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:

Benefits of Mindfulness

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Benefits of mindfulness

There are many benefits of mindfulness, and in particular to the practice of mindfulness for children. Mindfulness affects the brain development and mechanisms in a few different ways according to research. Some research has indicated that the brain is impacted structurally through mindfulness activities. 

Benefits of mindfulness in children include positive attributes such as improved emotional regulation, attention, mood, cognitive function, and more.

Benefits of Mindfulness

Here are a few ways that mindfulness dresses functional skills and benefits of mindfulness:

Mindfulness Improves Mood

Part of mindfulness is the act of being aware of oneself, as well as an awareness of the surrounding environment. Having this awareness allows for a better understanding of things, situations, people, or events that impact mood.

In fact, working on mindfulness techniques can change and impact mood overall, because mindful techniques and strategies change the brain by improving connectivity among some brain areas and changing tissue density in key regions.

Through mindfulness techniques, those with mood disorders are able to better pay attention to the sensations and feelings they are experiencing, rather than fester in negative thoughts that can lead to a bad mood or changes in mood level (mood swings).

Instead, mindfulness offers a chance to evaluative one’s thoughts in the present moment, with a consideration of sensory input. The practice of this self-evaluation offers a chance for the brain to “exercise” and strengthen the pathways involved in experiential self-reference.

Mindfulness Helps with Emotional Regulation

Researchers have found that mindfulness and emotion regulation are related and are correlated, based on four factors:

  • Awareness and attention to the presence (being present and aware in any given moment)
  • Having a sense of acceptance of one’s experience
  • Clarity and understanding about one’s internal experience
  • Ability to manage negative emotions (for emotion regulation)

Mindfulness and Attention

Research suggests that mindfulness meditation training improves attention. In fact, mindfulness has been found to improve aspects of attention, including the specific attentional processes of alerting, orienting, and executive attention.

The alerting process allows us to maintain a state of vigilance or alertness. We see this process when we are alert and ready to attend or respond to relevant stimuli when they arise. The orienting aspect of attention is responsible for attending selectively to a location in space.

The executive control aspect of attention is responsible for deciding between competing inputs. These three aspects of attention function independently, but are all critical for attention in general. Here is more information on attention and various aspects of attention.

Mindfulness Helps with Rumination

Rumination refers to the process of deeply thinking about something, or go over and over a thought in the mind. Rumination can be a detrimental process that is not only a counterproductive way to process situations or events, but can lead to overthinking in a way that has a potential for some people to experience aversive emotions such as depression, anxiety, fear, anger, or self-depreciation.

One study found that mindfulness decreased depression that occurs from rumination and that specific aspects of mindfulness reduced depression. These include acting with awareness, non-judging, and non-reacting.

Mindfulness Improves Cognitive Functioning

Research has found that mindfulness impacts cognitive function. There has been preliminary evidence suggesting that mindfulness can improve cognition specifically in the domains of focused attention, working memory capacity, and other executive functions.

Participants were provided with mindfulness techniques such as attention to the breath, focused body-scans, yoga, walking meditations, meditation recordings of guided meditation, and journaling as mind-body practices.

The study concluded that mindfulness based interventions show some evidence for improving cognitive impairment among breast cancer survivors.

Mindfulness Helps with Focus

One study has found that mediation practice improves focus. Having a mindful awareness in the present moment was found to reduce incidents of getting off-task in thinking.

Mindfulness meditation allowed for a switch of attention from their internal thoughts to the external environment. When this switch happens, one is able to focus on their body, mind, and environment in the moment rather than other thoughts, worries, and stressors.

One practical way to improve focus is to bring awareness to your breath each time you feel your mind wandering. This can be practiced during meditation. This practice actually strengthens the brain’s neural circuitry for focus. 

Mindfulness Improves Gray matter density

Interestingly, mindfulness has been found to improve grey matter density in the brain. Following an eight-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction course, participants showed increases in gray matter concentration within the brain, including the hippocampus and cerebellum.

Mindfulness techniques in this study included formal mindfulness training exercises including a body scan, mindful yoga, and sitting meditation. This included guided meditation, gentle stretching exercises and slow movements that are often coordinated with the breath, and awareness of the sensations of breathing, then evolve to include awareness of different modalities (such as sounds, sight, taste, other body sensations, thoughts and emotions).

Also used were audio recordings for implementation of meditation strategies at home, and instructions to facilitate the integration of mindfulness into daily life during everyday activities such as eating, walking, washing the dishes, taking a shower etc. 

Mindfulness Reduces Stress

Mindfulness has been found to reduce stress as well. Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) is an established program that includes various forms of mindfulness practice. These consist of formal and informal meditation practice, yoga, breath-focused attention, body scan-based attention, shifting attention across sensory modalities, open monitoring of moment-to-moment experience, walking meditation, and eating meditation.

Mindfulness-based stress reduction is believed to have an impact on one’s emotional response to situations by modifying the brain’s cognitive–affective processes.

Mindfulness improves Self-Awareness

Mindfulness uses mental training in the form of awareness of the mind and body so that awareness of self is automatic. Practicing mindfulness is in itself, self-awareness in any given situation.

By improving this skill, one can have the ability to effectively modulate one’s behavior, or experience self-regulation. Practicing mindful techniques strengthens self-awareness skills.

Mindfulness Improves Self control

One researcher described mindfulness as a strategy to helps us become more aware and accepting of emotional signals—which helps us to control our behavior. She says that the thought that mindfulness leads to less emotionality, or that mindful people experience less emotion is simply not true.

In fact, mindfulness allows for improved emotion regulation through a present-moment awareness and acceptance of emotional experience. 

Mindfulness as a Coping Strategy

Mindfulness as a coping strategy for kids can impact sensory or emotional needs and help children regulate their body’s response to input, so that they can accomplish tasks, learn, and function in the home, classroom, or community.

Mindfulness and Executive Functioning

Studies have linked mindfulness with executive functioning skills, and it makes sense! Mindfulness is a strategy to increase attention, working memory, self-monitoring, emotion/mood, conflict attention and impulse control.

And, by increasing an awareness and acceptance of various emotional states, those who meditate may excel at executive control because of their ability to attend to the emotions associated with making errors in any given situation. Fascinating!

Mindfulness Improves Listening skills

Mindfulness is centered around awareness and self-reflection. So, when we listen with intention, and really focus on the person talking to us, you can give your full attention to the person speaking.

Mindful listening is a way of listening without judgment, criticism or interruption, and without letting your mind wander. It allows you to be aware of internal thoughts and reactions but listen with focus.

Fostering these listening skills allows for better understanding and comprehension. 

A final word on mindfulness benefits in children

There is a lot of information here that defines mindfulness as a tool to improve various skillsets in kids. My hope is that this information on mindfulness can be a starting point to drive goals and therapy activities for children.

For specific mindfulness activities for kids here on The OT Toolbox, try these ideas to gain all of the benefits of mindfulness:

Fun Mindfulness Activities for Kids

Mindfulness Library

Mindfulness YouTube Videos for Kids

Pumpkin Deep Breathing Exercise

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.

Vision Activities for Kids

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Vision activities

Skipping words when reading or copying written work, noticing details about things, reversing letters and numbers, poor eye-hand coordination or being a little clumsy, difficulty with reading comprehension…these are just SOME of the ways that vision impacts functional tasks in kids. Here you will find specific strategies and vision activities that help kids build and develop the underlying areas that impact independence.

Vision activities for kids to improve visual perception, visual efficiency, visual motor skills, eye-hand coordination, and more.

These vision activities are outlined by area that they improve, or those underlying skills that therapists work on so that kids can be independent in thins like catching a ball, writing on the lines, building puzzles, and so many other tasks.

We’ve recently put together a huge resource in our Visual Motor Skills section of the blog, which you can find under the tab at the top of the blog. Be sure to stop by and see all of the fun ways to play and develop visual perceptual skills, visual motor integration, visual figure ground, hand-eye coordination, visual discrimination, visual spatial relations, and more by checking out the vision activities for kids that we’ll be updating regularly.

Why Vision Activities?

Vision activities can sometimes be the missing piece to vision problems that we see in kids. Therapists often times working with kids with known or suspected visual perceptual or visual motor concerns, visual acuity issues, or other visual processing needs.

Teachers often have students that struggle with reading, copying, handwriitng, comprehension, attention, or focus.

Parents may have a child with a known vision issue or have a gut feeling about visual processing concerns.

Here is more information on visual processing and handwriting.

therapist Concerns

There are many concerns therapists have when it comes to vision needs in kids. Therapists need a quick screen to help identify the visual difficulties Rather than taking the extended time to work through several lengthy assessments, there is a time for evaluation, but a quick screening can pinpoint which strategy to take next.

Having quick activities to either do before or after an OT session, or to hand off to parents for home occupational therapy activities is a need for OTs. Similarly, quick vison activities that build on those underlying areas and are not disruptive to the class are sometimes needed.

Teacher Concerns

One of the main difficulties in the classroom is the impact vision has on learning. Kids struggle with visual stimulation and the inability to stay focused for any length of time due to visually processing so much information around us.  Students may visually dart their eyes from not only reading scripts but anything visually available, and they are unable to filter what isn’t required for the task at hand. When this happens, the eyes don’t know where to focus, therefore tasks take longer or don’t get completed, and it’s a real challenge for the child to focus. 

Handwriting is another reason to take a look at vision. Many kiddos have difficulties keeping letters aligned on a baseline, or even knowing where to place letters on a blank sheet of paper. 

So many kids cannot visually attend to an object to even assess tracking.  They will look past the tracking object and say they are looking at it or look at it for 1-2 seconds and their eyes dart in another direction.  How many children have you seen that have not had the capability to maintain visual contact with an object for a sustained amount of time? When this occurs, reading and handwriting can be a real problem?  

Vision Therapy

There is an overlap in interventions between vision therapy and occupational therapy. Much of the vision therapy research covers the vary skill areas that occupational therapy addresses in it’s OT activities.

So often, these two professions intervene in those vision activities that address the very areas kids struggle in:

-More and more kids who can not visually track- leading to trouble with reading and learning…

-Kids of various levels and abilities who struggle with interventions to address visual motor deficits…

-Students with real difficulties with reading and need strategies that make a difference in the classroom…

-Kids challenged by limited exposure to motor activities that translate to visual motor difficulties…

–Kids struggle with orthographic memory (spelling patterns and knowing if a word looks right), but they have high levels of visual acuity.

-Many students have difficulty with visual memory and visual attention which makes it difficult for them to copy words or sentences. They require visual and verbal cues to refer back to the sample and often can only recall and copy one letter at a time.  

Vision Definitions

Before we cover various vision activities, we will go over the vision definitions for terms that relate to all things vision. This guide to vision can help you better understand what’s happening in those eyes.

Under each section are links to activities to build each skill area.

Visual Motor Integration- Visual motor integration includes the overarching umbrella that contains several areas, including visual perception, visual processing skills, and eye-hand coordination. The integration of these areas enables the eyes to perceive information through the vision functions (described in further below) and process information, resulting coordinated hand (and body) motor actions in order to complete a task. Visual motor integration includes a perceptual component that allows for copying of letters and positioning of objects based on perceptual input.

Here are visual motor skills activities.

Visual Motor integration activity using a marker ladder activity

Visual Motor Activity Letter Ladder

Visual motor activity bilateral coordination activity

Visual Motor Bilateral Coordination Activity

visual motor activities

Visual Motor Activities

Eye-Hand Coordination- This eye and hand skill allows an individual to catch a ball, hit a target, or complete other motor actions based on visual information. Development of eye-hand coordination occurs from birth and continues as kids develop more physical skills.

Here is an easy eye-hand coordination activity.

eye hand coordination activities for preschoolers

Eye-Hand Coordination Activities for Preschoolers

Eye hand coordination activities with paper

Eye-Hand Coordination Activities using Paper

eye hand coordination activity with tongs

Eye-Hand Coordination Activity with Tongs

Eye hand coordination activity with a ball and recycled cake pan

Eye-Hand Coordination Letter Match

Hand eye coordination activity with letter cookies for preschool

Hand-Eye Coordination Activity for Preschool

– work on hand eye coordination using an everyday item…something you have in your therapy bag right now!

Jumbo Fine Motor Threading Activity– Threading and lacing is a great way to work on hand eye coordination.

Eye-hand coordination activity with letters– Sorting, manipulating, and organizing small items can be a way to boost skills with coordination exercises.

Feather Beading– Threading beads onto feathers is a creative and fun way to improve eye hand coordination skills.

Vision Functions- This includes the actions and abilities of the eyes that allow information to be perceived. Visual functions include visual tracking, visual convergence, divergence, saccadic eye movements, depth perception, nystagmus, disassociated eye movements, eye positioning, teaming, and eye dominance. Here are visual scanning activities.

  • Visual Tracking- The eyes ability to follow a moving target through all fields of vision with smooth, coordinated movements in dissociation; it is also referred to as a pursuit. Here are activities to work on smooth pursuits.
DIY Visual tracking tool

Easy DIY Visual Tracking Tool

visual tracking exercises

Visual Tracking Exercises

Visual Tracking Activities with Cardboard Tubes

Visual Tracking Activities with Cardboard Tubes

Visual Tracking Marble Run with Jingle Bells

Marble Run Visual Tracking Activity

Here are games for visual tracking.

  • Visual Convergence- The eyes ability to follow a moving target from a distance into the midline with smooth, coordinated movements. Convergence is the technical term for “crossing your eyes”. Convergence should be easily maintained for up to 5 seconds. Here are activities to improve visual convergence.
Convergence activities

Visual Convergence Activities

Maze activity with wikki stix and a space theme to work on visual convergence

Maze Visual Convergence Activity

Maze activity with bubble wrap

Bubble Wrap Maze Activity

  • Divergence- The eyes ability to follow a moving target from convergence, or near point, out to a far point with smooth, coordinated movements.

Here is more information on convergence efficiency.

  • Saccadic Eye Movements- The ability to move one’s eyes simultaneously between two points of fixation with smooth movements. This skill is utilized for near and far point copying without losing your place. Here are activities for visual saccades.
Visual saccades

Saccades and Learning

visual saccade activities

Visual Saccades Activities

  • Teaming- Fluid, smooth coordinated movements of both eyes in synchrony. Difficulties with teaming can lead to eye strain and fatigue, headaches, and blurred vision. Visual teaming is a big part of visual efficiency. Here are activities and more information on visual efficiency.
vision activities that boost learning, by addressing visual convergence and eye teaming.

Quick Screening Activities for Visual Teaming, Convergence, and Visual Efficiency

  • Disassociated Eye Movements- The ability to move your eyes separately from your head while it is stabilized. Lack of dissociation can indicate under developed motor patterns and eye muscle imbalances. 
  • Eye Positioning- This refers to the position of the eyes when resting. Both eyes should be in neutral, equal position. However, it is possible that one, or both eyes demonstrates deviation in an outward or inward deviation. This can indicate an eye muscle imbalance.
  • Nystagmus- Nystagmus refers to the reflexive lateral movement of the eyes post rotary stimulation. This should be present only after rotary stimulation. If it is present at rest it is considered abnormal. If it is NOT present or limited post rotary stimulation, it is considered abnormal and may indicate a vestibular disorder.
  • Eye Dominance- This indicates the eye that is the stronger of the two. This eye is typically the same eye as our dominant side for motor tasks.  However, mixed dominance does happen and can cause difficulties. 
  • Depth Perception- Allows us to perceive visual input in multiple dimensions (including length, width and depth), and to judge how far away an object is. Here is information and activities for depth perception.
Depth perception information and activities

Depth Perception Information and Activities

Visual perception is our ability to make sense of what we see. Visual perceptual skills are essential for everything from navigating our world to reading, writing, and manipulating items. Visual perception is made up of a complex combination of various skills and systems, including sensory processing, visual attention. These visual perceptual skills are necessary together and in coordination with one another in order for use to see information and use that visual information to create responses or react with functional abilities like movement or processing. When visual perceptual skills are delayed or impaired, other areas can suffer, including: learning, social, emotional, self-regulation, behavior, attention, organization, concentration, self-esteem, etc.

Visual Perceptual Skills make up an important component of visual motor skills. For children, these abilities are necessary for so many things…from self-care to fine motor skills, to gross motor skills…all parts of a child’s development require visual perception. There are many pieces to the giant term of “visual perception”. Sub-components include: visual memory, form constancy, visual spatial relationships, visual attention, visual sequential memory, visual figure-ground, and visual closure.

Use tangrams to improve visual perception

Tangrams Activities for Visual Perception

Wacky Wednesday Visual Perception Activity

Wacky Wednesday Visual Perception Activity

Apple visual perception activities for kids

Apple Visual Perception Activity

Heart maze visual perceptual skills activity

DIY Maze Activity for Visual Perceptual Skills

Free visual perceptual skills worksheets

Free Visual Perceptual Skills Worksheets

This free slide deck is an animal visual perception activity

Visual Perception Slide Deck

Spring themed visual perception activities for kids

Spring Visual Perception Activities

Here are strategies for visual perception and handwriting.

Here are toys and games to improve visual perception.

Visual Memory– This is one’s ability to store visual information in short term memory.  This skill allows us to recall visual information.  When completing hidden picture puzzles, kids visually store images of items they are looking for when scanning to locate a specific shape or image.  This skill is necessary for handwriting tasks when copying information from a source, such as lists of words, homework lists, and copying sentences. which direction we see them. Here is more information and activities for visual memory.

Visual memory information

Visual Memory Activities

Visual Memory Game with a sensory bin

Memory Sensory Tray for Letters

Memory Game based on the book Goodnight Moon

Goodnight Moon Memory Game

Form Constancy– This skill allows us to visually recognize objects no matter their orientation.  When completing a hidden picture puzzle, children can recognize the missing object whether it is upside down or sideways.  In handwriting skills, we use this ability to read and know letters and numbers no matter the position of the letters/numbers. Here are fun ways to work on form constancy.

Visual Form Constancy Activity with Tangrams

Form Constancy with Tangrams

Sponge tangrams for form constancy

Sponge Tangrams for Form Constancy

Visual Figure Ground is the ability to locate objects within a cluttered area (think “I Spy”).  Finding a red square among the pile of foam pieces is one fun way to work on this area of visual perception.

Try some of these figure ground activities:

Baby Ice and Bath

Bottle cap letters

Letter Bin

Sight word sensory bin

Rainbow sensory bins

I Spy sight word sensory bottle

Real toy I Spy game

Finger dexterity exercise

Figure ground sight word hunt

Visual Figure Ground Activities

Visual Figure Ground Activities

Visual Spatial Relationships- This visual perceptual skill allows us to recognize and understand the relationships of objects within the environment and how they relate to one another. Here are activities to improve spatial relations.

What are spatial relations

What are Spatial Relations?

Spatial relations development activities for babies

Spatial Relations Development Activities for Babies

Spatial Awareness Activity for Handwriting

Spatial Awareness Tools for Handwriting

Build spatial concepts with a map activity

Use a Map Activity to Develop Spatial Concepts


Visual Attention- This visual perceptual skill allows us to focus on the important pieces or parts of what we see. When we “take in” a scene or image in front of us, we are able to filter out the unimportant information. In this way, a student is able to focus our eyes on the teacher when she teaches. Driving down a road requires visual attention to take in the road so we can drive safely. Visual attention is important in copy work as students copy information from a Smart Board or book onto a piece of paper. As they visually scan from one point to another, they attend to the place they left off. Visual attention is also important and very needed in reading. Here is more information on visual attention.

Toys to help with visual attention in kids

Toys and Games to Help with Visual Attention

Visual Sequential Memory- This visual perceptual skill is the ability to visually take in and then later recall the sequence or order of items in the correct order. This skill is important in reading and writing. Visual sequential memory is important in spelling words correctly and recognizing that words are not spelled correctly.

Sequential memory activity

Sequential Order Activity with DIY Stacking Cups

sequential order activity with numbers

Sequential Order Activity with Numbers

Visual Discrimination– This visual perception skill enables us to determine slight differences in objects.  In hidden picture activities, this skill is needed to determine and locate different hidden objects.  When writing and reading, visual discrimination allows us to perceive the difference between “p” and “d”. Here is a visual discrimination worksheet.

Visual discrimination activities

Visual Discrimination Activities

More visual discrimiation activities:

Color matching Elmer Activity

Finger dexterity exercise

Practice “b” and “d” with sensory writing

Color shape discrimination Sort

Coin discrimination

Real toy I Spy game

Visual Closure– This visual perceptual skill allows us to see part of an object and visualize in our “mind’s eye” to determine the whole object.  When we see part of an item, we use visual closure to know what the whole item is.  This skill requires the cognitive process of problem solving to identify items.  Visual Closure is used to locate and recognize items in a hidden picture puzzle.  In written work, we use visual closure to recognize parts of words and letters when reading and copying work. Here is a visual closure activity.

Flower visual closure worksheets

Free Visual Closure Worksheets

Bugs visual closure activity

Bugs Visual Closure Activity

Fall Leaves Printable tic Tac Toe Game

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Fall leaves printable tic tac toe activity for occupational therapy home programs

Getting this fall leaves bucket list has been on my to-do list for a few weeks now. Here in western Pennsylvania, fall leaves are just about at their peak colors. They are just starting to fall, and that means there are lots of colorful, crunchy leaves to explore and play in! As occupational therapists, we know the power of play. That means we know the power of using fall leaves as a tool to build strength, balance, sensory experiences, heavy work, and movement! Leaf activities are just part of Fall and all that the season brings in the way of fall fun! Use the free printable for occupational therapy home programs, or just a cheap fall bucket list of fall activities!

Fall Leaves Activities for a fall bucket list that builds skills! This fall leaves printable is a downloadable tic tac toe game that kids can use in occupational therapy activities.

Fall Leaves Printable

A lot of the leaf activities on this printable are activities that I’ve shared previously on this website. You can find the links to these ideas here, so you can read more about the “why” behind these activities and to understand the different ways to build development in kids.

This fall leaves printable is a tic tac toe printable page. Use it to encourage movement, sensory exploration, fine motor skills, and gross motor skills. The images are small and just outlines, so kids can color in the pictures as they complete each activity, making it a great way to build fine motor strength, coordination, and pencil control.

Each fall leaf activity uses just leaves from outside, but if fall leaves aren’t available in your area, colored paper leaves work just as well.

Fall leaf tic tac toe activities encourage movement, so use this as a great occupational therapy home program or even one to use in OT teletherapy.

Leaf activities for occupational therapy and to build skills in fine motor development, sensory play, gross motor skills. Use fall leaves in therapy activities!

Fall Leaf Activities

Here are the fall leaf activities described on on this leaf printable. If you need more descriptions or a better understanding of how these fall leaf activities help kids build skills, be sure to save this page so you can come back to it.

Leaves for Scissor Skills– Improves scissor accuracy, bilateral coordination, eye-hand coordintion, fine motor precision.

Leaf collage art– Use real leaves to make a craft that builds bilateral coordination, heavy work proprioceptive input, and scissor skills.

Fall Proprioception Activities– Jumping in piles of leaves, raking leaves, and carrying a load of leaves in a bucket, wheelbarrow, or arms adds calming heavy work for the proprioceptive sense!

Fall Vestibular Activities– Run, dive, jump, swoop! Catching fall leaves provides input to the vestibular sense. These activities can be organizing and help kids regulate behaviors, emotions, and their sensory system.

Leaf Balance Beam- Do you know the power of a balance beam? The best news is that you don’t need fancy expensive equipment to replicate those benefits! Use leaves to make a homemade balance beam with all of the skill-building!

Leaf Hole Punch Activity– Grab a hole puncher and a handful of leaves. Those fine motor skills are about to grow! This activity builds eye-hand coordination, hand strength, arch development, separation of the sides of the hand, visual motor skills, and more.

Leaf Matching Activity– There are a lot of ways to develop visual processing skills like matching leaves during the Fall season.

Leaf Activities For therapy

Pre-Writing Lines: Pre-writing activity with real leaves– Use real leaves to work on eye-hand coordination, visual motor skills, and pre-writing lines with hands on fine motor work.

Bilateral Coordination: Leaf Craft- Use real leaves to make a craft that builds bilateral coordination, heavy work proprioceptive input, and scissor skills.

Craft for Older Kids:  Sewing Skills Craft– Use a needle and thread, wire, lacing cord to thread around leaf shapes. We used plastic canvas, but you could use cardboard, cereal boxes, or even laminated paper.

Hand Strength- Leaf Ten Frames– Use a hole puncher with leaves to work on hand strength and hands-on math.

Sensory Play- Nature Water Table– Use a bin, water table, or bowl to explore Fall’s colors and textures and challenge the senses.

Tactile Sensory Activity- Sensory Painting– Use leaves, corn husks, and grasses for sensory painting. Then, practice handwashing!

Heavy Work Activity- Play Dough Press– Use natural materials and play dough to add heavy work for the hands. This is a great visual perception activity, too.

Eye-Hand Coordination and Problem Solving– Fall Tree Crafts– build eye-hand coordination and problem solving with a sensory experience to make these fall trees.

Scissor Skills Activity- Fall leaves scissor activity– Use leaves to work on line awareness, bilateral coordination, and visual motor skills.

MORE Sensory Processing Activities for Fall

Leaf Auditory Processing Activity– Use leaves to work on listening skills, auditory discrimination, and auditory challenges.

Fall Fine Motor Activities

Fall Visual processing Activities

Fall Tactile Sensory Activities

Fall Vestibular Activities

Fall Proprioception Activities

Fall Leaf Printable

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    For more fall leaf activities, try some of these:

    fall leaf activities for auditory processing

    Fall Leaf Auditory Processing Activities

    fall leaves activities for teletherapy

    Fall Leaves Activity for Teletherapy

    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.

    Mask Social Story Slide Deck

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    wear a mask social story for sensory issues

    Here, you can get a mask social story for kids with sensory needs. Trying to help kids with the task of wearing a mask? Social stories are a great tool for explaining concepts using pictures and affirming words. This social story about face masks is an important one for kids. Whether face masks are needed for immunity needs, doctor or hospital visits, health or safety needs, or something else, it can be important concept to address with children and a social story about masks is a great visual tool.

    Social Story about Wearing Masks

    When our kids were moving from full virtual to hybrid learning, so that means kids that have been out of the classroom since March are now going to be back in the physical school location, wearing masks was a new and different thing!. And, getting kids to wear masks…and keep those masks on…can be a real concern, especially for kids with sensory needs!

    Today, I’ve got a free teletherapy slide deck to help kids learn the importance of wearing a mask and it covers the sensory concerns that might come up with mask wearing. This slide deck is a social story for mask wearing with sensory issues, so it adds a story component while allowing kids to understand why they need to wear a mask when it feels itchy or scratchy. This slide deck is free, so grab it below.

    Get this free mask social story to help kids with sensory needs tolerate and accommodate for mask wearing.

    Wearing a mask with sensory needs

    For kids with sensory needs, wearing a mask can be a big problem. But some schools, businesses, and situations require a mask for entry. So how does the child with sensory needs deal with this situation? For some, the softest of face masks can feel scratchy or itchy. It can make others feel like they are contained. Still others are frustrated wtih the feel of mask straps behind their ears.

    Kids with sensory needs and masks don’t mix!

    That’s why I wanted to put this social story together and get it into your hands. Because some kids are truly struggling with wearing a mask and don’t understand why they need to have this itchy, scratchy fabric attached to their face!

    Help kids wear a mask when they have sensory preferences due to sensory processing disorder.

    Wearing a Mask Social Story

    Some kids respond really well to social stories, so this slide deck should be a good way to teach this concept. I’ve made the slide deck interactive, so kids can read through the slide, and move the checkmark to the “finished” square once they understand the concept on each slide.

    Kids with sensory needs can struggle with wearing a mask. This mask social story can help if the mask feels too tight.

    The slides cover various aspects of masks for kids with sensory needs, including how masks feel on the skin, or how they may make a person feel hot.

    I’ve also included slides in this social story that tell the reader they can ask for help if they need it when wearing a mask.

    Some children may chew on their face mask to meet oral sensory needs as calming input when they attempt to self-regulate. However, another sensory tool could be used in place of the mask. This sensory social story helps kids to understand that by reading the words of the story and by matching those words to the image.

    Kids with sensory needs can feel a mask as too tight or scratchy. This mask social story can help.

    Kids with sensory needs or those with sensory processing disorder may feel the temperature difference between having a mask on or off. This mask sensory story covers those issues.

    You’ll find slides for kids that feel that mask move in and out with their breath, as well. All of these sensory sensitivities can be very apparent with the use of a face mask!

    use this free mask social story in teletherapy or to help kids with sensory needs adjust to wearing a mask by offering other alternatives that meet their sensory needs.

    Free slide deck for wearing a mask with sensory needs

    To get this slide deck, enter your email address below. By doing this, I am able to deliver the slides to your email inbox.

    Be sure to log into your Google drive first. You will get a pdf that you can save and use over and over again. Click the document to make a copy of the slide onto your drive.

    Use the slide deck in “edit” mode to allow students to move the check marks on each slide as the individual slide is read. You can also use this slide deck in “present” mode, but the movable piece won’t work.

    Get this Free “Wearing a Mask” Social Story slide deck

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      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.

      Clothes Pin Pinch Grasp Exercises

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      Use clothes pins in a pinch strength exercise to improve lateral pinch prehension, and other grasp patterns.

      Wondering about lateral pinch strength? Hoping to help kids build tip to tip strength? Trying to build pinch strength in general? Here, I am sharing pinch exercises to strengthen pinch strength so that tasks that require strong hands (like coloring without fatigue, or holding the pencil and writing with endurance) can maneuver and manipulate objects. Check out the pinch strength exercises listed here and add these to your hand strengthening activities toolbox. All you need are clothes pins to build muscle strength and pinch patterns in occupational therapy sessions.

      Related, here are more fine motor activities using clothes pins, to use these in your therapy planning, too.

      Before we get into the pinch exercises below, be sure to bookmark the popular series about Occupational Therapy activities that can be done using free or almost free materials. This post is included in that series, and you will find other activities designed to build skills using everyday materials.  

      (Affiliate links are included in this post.)

      Pinch Exercises for Kids

      Today, I’m going back to the early days of my OT career and sharing fun ways to work on a few different hand pinch grasps.  For this fine motor activity, we’re using wooden clothes pins…something you probably have in your house or could get for a dollar at the dollar store.  There are many pinch grasp tools on the market designed to build pinch strength, but having an easily accessible (and inexpensive) option is key to carryover, use, and feasibility in building strength.

      Types of Pinch Grips

      Ok, the basics:  When you use your hand to do …anything… you’ll use one or more of the different types of pinch grips. These pinch patterns are developed through use. Les cover the types of pinch grips, as well as some common terms when we talk about pinch.

      Lateral Pinch Grip (aka Key Pinch Grip)- The thumb opposes the lateral side of the pointer finger.  This grasp is used when holding and using a key.

      Lateral Prehension Grip– A sub group of the lateral grip type of pinch is the Lateral Prehension Grip. In the lateral prehension grip, the thumb is flexed (bent) and it’s pad opposes the lateral side of the tip of the pointer finger. This grip is used to hold an index card or paper, sometimes.

      Three jaw Chuck Pinch Grip– The thumb is flexed (bent) and opposes the pads of the pointer finger and middle finger. Holding a small cap like a toothpaste lid uses this grip. This is the grip used in holding a pencil.

      Tip to Tip Grip– The tip of the thumb touches the tip of the pointer finger.  The thumb and pointer finger form an circle (or open thumb web space). This grasp is also called a pincer grasp.  It is used to pick up small items like cereal or beads.  If very small items are picked up (like a needle), a Neat Pincer Grasp is being used.

      Lateral Grip– Pinching an item between the pointer and middle fingers use this grip.  You would use this grip in holding a cigarette.  While this is not a functional grasp for kids (obviously), you might see kiddos fiddle with a pencil by holding it between two fingers.

      Prehension

      Prehension is another common term that you may have heard mentioned. But what is prehension?

      The definition of prehension is the act of holding or grasping. The ability to hold and grasp an object in the hand requires prehension of the fingers. Prehension can also refer to the ability to hold a concept or idea in the brain to allow for understanding. Here, we are talking about prehension skills that allow us to manipulate items or objects. We are covering prehension patterns in the way of pinch grips.

      To break this down further, prehension can be identified in the different types of pinch grips.

      Tip prehension refers to the ability of the tip of the thumb, or the last joint of the thumb (known as the IP joint) to bend in isolation so that the rest of the thumb is stabile while just the last joint bends, or flexes. This tip prehension works in combination with opposition of the thumb as it rotates at the base, in order to oppose the tip of the index finger. Prehension can refer to the precision of grasp in the index finger as it bends at the PIP joint (proximal interphalangeal joint, or the middle joint of the finger), and the DIP joint (distal interphalangeal joint, or the end joint of the finger). This tip prehension is needed for small motor movements such as picking up a button or coin, threading a needle, etc.

      There are other types of prehension, like palmer prehension. This dexterity refers to in-hand manipulation, which we cover in other places on this website.

      Still other types of prehension are included in each of the pinch grasp patterns described above. Specific motions of the joints related to each pattern, and stability offered by related joints such as the wrist or metacarpophalangeal joints, and the arches of the hand allow for dexterity and precision of grasp…or prehension!

      We’ve created a video specifically showing how to target different grasp patterns using clothes pins. These clothes pin exercises are a great way to build hand and finger strength with a few repetitions. Simply clip the clothes pins onto the edge of a sheet of cardboard or cardstock paper for building pinch strength in the fingers.

      Watch this video for an example of how to position the fingers on the clothes pins for each pinch grasp: (If you can’t view the video due to blockers on your device, check out the video on The OT Toolbox YouTube channel.)

      Fine motor pinch grips and exercises to work on them using clothes pins, from an Occupational Therapist.

      Pinch Grip Exercises

      So, how can you work on these grips in a fun way?  Try using something you probably have in your home: Wooden clothes pins.  These are a therapy treatment bag staple.  You can work on each of the pinch grasps above to improve strength, arch development, open web space, and dexterity using clothes pins.   

      Lateral Pinch Exercises

      1. Hold the clothes pins between the thumb and the side of the pointer finger, like holding a key. Clip the clothes pins onto an index card.
      2. Hold the clothes pin between the thumb and the side of the pointer finger, like holding a key. Use the clothes pin to pick up an object like a craft pom pom to drop it into a color-coded bowl, cupcake liner, or onto a marked circle on a piece of paper.

      Tip to tip Grasp Exercises

      1. Hold the clothes pin between the thumb and the pointer finger. Be sure the tip of the thumb is doing the work. The IP joint of the thumb should be bent. Do several repetitions of this exercise to open and close the clothes pin.
      2. Holding the clothes pin between the tip of the thumb and the tip of the pointer finger, try to clip the clothes pin onto the single page of a book. Then, try to clip the clothes pin onto 10-20 pages of a book. Try to increase the increments and number of pages that are clipped between the clothes pin.

      3 Jaw Chuck Pinch Exercises

      1. Hold the clothes pin between the thumb and the pointer finger and middle finger. Clip the clothes pins onto a shirt or edge of clothing. Using both the index finger and the middle finger allows for more strength through the 3 jaw chuck grip pattern, so try clipping items of clothing together, like pairs of socks or two shirts. Clip several clothes pins around the edge of the clothing.
      2. Hold the clothespin between the thumb and the pointer finger/middle finger. Try to clip clothing to a string or clothes line.

      Prehension Exercises

      All of these exercises listed above can be completed in increasing repetitions. You might notice that the exercises listed include a functional component, like hanging clothes, or play. This is part of what makes occupational therapy, well, occupational! Try to include an aspect of function or daily tasks like painting, moving and manipulating objects with sorting for a learning aspect, or other aspect of independence.

      Fine motor pinch grips and exercises to work on them using clothes pins, from an Occupational Therapist.

      Here are more pinch activities clothes pins:

      Use the grips described above in the play and art activities below.  Try using different grips while completing the tasks, to work on the grips or skill areas appropriate for your child. Start with these fine motor activities using clothes pins.

      Like this activity?  Try some of these activities: 

      Handwriting Warm Up Exercises

      Homemade lacing cards

      Homemade Lacing Cards

      motor planning activity

      Motor Planning Fine Motor Maze

      hand strengthening activity

      Hand Strengthening Building Activity

      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.


      Weekly Themes for Occupational Therapy

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      Weekly theme activities for occupational therapy with kids.

      Looking for activity themes to make your OT planning easier? These weekly lesson plans are great for occupational therapy intervention activities because they are open-ended and can be used as a planning theme while meeting the needs of a whole caseload of students or OT clients. While curriculum planning in occupational therapy isn’t typically a “thing”, coming up with creative activities certainly is!

      My hope is to provide weekly themes for creating a set of activities that you can adjust to meet your needs, in the classroom, clinic, or home.

      And, if you like the idea of a printable PDF version of these OT intervention themes, be sure to sign up as a newsletter subscriber (enter your email in the “Subscribe” button at the top right side of this webpage. All email subscribers get access to the subscriber-only freebie library. Or, CLICK HERE to subscribe. These therapy themes are available in printable format with supply lists. These are great for home programs and therapy planning!

      Weekly themes for planning occupational therapy activities with kids.

      Weekly Themes

      Even if you aren’t seeking out specifically occupational therapy activities, these fun themes for children serve to offer strategies to build fine motor skills, gross motor skills, sensory challenges, brain breaks, interactive and hands-on learning activities, and so much more. Some of these themes have slide decks for distance learning/virtual therapy sessions. Others have book lists and activities related to the books. Still others have crafts and fun ways to build various skills all focused on one weekly theme.

      So, be sure to save this page…Pin it to Pinterest…email a link to yourself. This weekly theme page will be updated weekly as we go through this school year with A thematic curriculum that integrates basic skill development areas addressed in occupational therapy and the classroom or home through the exploration of a broad subject or topic, such as apples, community helpers, transportation, rain forests, STEM, etc.

      Thematic Instruction in OT

      Thematic instruction can be a powerful tool that is meaningful, motivating, and FUN for kids. Plus, while it can require a little prep on the side of the occupational therapist, parent, or teacher, it sort of flows throughout the week. Students can come back to activities that they enjoyed while working on specific or related skills. But, for the therapist working with a large caseload, thematic instruction can be much easier to plan and adapt to meet each client or student’s levels and goals. My mission is to make this planning simple for you and get you all of the ideas into one place, including materials you will need!

      Weekly Themes for Therapy

      Here it is! Let’s get those weekly themes into your hands:

      September Themes

      Use these apple activities for an apple weekly theme in therapy or learning.

      Apple Theme- Use apple theme activities with fine motor, gross motor activities, apple brain breaks, and more.

      These back to school activities can be used in weekly theme planning for occupational therapy activities.

      Back-to-School Theme- These back-to-school activities include crafts, writing activities, fine motor fun, gross motor activities, and back-to-school slide decks.

      October Themes for Therapy

      Pumpkin activities

      Pumpkin Theme– Use these pumpkin activities for a therapy theme.

      Farm activities for occupational therapy activities with kids

      Farm Theme– Use these farm activities for a therapy theme.

      November Themes for Therapy

      Football activities for OT interventions

      Football Theme– Try these football activities for a themed week of therapy sessions.

      Thanksgiving activities for kids

      Thanksgiving Theme– Try these thanksgiving activities for a themed week of therapy sessions.

      Turkey activities for children

      Turkey Theme– Try these turkey activities for a themed week of therapy sessions.

      December Themes for Therapy

      reindeer activities for kids

      Reindeer Theme– Try these reindeer activities for a themed week of therapy sessions.

      gingerbread man activities

      Gingerbread Man Theme– Try these gingerbread man activities for a themed week of therapy sessions.

      Christmas tree activities

      Christmas Tree Theme– Try these Christmas Tree activities for a themed week of therapy sessions.

      January Themes for Therapy

      Penguin activities

      Penguin Theme– Try these penguin activities for a themed week of therapy sessions.

      polar bear theme for therapy

      Polar Bear Theme– Try these polar bear activities for a themed week of therapy sessions.

      star wars occupational therapy

      Kids love this Star Wars occupational therapy theme.

      Stay tuned for more themed activities coming each week!

      Be sure to check out these skill-based activities:

      Teletherapy resources for occupational therapists and other telemedicine practice.
      Pair popular children's books with hands on activities to help kids build skills, perfect addition to occupational therapy sessions.
      These fine motor activities for telehealth and be used in OT sessions with kids.
      These executive functioning activities are great for OT teletherapy.
      sensory diet activities for home to use in OT teletherapy sessions
      motor skills activities occupational therapy teletherapy activities

      Teletherapy Activities

      Books in OT Activities

      Fine Motor Activities

      Executive Function Activities

      Sensory Activities

      Motor Skills Activities

      Back to School Activity-Writing Slide Deck

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      back to school activity slide deck

      Heading back to school? The return of school looks a lot different this year than any other. That’s why I wanted to create this Back to School activity to use in virtual therapy or teletherapy services, or distance learning. In most cases, kids haven’t been writing with a paper and pencil since around March. This back-to-school activity provides a means to get those pencils moving and little hands writing again! Use this free therapy slide deck to get a baseline of where kids are in regards to writing a short list of words, and sentences. The bonus is that this back to school idea has a school I Spy activity, too that boosts visual perceptual skills. Read on to grab this freebie! And, don’t forget to grab this other back to school slide deck to work on more visual perceptual skills.

      Back to School Activity

      This interactive activity is great for getting to know students during the firsts week of school. It’s a fun icebreaker activity for students to do with teachers or therapists.

      Students can complete these slide deck activities as part of distance learning, virtual days on hybrid learning options, and in teletherapy sessions.

      back to school activity slide deck

      When heading back into the school year, it’s a great idea to get a baseline snapshot of where a child is at with handwriting, especially after such a long break from school. In many cases, students have not been writing or putting pencil to paper during the last months.

      With this back to school activity, kids can write a short list of words on paper, as well as use the interactive technology portion of the slides.

      Back to school activity that is a great icebreaker for students returning to the classroom or online learning.

      Here are some of the slides you will find in this icebreaker activity for returning to school:

      Start with an interactive slide deck I Spy game. Kids can search for school items and then type the number of items that they found into the boxes right on the slide.

      Back to school I Spy game to use in an icebreaker activity for students.

      Back to school handwriting baseline

      Use the handwriting slides to get a baseline snapshot of handwriting. Kids can type the words into the spaces on the slides. Then in the next slide, they can check their answers and use the written words to copy a short list of school related terms.

      Use this list writing activity to check skills such as letter formation, letter size, line use, margins, accuracy, efficiency, and functional writing levels.

      Back to school writing activity for students

      The same words can be used for sentence writing. Fill in the space showing the number of sentences the student should write. Using this writing task, check the handwriting baseline for word and letter spacing, margin use, and legibility.

      Use this back to school activity to get a baseline snaphot of handwriting skills level in students returning to the classroom.

      All about Me Activity

      Use the next slide as an icebreaker activity. Students can fill in the spaces on the slide and type in their responses.

      All about me back to school activity

      Continue on with the all about me activity and ask students to write on paper, more about themselves. Use these responses as a quick screening for handwriting and writing abilities.

      Handwriting baseline screening for students returning to the classroom

      There you have it! Want to grab this free slide deck?

      Get this Back-to-School Writing and I Spy slide deck

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        Therapy Planning Bulletin Board Slide Deck

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        Therapy planning slide deck for OT teletherapy

        Back to school looks a lot different this year, than any other year that you or I may have experienced. If there is one thing for certain it’s that occupational therapy professionals are experts at resilience and problem solving. That’s why I wanted to offer a few tools to make your pivot to hybrid schooling or distance interventions easy. Coming up with practical OT teletherapy activities may be new to you, but therapy planning is not. Today, I’ve got an interactive slide deck for you to make therapy planning easy, using an interactive bulletin board slide deck.

        Therapy planning for teletherapy with an interactive slide deck and therapy bulletin board.

        Therapy Planning Bulletin Board

        Ok…you might have seen some of my other interactive slide decks. But this one is pretty cool in it’s interactive features, and a little different than the others here on the site. Teletherapy resources include slide decks that offer kids a chance to move pieces, follow directions, and participate in virtual therapy.

        Here are some of those interactive slide decks that I’ve already shared with you:

        Back-to-School Activity Slide Deck (visual perceptual skills)

        Teach Letters Alphabet Move and Write Slide Deck

        Space Theme Slide Deck

        Movement Activities Monster Theme Slide Deck

        Letter Formation Slide Deck of Teletherapy

        Animal Theme Visual Perception Slide Deck

        Strait Line Letters Teletherapy Slide Deck

        Self-Awareness Activities Slide Deck

        Therapy Planning Slide Deck

        Today’s free slide deck is a little different, because it can be used by the treating occupational therapy practitioner to plan out a therapy session or to lead a session. Therapy professionals can create a slide deck for each client and share that single link that leads them through teletherapy sessions.

        This slide deck uses creative commons fonts and images and can be shared and modified. The deck has been modified from SlidesPPT to meet the needs of occupational therapists.

        Use the slide deck to explain activities, by adding step by step images or a video.

        Use the slide deck for writing prompts and self-check handwriting rule lists. The slide deck can be edited for different students to meet their needs.

        Include step by step images for activities for better understanding and participation in teletherapy sessions.

        I’ve tried to include various options in the slide deck to use in different scenarios:

        • Therapy activity lists
        • Writing prompts
        • Visual schedule
        • Step-by-step activity plan
        • Activity lists
        • Announcement slides
        • Written instruction slides
        • Visual instruction slides
        • More!

        The bulletin board slide deck is great because the slides can be edited by the practitioner based on their needs for that week or for each child. Slides can be deleted or duplicated.

        How to use this slide deck:

        You can use this interactive slide deck in Google classroom or on your Google Slides account. To use the slide deck, you will need to first open the slide using one of the following methods:

        • Click on the Gear Icon in the Google Slides Viewer, and select “Open in Editor”.
        • Click on the link below the Google Slides Presentation Viewer -> “Open slide”.

        Do not “request access” to use these slides. Instead, be sure you are logged into your Google account and then click on the link to “make a copy”.

        1) How to edit the slide deck in Google Slides

        Go to the File menu in your Google Slides interface and select “Make a copy”. You have to be logged into your Google Account.

        You will get a fresh copy of the presentation on your Google Drive and then you will be able to edit, add or delete slides.

        2) Edit the presentation in Microsoft PowerPoint®, OSX Keynote or other software

        Go to the File menu in the Google Slides user interface and select “As Microsoft PowerPoint”.

        Digital Therapy BULLETIN Board

        Enter your email address in the form below. Check your email and click on the button to grab your resource. Save that PDF so you can access these slide decks again.

        Sign into your Google account. Click on the big button in that PDF that you just accessed. It will prompt you to make a copy of the slide deck. That will be your master copy of this slide deck.

        Now the slide deck is on your Google account.

        Get a free OT Bulletin Board Planner Slide Deck

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          Grab these other interactive slide decks:

          • Use this free self awareness activity slide deck in occupational therapy teletherapy
          • This free slide deck is an animal visual perception activity
          • space activities for kids to use in occupational therapy activities.

          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.

          Pen Grip for Handwriting Pressure

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          Pen grip handwriting trick

          Today, I wanted to share a tip for addressing handwriting pressure…using a pen grip! Pencil pressure when writing is something that comes up a lot. You may have seen children who press so hard on the paper that the pencil tip breaks or smudges and mistakes don’t fully erase. You might have a child that writes so lightly that it is hard to read their writing or their written work is brushed away by their sleeve. Writing pressure is a hot topic in handwriting legibility. We have a previous resource on pencil pressure when writing. There are many tips and tricks for addressing handwriting and writing pressure there.

          For example, things like hand gripper exercises can show kids how much pressure is used to move a gripper to the full range of motion. Using that force to move the gripper helps them to visibly see the pressure and supports integration of force modulation during functional tasks.

          Today’s tip has more to do with the sensory benefits of writing with a pen to address heavy or light writing pressure.

          Related read- Here are 5 things therapists want parents to know about pencil grasp.

          Pen Grip

          Did you know that sometimes using a pen can help with handwriting? When a child presses so hard with their pencil, or writes so lightly that it’s hard to read their writing, there could be a sensory component. The child typically can’t regulate the amount of pressure that they need to use to press and hold the writing utensil.

          Pen trick for handwriting

          One strategy to help with writing pressure that is too dark or too light is to use a pen.

          The sensory concerns might be that the child can’t tell how hard they are pressing on the utensil and so press very hard. Their ability to register proprioceptive input may be off. Check out these proprioception sensory activities to help with this sensory input.

          Or, they might not notice that they care holding the writing utensil with a very loose grasp.

          Using a pen to write is one way to help the child get around these sensory issues. Using a pen that writes smoothly across the page can help with kids that write too lightly.

          When writing with the pen, they can use their normal grasp and clearly see the written work because the pen slides more smoothly across the writing surface and they don’t need to accommodate for the resistance of the paper.

          Other kids who write very dark can benefit from using a pen to practice ghost writing. The child can use the pen to write on a notebook with paper underneath. When they turn the page, if they can read their writing on the next paper, you can teach the child that they are pressing too hard. Keep trying to write without “ghost letters” left behind.

          The issue with using a pen to write is many times, the shaft of the pen is thinner, requiring more precision of grasp and more developed arches in the hand. The intrinsic hand strength that allows for developed arches is required so the child can write for an extended amount of time without hand fatigue.

          Having a pen grip is ideal to help in these situations.

          Triangle pencil grip

          One way to address the smaller shaft on a pen and the need for hand strength (which many of our kids lack), is using a triangle pencil grip on the pen, so that the child has placement for their fingers and a built up shaft for their fingers to grip.

          Benefit of a triangle pencil grip with the block portion that prevents the fingertips from moving too far up or down the writing utensil. Also, the triangle pencil grip is commonly known, so kids are familiar with this pencil gripper.

          Left handed writers and right handed writers both can use the triangle grip, making it easy to use for either writer.

          The triangle pencil grip promotes a tripod or modified tripod grasp. For more help on building a stronger grasp and a functional pencil grasp, try using these activities to develop pencil grasp through play.

          Pen Grip

          What if you had the chance to try a pen grip to work on handwriting, writing pressure, and grasp? Now you do! I’m so excited to partner with Two Sparrows Learning Systems to offer this Dex Pen Grip!

          Dex comes complete with our patent pending stopper to support your grip for all your writing and drawing needs.  

          The pen grip’s triangular shape provides comfort and ease for a functional grasp.  The pen comes already installed on a beautiful designer pen and comes with textured or soft grip options.  

          • Dex grip comes pre-installed on a beautiful pen which can be refilled with ink cartridges.
          • Dex pen grip is ergonomically designed for comfort.  The grip tapers at the end and the stopper is tapered in so that you can easily see over top of it and it sits comfortably in your hand. 
          • Using the Dex grip you do not have to press or grip as hard when writing, so your hand does not tire as easily. 
          • This is the perfect grip for teens to adults. 
          • The pen is sleek and stylish and when paired with the grip, this will quickly become your favorite, go-to pen.
          • Dex comes complete with our patent pending stopper to support your grip for all your writing and drawing needs. 

          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.