and stretchy cords.

Friendship High Fives made with handprints and construction paper.

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

Friendship Printables

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

Friendship Posters

How to Be a Friend Posters

Friends Play Dough Printable

Friendship social stories

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

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

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

Friendship Activities with Books

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

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

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

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

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

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

social emotional activities for kids
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!

Jungle Activities for Therapy

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Jungle activities

Working with kids is always an adventure and that’s why these jungle activities fit the bill when it comes to fun therapy activities for kids. Here, you’ll find jungle jungle crafts, jungle sensory bin ideas, and other ways to make a jungle them therapeutic. There are even strategies to use in teletherapy. If you feel like you are a jungle explore sometimes when working with children, put on your adventure hat, because we’re ready for some therapy fun!

jungle activities for a jungle theme in therapy or the classroom

Jungle Activities

This jungle theme is just one of the many therapy themes we have here on the website. These are themed therapy ideas that you can incorporate into your therapy sessions, add to a jungle preschool theme (or any age!), or use at home to help kids develop skills.

When it comes to serving children in the therapy clinic or in the classroom, there are a lot of things to remember when promoting development of functional skills and underlying areas like fine or gross motor skills. And, these considerations carryover to the home, too…Two of the most valuable things that I have learnt from providing occupational therapy services are:

1) that thorough planning is absolutely essential and 

2) that the most effective sessions are fairly simple. 

The outlines provided in this jungle theme therapy ideas are not prescriptive, set-in-stone templates. They are a framework to hang your own ideas and preferences on. Because sometimes you just need that little spark of inspiration to get you going.

Occupational therapy teletherapy, as with face-to-face therapy, there is no one size fits all. So it’s up to you to adjust your session according to you aims and objectives for each individual child.

Let’s step into the jungle and get some jungle themed activities ready for your littlest adventurers.

jungle themed gross motor activities

A fun jungle warm up or cool down is a fun way to start and end a therapy session, but there are other ways to incorporate jungle gross motor activities into a jungle themed classroom, lesson, or home activities:

  • Use these ideas as a jungle brain break during jungled themed learning
  • Use these whole body movements as a sensory break
  • Work on motor planning and core strength
  • Incorporate bilateral coordination and crossing midline
  • Use as an emotional regulation tool

I am sure that you have realized that the first few minutes of an OT therapy session or teletherapy session are so important in setting the tone for the subsequent time that you will spend with the child. Take time to check in with the child that you are working with in order to get a sense of where they are at on that day. 

This always helps me adjust my energy level and approach according to what the child needs. It’s a great time to introduce the theme of the session and incorporate gross motor activities as a way to “warm up”.

Jungle Animal Exercises

In order to introduce the Jungle Adventure ask your child what their favorite animal is. Talk a bit about what the animal looks like, where it lives, what it eats and why it’s the child’s favorite animal. 

Then explore how their animal moves and act out that animal’s movement. This will lay the foundation for jungle exercises!

Prepare some animal pictures before the session – these can be printed or drawn pictures, flashcards, pictures from magazine or online pictures that you can screen share with the participant.

Present the child with a picture and demonstrate how that animal moves. Then set a timer for 30 seconds while you and the child perform the animal movement together.

Examples of jungle animal movements include gross motor exercises like:

  • Move like a snake
  • Jump like a frog
  • Hop like a bunny
  • Crawl like a lion
  • Sway like an elephant
  • Stomp like a hippopotamus
  • Swing like a monkey
  • Fly like a hawk

There are two main benefits to using gross motor exercises as a warm-up in therapy:

  1. The physical warm up is perfect for getting the child connected to the session and for helping to regulate the child if they have difficulties with focus and attention.
  2. The imaginary element of pretending to be an animal introduces the child’s language of play and brings the teletherapy session to life. 

For more specific physical gross motor goals you can adapt the animal walks to target certain areas:

  • Upper body strength
  • Core strength
  • Co-ordination between left and right
  • Motor planning
  • Bilateral coordination
  • Crossing midline
  • Posture
  • Positioning
  • Changes in position

Animal walks are also an easy exercise to ask the child to practice on their own between therapy sessions to promote their progress in these areas. 

Once the warm up is complete take a seat and catch your breath. You are still in the jungle but now you are going to look at the little creatures that live there. 

Jungle Fine Motor Activities

This section of the session focuses on developing selective finger movements and finger strength with a jungle theme.

As you did with the animal walks in the warm up, select a number of insect pictures that you can present to your child during the teletherapy session. Allow the child to select a picture and then use your fingers to imitate the movement that the insect makes. Moving your fingers like an insect requires a little creativity and imagination! Examples of bugs that I have used in sessions included caterpillars, ants, spiders, butterflies, grasshoppers. 

Demonstrate how the insect moves across your desk or along your arm and encourage your child to copy the motor pattern.

Adjust the demands of the motor pattern according to your child’s ability including more complex, selective finger movements to increase the demands on motor planning. Increase the amount of repetitions or distance the insect has to walk to increase the demands on finger strength. 

For additional activities to develop fine motor skills have a look at these awesome animal themed paper folding activities.

Jungle Activities for Visual perception

Incorporating visual perceptual skills into the Jungle Adventure is easy. The activities that you select will target the specific skills that you are working on with the individual child.

  • For eye tracking you can ask the child follow an animal figurine that you move across a desk, field of vision, or the screen in teletherapy services.
  • Figure ground perception can be developed by working on animal themed I Spy worksheets.
  • Visual discrimination can be encouraged by completing spot the difference worksheets.

I know you will have lots of tools in your box to develop the specific skills you are targeting and I encourage you to use the Jungle Theme to keep the child’s interest and motivation going.  

Jungle Handwriting Activities

When handwriting needs to be incorporated into occupational therapy sessions, there are many ways to use a jungle theme in handwriting goals.

  • Younger children are encouraged to write down the names of the animals or insects that we imitated in the beginning of the session.
  • Older children will enjoy copying out animal themed jokes. 

Try this Jungle Joke for copying:

What do you call a fly with no wings?

Answer: A walk!

Jungle Writing Prompts

For more handwriting activities, use these Jungle Writing Prompts. These cards are perfect for older students who are writing sentences and paragraphs, AND younger students who copy words.

The Jungle Writing Prompt set includes 54 jungle themed writing prompts, including 27 open-ended sentence prompts and 27 jungle themed words.

Perfect for older students writing in sentence and paragraph format AND younger students copying words, these printable cards can be used in so many open-ended ways in therapy sessions.

Jungle writing prompts
Click here to grab the Jungle Writing Prompts to work on handwriting.

Jungle Sensory Bin

A jungle sensory bin is a fun way to incorporate many different goal areas. Start with a sensory bin material such as flour, dry beans, dry split peas, corn, rice, cotton, water, shaving cream, or shredded paper. Here are more ideas to create an easy sensory bin.

Then add items to your sensory bin:

  • Jungle animal figures
  • Fake flowers
  • Fake leaves
  • Scoops
  • Cups and bowls
  • Jungle animal images

Use the sensory bin to work on tactile exploration, motor skills, executive functioning skills, handwriting, and much more.

The word cards in the Jungle Writing Prompts set includes animal images with words that are perfect for laminating and adding to a Jungle sensory bin.

Well done! You have survived your Jungle Adventure and your children have had a blast. They were having so much fun that I am sure that they didn’t even notice that they were working on their sensory regulation, planning, gross motor skills, fine motor skills and visual perception. All in a day’s teletherapy work.

Contributor to The OT Toolbox: Janet Potterton is an occupational therapist working predominantly in school-based settings and I love, love, love my job. I have two children (if you don’t count my husband!), two dogs, one cat, two guinea pigs and one fish. When I am not with my family or at work I try to spend time in nature. The beach is my happy place.

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.

Use a Paper Helicopter as a Therapy Tool

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Paper helicopter template

Kids love fine motor crafts and this paper helicopter is just that! If you are needing an occupational therapy activity that develops scissor skills, visual motor skills, fine motor dexterity, pinch and grip strength, eye-hand coordination, balance, endurance, and more…than grab this paper helicopter template as a therapy tool for kids!

Get this free Paper helicopter template to use to make paper twirlers.

Paper Helicopter

You might be thinking, “What is a paper helicopter?” Well, a paper helicopter is a folded piece of paper that flutters and flies through the air. Similar to a paper airplane, a paper helicopter requires folded paper and is a fun hands-on activity for children and all ages. Paper helicopters, or paper twirlers, are also a low-prep activity that can be adapted accordingly to meet a variety of therapy goals.

I love simple occupational therapy activities that use materials found around the home. That’s why making paper helicopters (or paper twirlers) is one of my favorite paper activities.

Paper helicopters is an easy paper project that can be modified in so many ways to cater for children of various ages and children working on different skills. As an added bonus the kids adore the surprise spin revealed at the end. 

Paper Helicopters for using in occupational therapy crafts

How to make a paper helicopter

All you need to make a paper helicopter is a few materials found around the home:

  • Paper
  • Scissors
  • Pencil
  • Paper clip

Thin cardboard or empty cereal boxes can also be used for this activity. 

  1. Print out the paper helicopter template. (Access the template below).
  2. Cut out the template.
  3. Trace the template onto paper.

Copy or print out the template for the paper twirler (picture 2). You can give your child a copy of the template or you could encourage them to trace the template.  Tracing is a good way to develop pencil control and planning. Children need to work carefully to follow the lines that they trace. Tracing also requires that you stabilize the page with you non-dominant hand encouraging bilateral co-ordination.

Other ideas for developing co-ordination between the left and right sides can be found at Bilateral co-ordination activities. 

Once the child has a template or outline you can decide how to decorate the paper twirler. 

One option is to stick the page onto a vertical surface and encourage the child to colour in the twirler. Colouring on a vertical surface will develop the child’s upper body strength and encourage wrist extension in a child that may flex / bend their wrist when colouring.

Using a vertical surface can build up physical endurance for drawing and colouring and changing up the way you colour in can motivate a child who may be averse to colouring in. Working on an a vertical surface provides more information and activity ideas around working on a vertical surface. 

If you colour in on the desk you can opt for the type of writing utensil you would like to use. This includes pencils, chalk, coloured pens, markers, pastels. Each choice provides a different feedback and colouring experience for the child. Colouring with crayons provides some more insight on the use of crayons for drawing and colouring activities. 

Instead of colouring you could choose to decorate the paper twirler with stickers. Children will need to use a good refined pincer grip to peel off the stickers and sticking them. The size of the sticker will determine how much refined control the child will need. 

When I am working on visual-motor integration / copying I will draw patterns on one half of the paper twirler and the child to copy the patterns on the other half of the paper twirler. Being able to transfer visual information accurately onto paper is an important skill to develop in preparation for the development of handwriting skills. The importance of copying accurately is further developed in Visual motor skills 

Another option is to practise drawing shapes on the template. 

Letters and numbers can be drawn on the arms of the paper twirler. To add a sensory component I trace a number or letter on the child’s back with my finger and they have to guess what it is. If they guess correctly they can write the letter or number onto their paper twirler. 

For children practising their body image you can draw a person on each arm of the paper twirler. This can be the pilot and passenger ready to go for a spin. 

For older children I turn the template horizontally and draw lines on the two arms of the paper twirler and we practise our handwriting skills. The child can write two wishes, two destinations they would like to go to, something that makes them happy and something that makes them mad. Writing content can be adapted to the therapy session. 

Once the paper twirler has been decorated it will need to be cut out. Give the child the instruction to cut along the solid black line. Make sure to pint out the solid lines and the dotted lines so that the child can differentiate between the two. Cutting on straight lines precedes cutting on curves so you will have to gauge how much assistance your child will need. For more information on cutting have a look at Scissor skills. 

The final step is to fold on the dotted lines. Piece 1 and 2 fold back to create a handle. One of the arms of the paper twirler folds back slightly and one of the arms folds forward slightly.

Add a paper clip to the bottom to add a small weight that centers the paper twirler. This is just one more way to play games with paper clips!

The paper twirler is ready to spin. Hold it by the handle and let it drop to the floor. Watch it spin!   (paper twirler video)

paper helicopter template

Want to add a paper helicopter craft to your therapy line-up? There are many reasons to do so!

Enter your email address into the form below to grab a free paper helicopter template and start developing many skill areas!

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    Contributor to The OT Toolbox: Janet Potterton is an occupational therapist working predominantly in school-based settings and I love, love, love my job. I have two children (if you don’t count my husband!), two dogs, one cat, two guinea pigs and one fish. When I am not with my family or at work I try to spend time in nature. The beach is my happy place.

    Children’s Books for Zones of Regulation

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    Zones of Regulation children's books

    Here we are covering tons of Children’s Books for Zones of Regulation. These are self-regulation books for kids that reinforce the concepts from the Zones of Regulation program for self-regulation and self-modulation. These books pair well with the concepts in the popular self-regulation program and go very nicely with the hands-on Zones of Regulation activities that we have here on the website.

    Children's books for Zones of Regulation and books that support self-regulation skills in kids.

    Children’s Books for Zones of Regulation Program

    Identifying emotions can be difficult for some children. Recognizing an emotional state, identifying it within themselves, and then learning strategies for self-regulation are all needed for gaining emotional control. As parents, therapists, and teachers we can and should help young children understand and identify their feelings and help them gain ways to communicate their feelings appropriately to others. 

    Using age-appropriate books are a perfect tool to assist when helping children learn about emotions.

    There are books to help children identify and recognize emotions and to help children discover and learn self-regulation and coping strategies which can help them develop emotional control and maturity within themselves.

    Books about self-regulation

    Self-Regulation Books

    There is a vast library of books to help and many of these can be easily used as a supplemental tool coupled to the curriculum or programs you already have in place. For the purposes of this post, the books listed here are utilizing the Zones of Regulation™ curriculum as a backdrop. Simply stated, the Zones of Regulation™ curriculum is a color coded, four zone program which is designed to help children navigate their confusing feelings.

    The books in this post are favorites of therapists, teachers, counselors, and parents as they have used them frequently with the children in their worlds. Through these books children will learn to identify emotions and begin to relate their own feelings and emotions to the characters within the books. They will learn techniques and strategies to calm and regulate as they deal with the overwhelming strong feelings they experience in their daily lives.
     

    Amazon affiliate links are included in this post.

    Self-Regulation Books: Books for the Red Zone

    RED ZONE books are those books that have topics such as anger, devastation, elation, explosive behavior, feeling terrified, or hands-on physical reactions such as hitting or kicking, or maybe even yelling.

    The following red zone books are popular among teachers:

    Lifetimes: The Beautiful Ways to Explain Death to Children – This book is perfect for children of all ages when the death of a loved one has occurred or is about to happen. It explains with sensitivity and caring in a beautiful way about the cycle of life and helps a child to understand that all living things have their own lifetimes.

    Llama Llama Mad at Mama – This book is when Little Llama gets really tired and overwhelmed and has a meltdown when running errands with his mom. With Mama Llama’s guidance, they clean up the mess and find different ways to make the errands more enjoyable. Pair this book with a hands-on activity like our Llama Llama Red Pajama heavy work activity that offers great calming proprioceptive input.

    When I Feel Angry – This book explains how different things can make you feel angry, and this is an acceptable feeling; however, it is what you do when you get angry that matters most.

    When Sophie Gets Angry – Really, Really Angry – This book explores the very upsetting feeling of anger and emphasizes that everyone gets angry sometimes. The main character, Sophie, gets really, really angry and kicks, screams, and roars, and then runs into the woods to climb a tree and calm down, she later returns home to her loving family where things are calm and back to normal.

    Self-Regulation Books: Books for the Yellow Zone

    YELLOW ZONE books are those books that have topics such as feeling anxious, excited, frustrated, grumpy, nervous, scared, being silly or wiggly, or feeling worried.

    The following yellow zone books are popular among school counselors:

    Bear Feels Scared – In this cute and compassionate book, Bear gets scared by bad weather and gets lost in the woods. After worry from his friends, they find him and help him to calm his fears. A book that tells a story about fear and reassurance that things do get better.

    Bye Bye Pesky Fly – This is a cute little book about Pig and Fly who end up teaching children how they can deal with situations in relationships that annoy or frustrate them in a kind way.

    Grumpy Bird – This is a fun little character book about Bird who wakes up with the grumpies and when he goes on a walk to shake them off, his friends join in and soon he discovers that exercise and the company of friends can help him shake off his grumpy mood.

    Wemberly Worried – This sweet book is about the mouse Wemberly who worries about everything and after she makes a new friend at school she begins to worry less and less. It’s a cute book that shows children that by facing the anxiety it can get better. It’s an entertaining and reassuring book that shows how anxieties can lessen over time.

    Self-Regulation Books: Books for the Green Zone

    GREEN ZONE books are those books that have topics such as feeling calm, content, focused, happy, proud, ready to learn, and thankful.

    The following green zone books are popular among educators:

    I Am Thankful – This is a special, rhyming book that follows three diverse families as they celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday with their own traditions, acts of kindness, and demonstrating the ways they give back to others.

    I Feel Happy: Why do I feel happy today? – This is a sweet book that teaches young children the feeling of happiness and how sometimes it feels loud and other times it may feel calm. The main character who is a sunshine name Happy, teaches children how being happy feels in the body and what it may look like on the outside.

    Marvelous Me: Inside and Out – This book encourages children to enjoy the things that make them unique and feel proud of who they are! It’s a cute book about a young boy who simply likes himself for who he is and all the things that make him special.

    Self- Regulation Books: Books for the Blue Zone

    BLUE ZONE books are those books that have topics such as feeling bored, depressed, disappointed, sad, shy, sick, or tired.

    The following blue zone books are popular among parents:

    Bored Claude – This cute book is about a shark feeling gloomy and bored. His friends are busy doing things, but Claude isn’t interested in doing what they want to do as he thinks it’s boring. He comes up with a brilliant idea for something that everyone can do together.

    I’m Sad – This book is about Flamingo who talks about feeling sad and his friends who try to cheer him up, but nothing seems to work. Flamingo learns he will not always feel this way and sometimes just being a friend means you just support by being there and you don’t have to try to cheer someone up.

    When Sophie’s Feelings Are Really, Really Hurt – This is a book about how Sophie’s feelings get really hurt in school when the class laughs at her painting making her feel sad and disappointed, but when she explains her painting to everyone, they understand what she is trying to do.

    More Self-Regulation Books

    ALL ZONES books are those books that include all of the emotions. These books are popular among most professionals and parents:

    Glad Monster, Sad Monster – This little brightly colored book shows monsters acting out different emotions and things that could trigger them.

    The Color Monster – This is a fun concept book for children when the Color Monster wakes up feeling many emotions all at once. The book helps children to identifying emotions and learn how to feel more in control.

    The Feelings Book – This bright and colorful book talks about how we all feel different emotions sometimes.

    The Pigeon Has Feelings, Too! – Every young child knows about Mo Willem’s Pigeon and those famous temper tantrums, but this book is about more emotions and The Pigeon makes it more engaging while getting kiddos talking about emotions.

    The Way I Feel – This is a comprehensive book about multiple emotions with fun rhyming text that makes it fun to read aloud. 

    Additionally, GREEN ZONE books are those books that have strategies or techniques for teaching self-regulation and coping skills resulting in children achieving feelings within the green zone. These books are popular among most all professionals, but more directly, among pediatric OT practitioners:

    A Little Spot of Patience – This is a cute little book about learning to enjoy waiting! What? Children can actually learn to enjoy waiting? Yes! This cute book presents ideas of how to pass the time and tells why waiting can make some things better. 

    Breathe Like a Bear – This is a beautiful book with mindfulness exercises designed to teach children strategies and techniques for managing their breath, bodies, and emotions. It has 30 short breathing movements that can be performed anywhere and anytime.

    Even Superheroes Have Bad Days – This is a fun action-packed book with wonderful rhyming text making it a fav among children because what child doesn’t like superheroes! This book reveals many ways that superheroes (and children) can resist the temptation to cause a scene when they feel extreme emotions. It teaches many fun ideas to help children cope with strong feelings and emotions
    when they feel overwhelmed.

    How to Be a Superhero Called Self-Control! – This is a gem of a book for pediatric occupational therapy practitioners as it uses Self-Control, a superhero, who wants to teach children some very special super powers for self-control in learning to deal with anger, anxiety, frustration and other strong feelings. Several strategies such as the use of deep pressure, self-massage, breathing exercises, and other activities are a part so that children can learn to find their own personal peaceful place. Really an OT gem!

    The Impulse Control Journal– This printable workbook is a huge resource when it comes to mindfulness, mindset, impulses, habits, and making choices. There are lists to write out goals, and areas to draw to get kids thinking on how to address regulation needs. This tool is great for impulse control, but covers many other areas as well, including helping kids come up with strategies for self-regulation.

    I Can Do That: A Book on Self-Regulation – Another pediatric OT practitioner gem! This book is told through rhyming text from a child’s point of view and helps children to learn self-regulation techniques by effectively practicing ways they can control their own emotions and actions when they start becoming dysregulated. A great book for children with a sensory processing disorder!
     
    My Mouth is a Volcano! – This is an entertaining book that takes an empathetic approach to teaching children the value of respecting others and listening while waiting for their turn to speak. The character in the book has habit of interrupting others and the book teaches a witty technique to help children learn to manage all of their thoughts and words.

    My Magic Breath: Finding Calm Through Mindful Breathing – This interactive book helps to teach children to breathe along as they learn to make angry and sad feelings disappear. Do you have magic breath! Yes, I do! This book helps to guide children into a calm space of mindfulness.

    My Magical Choices – Another beautiful book with rhyming text that engages children in learning about the choices they make. It teaches children about positive, conscious language while emphasizing a myriad of behaviors such as being responsible, calm, forgiving, and generous empowering them to be responsible for their own happiness.

    The Kids’ Guide to Staying Awesome and In Control – Frankly, this book is jammed full of simple ideas to regulate the emotions and senses helping children to tackle different feelings full force and feel awesomely strong and in control. Can I say another pediatric OT gem here? Some examples of strategies and tools include: breathing, deep pressure holds, finger pulls, use of fidgets, headphones,
    and chewing gum. Children learn to use these to help them feel calm, cool, and AWESOME!

    What Should Danny Do? – This is a creative and interactive book that gives the reader choices of what Danny will do in a dilemma in order to navigate the stories within the book. This empowers the reader to make positive choices while demonstrating the natural consequences to negative selections helping children to understand that the choices they make help to impact their day.

    What Were You Thinking: Learning to Control Your Impulses – This is a great older kid’s book addressing the teaching of impulse control. The main character, Braden, has trouble controlling his impulses and has poor decision-making skills, resulting in ill-timing, disruptive behaviors, and impulsive reactions which impact others around him. The adults in the story must teach Braden impulse control through lessons shared by his teachers and his mom.

    You Get What You Get – This is a very relatable book for some children as the main character, Melvin, throws a fit when he doesn’t get what he wants. The book depicts how he must learn to deal with his strong feeling of disappointment – an important life lesson – “you get what you get and you don’t throw a fit”!

    Through these books, many children will learn about emotions, understand that others feel the same way, and will learn techniques and strategies to deal with these strong feelings in their daily lives.

    It is important to emphasize to all children that there are no “good” or “bad” emotions as we all experience them and that all emotions are okay to feel, but it is important to learn how to manage our emotions for overall health and well-being.

    When children learn to identify emotions and what can trigger them, they can learn effective coping strategies and build a strong emotional foundation allowing for improved social skills and increased self-esteem and self-confidence.

    Finally, using self-regulation books like the ones above are great tools to incorporate into therapy sessions or to send home as recommended reading for families. This is one specific intervention strategy for targeting self-regulation IEP goals.

    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!

    Shoe Tying Activity

    by
    Shoe tying activity

    Shoe tying can be trying for little ones, and that’s where this shoe tying activity comes in. This shoe tying egg carton activity is one we developed in 2015, and it’s been shared thousands of times. Here’s why: This hands-on shoe tying task helps kids establish the skills they need to learn to tie their shoes in a fun and stress-free manner. 

    Kids will love this out-of-box shoe tying activity to teach kids to tie their shoes and practice shoe tying with an egg carton. Be sure to check out this massive shoe tying resource that has been recently updated so you can address all of the underlying skills needed to shoe tying with kids. 
     
    You’ll also want to check out our one handed shoe tying resource.
     

    Shoe Tying ACtivity

     
    This shoe tying activity is actually part of a 31 Day series of Occupational Therapy posts using free or almost free materials. In each blog post in the series, I cover creative ways to work on functional skills using everyday materials found around the home. Today we’re using a recycled egg carton as a shoe tying tool.
     
    Shoe tying can be very difficult for kids to master.  Typically, children in Kindergarten show developmentally appropriate fine motor skills for shoe tying.  
     
    Kindergarten is a great time to start teaching kids to tie their shoes. They are gaining more dexterity in their fine motor skills, and are getting used to the routines of getting ready for school on a daily basis.  
     
    Shoe tying is part of that daily self-care schedule.  However, quite often, kids will start tying shoes at older ages. Shoe tying is tough:  There are many steps, two laces that look the exact same, and many times left./right confusion.
     
    Switching hands in tasks and not knowing the difference between left and right hand can be a challenge in a task like shoe tying where the verbal directions involve using the left hand to pinch and the right hand to pull a lace. That’s where using two different colored shoe laces is a benefit in our shoe tying activity.
     
    For left and right knowledge skills, try this related activity to work on left right confusion.
      

    Shoe Tying Egg Carton Activity

     
     
     
    Shoe tying tips using a shoe tying activity with a recycled egg carton and two different colored shoe laces to teach kids to tie their shoes..
     

     

     

     
    This post contains affiliate links.
     
     
    This shoe tying activity is a fun way to teach kids to lace and tie shoes with a fine motor twist.
     
    RELATED READ: The Ultimate Guide to Teaching Kids to Get Dressed
     
    Shoe tying activity using an egg carton and two different colored laces.
     
    1. Start with a cardboard egg carton.  If you like, give it a quick spray with disinfectant spray when the kids are not around and let the disinfectant dry. I don’t typically do this step, though. We just try to make sure to wash our hands after playing with egg cartons.  
    2. Make the holes for the laces.  We used golf tees and a hammer for this part.  See how here.  It’s a fun proprioceptive activity for kids that is always a hit in our house.
    3. Grab a set of shoe laces.  Using two different colors is best for new shoe tying friends.  
    4. Tie the laces together at one end and thread them through the holes of the egg carton.  
    5. Start lacing the holes the whole way up the egg carton.  Threading the holes is an excellent fine motor task for kids.  My three year old loved this and wanted to take the laces out and do it again.  Threading the laces encourages bilateral hand coordination which is vital for shoe tying.
    6. Now we’re ready to practice tying shoes!
    How to teach kids to tie shoes using an egg carton as a shoe tying practice activity.
     
      
     

    Shoe Tying Tips

    First, be sure to visit this page on shoe tying for more tips and strategies to teach kids to tie shoes. 

    Many times, children are excited to learn to tie their shoes.  Embrace it, go with it, and practice!  But other times, they just don’t want to learn. That’s ok! Don’t force them and come back to practicing in a week or two. 

    If kids get frustrated with the shoe tying activity, the struggle to get them to sit down can be a difficult thing to overcome from the very beginning and only make the practice time more difficult.  If that is the case, give them time, and revisit shoe tying in a week or two.  

    The key to teaching kids to tie their own shoes is calm, quiet, practice. It’s easy for kids to get upset, frustrated, or anxious when there are so many steps and may feel rushed or upset about their fumbling fingers.    They might have Velcro shoes that they are perfectly happy to pull on quite quickly.  

    With my older child and from helping lots of kids learn to tie their shoes, I’ve seen the incentive of a new pair of sneakers with laces bring on the ambition to give it a shot.  

    Other times, it’s a creative way to practice, simplified directions, or learning steps in chunks that gives kids an oomph of “hey! I CAN do this!”  

    Shoe Tying Activities

    Here are some more shoe tying activities and tips:

    • Consistent verbal cues for each step. Use the same words each time.
    • Practice with the shoe in your child’s lap, not on their foot.  Once they master shoe tying (or at least start to get the hang of it), then practice with their shoe on their foot.  It will then take more practice with the shoe on their foot because when they are wearing the shoe, the laces shorten a bit.
    • Tying shoes has a lot to do with visual perceptual skills. You’ll find easy and fun ways to work on visual perceptual skills through play here. 
    • Place the shoe in their lap or on the floor positioned with the heel close to them and the toe pointing away.
    • Practice with two different colored shoe laces.
    • Tie your own shoe as you prompt your child to tie theirs.  Do the steps at the same time.  Sit beside and position your shoe slightly in front of your child.  You want them to see your shoe as a model in the same position as yours and in a place where they can see your shoe without having to turn their head to much.
    • Avoid saying “right” and “left” when talking about the different strings.  Keeping track of the right/left sides can complicate things for a young child.  Use the names of the laces if you are using two different colored laces or just say, “the lace on this side of the shoe”, or the “Pick up the lace with the hand you write with.”
    • Work in chunks.  Practice only the first step until your child masters that part.  Then, teach the next step and work on those tow steps together before moving onto the next step.
    • Practice with items other than laces.  Shoe laces can be very difficult for young kids to manage.  If they have any trouble with fine motor skills or bilateral hand coordination, it is especially difficult.  Try practicing with stiff shoe laces, wire-edged ribbons, pipe cleaners (twist the ends of two together for length!), or Wikki Stix.
    • When you get to the step where your child pinches the loop, make sure they are holding it close to the shoe.  If they are pinching the loop too far from the shoe, the knot will be too loose.
    • If you’ve been practicing shoe tying for some time and your child is just having too much difficulty, it might be other underlying reasons.  To tie shoes, kids need fine motor skills, bilateral hand coordination, visual perceptual skills, hand-eye coordination, and hand strength just to get the task of shoe tying done. If you feel your child has a difficulty in one of these areas, contact your pediatrician for a referral to an Occupational Therapist for individual evaluation and treatment.
    • I like the simplified steps below for shoe tying.  They are simple and easy for kids to remember.  Write them down and read them as you go through shoe tying with your child.  Our newsletter subscribers can get the image below as a free printable.  J
     
    Teach kids how to tie their shoes free printable
     

    Shoe Tying Task Analysis

    Breaking down the steps to shoe tying and deciphering where the struggle is happening can be a huge part of addressing shoe tying struggles. Use this list of steps to tie shoes to assess where the break down is occurring. 

    Next, look at the underlying areas that play into that aspect of tying shoes. Is it fine motor coordination? Pinch strength? Crossing midline? Bilateral coordination? Attention and focus? All of these areas play into the overall task analysis of shoe tying. 

    Then, focus on addressing those skills during the functional task itself.

    Let’s take a look at each step of shoe tying:

     
    Easy Steps to Teach Kids to Tie Their Shoes:
    1. Put both laces on one side of the shoe.
    2. Pick up one lace and go over and under the other lace.
    3. Hold the ends of both laces and pull tightly.
    4. Pick up the middle of the left lace and pinch it at the bottom.  Hold it close to the shoe.
    5. Pick up the other lace and wrap it around the loop.
    6. Push the lace through with your finger.
    7. Grab the loop with your hand…Grab the other loop with the other hand…And pull.
     
    (Remember to avoid using the words “right” and “left” unless your child has a good grasp of these words.  You can instead use the names of the colored laces, if using two different colored laces, OR use “the lace on this side” or the “hand you write with”. 

     

    Shoe tying activity and shoe tying tips
     

    More Shoe Tying Activities

    Looking for more ways to practice shoe tying with kids?  These toys and tools are fun ways to practice with kids.

    They are additional ideas for your soon-to-be-shoe-tyer.  Perhaps you have friends or relatives who are asking for gift ideas for your child, or you are looking for ideas for upcoming holidays.  These are a few ideas that I love for working on shoe tying and can help kids in their fine motor dexterity to help them become successful at tying shoes.
     
     
    Shoe tying toys and activities
     
     

    Shoe Tying Toys

    • This Melissa & Doug Deluxe Wood Lacing Sneaker is a great practice tool, with it’s bright colors and stiffer laces than the ones typically on shoes that we wear.  Practice on the model before moving to your child’s real shoe.

    • If you have a little one who loves to read, this I Can Tie My Own Shoes Book is a real incentive to practice shoe tying.
    •  Sometimes, kids just can’t get the hang of shoe tying no matter how hard they try.  These Tie Buddies Shoe Accessory are great for kids that have trouble at the “loop part” of shoe tying.  They eliminate the loops and give kids something to hold onto while tying.  Kids with hand weakness will benefit from this tool.
    • Another modification to shoe tying are these No Tie Shoe Lock Laces .  They can be laced in shoes and help the child’s shoe stay snug.
    • Magic Shoelaces are another way to modify shoe tying.  Use these until your child is ready and able to practice effectively.  They are great laces for kids with difficulties in any of the underlying skills needed for shoe tying.
    • I love a creative practice technique when it comes to any skill for kids.  This Plastic Lacing Cord is an excellent way to practice shoe tying with a more resistive lace.  Use them in place of shoelaces in the egg carton activity that we shared today.
    • Lacing & Tracing Dinosaurs can help kids with lacing, managing strings, threading, bilateral hand coordination, and strength.  It’s a great precursor activity to practicing shoe tying.  
    • For more functional and appropriate play to work on shoe tying, I love this Colorful Caterpillars Game .  It works on bilateral hand coordination and strength needed to tie shoes with dexterity and ease.


      She tying activity with an egg carton and shoe tying tips

    I hope you were able to find some helpful tips and tools in this post.   


    Love this post?  Pin it!  And don’t forget to use that shoe tying joke!  Jokes help with shoe tying 🙂

    Try these shoe tying tips and tricks for teaching kids how to tie their shoes, from an Occupational Therapist
     

    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.