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:
As occupational therapy students, we had to learn bone names and all about anatomy and physiology. Naming bones comes in very handy as an occupational therapist! But, if you are working in pediatrics, kids need to learn names of bones, too! For one thing, kids learn bone names in school. But did you consider the interoception aspect to teaching bone names? When it comes to internal feelings or anatomical states that impact sensory processing and internal body actions, learning names of bones supports this awareness of self. Add this fun way to learn names of bones to your anatomy and physiology games!
Bone Names Activity
Learning human anatomy has a special place in my heart. I mean, those semesters in Human Anatomy, Anatomy lab, and clinical kinesiology bring back fond memories.
So, when my kids ask questions like how their arm can pick up a sandwich, I have a little fun telling them about bones, joints, and muscles. This bone naming activity is just one fun way to teach bone names and teach kids about anatomy.
(Moving a sandwich is a big deal in our house!)
We’ve done a body part identification activity before, using band-aides, but these labels were a big hit with my kids. We used them to practice for a test for my big kids.
My Kindergartner and Second grader had a bones theme in their gym class, we had fun talking about the bones in our body, and made this Bone Identification and movement activity. (It would be great as a skeleton activities for preschoolers, too.
Bones Activity
This bone activity for kids is one they won’t forget…and when teaching human anatomy to kids, it’s one that will stick! The fun stickers help! 🙂
This post contains affiliate links.
I threw this activity together really quickly. We had a few sheets of blank address labels, and I grabbed a red permanent marker (affiliate link). I made a quick strip across the top and bottom of the address labels and then wrote in black marker (affiliate link), “Hello my name is” with the bone names below.
While we used this bone identification activity with kids, it would be a great way to learn bones as part of an anatomy and physiology lesson for OT or PT students, too!
list of bones in human body
After I wrote out the names of the bones, I tested my kids on what they knew. They recalled most of the bones from gym class lessons, but we had a few that needed practicing.
For the second grade and kindergarten physical education curriculum, they had to know this list of bones in the human body:
skull
humerus
radius
ulna
carpals
phalanges
clavicle
sternum
ribs
pelvis
femur
tibia
fibula
tarsals
Complete List of Bone Names
Above is just a simplified list of bone names, which can be used for teaching kids about the skeletal system. A more complete list is as follows. The bone identification activity shown below can definitely be used for this complete list of bone names and bone types. Classifying and naming the entire skeletal system requires much practice, and as occupational therapists we know the power of multi-sensory learning!
Bones in the skull (includes bones in the head and face):
Cranial bones:
frontal bones
Parietal bone
temporal bones
occipital bone
sphenoid bone
ethmoid bone
Facial bones:
mandible
maxilla
palatine bone
zygomatic bone
nasal bone
lacrimal bone
vomer bone
inferior nasal conchae
Bones in the thorax:
sternum
ribs
Bones in the throat:
hyoid bone
Bones in the vertebral column, or spine:
cervical vertebrae
thoracic vertebrae
lumbar vertebrae
Bones in the pelvis:
coccyx
sacrum
ossa coxae (hip bones)
Bones in the legs :
femur
patella
tibia
fibula
Bones in the feet:
Ankle (tarsal) bones:
calcaneus (heel bone)
talus
navicular bone
medial cuneiform bone
intermediate cuneiform bone
lateral cuneiform bone
cuboid bone
Instep bones:
metatarsal bone
Toe bones:
proximal phalanges
intermediate phalanges
distal phalanges
Bones in the middle ears:
malleus
incus
stapes
Bones in the shoulder girdle:
scapula or shoulder blade
clavicle or collarbone
Bones in the arms:
humerus
radius
ulna
Bones in the hands:
Wrist (carpal) bones:
scaphoid bone
lunate bone
triquetral bone
pisiform bone
trapezium
trapezoid bone
capitate bone
hamate bone
Palm or metacarpal bones:
metacarpal bones
Finger bones or phalanges:
proximal phalanges
intermediate phalanges
distal phalanges
We had a blast sticking the labels all over ourselves while saying “Hello my name is humerus!” in funny voices.
While we had the labels on our body parts, we practiced the motions of that bone. We talked about how that bone could move and what it could do.
Yes, your humerus has a job in picking up a sandwich! (This is a very important fact when teaching bone names to preschoolers!)
Bone identification activity with a doll.
Even the baby doll got in on the bone labeling action.
How cute are those tarsals??
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.
Teaching a child how to hold a spoon and scoop food requires several motor skills that must be developed before a toddler can use utensils themselves. Even older children struggle with the ADLs of holding a spoon and scooping food to feed themselves. Here, we’re covering sensory motor skills needed to hold a spoon, fork, knife, and other utensils. You’ll also find some creative activities and play ideas to develop the underlying skills that play into using utensils.
How to hold a fork and spoon with efficient grasp patterns.
Note that these strategies and skill areas are needed across the lifespan when it comes to self-feeding. Older children and even adults who may have had a physical or cognitive impairment can benefit from addressing the underlying skill areas needed for using utensils. No matter the age, noting how an individual holds a spoon and fork is part of a comprehensive feeding evaluation.
how to hold spoon and fork
Before we get to the skills in play when holding a spoon or using a fork, let’s cover the specifics on how to hold these utensils. Why? Because often, we see older children who hold a spoon with a gross grasp or hold a fork with the whole hand. These grasp patterns can impact functional performance, but can also be a cause of concern for parents.
Note that the way an individual holds a spoon or holds a fork can differ when adaptive equipment for eating is used.
How to hold a spoon.
how to hold a spoon
To hold a spoon, one needs to grasp the utensil with their dominant hand.
The spoon is placed along the lateral edge of the middle finger or pad of the middle finger.
The pointer or index finger typically rests over the top of the neck of the spoon, and guides movements when scooping.
The thumb rests and stabilizes the flat handle of the spoon on the top, above the pointer finger in a modified lateral key grasp.
The scoop of the spoon is pointing out toward the direction the thumb points, and the handle is above the thumb web space.
In this position, one can scoop with refined movements and graded precision using the pad of the thumb on the flat part of the spoon handle. When the spoon is properly placed in the hand, the wrist is slightly pronated and slightly flexed.
You can see from the image below that there are many different grasp patterns used when holding a spoon, which progress as the child develops more refined fine motor skills. The most efficient grasp pattern is the “adult grip”, however, the other grasp patterns are typically part of a progression as the toddler or young child gains experience with eating with a spoon.
Using a spoon is likely one of the first functional tools that a small child has experience with, and while messy eating will ensue, it is important to allow the baby or toddler experience with holding and manipulating a spoon, even if they are not getting actual food into their mouth at first.
Grasp patterns for holding a spoon. No source was found for this image, may be subject to copyright
Inefficient grasp on a spoon- When the handle end of the spoon is UNDER the thumb web space, the grasp moves into a poor position for function and accuracy of scooping. In this case, the hand moves into a gross grasp pattern, and in order to gain motor control with graded precision, the elbow tends to pop out as the shoulder abducts. In this poor functional grasp pattern, you’ll see the wrist fully supinated.
Activities to move from an inefficient grasp pattern to an efficient grasp pattern include PLAY:
Next, let’s cover the proper grasp pattern required to effectively hold a fork. Note that there are different ways to hold a fork, depending on location, no one way of these different style being better or worse for functional performance to hold and use a fork to stab and eat food.
To hold a fork, the fork is held in the dominant hand much like a pencil is held. The thumb stabilizes the narrow part of the fork handle, or the neck of the fork. This area is located above the prongs, or tines of the fork. The neck of the fork rests on the lateral side of the middle finger or the pad of the middle finger.
Like holding a spoon, the end of the fork is above the back of the hand, and not under the thumb web space into the palm.
The wrist of the hand should be slightly pronated and slightly flexed.
Note that when holding a fork to scoop food, a different grasp pattern is used than when using a fork to stab food, and still another grasp pattern is used to stabilize food when using a knife to cut.
To stab food with a fork, the fork rotates in the hand and skills of in-hand manipulation are used.
To stabilize food with a fork, in order to hold food stabile so a knife can cut the food item, the fork continues to rotate within the hand using in-hand manipulation, but the addition of finger isolation of the index finger is used to hold the fork steady.
Inefficient grasp on a fork– When the end of the fork handle is under the palm, the hand tends to pull into a gross grasp on the fork, which is a more primitive grasp pattern, and is less functional for refined and graded movements. Similar to the motions used with a spoon held in this manner, a fork held in a gross grasp will include elbow and shoulder.
Much like using a spoon, progression from inefficient grasp patterns on a fork is developmental and requires practice. Allowing kids to use and hold a fork with verbal and visual prompts is helpful. Other fine motor and eye-hand coordination tasks will support development from inefficient grasp patterns when holding a fork to more efficient and refined motor skills:
Playing with play dough and using play dough tools like play knives, play forks, and sculpting tools
Before a child can use fine motor tools such as a spoon, fork, knife and other self-care tools (hair brush, toothbrush, pencil, scissors…) independently, there are certain physical, cognitive, and emotional prerequisites that must fall into place.
These self-care skills include many of the same sensory motor components, so in this blog post, we’re covering primarily the skills needed to hold a spoon and fork.
Toddlers and young preschoolers that sit at the table, probably have taken notice of how adults and older children at the table eat. This is actually part of the developmental process. When sitting at a table, a baby and toddler is observing and noticing how older siblings and parents use forks to stab food, spoons to scoop, and knives to cut.
Toddlers often want to take part in the action!
Using a spoon and fork during the Toddler years is a natural development of self-awareness and self-control. Using utensils is part of that progression of feeding developmental milestones that children go through. A child becomes more aware of the skills that they are developing and that they can assert their own independence.
Likewise, using a spoon to eat at first can lead to messy eating with young children, and that’s totally normally, developmentally.
But, before these areas of independence arise, there are certain prerequisites that need to be in place. Using tools in self-feeding, brushing one’s own teeth, using a knife, crayon, pencil, or other tool requires development in a few areas.
Speaking of using crayons to develop motor skills, these crayons for toddlers support fine motor development and coordination skills through play.
This post contains affiliate links.
Skills Needed to Hold a spoon and fork
When you take a look at the motor breakdown of using a spoon and fork, there are several components you’ll see in action:
Posture
Grasp Development
Hand Preference
Cognition
Attention
Eye-hand coordination
Somatosensory experience
And even play!
Let’s cover each of these areas needed to hold a spoon and fork in more detail:
Posture- When using a tool like a fork, pencil, scissors, toothbrush, paint brush, knife…postural control is essential. Like anything else, it all starts at the center and at the body. You can’s use your hands in fine motor play activities if your upper body is slumped or slouched. If postural support is the issue, work on getting into a better sitting position. Speak to an Occupational Therapist for individualized assessment and recommendations.
Grasp Development- For using tools, a child needs prehension skills and precision skills, including grasp, release, and the ability to stabilize their arm and write while moving the hand. Sometimes a pinch or required muscle movement is too much for an unstable arm/wrist and that required muscle effort makes the upper body slouch. Start over with posturing is this happens.
Hand dominance– A true hand dominance doesn’t typically become established until 5-6 years. And that is a good thing! A child’s body is developing strength, balance, muscle tone, and sensorimotor abilities at an even and symmetrical rate in the early years. We want that to happen! If a very strong preference of dominance is noticed at an early age, ask your pediatrician or occupational therapist for assessment of asymmetry or delay.
Cognitive prerequisites– Appropriate ability to follow simple directions is a must in order for use of tools in typical ways. Sure, a fork makes a great hair brush. A spoon is an excellent drumstick. But, inappropriate use of utensils can be dangerous.
Attentional Prerequisites– Appropriate attention span is needed for using tools in functional tasks. This blog post covers more on attention needed during meals.
Constructive play– What? A child needs functional play in order to use a pencil? Yep! Building with blocks, combining toys, and pretending provides the base of fine motor development, skilled use, strength, imagination, and creativity that is needed to problem solve and use tools appropriately.
Eye Hand Coordination– More play! Catch a ball and use crayons to establish the base of hand eye coordination needed for skilled maneuvering of tools to the mouth, paper, hair, or teeth.
Somatosensory Experience– Playing and experiencing the senses in typical every day activities are essential for the child to build on their awareness of textures, weights, manipulating objects, and sizes.
Given all of these areas that a child must have in place before showing success with tools in functional tasks, it’s important to work on certain areas.
Below, you’ll find a great printable resource that covers all of these skill areas that are needed for using a spoon and fork. This is a great handout to use especially when working with families of young children who are learning to hold a spoon and fork.
Teaching kids how to hold a spoon is the first step, but then actually scooping food, getting the food to the mouth, clearing the food from the spoon, and then repeating the process is part of the functional task of eating.
Remember that eating is a developmental process, and that this is another occupation in which practice is key to functional performance!
To improve use with a spoon and fork (and then spoon, fork, and knife!), it’s important to have various opportunities for practice.
Provide opportunities to use tools like spoons in scooping items. You’ll find more information on the topic of scooping in our blog post on scooping and pouring.
These black beans are a great way to practice tool use and all of the skills needed in managing tools. See the bottom of this post for more ideas.
Be sure to provide your little one with lots of opportunities to use tools in activities and play!
Related activities that you will love for teaching kids to use tools:
Sight Word Scoop– this scooping activity encourages users to develop the eye-hand coordination needed to use a spoon to scoop an object in a liquid, much like scooping the remaining cereals in a bowl of milk, or scooping food from a soup broth.
Invitation to Scoop and Pour– In this activity users can use a spoon with graded precision and refined movements to scoop grains of corn which can be a great way to practice motor skills to hold a spoon.
Field Corn Sensory Bin– Another activity using spoons to scoop field corn, this activity offers proprioceptive feedback through the joints and muscles of the hand, wrist, elbow, and shoulder.
Moon Dough Scooping– In this activity, users use a spoon to scoop and pick up a moist and dry material. This can be a great way to practice using a spoon with different materials.
Scooping Ice– Using a spoon to pick up ice is a fun way to practice using a spoon with a different material that also offers precision and refinement in using a spoon or scoop.
Relaxing Lavender Water Bin– Kids love this sensory bin, but therapists love the functionality! Use a spoon to pick up small items in a liquid, developing eye-hand coordination skills with sensory benefits.
(Amazon affiliate link) Learning Resources Handy Scoopers are colorful and bright and a great way to practice the prerequisites for tool use in many ways.
Get this free handout on skills needed to hold a fork and spoon below or in The OT Toolbox Member’s Club
Free Handout- Skills Needed to Hold a Spoon and Fork
Want a printable handout of the skills kids need to hold a spoon and fork? Working with families on teaching kids how to hold a fork and spoon and need actionable tips and strategies in a handout format?
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.
In this post, you will find calming bedtime relaxation stretches for kids and families, based on the popular children’s book, Time for Bed. These activities are perfect for helping kids calm down before bed. We know the power of sleep hygiene in child development, but let’s consider the powerful impact of stretches before bed have on children.
Relaxation Stretches for Kids Sleep
An important thing to cover when it comes to helping children fall asleep and stay asleep at night is the concept of pre-bedtime yoga. When kids participate in bedtime stretches as part of their bedtime routine, it’s a sensory diet that supports sleep.
Use animal theme yoga poses to support relaxation at bedtime.
Related is our resource on the role occupational therapy professionals can play in sleep for the whole family, when it comes to supporting a baby or newborn not sleeping.
Relaxation Stretches for Kids Sleep
An important thing to cover when it comes to helping children fall asleep and stay asleep at night is the concept of pre-bedtime yoga. When kids participate in bedtime stretches as part of their bedtime routine, it’s a sensory diet that supports sleep.
I love to bring this concept together for kids by first talking about how everyone needs sleep. Kids, adults, and even pets and animals. Sleep supports growth, learning, and allows our brains to rest. You can even use a few of our hibernation activities to take this concept further with kids, depending on the interest level.
Children can get a little wound up before bed. All it takes is one rouge energy burst and you’ve got giggling kids bouncing from every surface imaginable.
Couch cushions? check. They are jumping up and down.
Running from room to room? Check. There’s two of them chasing one another back and forth will the occasional knee slide across the hardwoods.
Practicing the living room tumbling skills? Yep and check. There’s one more doing somersaults across the room.
Why must they gang up on me with their endless energy during those exhausting pre-bedtime hours?
Having a set of bedtime relaxation stretches in the nightly routine can support sensory needs and promote a sense of calm before bedtime, just when children are wound up and excitable.
benefits of stretching before bed
We know that sleep is a necessary occupation for all of us, but for children sleep patterns and healthy sleep cycles support so many aspects of development.
Cognition
Learning
Behavior
Nutrition
Emotional development
Social development
When children don’t get enough hours of sleep, or if they don’t get quality sleep on a consistent basis, there are several things that can occur:
Poor focus
Trouble concentrating
Attention and behavior problems
Poor academic performance in school
Excess weight or increased food intake
Problems paying attention
Health problems: obesity, type 2 diabetes, poor mental health, and injuries
Decreased physical activity
Poor mental health
Unhealthy risky behaviors related to decision-making
Risk-taking behaviors, bullying,school violence-related behaviors, and physical fighting
Higher risk of unintentional injury
There are several studies describing the benefits of stretching before bed. Kids can benefit from a pre-bedtime stretching sessions to integrate sensory processing systems and the calming benefits of slow movement, heavy work as a regulation tool. This calms the body and helps with relaxation before bed.
Stretching before bed supports sleep quality. One review of multiple studies found that mindfulness meditation practices that incorporate gentle stretching, such as yoga and tai chi, generally improve sleep quality.
Another study found that older adults reported improved sleep quality after performing low level physical and cognitive activity. The researchers found that gentle stretching resulted in better sleep than when the participants performed more strenuous exercises, such as aerobics.
Bedtime stretches help kids stay asleep. A study into resistance exercise training and stretching found that exercises could improve symptoms of insomnia. In the study, the participants performed stretching in 60-minute sessions three times per week for a period of 4 months. The results showed improved sleep quality when stretching in the evening.
Better sleep supports learning and executive functioning skills. Other studies tell us that better sleep hygiene in children support development of executive functioning skills.
yoga poses for stress relief
Today, I’m sharing a great way to calm kids down before bed so that quality sleep is possible. These yoga poses for stress relief and bedtime relaxation promote organizing heavy work through the proprioceptive sensory system and gentle movement through the vestibular sensory system.
Another contributing factor is the interoceptive system which connects our internal systems such as digestion, heart rate, circadian rhythms, and muscle tension. All of these factors play a vital role in impacting sleep, with both the ability to fall asleep, and the ability to stay asleep throughout the night. This study shares more on the interoceptive system’s role in sleep.
These organizing and calming yoga poses stretch the muscles and joints to offer feedback to regulate an overactive system.
If you’ve ever participated in a yoga session, you know the benefits of certain yoga poses in reducing stress and anxiety.
It’s important to make the connection between stress responses, anxiety, over-active thoughts, and a hyper-response to stimulation and emotional responses. The difficulty in identifying and describing emotions in self (a huge part of social emotional learning and development) is referred to as Alexithymia.
Specifically, alexithymia is defined as difficulty identifying and describing emotions in self. We know that noticing and understanding internal body signals (aka interoception) is crucial to a bodily systems, so it makes sense that if interoception is affected, using or showing emotions, and identifying emotions in self will be affected.
Interoception influences emotions by it’s control and underlying influence on internal processes of the body: toileting, hunger, thirst, and sleep!
When interoception impacts sleep, it then further impacts emotions:
stress
getting angry or frustrated easily
anxiety
fear
worry
overly emotional responses
sadness
over-excitability
hyperactive responses
All of these emotional responses are normal and good feelings to experience. However, when sleep is reduced, they can move into an area of impacting other functional tasks or everyday occupations.
You’ll also find information and resources in this article on the limbic system including the stress response. You can see how all of these concepts fit together to impact daily functioning.
How to use yoga poses for stress relief with children
Using yoga to support relaxation at bedtime is not a new concept. Yoga naturally supports relaxation through the heavy work input of the proprioceptive sense.
However, yoga also adds the benefit of deep breathing exercises to calm and center the body as an organization tool.
When it comes to bedtime, adding anything to the nightly routine can mean a delayed bedtime, so making the relaxation stretches part of the routine that is already in place is important. If you read a book together each night, incorporate stretches into that. If brushing teeth and going to the bathroom are the only tasks that happen each night, use the time just after those jobs to do a few stretches.
Adding bedtime stretches for the purpose of relaxation doesn’t need to be difficult. The most important thing here is to make it work for your situation and home. down the somersaults and hardwood floor stunts into relaxing bedtime.
Here are some tips to support relaxation at bedtime:
Use bedtime relaxation stretches in a nightly routine. A visual schedule can be helpful with some kids.
Dim the lights and turn on soothing music
Read a book before bed
Drink a warm drink as a calming food/sensory tool.
Set the mood for sleep with a calming bedroom or sleep space: snuggly blankets, cozy pillows, or cool temperature, depending on the individual’s preferences.
Use the relaxation stretches listed below.
One way that helps to get kids relaxed before bed is reading a great book. When kids can listen to an engaging story that is read aloud, their bodies can’t help but slow down.
Bedtime Relaxation Stretches for Kids
These bedtime relaxation stretches are a combination of relaxing yoga moves and heavy work that helps to ground the body through proprioceptive input to the body’s sensory receptors in the muscles.
Performing these relaxing stretches can help transition kids to a calmed state that allows for a better sleep.
Below are forms of yoga poses for children.
We decided to use one of our favorite going to bed books, (Amazon affiliate link) Mem Fox’s Time for Bed.
In the book, we hear a rhyming verse about each animal’s transition to sleep. It’s such a beautiful book to snuggle up with kids during night time routines. In fact, Time for Bed can easily become one of those books that you read over and over again.
We loved looking at the watercolor pictures in Time for Bed and picturing each animal as it got ready for sleep.
To go along with the book, we tried some of these bedtime relaxation stretches.
Grab your copy of the free printable below by entering your email address into the form, or going to The OT Toolbox Member’s Club and heading to the Mindfulness Toolbox.
To do these exercises, simply cut out the printable on the lines, and create a small stack of stretches. Kids can do one or more of these relaxation stretches to calm down before settling in with the Time for Bed book. (affiliate link)
Simply pull out a couple of the stretches and join your child on the floor to perform each stretch. The stretches are designed based on the animals in the book.
When doing the stretches, hold the stretch for 2-3 minutes while maintaining deep breathing.
Print off these relaxation stretches for a bedtime calm down session for kids.
As we all know, kids will be kids. If your child is getting too wound up from the stretches (because sometimes the sleepy sillies take over and make concentrating on stretches and relaxing deep breaths nearly impossible!) simply put the stretches away and try them another day.
Relaxation stretch for kids, incorporating yoga poses for stress, anxiety, or to calm down before bed.
Your child will love doing these bedtime relaxation stretches with you and the whole family!
Little Goose Stretch– Lie on the floor on your back, with your feet raised up on the wall. Keep your knees straight. Spread your arms out on the floor like a goose. Bend and point your toes slowly.
Little Cat Stretch– Snuggle in tight! Sit criss cross applesauce on the floor. Bend forward at the hips and place your head on the ground. Stretch your arms out on the floor over your head.
Little Calf Stretch– Grasp both hands together behind your back. Bend forward at the hips and raise your arms up behind you.
Little Foal Stretch– Lie on your back and pull your knees in with your arms. Hold the position and whisper about your day.
Little Fish Stretch– Take a deep breath. Hold your breath in your cheeks and puff out those cheeks. Slowly let out your breath with pursed lips.
Little Sheep Stretch– Stand facing a wall and place your feet shoulder width apart. Place your hands flat on the wall, shoulder width apart. Push against the wall by bending and straightening your elbows.
Little Bird Stretch– Close your eyes. Think about your day and take deep breaths. Breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth. Add a “wing” component by raising your arms up high as you breathe in and lowering them as you slowly breathe out.
Little Snake Stretch– Lie on your back on the floor. Keep your legs straight and cross them at the ankles. Place your arms over your head on the floor. Cross them at the wrists.
Little Pup Stretch– Get into a downward dog yoga position.
Little Deer Stretch– Sit on the floor with your legs straight. Spread them far apart and bend at the hips to touch one foot. Hold it and then stretch to touch the other foot.
Try this tonight! Do a few stretches and then snuggle up while reading Time for Bed! (affiliate link)
MORE relaxing bedtime books for kids
These relaxing bedtime books for kids are other ideas to use to support calming sensory input in a relaxation bedtime routine:
Free Printable set of relaxation stretches for bedtime
Use the Time For Bed book and relaxation stretches we used above in a bedtime routine of your own. Get a printable PDF of these stretches by entering your email address into the form below. Or, members in The OT Toolbox membership club can grab this PDF by logging in and heading to Brain Break Tools.
One more thing! If you are into creative ways to extend and learn based on books, you will LOVE this resource! 50 activities based on books that address friendship, acceptance, emotions…This ebook is amazing for covering all things emotional development through play!
This collection of classroom Halloween party ideas are from an old blog post here on the website, but they are fun and engaging Halloween ideas for a school party. When it comes to Halloween party activities, as an occupational therapist, I always encourage sensory motor skills, movement games, and play-based games. Because of this, you’ll want to start with our resource on Halloween occupational therapy activities because there you’ll find activities and ideas based on development and play, perfect for adding to a spooky classroom party! Check out the Halloween activities for elementary students below, too.
Classroom Halloween Party Ideas
all is in the air and that means Halloween is coming! Halloween parties happen in preschool, playdates, the library, and even farms. What better way to bring the whole family together than with a kid-friendly Halloween party? We’ve got tips and ideas for a frugal and fun Halloween party that you can use to play a school or play date party.
We’re excited to plan our fun and frugal kid-friendly Halloween parties. We put together a family-friendly ghost game and spider craft using feature products from the celebration that would be a hit at any Halloween party.
We love to add sensory motor benefits to party activities and the Halloween party ideas below do just that. We’ve included Halloween crafts, not-so-Spooky gross motor activities, Halloween worksheets, and Halloween I Spy games to support skill-building in a whole classroom setting.
These Halloween party activities for the classroom would be great as a “push in” OT session where the therapy provider works with individuals in the classroom setting. Why not use the activities below with a small group or large groups setting while collaborating and consulting with the classroom teacher.
I would start with our pumpkin deep breathing exercise, because it’s a great tool for many goal areas, including self regulation, fine motor skills, executive functioning skills, bilateral coordination, hand eye coordination, and more.
You can start with a fine motor warm up…use our Halloween dexterity exercises as a handwriting warm up or as a fun way to get those fingers moving. Check out our video below…or you can catch it over on YouTube.
Ghost Catch Game
This Halloween game is great for elementary aged students, and a fun one for the whole classroom.
Part of the ghost catch game is making the ghosts, so this can take up some time during the classroom Halloween party, but the fine motor benefits are great. Consider having a ghost-making station first. You’ll need just a few materials:
Boxes of tissues
Recycled paper
Rubber bands
Black marker
To make the ghosts for the catch game, it’s actually very simple, but the fine motor skill development are high:
Each student can have a small stack of recycled paper. Ask students to crumble up a ball of recycled paper. This is a great source for hand strengthening and gross grasp.
Show the students how to wrap the tissue around the recycled paper crumbled ball.
Then, use a rubber band to secure the tissue around the crumbled paper. Allow part of the tissue to hang down like the trailing tail of a ghost. Providing the rubber band offers precision skills, pinch and grip strength as well as bilateral coordination skills.
Finally, use a black marker to draw on a face.
That’s it! Students can create 1 or more ghosts each. They can write their name on the ghost or they can create several for a ghost catch game.
Other ideas include using tissue paper or coffee filters. If using a tissue paper cover to the ghost, you can create different colored ghosts. If using coffee filters, you can create smaller ghosts for more refined fine motor practice.
How to play the ghost catch game:
There are so many ways to play with these ghosts in a classroom Halloween party. You can make the game work for the space you have, and the specific elementary age. Some ideas include:
Break students into pairs. Each can play catch with a ghost by tossing the ghost back and forth. After each toss, the pair takes a step back and tosses the ghost again. If they drop the ghost, they are out. The pair that remains longest wins.
Students can take turns tossing their ghosts into a target. The student with the most ghosts in the target wins.
Use the ghosts like a bean bag game toward a target.
Play ghost cornhole- Play the classic cornhole game but use the ghost crafts.
Use the above ghosts in different Halloween games. These tag games are easily incorporated into a Halloween theme.
Halloween I Spy- Kids love this real toy I Spy game, and you can use all of those old party favors that end up sitting around. Gather some Halloween items:
Halloween mini erasers
Plastic spider rings
Pencil toppers
Bat cut outs
Halloween stickers
Halloween candy
Plastic vampire fangs
Wind up toys
Place the toys on a tray or in a bag and work on visual scanning, visual memory, visual attention, and even stereognosis if you blindfold the students first.
Halloween Worksheets that Build Skills-
It’s great to have some back-up ideas if kids plow through the Halloween activities very quickly. Use this printable Halloween color and find worksheet. It builds visual perceptual skills and is great for coloring, too.
2. These Halloween pumpkin puzzles are fun too. Just print them off, cut out the squares and pass them out. Kids can color, cut, and build them onto a party bag or treat bag.
Some of our favorite Halloween crafts support the development of fine motor skills, executive functioning skills, scissor skills, and encourage sensory experiences in a spookily fun way.
These are great ideas for the elementary aged Halloween party.
These tissue ghosts are like bean bags for classroom games at a Halloween party.
Noodle Spider Craft
This spider craft is just one of the many spider activities we have here on the website.
Use dry elbow noodles to make a spider. This is a great one for building fine motor skills. Dye the pasta ahead of time or make the dying process part of the party experience . (Note that the pasta takes a while to dry. If you are dying the pasta during the Halloween classroom party, it make more sense to use washable black paint incase the colors get onto clothing or hands).
Make a noodle spider craft with students at a Halloween school party.
To make this noodle spider craft, you’ll need just a few materials:
Elbow noodles
Closable plastic zip top bag
Black paint or black food coloring
Hand sanitizer
If you are dying the pasta at home before the party, just take in the colored noodles. If you are coloring the noodles in the classroom, you’ll need the above items.
Toco color the noodles black:
Toss the elbow pasta in a plastic closable baggie with black food coloring or black paint and add a little squirt of hand sanitizer.
Spread the noodles out on newspaper to dry.
Also need:
Black paper
scissors
Glue
Marker
Next, use the colored pasta to make the spider craft:
Each student can pick out 8 pieces of pasta. This is a great exercise in pincer grasp and in-hand manipulation skills.
Cut out a black circle from construction paper. About the size of a bottle cap is good.
Glue the circle onto paper. Use squeeze glue to glue the dyed pasta to a paper around a black circle cut from construction paper.
What a cute craft to send home with the kids! Keep in mind that once the pasta is used for a craft, it shouldn’t be eaten!
Make a Halloween spider craft using colored pasta at a Halloween classroom party, especially good for Halloween school parties for older kids.
Other Halloween crafts for a school party include:
Make a ghost craft for sensory play– This is a fun one for kids to make but also use in sensory bins or fine motor activities.
Make aghost craft with construction paper and hole punches. Glue them to tissue paper for spooky eyes. This is an easy way to work on scissor skills. Kids can also address skills such as bilateral coordination, hand strength with a simple Halloween craft that uses just paper, crayon, scissors, and a hole punch. Use these ghosts to decorate for Halloween and monitor scissor skills.
Make a ghost craft with recycled materials. This is a fun Halloween party craft that can be a tool for working on dexterity, precision of grasp, in-hand manipulation, bilateral coordination, hand strength, and more! These ghosts would make a fun addition to the therapy clinic, OT doorway, or even a bulletin board decoration.
Grab the Pumpkin Fine Motor Kit for more coloring, cutting, and eye-hand coordination activities with a Pumpkin theme! It includes:
7 digital products that can be used any time of year- has a “pumpkins” theme
5 pumpkin scissor skills cutting strips
Pumpkin scissor skills shapes- use in sensory bins, math, sorting, pattern activities
2 pumpkin visual perception mazes with writing activity
Pumpkin “I Spy” sheet – color in the outline shapes to build pencil control and fine motor strength
Pumpkin Lacing cards – print, color, and hole punch to build bilateral coordination skills
2 Pumpkin theme handwriting pages – single and double rule bold lined paper for handwriting practice
Work on underlying fine motor and visual motor integration skills so you can help students excel in handwriting, learning, and motor skill development.
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.
Occupational therapy for teenagers can look a lot different than OT interventions for preschoolers. High school occupational therapy is a niched component of school-based OT, but one that needs it’s own set of resources and tools. High school occupational therapy providers will find this blog post as a helpful resource.
Middle school occupational therapy and high school occupational therapy sessions focus more on transitional stages as children age into teenagers and beyond.
As occupational therapy practitioners, we support functional skills across the lifespan. In high school aged students, that will look very different for the school based OT compared to the preschool student. One thing to consider about the high school age is that we might need to use our creative thinking cap as OT practitioners.
The high school student may be in an enclosed classroom and we might be supporting very specific areas related to transitioning from middle school to high school and then post-high school. I know I’ve had to support several high school students who had OT goals as a support service, and there was definitely push-back from the students. Check out our strategies and experience on how to engage a resistant child in therapy.
Occupational Therapy for Teenagers
In the younger grades, school occupational therapy practitioners go into the school setting armed with playdough, scissors, pencils, crayons, glue, fidgets, and a few games/puzzles.
What about the middle school occupational therapy population…and those years following in the high school OT interventions? These teenagers are not motivated by crayons, Candyland, letter formation exercises, or cut and paste activities. Nor should they be. Unless your middle school caseload is in a self contained classroom functioning at a preschool level, these games and activities are not appropriate or practical. This post will explore the tricky transition from elementary to middle school occupational therapy.
Starting in late elementary school, many therapists transition their caseload from a direct to indirect, or consultative therapy model at this time, especially if they have been working with a particular student for several years.
Reasons OT for teenagers moves to consultation
When a student remains on the OT caseload into the middle school setting, therapy typically does transition to consultation. Why? There are several valid reasons for doing so. There are many reasons why transitioning from direct services to a consultation model is appropriate for teenagers (in middle school and high school). The primary reasons for transitioning to a consultative model are:
Teenagers are self conscious and do not care for a therapist coming into their general education classroom to sit by them, observe, or ask questions. A consultative model allows the student to take ownership over their therapy recommendations.
Middle school schedules are busy. It can be difficult to ensure carryover of occupational therapy goals when there are many different teachers on the student’s schedule. Therapists make suggestions but then the recommendations may not be carried over to each class. Additionally, pulling a student for individual therapy weekly means they are missing valuable learning time.
Handwriting habits are set and unlikely to change at this age. Pencil grasp development and letter formation skills are often formed by the age of eight, making adjustments in middle school difficult. The same is true for Visual perceptual skills.
Students do not want adaptations that make them stand out from their peers. They will resist noise cancellation headphones, a scribe for written notes, alternative seating, weighted items, or noticeable fidgets.
Executive function – many middle schools already incorporate these skills into their program through schedules, planners, online classrooms, and reminders.
Students in the middle school and high school settings are most likely using technology, virtual classrooms, and email to do much of their school work by this point.
Students have often been receiving services since early elementary school. Changes are less likely to happen at this stage, if they have not already.
Direct interventions Occupational Therapy for teenagers
High school occupational therapy is not a one size fits all model.
There are several reasons to keep a student on a direct therapy service model during the high school years. It’s important to realize that moving from direct services to consultation should not occur simply because the student ages out of the elementary buildings.
Teenagers receiving occupational therapy services may continue on with the direct therapy model for several reasons:
Self contained students work at a different pace than their mainstreamed counterparts. They may continue to need more intervention.
Lower level learners will need to be transitioning to a life skills or self help model, if they have not already. This means new objectives and goals to address. Some of these areas to address include: life skills cooking tasks, starting at the beginning with cursive name writing, changing clothing for gym or swimming at school, perineal care to address menstruation needs, or other skills.
Teenagers are a different breed of people. There are new social expectations, hormonal changes, levels of independence, and increased demands for self help skills or self-regulation skills.
It may take time to educate families and caregivers about this change in service model, and expectations. Automatically moving everyone to an indirect model, or discharging them, may be too abrupt for anxious parents or overwhelmed teachers
The Role of the occupational therapist with teenagers
The teenage years bring many changes that impact functioning abilities that impact the education in middle school or high school.
Address motor skills use of calculators, rulers, graph paper, etc.
Address organization of locker and homework planner.
Provide adaptations if your learner is not able to complete work in an effective manner. A scribe to write notes for them, word processing versus written documentation, lessen the workload if writing is too labor intensive, preferential seating to improve attention.
Address any lingering or new sensory concerns. Provide adaptation for these with preferential seating, alternative seating, gum or fidgets for self regulation, ear plugs to reduce incoming sounds, and organizational tools. Specifically, brain breaks for high school can be a great resource for self-regulation, anxiety, attention, and emotional needs.
Address important life skills – learners need to know their emergency contact information, effectively groom themselves, take care of feminine hygiene issues, advocate for themselves, and follow a schedule.
Some interventions may require private therapy to be more appropriate such as meal preparation, laundry, ordering from a menu, shopping, budgeting, or filling out an application. These would be appropriate goals for students in a self contained classroom.
how to improve handwriting for teenagers
There are times when therapists are called to continue to address handwriting in their middle school population. Intervention needs to be functional, beyond basic letter formation. Functional handwriting can mean learning to write the letters in a name in print or cursive, filling in forms, and essential handwriting life skills.
Handwriting help for middle schoolers
One handwriting goal for middle schoolers, or even handwriting in high school may address the letter formation or number formation to write identifying information such as name, address, phone number.
For example, a handwriting goal for teenagers may be:
“This student will be able to independently write identifying information (name, address, phone number) without a model with 80% legibility.”
Another handwriting goal might be:
“The student will be able to write or access information to fill out a form independently.”
The OT Toolbox has a great post about filling out forms. (Coming soon)
Transition to middle school and high school occupational therapy
What can you do to help this transition to middle school occupational therapy and high school occupational therapy?
Educate – teachers, parents, and other caregivers may not understand the role of the occupational therapist in middle school. It may be time for a little education on the services provided and the therapeutic model.
Empathy – reducing therapy minutes may feel like the student is not going to improve, or they are being given up on. It is tough for parents to imagine their learner may never write a sentence, read independently, or live alone. This is the time to gently begin this conversation.
Collaborate – work with educators and families to determine what are appropriate functional goals and needs in the classroom, and how they can be addressed. This blog on collaboration between OT and educators can assist.
Continue Direct Intervention– There may be a need for direct therapy intervention. Keep your students motivated with relevant and important treatment activities.
Address life skills. The OT Toolbox has a series of life skills posts including cooking, laundry, filling out forms, and social stories.
Working with teenagers in occupational therapy can be challenging. A few final tips for the OT working in middle schools or high schools:
Remember teenagers are suddenly big and somewhat awkward.
Keep goals and objectives focused on relevant and functional skills.
Educate staff and caregivers about the role of the OT in schools.
Provide resources, and make adaptations to the educational environment to help students better access their curriculum.
Try not to be in the hallways when they are transitioning between classes!
HIGH SCHOOL OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY
School based occupational therapy is drastically different from private or outpatient therapy. Private therapy follows a medical model with hands on treatment, learning objectives, and goals relating to anything impeding function. The educational model focuses solely on education related goals. It aims to adapt and modify curriculum, so students are able to access their education. Because of these different treatment models, High School Occupational Therapy is going to look different at school than at a clinic. This post will delve into both types of therapy models as learners are being prepared for life after high school.
HIGH SCHOOL OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY CLINIC MODEL
In a clinic or outpatient therapy model, learners work on their “occupation”. Occupation is defined as daily activities that are goal oriented. It is what you do. Each person’s occupation looks different. It might be in the role of parent, child, grandparent, worker, student, housekeeper, engineer, or bricklayer. Occupation is typically referred to as a job, and in essence being a child is a job. What are the daily activities involved in being independent as a child? This is the core of occupational therapy.
What is the role of a high school student?
In occupational therapy, one of the key components impacting functional performance is the environment. For the high school occupational therapy client, this is something that must be considered.
Self care – grooming, bathing, dressing, using the bathroom, and eating, and overall life skills.
Instrumental Activities of Daily Living – laundry, cooking, cleaning, managing money, transportation, school, doctor appointments and medications, shopping, social function, and communication
In the medical model, goals function on the above skills that are limiting the learner’s ability to live independently. That being said, there is a time when certain goals are not appropriate anymore. If your learner has been working on shoe tying for eight years, it might be time to transition to velcro. The learner who is never going to live alone might not need to balance a checking account or go to the grocery store.
HIGH SCHOOL OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY SCHOOL MODEL
School based therapy services need to be educationally related. This is often difficult for educators and their families to understand. While it is true the student may need to learn to cook and do laundry, it is only going to impact their education if it is part of their educational objectives. A student does not need a buttoning goal if they never wear buttons to school. The objective of school based therapy is to adapt and modify the curriculum to meet the needs of the student. It is not to teach laundry, but to determine what the barriers might be to the student learning this skill. High school occupational therapy goals do not specifically teach handwriting, but functional communication. Does the student need a name stamp or an ID bracelet to identify themselves?
Goals need to be kept in perspective. If your learner can not write their phone number by 11th grade, they might need an alternative method of sharing this information. Some students might never be able to do fasteners independently and need to look toward pull on or adapted clothing. Tommy Hilfiger makes some stylist (although expensive) adaptive clothing for teens and young adults.
Talk about transition services. LINK TO TRANSITION ARTICLE What is the student working toward after graduation? What are the ‘must have’ skills in order to be successful?
Talk with the team about what barriers they are hitting when it comes to helping their learners reach goals
Consider moving students to an indirect or consultative model. Teachers are usually on top of their programs and know what goals they are working toward. Sometimes they need a piece of adaptive equipment or problem solving when they get stuck. I had a student last month whose goal was rolling cookie dough for the class business. He was having difficulty making consistent size balls. He did not need weeks of OT to help him. He needed a five minute consult and a mini ice cream scoop to make the balls uniform in size. Another student needed a handful of fidgets to keep his hands out of his mouth
Advocate and educate about the role of the occupational therapist in schools. This does not mean we sell ourselves short, but rather allocated our time wisely, giving direct services to those with more pressing needs.
High School Occupational Therapy Activities
Keep goals focused on attainable goals. There will be a limited time left for pediatric therapy, and goal completion
Communicate with caregivers to determine what goals are relevant. There is little point in working on laundry if the parent states the learner will NEVER do their laundry. Ask the caregivers what is most important to them
Talk with caregivers about plans post graduation. Many families do not think far ahead and are taken aback when confronted with questions and information. Many agencies have waiting lists that are years long, therefore families need to start planning early
Gear goals toward whatever life program the learner will be transitioning into. These might be vocational, career oriented, or life skills programs
If you find yourself using a direct therapy model with students, you will need some motivating ideas for them.
Work on self regulation and emotional regulation
Address executive function skills such as working memory, organization, impulse control, and attention
Task boxes – these can teach job readiness skills
Simulate job applications
Banking tasks including using a debit card
Researching their own transition plan
Developing their own goals toward transition
Alternative methods of self identification
Begin and adjust job readiness skills
Find resources for students and their caregivers for their transition plan
Navigating the cafeteria, opening containers, and paying for lunch
Calendar skills to manage their time
Social skills to address any difficulties in the classroom
As a school based therapist, know your role and don’t be afraid to express it. Take the time to educate others, so you are able to spend your valuable time helping as many learners as possible, in the most effective ways. It is easy to get railroaded by an anxious parent or an advocate, but in the end you are doing what is legally required and most effective for their student.
NOTE*The term, “learner” is used throughout this post for readability and inclusion. This information is relevant for students, patients, clients, preschoolers, kids/children of all ages and stages or whomever could benefit from these resources. The term “they” is used instead of he/she to be inclusive.
Victoria Wood, OTR/L is a contributor to The OT Toolbox and has been providing Occupational Therapy treatment in pediatrics for more than 25 years. She has practiced in hospital settings (inpatient, outpatient, NICU, PICU), school systems, and outpatient clinics in several states. She has treated hundreds of children with various sensory processing dysfunction in the areas of behavior, gross/fine motor skills, social skills and self-care. Ms. Wood has also been a featured speaker at seminars, webinars, and school staff development training. She is the author of Seeing your Home and Community with Sensory Eyes.
Today we have a fun shadow matching worksheet for you. This forest animals activity is great for adding to a woodland animal theme, but more importantly, use the shadow worksheet to build visual perceptual skills in areas such as form constancy, visual memory, and more.
Free printable shadow matching worksheet with a forest animals theme.
Shadow matching worksheet
How are your visual perceptual skills?
My learner can see, but can’t really SEE. Wait, what? Isn’t all “seeing” the same? Not really. There is seeing in the sense of visual acuity, how well the eyes can see items up close and at a distance. Then there is seeing in the sense or perceiving an object. A person can have great visual acuity, 20/20 in fact, but have terrible visual perception. In visual acuity the eye basically has to see the object. In perception it not only has to see the object, but make sense of it. These vision issues are covered in our blog post on visual efficiency.
For example; I can see the puzzle pieces, but I can’t perceive that each piece becomes something whole, or which piece is the right shape.
This article does an excellent job of explaining visual perception, its effects, and how to improve this skill.
Armed with this information, it is critical to work on developing visual perceptual skills at an early age. Visual perceptual skills begin in infancy with facial recognition, and by school age are necessary for reading, writing, and mathematics.
When it comes to visual perception, the OT Toolbox has you covered! Check out the latest PDF free printable, Forest Animals Shadow Matching Worksheet.
You can get the shadow matching worksheet below by entering your email address into the form, or head to The OT Toolbox Member’s Club and going to the visual perception area. Use this item in a forest animals theme! And if you’re doing a forest animals theme, definitely be sure to add this Forest Animals Scissor Skills Activity. It’s a free set of printable puzzles kids can color, cut out, and put back together.
This is a great activity to build visual perceptual skills as early as preschool age. It addresses form constancy, figure ground, visual discrimination and visual attention. You can find other matching activities that support visual perceptual skill development in our free visual perception packet. It includes resources like this flower match-up, and outer space matching worksheets.
Ways to modify the shadow matching worksheet:
Laminate the page for reusability. This saves on resources, and many learners love to write with markers!
Print in black and white or color for different levels of difficulty
Cut the shapes and make a matching game instead of using a writing tool to draw lines
Talk about the animals, describe their characteristics, and give context clues to help your learner understand why certain pictures match
Other skills addressed using this forest animal activity sheet:
Attention
Behavior
Frustration tolerance
Task avoidance
Self regulation
Organization
Scanning
Fine motor skills – pencil grasp, drawing lines
In order to create a full lesson or treatment plan, therapists will need to be armed with more than just this one shadow matching worksheet. The OT Toolbox offers several free printable items to work on visual perception, including:
There are several Ipad apps available if necessary, but I recommend using electronics with caution, and following up with a real life task.
Now you know more about “seeing” better. Before working on visual perceptual skills, make sure your learner has correct visual acuity. Sometimes their struggle is due to acuity rather than perception. In this case, a pair of eyeglasses is an easy fix!
Whether your learner is working on this shadow worksheet, or any other resources by the OT Toolbox, make learning fun and motivating. There is nothing better than a learner who is excited to see what their therapist has to offer.
Want to work on shadow matching with a forest animals theme? This shadow worksheet supports development of visual perceptual skills through play! Perfect for adding to a forest animals weekly therapy theme. Enter your email address into the form below.
Or, if you are a Member’s Club member, be sure to log in and then head to the visual perception area of free downloads that are on The OT Toolbox website. Not a member? Join now.
*The term, “learner” is used throughout this post for readability, however this information is relevant for students, patients, clients, children of all ages, etc. The term “they” is used instead of he/she to be inclusive.
Victoria Wood, OTR/L is a contributor to The OT Toolbox and has been providing Occupational Therapy treatment in pediatrics for more than 25 years. She has practiced in hospital settings (inpatient, outpatient, NICU, PICU), school systems, and outpatient clinics in several states. She has treated hundreds of children with various sensory processing dysfunction in the areas of behavior, gross/fine motor skills, social skills and self-care. Ms. Wood has also been a featured speaker at seminars, webinars, and school staff development training. She is the author of Seeing your Home and Community with Sensory Eyes.
This handwriting tool is a writing spacer that supports spatial awareness between letters and words. To make this writing tool we used simple craft materials of a pipe cleaner and a craft pom pom, but you could use any items. The best thing about this handwriting spacing tool is that kids can make it their own. Add this writing spacer to your list of ways to use pipe cleaners in occupational therapy…and ways to use craft pom poms in OT!
Writing Spacer
When it comes to legible handwriting, spatial awareness between letters and words makes a huge difference! One way to go about this use of space between words is using finger spacers for handwriting. However, this can become an issue when kids are self-conscious placing their fingers between each word. Also, for the left- handed writer, the spacing finger is in the way when the writing hand moves over to write the next word.
Whether you are a teacher in the classroom, a parent who is struggling to find the trick to get your child to write legibly, or a therapist working on the underlying skills needed for functional written work, you’ve probably noticed that when letters are smashed up against one another, it’s really hard to read what’s been written!
Stretching out spaces between words makes a huge difference in legibility. And there’s more; Using consistent spacing between letters can help with legibility too. In fact, there is great benefit to using toys to support spatial awareness to develop these skills.
That’s why we’re sharing this easy DIY handwriting spacer. It’s a do it yourself version that kids will take pride in making and using.
Many of us have used and love spacing tools made from craft sticks.
Use a pipe cleaner to make a writing spacer.
Handwriting Spacing Tool Craft
We actually have a few different options for making a writing tool to address spacing:
This craft stick spacing tool is very simple and has just a single visual cue to support visual tracking skills that play a role in spatial awareness.
This clothes pin spacer is unique in that it can be attached to a pencil pouch, folder, or papers so students always know where it is. It can also be accessorized and personalized by the student. It’s also a nice clothespin pencil gripper.
Today, we’ve got a spacing tool that doesn’t use a craft stick…it’s another fun DIY spacing tool idea, but the difference is that this writing tool can be used to space between letters and between words.
Use a Pipe Cleaner for a Spacing Tool
This spacing tool uses items that you probably already have in the house or classroom. Kids can use their creative style in making their spacing tool and really make it their own. We used a few materials to make our spacing tools.
Materials needed to make a spacing tool:
Pipe cleaners
Craft pom poms (You could also use beads for a smaller space between words.)
This project is super simple to put together. Creating the DIY spacing tools is a nice fine motor warm up to writing, too!
If you are using a crafting pom pom like we did, use a smaller sized pom pom. A 1/4 inch crafting pom pom is a good size. Once the pipe cleaner is wrapped around the pom pom a couple of times, the size will increase.
Wrap one end of the pipe cleaner around the craft pom pom several times so the pom pom is secure.
A dab of craft glue can be used to secure the craft pom pom to the pipe cleaner, if you like.
You won’t want the top of the spacing tool to be too wide, otherwise the space between words will become too stretched.
A bead makes a nice spacer for spacing between words. Once the pipe cleaner is wrapped around the bead, there is a nice sized spacer for words.
And that’s all there is to it!
Use the spacing tool to space between words using the top of the space tool. The width of the pipe cleaner can be used to maintain a consistent space between letters.
These handwriting spacing tools can be as varied as the students in a classroom. Allow the kiddos to use creativity when making theirs. Bend pipe cleaners, add additional beads or other embellishments like ribbon or twine.
Students will be proud to show off (and use!) their spacing tool when practicing handwriting and spacing between letters and words!
Working on spacing in handwriting? Why not start a handwriting club for kids? Kids can work on handwriting skills in a fun way. Here’s how to start a handwriting club kids will WANT to join!
The Handwriting Book is a comprehensive resource created by experienced pediatric OTs and PTs.
The Handwriting Book covers everything you need to know about handwriting, guided by development and focused on function. This digital resource is is the ultimate resource for tips, strategies, suggestions, and information to support handwriting development in kids.
The Handwriting Book breaks down the functional skill of handwriting into developmental areas. These include developmental progression of pre-writing strokes, fine motor skills, gross motor development, sensory considerations, and visual perceptual skills. Each section includes strategies and tips to improve these underlying areas.
Strategies to address letter and number formation and reversals
Ideas for combining handwriting and play
Activities to practice handwriting skills at home
Tips and strategies for the reluctant writer
Tips to improve pencil grip
Tips for sizing, spacing, and alignment with overall improved legibility
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.
Do you focus on the “power of yet” when helping kids with developing a growth mindset? A subtle mindset shift can do great things when it comes to shifting perspectives. Here, we’re covering what the power of yet means and how to help kids use this strategy in every day tasks with a printable power of yet worksheet.
The power of yet
When we make a decision to learn new things, we are fostering the power of yet.
When we struggle at a task but persist and keep trying, we are putting the power of yet to work.
When we look forward to doing something, we exercise hope and optimism.
All of these examples describe the power of yet!
The power of yet starts with a growth mindset. A growth mindset is “the understanding that abilities and understanding can be developed” (Mindset Works, n.d.).
Those with a growth mindset believe that they can get smarter, stronger, and more talented through putting in time and effort.
According to Susan Jerrell, founder of Time out for Teachers,
The power of yet teaches students:
they can learn
learning takes time and effort
results come from hard work
giving up isn’t an option
the power of yet carol dweck
This way of thinking became popular through the work of Carol Dweck in her book (Amazon affiliate link) Mindset. She teaches about the “power of yet.”
This mindset shifts the focus away from all the things one can not do, to what one can not do YET. As therapists, the population we serve is acutely aware of all the things they can not do. It is easy to get bogged down by shortcomings and endless goal setting. This can be discouraging, and lead to shutdown or failure.
When developing this growth mindset and encouraging the power of yet, be mindful of the four traps to success
People don’t set clear goals (and don’t break down goals to achieve them)
They feel discouraged
They feel overwhelmed
They are not ready to change
Ask yourself, is my learner ready to change? Is this a goal I want for them, or they want for themselves? This might also be a good question to ask of the parents. Are THEY ready for change?
Is it worth all your time and effort to teach your learner to fold laundry, if the parents are just going to do it themselves? Should you problem solve and set endless goals to get your learner out of their parent’s bed, if the parents are really not ready for this change?
Young people may not care about change, or the work entailed in growing may not seem worth all of the effort. In this case, you will need to get creative if this change is important to their growth.
Shoe tying is a great example. This is an important skill, however try telling that to a six year old who just loves his Crocs! In this case, some creative goal setting, and a great incentive at the end might help nudge them along.
Power of Yet Activities
Goal setting IS important, however it is crucial to go about it the right way, or this too will end in failure. The OT Toolbox has some great posts about Goal Setting and Goal Ladders.
Check out this cute video from Sesame Street with Janelle Monae singing about this “power of yet”. This is a great tool to share with young learners about embracing change, and being able to learn new things.
Courtney Ackerman of Psychology Today gives the following tips to teaching the power of yet:
Work on your own growth mindset first. It is difficult to teach the power of yet
Go beyond the “mindset jargon” and inspirational quotes to really focus on what the power of yet means
Praise properly, focusing on their efforts rather than shortcomings or natural talent
Embrace the word “yet;” use the word “yet” with children to give them a sense they can make a change
Take advantage of mistakes children make; be ready to praise them for their efforts but also point out any issues in their approach and brainstorm better ways to handle the situation with them
Let kids fail; another vital part of growth in children is to let them fail instead of showing them how to do everything or saving them from making mistakes. This is part of growth mindset mistakes.
Free Power of yet worksheet
Today’s free printable worksheet teaches learners to embrace what already makes them awesome, along with recognizing the power of yet. I am not able to ride a unicycle YET. I can not speak fluent Spanish YET. I am awesome at riding a two wheeled bike, and can speak moderate Spanish.
Harness the power of yet, set attainable goals, embrace skills along with shortcomings. Use the power of yet printable to brainstorm goals, focus on awesomeness, and develop a plan for growth. From a treatment planning objective, this task goes beyond just introspection and planning for the future.
Use this letter to future self printable as a tool to support goal development and planning for the future and development tool to achieve goals that have not yet been achieved.
Think of the other skills that can be addressed during this activity:
Social/Executive Function – Following directions, turn taking, task completion, orienting to details, neatness, multi-tasking, attending to task, and impulse control
Handwriting- Letter formation – correctly forming the letters top to bottom.
Letter sizing – correctly fitting the letters into the provided space. Spacing, line placement, directionality, and spelling are also addressed
Fine motor skills- strengthening, hand development, and grasping pattern
Scissor skills- Cutting on the line ( if you choose to add this step), within half inch of lines, in the direction of lines
Bilateral coordination – remembering to use their “helper hand” to hold the paper while writing. Using one hand for a dominant hand instead of switching back and forth is encouraged once a child is in grade school or demonstrates a significant strength in one or the other.
Strength – core strength, shoulder and wrist stability, head control, balance, and hand strength are all needed for upright sitting posture and writing tasks.
Social function – working together in a group, problem solving, sharing materials and space, turn taking, talking about the activity
How do I grade this Power of Yet activity?
When I use the word “grade,” I mean make it easier or harder, not give it a letter grade or score it.
Lowest level learners can dictate what they would like written
Middle level learners can write one or two words about their awesomeness and goals
Higher level learners can write an idea about their goals, then create a goal ladder, checklist, or graphic organizer. This turns into a multilevel activity to use during many sessions.
Talk about the the power of yet, growth mindset, setting goals, and introspection/self reflection
Project this page onto a smart board to work as a group
More or less prompting may be needed to grade the activity to make it easier or harder.
Make lines within the larger boxes to provide borders and boundaries to write in. Many learners struggle to write legibly in a large box
Growth mindset is interesting in that some people feel they are flawed and will forever need work, while others believe they are perfect just the way they are. Try and find that balance between the self defeated attitude and the “I am perfect” belief. We all have room to grow and new things to learn.
A therapist I worked with for many years did not say, “practice makes perfect” as things are never perfect. Instead she would say, “practice makes better.”
This resource is also available inside the Member’s Club.
Want to add this resource to your therapy toolbox so you can help kids thrive? Enter your email into the form below to access this printable tool.
This resource is just one of the many tools available in The OT Toolbox Member’s Club. Each month, members get instant access to downloadable activities, handouts, worksheets, and printable tools to support development. Members can log into their dashboard and access all of our free downloads in one place. Plus, you’ll find exclusive materials and premium level materials.
Level 1 members gain instant access to all of the downloads available on the site, without enter your email each time PLUS exclusive new resources each month.
Level 2 members get access to all of our downloads, exclusive new resources each month, PLUS additional, premium content each month: therapy kits, screening tools, games, therapy packets, and much more. AND, level 2 members get ad-free content across the entire OT Toolbox website.
NOTE*The term, “learner” is used throughout this post for readability and inclusion. This information is relevant for students, patients, clients, preschoolers, kids/children of all ages and stages or whomever could benefit from these resources. The term “they” is used instead of he/she to be inclusive.
Victoria Wood, OTR/L is a contributor to The OT Toolbox and has been providing Occupational Therapy treatment in pediatrics for more than 25 years. She has practiced in hospital settings (inpatient, outpatient, NICU, PICU), school systems, and outpatient clinics in several states. She has treated hundreds of children with various sensory processing dysfunction in the areas of behavior, gross/fine motor skills, social skills and self-care. Ms. Wood has also been a featured speaker at seminars, webinars, and school staff development training. She is the author of Seeing your Home and Community with Sensory Eyes.
When it comes to handwriting, copying without losing place on the page impacts writing (visual attention plays a big role here), so much so that a reading stick or writing stick tool can be a huge help. Here we are showing an easy way to make a reading stick or writing stick that can be used to impact writing without missing letters or words…and why this happens.
What is a Reading Stick
Handwriting is a challenge when spacing is inaccurate. Poorly spaced letters and words as a result of visual spatial difficulties can lead to illegible handwriting.
A reading stick is a pointer stick that kids can use to follow along with words when reading and writing.
When reading from a chalkboard or smartboard, a teacher might use a large pointer stick for this task. One tip for teachers is to add a bright visual cue to the end of the pointer stick to add a visual contrast that is engaging and visual. This might be something like bright tape added to the end of the pointer stick, neon tape or post-it notes folded over the tip of the pointer stick are some ways to easily do this.
But, when kids are reading and copying from a space on their desk, they can use a miniature version of the pointer stick as a reading tool. What’s nice about the version that we created is that the reading stick can be used in many different ways:
Use the pointer stick with the visual cue at the end to point along with reading from a book.
Turn the reading stick on it’s side to follow along line by line when reading.
Use the craft stick as a spacing tool when writing.
Why use a reading stick for writing?
A writing stick is a handwriting tool that can also be called a pointer stick for handwriting. Students and teachers can use a writing stick to follow along with written work to support handwriting needs so that a student doesn’t miss letters or words when writing.
Copying handwriting work requires several areas of visual processing:
Using this pointer stick to copy words can help with copying written work without omitting letters or words. The reading stick then doubles as a spacing tool.
Using a spacing tool can be a HUGE help for some kids! This handwriting spacing tool pointer stick is a physical prompt and a visual cue that helps kids in handwriting and become independent with when writing.
There is a lot going on when a child is required to write. The visual motor skills needed to accurately copy or write written work requires the processing of visual perceptual skills along with coordination and manipulation of the pencil along lines and margins.
These are a lot of different areas that can break down and result in sloppy or illegible handwriting!
Use a spacing tool pointer stick to help with placing spaces between letters and words, assuring words, phrases, or sentences are not omitted, and when aligning columns of words, as in lists.
Handwriting Spacing Tool Pointer Stick
Affiliate links are included in this post.
Try using this spacing pointer stick to keep margins aligned too.
Use the marker to make a brightly colored dot on one end of the craft stick. You could also use a small sticker, but I wanted to ensure a bright contrast between the colored craft stick and the colored dot.
Use a reading stick when reading so kids don’t miss words or lines of text when reading.
And that’s it! Show the child how to use it to keep their place when copying written work, when aligning margins, and when spacing between words.
Use the spacing tool pointer stick to help kids with spatial awareness in these ways:
Point to words when copying from a text or sheet on a desk. The pointer stick can help keep the child’s place, visually.
Align columns in math and lists of words.
Align left and right margins on the page. Keep the margin from drifting in toward the middle of the page.
The Handwriting Book is a comprehensive resource created by experienced pediatric OTs and PTs.
The Handwriting Book covers everything you need to know about handwriting, guided by development and focused on function. This digital resource is is the ultimate resource for tips, strategies, suggestions, and information to support handwriting development in kids.
The Handwriting Book breaks down the functional skill of handwriting into developmental areas. These include developmental progression of pre-writing strokes, fine motor skills, gross motor development, sensory considerations, and visual perceptual skills. Each section includes strategies and tips to improve these underlying areas.
Strategies to address letter and number formation and reversals
Ideas for combining handwriting and play
Activities to practice handwriting skills at home
Tips and strategies for the reluctant writer
Tips to improve pencil grip
Tips for sizing, spacing, and alignment with overall improved legibility
