Victoria Wood OTR/L, Author at The OT Toolbox

Ultimate Guide to PLAY DOUGH MATS

July 24, 2023May 25, 2022 by Victoria Wood OTR/L

After reading below about the benefits of playing with play dough mats, go grab some of them for FREE. When using these fun play dough mats, you will start helping children work on important developmental skills. In addition to all the fun children will have while using these mats (which is a win), they will be developing the necessary fine motor hand skills needed for everyday functional tasks such as; fastener manipulation, classroom tool use, grasp patterns, and overall dexterity/manipulation used in multiple fine motor tasks. Be sure to check out our resource on playdough activities for fine motor skills to support this area.

The benefits of using play dough mats

Play dough is an AWESOME tool in itself! We know that in itself, there are so many benefits of play dough in building skills in kids.

With all of the attractive colors, and the sensory feel of it, playdough can be very enticing to children. With a little preparation and care, play dough mats can be almost mess-free! If pieces fall off, just tap with another blob of dough, and it blends back in with little need for clean-up. (Just avoid the carpet!) While engaging with these super fun play dough mats, children can stay occupied for a lengthy time in either independent play, or cooperative play with a partner.

You can easily use play dough mats during an OT session, as part of a home program, or as a fine motor station in the classroom. Each mat provides a theme to compliment any learning or skill building you might be looking for. After you read about all of the benefits, you’ll want to get all of these mats and start right away, but first let’s look at those specific skills they help develop.

Play dough can easily be made or purchased, and used with play dough mats to focus on developing so many skills.

Many Benefits of play dough mats:

Hand and finger strengthening skills – squeeze, press, poke, and pinch the play dough while manipulating. Hand strength is a skill needed for most functional tasks. This helps build intrinsic hand musculature, and improves fine motor endurance.
Grasp skills – Tools such as plastic knives, scissors, cookie cutters, pizza cutters, and rolling pins, provide the opportunity to work on varied grasp patterns.
Bilateral integration skills – use both hands together in a coordinated manner to manipulate the play dough, therefore building bilateral coordination. They adjust the dough’s size, shape, and weight as needed for mat play. Bilateral coordination skills are needed for functional tasks like writing, dressing, cooking, and essentially all functional participation.
Manual dexterity skills – manipulate the putty to shape and pinch the dough to match the theme the of each mat. This gives them the opportunity to develop precise finger movements and thumb opposition.
Self-regulation skills – When children squeeze, press, poke, pinch and roll out the dough, they get deep proprioceptive input, which can be soothing and calming to a child. As an added benefit, these emotions play dough mats support the social learning and identifying emotions names to help with emotional self regulation.
Eye-hand coordination skills – While creating and placing the shapes on the play dough mats to match the theme, learners are coordinating their hand and eye movements, working on important visual motor coordination skills. Eye hand coordination skills can impact functional participation.
Gross motor skills – Engaging with play dough works the larger muscles of the upper extremity (shoulder and arm) in order to push, pull, press, and roll the dough. Don’t forget, development occurs proximally to distally, so those larger muscles need engagement!
Creativity and play skills – Learners use their play dough creativity and imagination to add their own details to the mats, with their own play dough creations. They can add small beads, sequins, buttons, or pegs in addition to their playdough shapes.
Social skills – If mats are used with a partner, children will have the opportunity for cooperative and collaborative play They will be learning self-control and communication, coupled with pretend play, as they work to build items together on a single mat, or by trading mats and sharing details. These would make a great tool for social skill groups!
Visual perceptual skills – Play dough mats work on visual figure ground skills, as learners visually scan the boards to locate the circles for play dough ball size, location, and placement. Visual discrimination skills are needed to identify any size differences in the circles, and make the play dough balls larger or smaller as indicated.
Olfactory skills – Adding a little scent, such as an essential oil to the play dough will provide children some olfactory input, making the experience more multi-sensory.
Tactile skills – The addition of a little glitter, rice, or sand to the play dough, will provide children further tactile input. For some learners with tactile aversion, working with playdough may be difficult at first.

Play dough does not need to be store bought. Go to our link here for some of the Best Dough Recipes.

How to Use Play Dough Mats

Using play dough mats is pretty self explanatory. Kids love using the fun and engaging play activities and often times don’t realize they are developing skills at the same time. You can definitely pair these play dough mats with theraputty exercises for more strengthening!

These steps will help with using your play dough mats in therapy, the classroom for a fine motor brain break, or in the home for a play activity:

1. You’ll need to print off the play dough mat that works for your needs. You can find different printable playdough mats for different themes.

2. Laminate the page, or slide it into a page protector sheet.

2. Select play dough, either home made or store bought. Select play dough consistency and resistance based on the individual’s needs.

3. Consider how to adapt the activity based on the needs of the individual. Some considerations include thinking about fine motor skills, bilateral coordination needs, visual motor needs, or sensory needs.

4. Position play dough mats and play dough to meet the needs and areas of development for the individual.

5. Work on opening and closing the play dough container if this is an area of concern (it’s a great functional activity!)

how to use play dough mats for occupational therapy

Adapting Play Dough Mats

Play dough mats can be used in occupational therapy to develop skills and work on goal areas through play. They can also be used to support needs and integrate adaptations in play for practice.

Play dough mats are a fun way to play and build skills at home, too. They can be used in the classroom for a brain break, a sensory break, or a tool to build fine motor skills with a classroom theme.

How can you adapt playdough mats for specific skill adaptations in OT sessions? There are so many ways…

Motor Skill Needs- For individuals struggling with motor skills, you can tape the page protector sheet to the table surface. Another idea is to use sticky tack on the back of the page protector. This can secure the play dough mat to the table and limit it’s movement during play.

Another motor skill strategy is to use a play dough mat with larger areas or smaller areas for the play dough. This can require more or less small motor movements, and can offer more or less opportunities for precision work.

Bilateral coordination needs- Encourage bilateral coordination by asking the user to hold the play dough mat on the table. This is a great way to encourage paper positioning during writing tasks, too.

Sensory needs- Play dough consistency will provide a varied tactile experience such as, sticky, slippery, firm, and partially dry. Much like different grades of thera-putty, different play dough recipes can be used to build fine motor skills or offer more or less heavy work through the hands.

Some play dough to meet tactile preferences and tactile challenges include:

Salt Dough Made with Glitter Glue– This play dough recipe has a gritty texture.
Orange Zest Salt Dough– This dough recipe has bits of orange zest, giving it a texture and scent.
Blue/Yellow Foaming Dough– This is a moldable dough with a dry texture, but when you add the secret ingredient, you get a very foamy, wet texture that can be a great transition tool for messy tactile resistance.

Some play dough to meet tactile preferences and tactile challenges include:

Play dough made without cream of tartar– This can be a more resistant play dough texture
Crayon play dough recipe– This recipe is very smooth and depending on the amount of oil or crayons added, can be very silky in texture.
Baking Soda Dough– This dough recipe is very soft and offers a lower resistance
Marshmallow Play Dough– This play dough recipe has a tough texture and adds a lot of heavy work input. Think black theraputty for this grade of resistance.

Regulation needs- Building on the sensory aspect, you can offer movement-based heavy work through the hands and upper body by offering less resistant play dough (more of a silky and fluid feel to the play dough consistency) or you can offer more heavy work using a heavier grade to the resistance.

Visual needs- For users with visual processing needs, there are ways to adapt the play dough mats. Try outlining the areas where play dough is placed for a darker visual cue by using a dark marker. You can then slide the sheet into a sheet protector and play from there.

Core strength/Stability/Visual Gaze- For some, maintaining an upright posture is difficult. You can easily position play dough mats on a slant board, easel, or vertical surface using sticky tack, tape, magnets, etc. This positioning strategy can be used to either support positioning and visual gaze needs to to challenge these areas to reach a “just right” level in therapy sessions.

Free Printable Play Dough Mats

Each of the free play dough mats below can be printed off and used over and over again. A few tips for using play dough mats in therapy or in the home or classroom:

Space Play Dough Mat | gives learners the opportunity to strengthen their hands while developing essential skills that are needed for pencil writing, as well as the dexterity and precision skills that are needed for many daily, fine motor tasks. The simple thing about this outer space mat, is that it works on a specific set of muscles in the hand.

Astronaut Play Dough Mat | can be used as part of space theme, or a solo activity. Ask your learner to pull off a small piece of play dough and roll it between the fingers and thumb of one hand. It’s important to use just that one hand as it’s part of the challenge! Doing this hand activity will help build hand strength, dexterity, coordination, and endurance of the smaller muscles of the hand and fingers.

Play Dough City | complements any geography lesson as children fill in the circles of the city sky, while helping them to build their fine motor skills and endurance, which are needed for tasks like writing/coloring, pencil control for forming letters, functional pencil grasp, manipulation of clothing fasteners, opening/closing containers, and so much more. This cute mat can be used along with any other city activities including books, travel, and anything about city life.

Ice Cream Play Dough Mat | create small balls of play dough that fit on ice cream images, while working on hand strength and other motoric skills needed for pencil grasp, endurance for coloring, accuracy with scissors, and dexterity for manipulation of buttons, zippers, and coins. This mat can be a great take home mat for use over the summer break. Be sure to include instructions on what you want the child to do!

Toy Theme Play Dough Mat | helps children use their fingertip and thumb to roll a small ball of play dough, placing and pressing the dough onto the circles on the mat. They need just a small piece of dough to make the ball small enough to fit into the circles. This is a great activity for developing and defining the arches of the hand, strengthening the intrinsic musculature, and boosting visual perceptual skills too! This toy theme mat builds on the fundamental “job” that kids have, which is play! Use this themed mat during down time, or a rainy day, to add a little productive playtime.

Play Dough Bird Mat | gives kiddos a hand workout, while they create small balls of dough rolled with their fingers, to match the circle sizes on the mat. There are various sizes to challenge the child’s precision and dexterity. Children can count the birds and match the colors of the birds too. Another way to use this mat is to write numbers or letters in the circles in random order and then have the child scan the mat to challenge their visual perceptual skills.

Roll and Write Play Dough Mat Bundle | all about helping kids warm-up their hands prior to handwriting. It makes handwriting more fun when using one of these 7 themed play dough mats. Children warm-up using dough, then work on letter formation, words, and sentences.

These printable play dough mats include a themed play dough area plus a writing area. Use the play dough as a fine motor warm up and then move to the handwriting aspect.

Numbers 1-20 Sky/Ground Play Mats | helps children to work on 1-20 number formation, provides sensory input, encourages motor planning, and spatial relations.

A-Z Sky/Ground Play Mats | work on upper case and lower case A-Z letter formation, provides sensory input, encourages motor planning, and spatial relations.

Intrinsic Muscle Strengthening Play Dough Mat– This simple play dough mat limits the visual background and offers different sizes of circles. Users can create small balls of play dough to build intrinsic hand strength.

All of the free play dough mats are available in our Member’s Club. There, you can just click and download the play dough mats!

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.

Join the Member’s Club today!

A final note on play dough mats:

Do you want to use any of the play dough mats multiple times? Simply laminate them, or place in a sheet protector so children can use them repeatedly, any time they want. Play dough mats are a fun and engaging way for young children to work on problem-solving, pretend play, pre-academic skills, and other developmental functions. They don’t even know they are doing it, as they are having so much FUN!

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

Note: Only use play dough with the appropriate aged children. take sensible precautions with small or differently abled children, as play dough and small manipulatives can be a choking hazard. Adult supervision should be provided.

Trauma Informed Occupational Therapy

October 6, 2022May 23, 2022 by Victoria Wood OTR/L

In this blog post, we are addressing trauma informed occupational therapy, including trauma informed interventions and how to take a trauma informed approach in occupational therapy.

Trauma informed occupational therapy is based on the 6 principles of trauma informed care in OT interventions.

Imagine your mental, physical, and emotional health as a backpack. Some days, that backpack may be really heavy, full, and wear you down. Other days, it may be a bit lighter, and you are quicker on your feet, but the backpack is always there. This is the visualization of health that I think is just perfect when discussing trauma-informed occupational therapy practice.

Trauma Informed Care: the hypothical backpack

Everyone wears this hypothetical “backpack”; young and old, rich and poor. It’s up to us as health care professionals, to do our best to consider what we know about what load a person is carrying, while knowing that we won’t ever fully understand someone’s story.

Included in this “loaded backpack” is the connection between emotional regulation and executive functioning skills, where both emotions and the ability to self regulate, impacts cognitive actions.

Having an awareness of this emotional health, allows one to shift perspectives on how one behaves, acts, speaks, and functions. Cognitive and emotional health can be a large factor of someone’s overall health.

WHAT IS TRAUMA-INFORMED PRACTICE?

It’s important to understand the definition of trauma informed practice.

The effects trauma and adverse childhood experiences have on a person have been understood for some time now. Infant, child, and adolescent mental health is still a growing field.

The “backpack” visual helps to remember that even though occupational therapists may not work in a mental health setting, an individual still carries their traumatic history, anxiety, or depression as they walk into your office.

Trauma informed care is different than trauma-specific interventions. Where trauma informed refers to the awareness and recognition of various traumas and the impact of organizations or systems impact individuals, families, groups, communities, etc. the specific interventions address assessments, treatments, and specific recovery supports to impact trauma.

Example of Trauma Informed occupational therapy

Take 5-year-old ‘Thomas’ as an example. His aunt brings him to therapy at your outpatient clinic, and you notice that he is really shy and resistant to join you in a treatment room.

Thomas was referred to OT for delayed fine motor skills, but you are unable to convince him to do much with his hands at all. He won’t even look at you for more than one second.

After a few sessions pass, and there are no improvements in his participation, you ask the aunt how things are going at home, and learn a new perspective about Thomas’ overall health. You still must provide services for his fine motor skills, but now you do so through a new lens that respects, and includes his needs as a child with a traumatic history.

An individual’s traumatic history may not be the reason they are seeking services, but it should always be considered, and assess for. Traumatic experiences shape the way we perform our occupations.

The trauma response and/or triggers should be considered in all aspects of practice; when writing treatment plans, speaking to the individual and their family, and designing the treatment environment.

This is trauma-informed occupational therapy practice in a nutshell.

GUIDELINES FOR TRAUMA-INFORMED Occupational Therapy

How will you adjust your services to meet the unique needs of an individual who has experienced trauma?

“Given the long-term effects of adverse experiences in childhood, it is particularly important that all disciplines working in health care assess trauma; address safety in schools and the community; build strengths and resilience; and provide opportunities for educational, economic, and social successes” (AOTA, 2019).

Evidenced-based practice is always the best place to start. The AOTA’s guidelines from the May 2019 continuing education article Understanding and Applying Trauma Informed Approaches across Occupational Therapy Settings, breaks down trauma-informed practice in occupational therapy. This resource highlights best-practice standards from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMSHA).

6 Trauma-informed Principles:

The 6 principles of trauma informed care are as follows:

1. Safety

2. Trustworthiness and transparency

3. Peer support and mutual self-help

4. Collaboration and mutuality

5. Empowerment, voice, and choice

6. Cultural, historical, and gender issues.

The table below is a modifed version of Figure 1 from the AOTA (2019) article. It provides examples of what to do and what not to do in accordance with the principles above.

Trauma Informed Occupational Therapy Do’s and Don’ts

Table Adapted From Figure 1, AOTA (2019)

Do	Don’t	Principle
Ask permission before doing anything.	Assume an individual’s comfort level.	#1 Safety #4 Collaboration and mutuality #5 Empowerment, voice, and choice
Acknowledge what you cannot change	Ignore things over which you cannot control	#2 Trustworthiness and transparency
Always ask preferred pronouns	Assume based on appearance, etc.	#6 Cultural, historical, and gender issues
Recognize that trauma manifests in many different ways.	Automatically attribute challenging behaviors to personality	#1 Safety

Becoming a trauma-informed provider is not an easy shift for everyone. Considering the current pressures that healthcare professional face, having to adapt towards trauma-informed care is not always supported by staff or administration.

The AOTA provides resources and valuable information for occupational therapists based on the setting they work in.

The table above takes into consideration, the Four R’s of Trauma Informed Care: realize, recognize, respond, and resist re-traumatization.

Trauma Informed Strategies for Occupational Therapy

Many of the following guidelines will assist all healthcare providers, educators, and caregivers in learning trauma-informed practices.

Early Childhood Settings: Increase Collaboration to Promote Prevention

Promote early bonding through skin-to-skin, kangaroo care, private rooms, and opportunities for parent decision-making
Increase the amount of collaboration with all involved, and identify the barriers to involving family members in the care of their child
Celebrate family advocates
More ideas and resources are available at Zero to Three, The Center of Excellence for Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation, and Think Babies

School Settings: Recognizing Common Trrauma-based Responses

Trauma has negative effects on learning, and should be addressed school-wide (not just for students who receive special education)
AOTA suggests that OTs frame school behaviors through a lens that recognizes potential triggers and responses
Common traumatic stress behaviors include: “intrusive thoughts, irritability, arousal, anxiety, fear, difficulty concentrating, sensory dysregulation, aggression against self and others, dissociative symptoms, somatization, and character issues” (AOTA, 2019)
Trauma-Sensitive Schools Training Package
- Online training offered by the National Center for Safe, Supportive Learning Environments.
- AOTA reports using this training as a Tier 1 intervention, educating the staff and ensuring common understanding.
Cognitive Behavioral Intervention for Trauma in Schools (CBITS) intervention
- Created by Wong and colleagues specifically to target children subjected to community violence
- Suggested use as a Tier 2 or targeted intervention
Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Intervention (TF-CBT)
- Similar to the above, but suggested practice in Tier 3 intervention, including students and their families, in collaboration with community mental health providers.

The AOTA (2019) offers more information about occupational therapy’s role in trauma-informed care in various settings, including primary care, community, residential, and foster care settings.

Regardless of the setting, location, or age group you may work with, trauma-informed practice is necessary.

We hope this article gave you some insight on a very important topic, and ideas on how to incorporate trauma informed care it in your practice – wherever you are. What will you do to move towards a trauma-informed practice?

Sydney Thorson, OTR/L, is a new occupational therapist working in school-based therapy. Her
background is in Human Development and Family Studies, and she is passionate about
providing individualized and meaningful treatment for each child and their family. Sydney is also
a children’s author and illustrator and is always working on new and exciting projects.

pool noodle Games and activities

May 16, 2022 by Victoria Wood OTR/L

If you are looking for fun gross motor coordination activities, then these pool noodle games and activities are a great therapy tool to support skill-building. The pool noodle games are great activities to add to therapy sessions, use in home programs, or to add to Field Day or summer therapy camps. Check out these pool noodle games that support development, learning, and sensory motor skills.

Use these pool noodle activities and games to build skills.

Pool Noodle Games

A pool noodle is a swim toy that can be used to build swim skills or have pool-time fun. It can also be used as an OT tool to help build hand/finger skills, overall body strength/coordination, as well as balance, and motor planning skills.

Because they are readily available in stores during the Spring and Summer months, pool noodles are a great addition to your Summer occupational therapy activities.

Pool noodles are a versatile toy that can be cut, divided, and shaped into many tools to benefit children in their skill development, and overall needs. These toys are colorful, inexpensive, and attractive to children, which make them motivating, and facilitates engagement in pool noodle activities created with them.

This is a gross motor toy you’ll want to add to your therapy toolbox, and we’ll cover why that is below.

In addition, imagine all of the equipment needs that can be addressed to help with daily living skills using these noodles.

Add pool noodles to a few other ideas here on the website for a Summer of fun:

pool noodles Activities and Games

Pool noodles can be used by a variety of children, for many needs, and for several purposes. They can easily be used indoors or outdoors, in the home, the classroom, and therapy room. Pool noodle activities can be used with all ages, and in all environments. That’s right all ages. Maybe not in the conventional manner, but there are many imaginative and thoughtful activities that are fun and safe for anyone!

The best part? Pool noodles are cheap, cheap, cheap. They can be more challenging to find, if you look for them off season. My helpful tip to you is to buy them in bulk when they go on clearance at the end of the summer season, and you’ll have them whenever you need them. Sometimes you can even find them on clearance for just a few cents, that’s right, A FEW CENTS!

Let’s take a look at some fun, creative pool noodle activity ideas to get kids up, moving, active and a little ‘noodley’ this season! If you do not need them for pool noodle activities, but want some creative tool ideas instead, I’ve got you covered there too. Just scroll down to the bottom of the page, and you’ll find some innovative ideas for equipment and tools.

Gross Motor pool noodle activities:

These gross motor pool noodle ideas offer strategies to support motor planning and body awareness. It is by adding a simple pool noodle to play activities that can offer challenging motor tasks, while encouraging coordination, balance, body awareness, and motor planning skills.

make a pool noodle tunnel for obstacle courses and gross motor skills.

Pool Noodle Tunnel- Use a few pool noodles down a hallway and create a fun pool noodle tunnel for kiddos to crawl under, take a look here at our blog post Play Tunnel Activities. Use skewer sticks to secure noodles outside, and create a pool noodle hurdles.

Pool Noodle Wand- Create a Pool Noodle wand for reaction time, coordination, and balance. All of these skills can be addressed with the simple use of a pool noodle and PVC pipe to create the stick.

Pool Noodle Hurdles- We shared how to make pool noodle hurdles in our Family reunion activities post. Simply cut a pool noodle and use paint stirrers to stick small pieces into the ground. Then balance a long pool noodle on top for a balance, coordination, and gross motor activity that kids can step over, jump, or hop over in an obstacle course.

Pool Noodle Relay Race- This pool noodle game is great for lawn games, outdoor sensory diets, and family fun. Divide players into teams. Each team has a pool noodle. Players can race to a certain spot and then turn around and pass the noodle to the next player in the line. The first team to get all of their players to run with the pool noodle is the winner. This game can also be played in the swimming pool.

Pool Noodle Balance Game- Cut a pool noodle into smaller pieces (about one half of a pool noodle). Each player receives a piece. Balance a ball on top of the pool noodle hole. The players should race across the lawn or room while balancing the ball on their pool noodle. This is also a great addition to an obstacle course while challenging changes in positioning.

Balance Beam- A pool noodle is a great way to create a DIY balance beam, which provides balance opportunities, works on core strength, and provides vestibular input to help improve regulation.

Wobble Board- Use a pool noodle as a wobble board by adding a platform or boogie board over the noodle. Here’s another great idea for a DIY wobble board.

Pool Noodle Limbo- Want to limbo this season? Use a pool noodle for a fun game of limbo at home, or during therapy. Have children perform animal walks under the limbo stick. Easy, simple, effective and FUN! This one allows kids to work on multiple body skills.

Gross Motor Drum Sticks- Use pool noodles as gross motor drum sticks. When you use pool noodles as desk drumsticks, you address core strength, eye-hand coordination, bilateral coordination, and motor planning. Desk drumsticks can build fitness, and give a quick movement break to the entire class, with very little effort and cost. Now, that’s a winner in my book! To add gamification to this pool noodle idea, add music and play to the music. When the music stops, everyone needs to stop playing. It’s a great auditory processing activity.

Pool Noodle Skipping- You can use pool noodles as a tool to teach skipping.

Here are several more gross motor coordination activities to add to your toolbox. Don’t forget to stock up on gross motor toys when treatment planning.

Fine Motor activities using pool noodles

Pool noodles can be used on a small scale, too to work on fine motor skills. Try some of these ideas.

Pool noodles and rubber bands – Cut a pool noodle into smaller pieces. Use rubber bands to wrap around the pool noodle. This is an easy fine motor activity that you can create. Learners work on stretching the bands around the noodle, which will provides a fun, but effective fine motor strengthening tool, and a good bilateral coordination activity.

Press pipe cleaners into pool noodles- This is another easy, but fun activity to work on important fine motor, and bilateral coordination skills. Slide beads onto the chenille stems (pipe cleaners) to work on threading, or have them string in a specific order to add an opportunity for working on listening and following directions.

Threading activity- Use those same pipe cleaners pressed into the pool noodles and add beads, buttons to place onto the pool noodles. Learners will work on fine motor skills, eye-hand coordination, and finger strengthening with these fun activities. You can also thread pool noodles on a jump rope like we did with this pool noodle sensory bin idea.

Pool noodle and pom-pom transfer is just what you are looking for if you need a child to work on tong use, or practice pre-scissor skills using a pair of tongs. Children use tongs to transfer pom-pom balls into the holes of the pool noodle slices. Not only is this for fine motor skill development, but look at the built-in eye hand coordination too!

Put a cork in it! is a super fun activity that works on finger strengthening and bilateral coordination, as children will work to twist and push corks into the holes of pool noodle slices. Where do you find corks without having to drink dozens of bottles of wine (which is not terrible). Go to any craft store and they are available for purchase.

Pool noodle pom-pom shooter is a fun pool noodle activity that works on fine motor strengthening, as children work to pull the rubber band back to shoot the pom-pom from the pool noodle chunk. It most cases, the farther they pull the rubber band backwards, the farther the pom-pom will go. Set up a target using a laundry basket or box, and see if they can shoot the pom-poms into the target to score points.

Make a creature- Cut a pool noodle into small pieces. Affix or draw monstors or pictures of people or animals onto the pieces. Learners can then mix and match creature blocks with pool noodle chunks to build their own creatures. You can take pictures of completed creatures and have children attempt to copy the picture by stacking the appropriate pool noodle pieces, they work on visual perceptual skills.

Sensory pool noodle activities:

Sensory Bins- Use pool noodles as part of a Pool Noodle Sensory Bin to give the illusion of the ocean, and/or bubbles that you see in the ocean. Children can stack, fill, or squeeze them.

Pool Noodle Boats- How about some pool noodle boats for bathtub time, in a water bin? Take a look at how easy making these pool noodle boats are, and what fun they will be to play with during water playtime.

Letter Scoop Race- Cut a pool noodle into small pieces. Write letters on the outside of each piece. Then, place the noodle pieces into a sensory bin or on a tray. Ask the learner to scoop letters and as fast as they can match upper case letters to lower case letters, or letter to letter. They can stack the matching letters on top of one another to work on fine motor skills.

Eye-Hand Coordination using pool noodles:

Marble Maze- After an adult slices the pool noodles in half, have kiddos work on taping a variety of pool noodle pieces onto the wall with painter’s tape to create a fun Pool Noodle Marble Maze. Kiddos can change it up, making new mazes. It makes for a great STEM activity that builds problem-solving, and eye-hand coordination. This is a great DIY marble run for a visual scanning activity.

Pool noodle track- Easily create a visual tracking and bilateral coordination activity with use of a pool noodle circle track which requires a pool noodle sliced in half, taped together in a circle, and a marble inserted for rotating around the track. Making your own race track is a fun and challenging pool noodle activity, as you have to keep the speed of the marble going around the track so it will not fall out. Definitely for higher level learners, but a fun one!

Pool noodle batting is a simple activity using pool noodle pieces and a balloon or a beach ball suspended from the ceiling with a string. This provide a great opportunity to work on eye-hand coordination, upper extremity strengthening, and range of motion.

Javelin Throw– Use pool noodles to create a pool noodle javelin throw activity to work on visual motor skills as children throw a pool noodle javelin through a circled pool noodle suspended from the ceiling.

Pool Noodle Bowling- In this bowling game all you have to do is cut pool noodles into equal sized pieces, and you have a set of bowling pins! Anyone can use a set of simple bowling pins for a fun eye-hand coordination activity. You can use pool noodle slices stacked into a pyramid shape for the same purpose!

Here are some outdoor fun lawn games to round out your activity plan.

Pool noodle Tools or equipment Ideas:

Everything listed here is all about tools, adaptations, apparatus, or simple equipment ideas to children at home or school. Take a peek, and see if any of these ideas can help your learners.

Pool Noodle Card Holder- Know a child that has a hard time grasping and holding a set of cards? Make this great pool noodle card holder just for them! It can be used in the classroom, during therapy, and at home. Have a child that cannot hold cards, but needs to see them? Try this quick hands-free card holder adaptation.

Pool Noodle Adapted Seat- Maybe you need a pool noodle seat for a kiddo that has difficulty knowing where their seat ends due to poor body awareness. If so, this simple pool noodle seat will give them the physical cue they need to help with body awareness and balance within a chair. You know that one kiddo who frequently falls out of their chair? Try this and see if it helps! Here are more flexible seating ideas and DIY adapted seating (perfect for pool noodles!)

Pool Noodle Feet Positioner- How about a quick feet fix when a kiddos feet do not quite touch the floor, or they need a little movement for their feet while seated. Check out this pool noodle feet positioner.

Pool Noodle for High Tone Seating Needs- Sometimes there is that one kiddo that needs a little flexion positioning due to their excessive extension pattern, due to have high tone. Take a look at how to use a simple pool noodle and bungee cord to provide a little buffer for the excessive extension.

Therapy Ball Seat Positioner- If you tape a pool noodle into a circle, you can use it as a pool noodle ball chair by placing the therapy ball on top of the pool noodle to hold in place. Kiddos can still move slightly on it, just not excessively. This makes the ball less distractive, and kept within their personal space at their desk!

Summer is fast approaching, run and stock up on pool noodles now. One last thing that I want to remind you about pool noodles, remember to purchase them now, or when they are on clearance at the end of the season! They are just a few cents and you can use them all year long whenever you need them!

The terms kids, kiddos, and children are used throughout this post. These pool noodle activities can be used for learners of all ages and developmental levels.

How to Hold Scissors

October 30, 2023May 11, 2022 by Victoria Wood OTR/L

Part of teaching scissor skills is knowing how to hold scissors. Holding scissors correctly is a skill that some children struggle with achieving. You can walk into any classroom and see multiple ways children grasp scissors. This impacts the way they are able to cut with good hand and finger control. If bad habits are learned early, these can be difficult to correct, but not impossible. Check out the Steps of Scissor Development for a more detailed development of how to hold scissors, and learning scissor skills.

How to Hold Scissors

For the purpose of this post, we are focusing on the proper and effective grasp of scissors and how this can be achieved. Think of it as a basic pyramid or hierarchy of skill building that begins with pre-scissor skills and advances to scissor skills. You could consider this the hierarchy of holding scissors.

This post will address each step in learning to hold scissors, and provide information/activities to help at whatever stage your learner is stuck.

Take a look at each level related to holding scissors correctly:

a. Pinch and release finger movements

b. Scissor grasp

c. Open and close hand and finger movements while snipping paper

d. Repetitive open and close hand and finger movements while cutting

When teaching how to hold scissors correctly, first observe their current skill level. If they have learned some bad habits or techniques, back track to an earlier stage of scissor skill development, moving forward from there.

It is best to catch a child while they are first learning a skill, but we all know that may not be possible.

The OT Toolbox has a great Cutting with Scissors Program. You’ll find some fun ideas and strategies for every stage of scissor skill learning. There is a great Scissor Skills Book in the shop section of the website.

how to hold scissors: Pre-scissor skills Pinch and release

Before scissor skills can be mastered, young children need to establish the pre-scissor skills of pinch and release. These are preschool scissor skills that are established through play. Similar to the preschool pre-writing skills established in the preschool years, learning to hold scissors starts with grasp and release of small objects in play.

Step one focuses on pre-scissor skills with the use of fun, inexpensive tools that are wonderful for hand strengthening. These teach the hand/finger actions of pinch, squeeze, and release to help learners get ready for being successful holding scissors.

Tearing or ripping materials is a great way to work on pinch and release. Be sure your learner is not using a gross grasp to twist and rip. Have them work on pinching and tearing with use of the tips of the fingers. If this is too difficult, give a little help by making a slight tear to start with, then encourage them to finish.

Tearing teaches children how to use two hands together in a coordinated manner. Try these activities:

tear small squares and other shapes from strips of paper to create a paper salad or pizza
tear small pieces of tape from a roll and stick on an outline
tear tissue paper or crepe paper into small squares and pinch up into small balls to make a picture craft
tear small pieces from leaves as part of a nature tray
rip cotton balls into smaller pieces to create an art piece or stuff a baggie
pull apart strips of Velcro to separate the hook side from the loop side

You’ll want to check out this blog post to discover how to tear paper with specific activities that are developed and activities to work on this fine motor skill using just paper and the hands.

Pinching and squeezing can build hand and finger strength, while releasing objects with precision (in hand manipulation) works on the beginning stages of open and close hand actions.

pinch and release small play dough balls into flat pieces called ‘mini-pies’
pinch along a play dough log from left to right to make small indentations
pinch clothes pins (this blog post shares several pinch exercises and activities using clothes pins)
pinch bubble wrap bubbles to make them pop
pinch and squeeze small sponge squares to wring out water
pinch the end of a craft stick and play tug-o-war with a partner
pinch and release coins into a bank, change it up and alternate with coins, buttons, and game chips
pinch and stack blocks or mini-erasers
blow bubbles and attempt to pinch and pop small bubbles in the air

Also check out this blog post on pincer grasp activities for precision of pinching activities.

This resource on hand strengthening activities covers additional scissor skills for preschoolers to develop for holding scissors correctly.

Scissor Grasp

Teaching kids how to hold scissors can be difficult. Placing scissors in the loops can be a test of visual perceptual skills and fine motor skills. To help with holding scissors, you can break the process down into several areas: thumb positioning, placement of the other fingers in the loops, and wrist positioning.

When it comes to scissor grasp, you can use additional supports to ensure proper, or functional, finger placement on the scissors.

First, let’s go over a point about functional scissor grasp.

Functional Scissor Grasp

Much like a functional pencil grasp, scissor grasp should be functional as well. What is meant by this is that not all scissor grasps may look the same. One child may hold the scissors with the pointer finger, or index finger through the guiding loop and others may place both the index finger and the middle finger through the guiding loop of the scissors. What is most important is that the child is able to cut age-appropriate shapes, materials in an effective, efficient, and safe manner.

A functional scissor grasp might look differently for each individual. But if a middle school student is able to cut worksheet items, coupons on the lines, cut gift wrap, or other materials in order to learn, function at an age-appropriate level, with safe use of the scissors, then you have functional scissor grasp. Focusing on precise placement of the fingers on the scissors isn’t necessarily an important area of focus.

However, when teaching scissor grasp, there are important things to keep in mind.

How to Teach a Thumbs Up Scissor Grasp

When it comes to grasping the scissors, your learner should use a thumbs-up approach to grasp scissors or the paper being cut.

There are several strategies for teaching kids to hold scissors with “thumbs up”:

You can simply just use a verbal cue.
Place a sticker or draw a smiley face on the thumbnail to provide a visual cue.
Place a sticker or tape on the scissors to visually remind learners of proper scissor placement in the hands.
Add a “shark fin” to the thumb scissor loop. The fin should be up when cutting.
Playing thumbs-up games, like thumb wars, can help to encourage use of this position with more automaticity.
Try these open thumb web space activities to strengthen and mobilize the thumb.

Finger Placement for Scissor Grasp

Let’s look at the other fingers needed for correct scissor grip.

The skill fingers of the hand need to be used to open and close tools, and are essential when working on scissor skill development. Skill fingers are the thumb, index, and middle fingers and they are responsible for grasping, and manipulation of tools.

We covered the thumb positioning on the scissors above, but the placement of the other fingers can be where holding scissors correctly gets a little sticky.

Pointer Finger Placement- Most often the first finger stays out of the scissors’ loops. It is used to “point the way.” When the pointer finger is positioned around the bottom loop rather than inside the loop, it helps to guide the scissors. This opens up the arches of the hand, especially for your learners with small hands. This may feel awkward at first, but will soon become a habit.

Middle, Ring, and Pinky Finger Placement- Placement of the remaining fingers depends on the type of scissors used. Some scissors have a small circle loop that require only the middle finger to go through the loop while the ring and pinky finger are tucked into the palm. Other scissors have a larger bottom loop that allow the middle, ring, and pinky fingers to all fit in the loop.

The main job of the ring and pinky fingers are to stabilize the scissors. They curl into the hand to help stabilize, supporting the arch of the hand, much like in a pencil grasp. This is where motoric separation of the sides of the hand is important, much like in holding a pencil or crayon. To encourage your learner to keep the stability fingers curled into the palm, give the child a small pom-pom ball to hold in their palm with the ring and pinky fingers while the skill fingers work.

When teaching young children to hold scissors, it is best to use a pair of scissors and stick to that scissor type to reduce confusion between holding patterns.

Wrist Position when Holding Scissors- A stable wrist is needed to ensure a functional grasp on the scissors. If the wrist is bent, the scissor blades will not be able to open/close effectively and line accuracy will suffer. The wrist should be positioned in a neutral position, and not flexed (bent forward) or extended (bent backward). This blog post on wrist stability covers activities to address this motor skill.

Elbow and Forearm Position- Always check the child’s elbow position when using scissors to cut. Their elbows should be by their sides and not winging outward. You can use a hack trick by having the child hold a piece of paper under their cutting arm while cutting. Tell the child to be careful and not let the paper fall!

Activities for holding scissors: addressing open-close

Next, we’ll look at the scissor skill for the open and close hand movements necessary for correct scissor grip. There are various tools that can be used to promote open and close hand and finger movements while maintaining a grasp and positioning of the scissors.

Tongs or clothespins – Learners can use a variety of tongs to help learn open-close actions. These can be simple kitchen tongs, toaster tongs, (Amazon affiliate link) strawberry huller, clothespins, or something as fun as scissor tongs or bubble tongs.

Show learners how to open and then close tongs to pick up and place small objects such as cotton balls, marshmallows, or pom-poms. Play a game to race and fill a small container. Learners can use clothespins to hang up socks or washcloths on a clothesline. These activities will help them understand and learn the concept of open and close before transitioning to actual scissors.

Pickle Picker– A (Amazon affiliate link) pickle picker is a therapist favorite when it comes to building strength and stability in the thumb and arches of the hand. To use a pickle picker as a therapy tool, one needs to maintain a stable wrist, isolate the thumb to slowly press down on the plunger of the tool. To lower the claws of the pickle picker, you need to add force through the thumb with a stable hand in order to grab a small object. Then, to grasp the item, you need to slowly release force through the thumb allowing for graded release. We use pickle pickers to grab and sort craft pom poms, mini erasers, and other small objects (not just pickles!) Pickle pickers are a great eye-hand coordination and strengthening tool to use with our craft pom pom activity sets.

Hole punch – Children can use a hand-held hole punch to punch holes in paper. You can use a regular hole punch or you can use festive hole punchers that have different shapes like hearts, stars, and raindrops. Use the hole shapes to paste on paper and create fun bugs, snow scenes, or fireworks. This activity will help build hand strength and work on the open-close hand action.

Water squirters/Spray Bottles– Practice grasping and releasing the trigger on water squirters using the skill fingers to pull the trigger. Show them how to make the water come out to spray on objects such as dirty toys, chalkboards, pavement, and sidewalks. This helps to strengthen the fingers and hand and teach grading their movement patterns. Be mindful how parents feel about squirters that resemble weapons. Choose animal shaped squirters or spray bottles instead.

Mini staplers – Use mini-staplers to work on similar movements needed with scissor use – grasp, squeeze, and release. Color the staples with a permanent marker or buy the staples in different colors to make the activity more fun! This works on hand and finger strength as well as open and close.

Eyedroppers – Play with eyedroppers to squeeze water drops onto coins, or colored water onto coffee filters or paper towels. This works on finger strength, grading their movement through proprioception, and finger movements.

Wind-up toys – Try wind-up toys to work on bilateral hand use with one hand holding the toy while the other hand twists the crank. Bilateral hand use is needed for cutting with scissors.

Finger game songs – Play finger game songs to work on separation of the two sides of then hand. Try The Itsy-Bitsy Spider, Two Little Blackbirds, Where is Thumbkin, and Open Shut Them. Want other finger rhyme ideas? Grab the free Favorite Finger Play Rhymes and Songs at Your Kids OT website. These work on finger and hand movements needed for holding scissors.

holding scissors with open-close for snipping

Next, let’s look at holding scissors and working on open-close motion with snipping movements. This is a good how to hold scissors preschool activity to use when teaching young children to cut and maintain a functional hold on the scissors. At the preschool and Pre-K age, snipping with scissors is age appropriate.

You can first approach snipping by performing some fun warm-ups using the correct hand position and motion without scissors in hand. Then move to doing these same movements while holding the scissors, without cutting anything yet. Focus on having them learn to hold scissors correctly.

When first introducing the scissors to your learners, start with correct finger placement and orientation of the scissors. A mature way to hold scissors looks like this:

The thumb goes inside the top loop of the scissors.
The middle finger goes into the bottom loop of the scissors.
The index finger goes on the outside of the bottom loop to stabilize and provide directional control of the scissors. (As a visual cue, you can place a sticker or dot on the exterior of the bottom loop for where the index finger holds the loop.)
The ring and pinky fingers go curled into the palm.
The wrist is slightly rotated inward as the thumb is up.
The assisting hand holds and manipulates the paper.

If the learner is a beginner cutter, the index and middle finger can go into the bottom loop at the same time, until their grasp becomes more mature and the index finger can shift to the exterior of the bottom loop.

Keep in mind leaving the first finger out of the loop will open up the hand arches for easier cutting. A tip for the placement of the middle finger in the bottom hole: rest the scissor handles on the middle knuckle of the middle finger (the one closest to the fingertip).

Prevent the child from shoving their fingers into the loops all the way down to bottom knuckle as this makes it very difficult for the child to open and close the scissors skillfully.

Poem to Teach Scissor Grasp

Here’s a fun poem to help a child remember where their fingers go in the scissor loops:

Thumb on top,

two below,

two get curled,

and away you go!

Don’t forget that a visual cue with use of a sticker or smiley face drawn on the thumbnail, along with a pom-pom ball curled into the palm with the ring and pinky fingers, can be used to assist with correct scissor grasp.

Here are some fun activities for holding scissors:

Pretend their fingers or scissors are: a train using “choo-choo” as open and close verbal cues.
How about a car using “beep, beep” as open and close verbal cues (you can draw headlights on the tips of the scissor blades and play an open-close game).
Or a crocodile and use “chomp, chomp” as open and close verbal cues (you can draw teeth and an eye on a pair of scissors and play an open-close game)
Exercise those scissor holding fingers by doing open and close movements like the ASL (American Sign Language) hand sign for scissors

Snipping activities for learning to cut with scissors

This involves the use of scissors and singular snipping of objects to work on initial development. Snipping movements begin as random snips with simple open and close of the blades, and as skill improves advancing to snipping with more control.

Snipping Activities:

Pretend the scissors are a crocodile, train, or car and work on random snipping
Snip play dough that is rolled into a log or snake form, Playdoh barbershop is a great tool for snipping!
Cut straws, yarn, tape, packing peanuts, small strips of paper into pieces, small bands of paper can be snipped to rescue an item in a box
Go outside and trim the grass by snipping it with the scissors
Paper or yarn can be cut, that is part of a fun craft such as haircut, pizza, snowman, critter rescue
Try thicker paper (cardstock, construction) or thinner copy paper around the edge to create fringe while working on the helper hand holding and manipulating the paper. This resource covers the progression of paper grades to support cutting skills.
Snip on lines drawn around the edge of a paper plate or on small strips of paper to begin snipping with more control and precision of the scissors
Place stickers along the edge of paper or index cards and have the child chomp through the stickers with snipping action

If you are look for even more cutting ideas, activities, and strategies, explore these other blog posts here at The OT Toolbox: Scissor Skills, Creative & Fun Ways to Help Kids Cut with Scissors, and The Ultimate Guide to Scissors Skills.

how to hold scissors with repetitive open-close for cutting

The final skill is the repetitive open and close hand and finger movements, moving forward with the scissors to cut with control and precision on cutting lines.

This begins with straight lines, advancing to curved lines, circle shapes, to angled lines and shapes with corners. All of these require good bilateral hand use with the assisting hand to advance and turn the paper.

Thicker lines are the easiest for early scissor learners to manage, while thinner lines are for more advanced learners, who have developed more control and precision with scissor use.

The OT Toolbox has you covered with a Printable Pack for Practicing Scissor Skills!

Consider the paper and materials used while teaching scissor skills as thicker paper such as cardstock and construction paper may have more stability, while copy and tissue paper is flimsier making it harder for a younger kiddo to manage.

Below is a progressive list of lines and shapes to work on cutting. They are ordered easiest to most difficult, as the child gains more skill.

Short straight lines
Long straight lines

Short curved lines
Long curved lines
Short angled lines
Long angled lines
Simple shapes
Complex shapes

Modifications to help correct scissor grip

Modifications and adaptations sometimes cannot be avoided, often becoming necessary to achieve a consistent and functional grasp.

There are many modifications that can be made to help learners be successful with finger placement, keeping bad habits from forming. Try these before jumping into adaptive scissors:

Draw a smiley face on the thumbnail or the thumb to provide a visual cue for thumbs-up.
Glue googly eyes, draw a face, place a sticker, or wrap a piece of tape on the exterior of the thumb hole to cue the child to orient the scissors properly and for correct thumb placement.
Use permanent marker to draw a line on the exterior of the scissor blade that needs to be on top, which is the thumb hole side. They should see this line while cutting.
If the bottom loop is too large and encourages the child to place many fingers in the loop, you can tape up part of the loop providing a blocker for the other fingers.
Wrap a rubber band around the base of the blades to prevent the child from ‘chomping’ the paper and instead promote a snipping movement as the band prevents full opening of the scissor blades.
With the same idea as above, you can wrap just the bottom handle with a rubber band and this prevents complete closure of the blades to also work on snipping.
Create a sock glove that has holes in it for the thumb, index and middle fingers while the ring and pinky fingers must stay curled inside the sock.

One last thing, PLEASE use left-handed scissors with left-handed kiddos. Do not force these children to cut with right-handed scissors. It is easy to purchase left-handed scissors for kids. Yes, it matters! So, get some for your clinic or your classroom and please use them!!

*Editors note: Left handed children can and will learn to adapt to right handed scissors. Unfortunately it is a right handed world, and lefty scissors are not always available. Unless they are going to carry lefty scissors around with them forever, it is easier to learn with something more mainstream.

*The term, “learner” is used throughout this post for readability, however this information is relevant for students, patients, clients, 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.

scissor skills book — The Scissor Skills Book

Looking for tips and tools from pediatric occupational therapists and physical therapists to help with all things scissor skills? The Scissor Skills Book is a comprehensive resource that covers all aspects of development related to cutting with scissors.

If you’re a parent who is reluctant to let your child cut with scissors…

If you’re a teacher who is tired of watching students snip their crafts and worksheets into tiny pieces…

If you’re a therapist looking for creative ways to promote scissor skills in your treatment sessions…

This book is for you!

Written by a team of 10 pediatric physical and occupational therapists with years of experience in the field, The Scissor Skills Book is the ultimate resource for tips, strategies, suggestions, and information to support scissor use by kids.

Click here for your copy of The Scissor Skills Book!

How to Support Sensory Issues with Hair Brushing

October 17, 2023March 25, 2022 by Victoria Wood OTR/L

For many children, hair brushing is a challenging ADL task due to difficulties with sensory regulation. Using tools such as a sensory brush or a sensory diet can help support sensory issues that impact hair brushing. Individuals with sensory challenges related to their scalp can be further exacerbated by knots, pulling of hair, shampooing, or daily stress when it comes to this hygiene task. Fortunately there are some tips to help sensory needs and hair brushing.

NOTE: The information and strategies in this blog post on sensory hair brushing will not be appropriate for all types of hair and all sensory issues.

Sensory Hair Brushing

Individuals with sensory processing sensitivities may feel that getting their brushed hurts, or may find it overstimulating.

Other children may have challenges with hair brushing as it signals the morning routine is almost complete. They associate hair brushing with having to go to school or daycare, which increases their anxiety. Whatever the reason your child dislikes having their hair brushed, it can be very disruptive to your child’s routine, and anyone else in the home as well.

Sensory Hair Brushing Tips

Check out the tips below to help alleviate stress with hair brushing.

Tip #1: Brush hair while in the tub or sink

When you brush your child’s hair in the tub or sink:

You can build on the relaxed mood to complete a stressful task
Warm water temperature offers calming sensory input.
Having probably just washed your child’s hair, the conditioner/oil (depending on hair type) will help to allow a comb to slip through your child’s hair with ease.
You will also be able to work out any larger knots they may have with your fingers much easier as the water runs in the direction of hair growth.
Your child will more than likely be distracted with toys that are in the tub/activity occurring around the sink area, keeping the focus off having their hair brushed.
Make sure to braid or put it into a top knot if your child’s hair is long, to prevent tangles in the morning.
Bonus Tip! Don’t have time to wash your child’s hair every night, or don’t take a bath daily? Use a spray bottle to moisten your child’s hair, then brush it out. You can use a detangle to bring an extra element of fun to it too!

When it comes to brushing, the most important thing is to set up a routine, using the hair brushing techniques that work for the child’s hair type. Stick to that routine. Consider using a visual schedule, written schedule, or checklist.

Tip # 2: Turn hair brushing into a Game

Using humor and distraction in the form of a game is another great way to help your child feel less stress and sensory issues during hair brushing. You can have them “earn” points for each stroke or set of strokes, have a countdown, or sing a silly song.

Tip # 3: Use Role Play in Hair Brushing

Children learn best through play! Practice with a doll or let them brush your hair. As you do this, talk about how they are feeling and acting when they are brushing your hair. Are they being gentle? What can they do if they hit a knot?

It will also be helpful if you talk to them about how you’re feeling or how the doll might be feeling while having their hair brushed. Do you feel calm? Is getting your hair brushed hurting you?

Make sure that you emphasize the positives as well! You can use real terms such as sensory issues with hair brushing, and explain what is happening.

Share with your child how good it feels to have your hair brushed, that it makes you feel clean, and that it makes you look ready for the day.

Tip # 4: Let Your Child Do it Themselves

When you give your child control of an activity, you take away fear of the unknown, or in this case, give back control over what you are asking to be done.

This works well for children who say that you’re pulling too hard, their scalp is super sensitive, or they dread having to work out knots. By letting them brush their own hair, they are in charge of the pressure, pace and how they work through knots in their hair.

Your children may also be more willing to participate if they know that they are in control of the situation. Be on standby in case they need help!

If the whole hair brushing process can’t be done by the child, let them participate in some aspect. That might be applying conditioner/oil. It might be that they hand the brush or comb to the person brushing. The main concept here is taking ownership in the task through active participation.

Tip # 5: Use a Wide Tooth Comb

A wide tooth comb will slide through hair much easier, and with less resistance than a traditional brush.

Another perk to a wide tooth comb is that it doesn’t have bristles, which many kids find irritating to their scalp, and often gets caught easily in long hair.

Amazon (affiliate links) has several different types of brushes and combs for sensitive scalps. They also have detangling brushes. Just type “sensitive scalp brush” into the search box.

Or try a comb with wider teeth (affiliate link), depending on the hair type.

Tip # 6: Hold Hair Close to the Scalp

Whether your child has long or short hair, holding hair close to the scalp or placing your other hand on their head can help to limit the amount of tugging they feel during hair brushing.

Limiting the tugging sensation by keeping their head stabilized will also prevent activation of the inner ear, which can be alerting or cause dizziness. If they are particularly sensitive to the tugging sensation, or have poor head/neck control, they may be compensating by letting their head drop back with the slightest of tugs.

This is particularly important for children with long hair, as brushing down the back can elicit the startle reflex.

Tip # 7: Use a Timer

Using a timer is a fail safe tip for working on tolerance of any activity. Set the a timer to see how long your child can tolerate having their hair brushed as a baseline, then add 5 seconds once a week until you are able to thoroughly brush their hair.

A countdown timer (affiliate link) is very effective. You can use the timer on your phone or you can look for a visual timer app to add an extra layer of fun. Many visual apps have surprises at the end or turn colors as the app is counting down.

If you do not want the added input of electronics during this calming time of day, a separate timer (affiliate link) is best.

Tip # 8: Use a Social Story

A social story is a book created about any activity that your child has challenges with. The story talks about what’s going to happen, how it will feel, and the appropriate social responses that your child should have with the activity. Read the story to them right before completing hair brushing to maximize its effect!

Don’t have a social story? Ask your therapist to help you create one. You can also find free social story generators online, or use a premade one.

Bonus Tip! If a social story is too long or advanced for your child, try using a visual schedule! This is a simplified version of the social story and can be adjusted based on your child’s abilities.

Implementing Tips for sensory issues and hair brushing

These tips can help to break any negative behaviors or emotions that may surround your child’s sensory issues with hair brushing, and give you a foundation to start a fresh routine.

Start by trying one recommendation that you think will work for your child, give it a week, and if it’s still not working, try another.

Working through hair brushing challenges takes time, and is a trial-and-error process. Hopefully you will find these tips helpful!

Looking for more resources?

The OT Toolbox has a great resource called The Sensory Resource Handbook for tackling sensory issues related to hair brushing and creating a sensory diet for the many difficulties you are your child may be facing.

One of our new bloggers has a great resource on Amazon called Seeing Your Home and Community with Sensory Eyes (affiliate link). This is a new manual for parents, therapists, and caregivers to understand, accommodate, and treat tricky sensory situations and community settings with real life strategies, tips, and understanding.

Contributor: Kaylee is a pediatric occupational therapist with a bachelors in Health Science from Syracuse University at Utica College, and a Masters in Occupational Therapy from Utica College. Kaylee has been working with children with special needs for 8 years, and practicing occupational therapy for 4 years, primarily in a private clinic, but has home health experience as well. Kaylee has a passion for working with the areas of feeding, visual development, and motor integration.

ADHD Tools for Parents of Children with Attention Difficulties

March 21, 2022 by Victoria Wood OTR/L

Here you will find a number of ADHD tools and supports for individuals with ADHD, including ADHD resources for parents. The statistics of the number of people with Attention Deficit Disorders (ADD) is staggering. These numbers are compounded by the fact that attention deficit is difficult to diagnose. The market is flooded with ADHD resources, and strategies to support attention needs, but what are the right ones? Doctors and other professionals could be over or under diagnosing due to this difficulty in gathering accurate data.

Yes there are ADHD checklists, surveys, and questionnaires, but they are not scientific or 100% accurate. They are often based on opinion and observation versus data. This is a stark contrast to diagnosing down syndrome or hearing loss, that is tracked by concrete data or genetic testing.

ADHD TOOLS

When it comes to specifically ADHD tools, my advice is to take these diagnoses with a grain of salt. Look more for symptoms, behaviors, skills, and difficulties rather than relying on a label. It does not matter as much that this is called ADD, ADHD, or ABCD, but what are the struggles the learner is having?

To best support any diagnosis (attention diagnoses being one), focus on the struggles, creating measurable and relevant goals, instead of focusing on the label.

To best support a child with attention challenges, find ADHD resources you can trust to provide useful information and strategies.

Having any label, diagnosis, or list of symptoms can feel overwhelming. The number of attention related resources available on the internet are astounding. But which are accurate? Who can you believe? There are no easy answers unfortunately.

Which way to turn for ADHD TOOLS?

When there is an overwhelming amount of data presented at one time, the best jumping off point is to rely on the feedback of others. Sometimes it is a trusted doctor or friend, but more often than not, it can be a large crowd of strangers.

When looking for the perfect resource to share with parents, I usually turn to Amazon and start reading the reviews. I read a ton of reviews before making my selections. This is time consuming, however I do not have time to read something that is not a good resource, has incorrect information, or written in a terrible format.

Attention Resources from Amazon

There are some solid attention resources from Amazon available, including ADHD audiobooks, and other formats that have good reviews. I have not personally read them, but have taken the time to research them and read the long reviews.

Amazon affiliate links are included below.

Amazon has some great ADHD audiobook resources for parents and professionals available on Audible and other formats. Audiobooks are a great alternative to paper books, as they can be listened to almost anywhere.

There are tons of resources on attention and ADHD in audiobooks. I tried to find ones that had good reviews, were accurate and easy to read/listen to, and provided useful strategies.

If you are an Amazon Prime member, You’re eligible to claim 2 free titles from our entire selection (one title per month thereafter) with a free Audible 30 day trial. A standard trial includes 1 credit for an audiobook download. After the Audible trial period, all members receive 1 credit per month.

Click here start your free Audible Trial Period.

Delivered From Distraction: Getting the most of out Life with Attention Deficit Disorder. This book is written for teens or adults with ADD. This may be helpful for parents as well, as attention deficits tend to run in families. It can be read cover to cover or in sections. The author says, feel free to skip around.

You Mean I’m Not Lazy, Stupid or Crazy?: A Self-help Audio Program for Adults with Attention Deficit Disorder As with most books I have found, there are going to be people who do not like the book. This is to be expected. However, more people say they liked it than the few who did not. I like that this is available in audio, as some people are more auditory learners than visual. Finding an hour in the car to listen seems much easier than trying to carve out that same hour reading on the couch.

Taking Charge of ADHD, Third Edition: The Complete, Authoritative Guide for Parents This book is available in several formats. Audible is one that may be easier for parents to listen to, as their couch time is limited. This book takes a real look at ADHD. Most people found this book helpful. The few that did not, found this book too straight forward or maybe “depressing.”

The ADHD Advantage: What You Thought Was a Diagnosis May Be Your Greatest Strength. This book came as a recommendation from a reviewer who needed a positive spin on ADHD after reading all of the devastating facts and figures about ADHD.

Organizing Solutions for People with ADHD, 2nd Edition – Revised and Updated: Tips and Tools to Help You Take Charge of Your Life and Get Organized This book points people in the direction of real life solutions. It is fine to spend time researching the “what” and “why” of a diagnosis, but without real solutions, the research just leaves people frustrated. It can be used for adults and adapted for children.

The OT Toolbox has a great post on Organization and Attention Challenges.

Smart but Scattered Teens: The “Executive Skills” Program for Helping Teens Reach Their Potential Positive reviews praise this book for its information about working with teens with attention issues or decreased executive function. It gives doable strategies that work for teens. The strategies are motivating for modern teens. Critical reviews cite that this book is more about the “what and why” rather than the “what to do about it” side of this diagnosis. Much of the advice centers around driving, and using technology to help teens. On a positive note, this is what motivates teens to perform. On the flip side, not everyone has a driving teen or wants to encourage use of electronics.

Books for younger learners:

Marvin’s Monster Diary: ADHD Attacks! (And I Rock, Big Time): St4 Mindfulness Book for Kids Written in the Wimpy Kid book series, this is a cute motivating book series for children who struggle with attention issues to relate to. It is available in several formats including Audible. This might be a good book to buy in print and listen to Audible at the same time.

Marvin’s Monster Diary 2 + Lyssa!: ADHD Emotion Explosion (But I Triumph, Big Time!) This second book in the Monster Diary series proves to be a winner as well. It has several positive reviews about it’s entertainment value, readability, and writing style. Again because it is a graphic novel type of read, it would be excellent paired with the written version as well as Audible.

A Dragon With ADHD: A Children’s Story About ADHD. A Cute Book to Help Kids Get Organized, Focus, and Succeed. (My Dragon Books 41) This is another great series to keep children interested while learning about ADHD. This series covers a multitude of topics. The nice thing about series is if you buy into one, it sets the reader on a whole journey of discovery. This is written for children, however reviewers say that adults, therapists, and parents will enjoy this book as well.

Focused Ninja: A Children’s Book About Increasing Focus and Concentration at Home and School (Ninja Life Hacks) This book is part of a Ninja series teaching children valuable lessons in an entertaining method. If you were a fan of the Mr. Men book series, you will like this one. Each ninja is named after the skill he lacks or is trying to gain.

The OT Toolbox ADHD and attention resources

The OT Toolbox has become a trusted resource for many of you reading these posts and subscribing to the website. The OT Toolbox does not disappoint and has wonderful articles, activities, and resources to fill your “toolbox”, not only on topics such as ADHD and attention, but fine motor, sensory, gross motor, executive function and so much more.

Type ADD, Attention resources for parents, or ADHD activities into the search bar for a great list of archived posts. Just when you are overwhelmed with information and resources, try wrapping your head around the sensory connection between attention and organization challenges.

It is no wonder there is such misdiagnosis, confusion, and misinformation out there. Autism, ADD, ADHD, Sensory Processing Disorder, Anxiety, and about a dozen other diagnoses have overlapping and similar symptoms. Keep your focus on how to help and move forward rather than where did this come from, or what is this called?

Happy reading, take a deep breath, one moment at a time!

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.

Skipping Activities for Kids

October 17, 2023March 18, 2022 by Victoria Wood OTR/L

Young children often ask to learn to skip. Here, you’ll discover skipping activities for kids, as well as specific strategies to teach children how to skip. Skipping is an important gross motor target. For some children, learning to skip is a real challenge!

These skipping activities are fun ways to teach kids to skip.

Learn to Skip with Skipping Activities

If you have ever spent time in an elementary school, you may have noticed that the youngest members of the school community, specifically kindergarteners, hardly ever walk from place to place… they skip (and hop, jump, twirl, and gallop, too)!

Skipping is a developmental milestone or marker that generally emerges around age 5, with a range of age 4-6 years. For many kids, skipping emerges without intervention, just the way reaching, crawling, or walking develops.

For kids who struggle with gross motor skills and bilateral coordination, direct teaching may be necessary to develop this critical skill. Once the basics are learned, skipping activities are a great way to practice.

learning to skip requires motor planning and sensory integration

Skipping is such a perfect example of motor planning and sensory integration. It requires ideation (having the idea about how to move), planning (sequencing the movement), and execution (carrying out the movement).

For a person to execute the motor plan of skipping, the coordinated effort of sensory systems and the brain is required.

Skipping also provides excellent sensory input. No wonder kindergarteners like to skip from place to place… the vestibular and proprioceptive input they receive is a natural reward for all their hard work in mastering the skill!

what about bilateral coordination?

The ability to coordinate the two sides of the body involved in learning how to skip requires balance, strength, motor planning, and bilateral coordination. Bilateral coordination refers to the ability of the brain and body to process and integrate information from both sides of the brain to respond with movements in a coordinated manner.

Many functional tasks and daily activities, such as feeding, dressing, and writing rely on bilateral coordination.

Being able to coordinate both sides of the body is also a foundation skill for gross motor coordination activities such as walking, running, galloping and skipping.

How to Teach Skipping

When you have a goal for a child to learn to skip, it is important to make sure that you address all of the components of skipping. Teaching kids to skip starts with seeing what skills the individual is able to do. There are skills that are required to skip. Can the child balance on one foot and hop? Does the child have a dominant leg? Can they gallop or perform a different version of skipping? These are all good questions to ask when teaching skipping skills.

First, evaluate and observe the following gross motor skills needed for skipping:

Balance – check to make sure they can balance on either foot
Hopping – are they able to hop in place on each foot? Are they able to hop forward on one foot? Have them try to take 5 hops forward on either foot
Leg dominance – it may be helpful to know if they have a preferred leg for activities like hopping or kicking
Galloping – are they able to gallop? Can they gallop on either side? This is more of a unilateral skill, which is often easier for kids who demonstrate difficulty with bilateral coordination skills.

If any of the above skills are weak, start with developing balance and hopping. Then progress to galloping, followed by skipping.

Then, use these strategies to teach skipping:

To teach skipping, start by breaking down the steps for the child. Provide a demonstration and simple verbal cues like “Step, hop, switch”. You may need to provide a visual cue as well, using colored dots or markers on the floor, such as these (Amazon affiliate link) Little Polly Markers.

2. Once the child is able to complete the “step, hop, switch” sequence. This can be a very slow process at first. Some kids will need to think through the motor plan of each step. That’s ok! Use visual and verbal cues to work on the step with one foot, the hop, and the switch to the other foot.

3. Work to improve their fluency and speed of the step, hop switch sequence. Use these steps in an obstacle course or a relay activity to work on speed and gross motor coordination to improve fluent motor skills.

3. As they master the skill of skipping, you can encourage them to incorporate their upper body into the movement as well. Show them how to swing their arms in coordination with the legs. This will become more fluent and integrated with practice.

Working on the coordination and motor planning to master learning to skip involves more than just a hop and a skip. Skipping is a complex task, but once you break it down and address underlying skill areas, it becomes easier.

Skipping Activities

Here are some gross motor coordination games and skipping activities that address bilateral coordination and motor skills:

Obstacle courses – set up a simple hopping and jumping obstacle course inside or outside. Use pool noodles to jump over with two feet, hop in and out of hula hoops, jump over cardboard bricks, etc. Here is a post about Outdoor Lawn Games with lots of ideas for using backyard toys and equipment to address gross motor coordination skills.
This Ultra Dash Game (affiliate link) is fun for kids of all ages! You can set up an obstacle course in various ways and then the kids have to race to match the colors from the wand to the colored base. You could incorporate skipping, jumping, and hopping into this game to work on those skills in a new way.
Use gross motor toys to work on balance, coordination, motor planning, and core strength.
Use a long jump rope to hop over on one foot.
Stand like a flamingo. Try freeze dance games with a flamingo theme. When the music stops, players have to hold one leg up like a flamingo!
Simon says- Incorporate the hop and jump tasks needed in the task of skipping. Use these Simon Says commands in therapy sessions.
Yoga is a great activity to build body awareness, gross motor skills, and bilateral coordination. Here are several different kids yoga resources:
- Unicorn Yoga Slide Deck freebie from The OT Toolbox
- Yoga Pretzels: 50 Fun Activities for Kids and Grownups Cards (affiliate link)
Skip ball (affiliate link)- this toy is a fun tool to practice skipping skills
Chinese Jump Rope (affiliate link) – who remembers this classic toy? Relive your childhood while passing on this great game
Mini Trampoline (affiliate link)- these are great to work on jumping, hopping, coordination, following directions, all great skills to teach skipping
Musical Hippity Hop Stick – this rotating stick encourages children to jump over the stick as it rotates by. If the stick touches them, the game is over. Practice this with two feet first, then try hopping over the stick
Hopscotch! Don’t forget about this one! All you need is some chalk and a sunny day to get outside and practice hopping and jumping. This would be a great activity to set up on the playground for kids to work on skipping skills during recess. Not ready for outside play? Use painter’s tape down the hallway.

spring has almost sprung!

With Spring right around the corner, here are some Spring Gross Motor Activities to use with your students in the upcoming weeks to address gross motor coordination skills.

It’s time to get some “Spring” back in our steps! Bring your kids outside and have some fun working on hopping, jumping, and of course…skipping!

Katherine Cook is an occupational therapist with 20 years experience primarily working in schools with students from preschool through Grade 12. Katherine graduated from Boston University in 2001 and completed her Master’s degree and Certificate of Advanced Graduate Study at Tufts University in 2010. Katherine’s school based experience includes working in integrated preschool programs, supporting students in the inclusion setting, as well as program development and providing consultation to students in substantially separate programs. Katherine has a passion for fostering the play skills of children and supporting their occupations in school.

What you Need to Know about Interoception

February 5, 2024March 14, 2022 by Victoria Wood OTR/L

Interoception is a sensory term you may not have heard of before…but you have certainly felt or been impacted by the processing of our interoceptive sense! Internal feelings of hunger, fatigue, thirst, body temperature, digestion, and other internal systems offer a certain “feeling”, right? This is your interoception sensory system at work! Here, we’re covering everything you need to know about this complex sense, and taking a detailed look at how interoception impacts function.

Interoception sensory input impact regulation, modulation, and function.

Interoception The 8th sense

Did you know that the five senses we were taught in school is not actually a complete list of a human’s senses? In fact, there are 7 or 8 senses that humans experience, depending on who you ask.

Understanding our many senses helps us comprehend how we and others experience the world around us. For the sense we are highlighting today, it is how we understand what is going on inside of us. Check out this post on the OT Toolbox regarding Multisensory Learning: Emotion Activities.

Definition of the interoception sense

Interoception is the sense of oneself; it is the ability to understand the body’s physical signals that tell you when you are hungry or full, thirsty or quenched, hot or cold, scared or calm, etc.

Interoception refers to the body’s ability to identify and process internal actions of the organs and systems inside the body. This lesser-known sensory system helps you understand and feel what’s going on inside your body. You can then make essential decisions about eating when you are hungry, drinking when you are thirsty, going into the restroom when you need to toilet, and other physical actions.

There are nerves throughout the body that send these signals to the brain to help regulate the body, and promote homeostasis.

Some of these signals require a conscious act, like drinking water when we are thirsty, while others are non-conscious, like sweating when we are hot.

Interoception comes into play when we consciously realize, “Oh, I am sweating because I feel hot, I should take off my jacket to cool down.”

Information on interoception, this blog post covers the definition of interoception, and interoception sensory strategies.

How Does Interoception Impact Function?

Interoception can be thought of as a mind-body connection. Having a strong interoceptive sense would mean that you have a strong sense of the physical self, and what you need to promote comfort at any given time.

Being able to confidently act on your body’s needs, makes everything a bit easier. You are likely able to make it to the bathroom before an accident, eat food before you feel light-headed, and stop eating before you feel sick.

But what about individuals who are not able to accurately process the bodies internal signals? They may find it more challenging to be potty trained, have a healthy diet, or emotionally regulate.

The ability to understand and respond to our body’s needs is a huge factor in our independence. If we don’t quite know what our bodies need, it makes everyday activities much more challenging, and focus on school or work tasks may dwindle.

Interoception even has to do with how our body moves, the action of bones in the skeleton, bone growth (growing pains have a lot of “pain” that is felt internally for kiddos who are rapidly growing! Be sure to check out this related blog on bone names to help tach kids about this concept.

Functionally, interoception impacts so many areas of everyday tasks:

Eating
Drinking
Sleep
Toileting
Getting dressed (putting on temperature-appropriate clothing, or taking off clothing before becoming overheated)
So many more considerations!

Interoception and Emotion

Interoception has a strong connection to emotional processing because of the physical way that we experience emotions. Our muscles clench when we are angry, quiver when we are scared, and relax when we are calm.

Likewise, the stomach may feel upset when we are nervous, and one might get a headache from frustration. People with good interoception can relate these physical feelings to emotions.

If a person sensory processing differences, the signals from the body may not be accurately represented or relayed to the brain. They may be muddied or confusing, leading to a misunderstanding of what the body is trying to tell the brain. Because of this, a tickle may feel like pain, or a person may not know why they are experiencing discomfort.

Without interoception, labelling emotions is then a bit more challenging, as well as understanding how to remedy undesired feelings.

Children may act out in aggression, cry or scream uncontrollably, or show other signs of sensory dysregulation, potentially due to a lack of interoception.

If you know a child who has multiple characteristics of reduced interoception, like potty accidents, over/under eating, and emotional dysregulation, they may benefit from therapeutic intervention to improve their body awareness.

The interoception system plays a part in feelings and emotions, too.

When we feel anxious or worried, we might feel a tenseness about us. Our heart rate might speed up, and we feel that anxiety coursing through our systems.

But for the child with difficulty expressing these feelings, they can’t tell us what they are feeling on the inside. They don’t have the words to identify specific interoceptive feelings they are having.

Others might not recognize a racing heart. They might not realize that physical implication of anxiety or worry because they can’t actually feel their racing heart (when it is very much racing).

When one feels anxious about a situation or an idea, we can help them to focus on their heart beat. We can help them take deep breaths to calm down. This focus on how their body is responding can help their internal state match the environment.

Other ways to help with interoceptive identification include habit and routines to help us feel organized. When we know what to expect, we feel a lot more organized. The body is able to modulate better.

As we increase the challenge, we have to also increase our supports. We can use some external organizational strategies (deep breaths, awareness, mindfulness, heavy work, routines) to help compensate for the lack of internal ability to organize ourselves.

When we are disorganized, this is where we can fall apart. We have to be mindful ahead of time, and be accommodating and accepting of immature nervous systems, whether this is with our children, our spouse, or ourselves.

Tips for Improving Interoception

There are all sorts of activities you can do with children to help increase their interoception skills. Below you will find tips for improving interoception, including mindfulness, and children’s books on topics like emotions, potty training, and problem solving.

Modelling how you understand your bodies signals may also help – be sure to emphasize how you are feeling, and what you will do about it!

Mindfulness – the act of intentionally connecting to oneself and/or the world around them. This can help an individual get “out of their head” and feel more grounded in the present moment. By doing so, it may improve self-awareness and a positive mood. Mindfulness is not just great for improving interoception – see this article for more information
- This video guides a progressive muscle relaxation. Intentionally contracting and releasing muscles brings more awareness to the physical body, and deepens the connection that we feel to it.
- Here we have another video that guides mindfulness, in the form of a “body scan”. It also adds a great piece of education for children on what it means to understand their bodies signals, and why it is important.
- The OT Toolbox has this great list of more active ways to explore mindfulness through gross motor play.
Focus on awareness- So often, parents, children, clients, educators, and even professionals are not aware of ALL of the ways that the interoceptive sense impacts everyday functioning, learning, and daily participation in everything one does throughout the day. Educate, educate, educate! Then, bring that awareness to a full circle with activities that take the concept of interoception in daily tasks home. For example, you can cover how sleep is impacted by interoception and incorporate a few of our hibernation activities. Without interoception, animals that hibernate would not instinctively know to fill up on foods before winter and to keep eating even when they may feel full. Then that sleep that allows them to slumber through the winter is in effect. It’s all related!
Try calm down toys– Use a variety of supports in the form of play to support regulation needs. This can offer heavy work, regulating movement, or calming input.

Books to Improve Interoception

Below are Amazon affiliate links to resources and books on interoception and internal states.

We Listen to Our Bodies is a book that follows a young girl as she feels emotions through her day. The physical representations of emotions are highlighted in ways that are familiar to young children.
For a similar read pick up this book, that follows a boy and his day full of feelings at the zoo!
Time to Pee by Mo Williams is a great book that helps kids understand how to respond when they have that ‘funny feeling’ in their tummies.
I Feel… activity books have been praised by therapists for their ability to make learning mindfulness fun! The activity book linked here focuses on sickness in the body and what it feels like to be sick in different ways.
The OT Toolbox has a great resource called the Sensory Lifestyle Handbook to tie sensory processing together
For more children’s books on mindfulness to elicit peace and calm, check out this resource:

Sensory lifestyle handbook- How to create a sensory diet

While interoception is new and lesser known, it is an important sense to have.

Mindfulness Audiobooks

October 17, 2023March 11, 2022 by Victoria Wood OTR/L

In this mindfulness resource, you’ll find recommendations for mindfulness audiobooks easily accessible for use right now. The term “mindful” literally means to be aware. For example; be mindful of the speed bump in the road. Understanding this, we can deduce that mindfulness has something to do with awareness. The number of resources available such as mindfulness audiobooks, workbooks, YouTube Videos, and reference books available online is mind numbing.

Mindfulness audiobooks for children and adults

what is Mindfulness?

According to a post on mindful.com, “Mindfulness is the basic human ability to be fully present, aware of where we are and what we’re doing, and not overly reactive or overwhelmed by what’s going on around us.

While mindfulness is something we all naturally possess, it’s more readily available to us when we practice on a daily basis. Whenever you bring awareness to what you’re directly experiencing via your senses, or to your state of mind via your thoughts and emotions, you’re being mindful.

And there’s growing research showing that when you train your brain to be mindful, you’re actually remodeling the physical structure of your brain.

This can be done through progressive relaxation exercises, dialectical behavioral therapy, meditation, calming strategies and more.

This workbook (affiliate link) is fantastic for teens and adults to practice and learn mindfulness through dialectical behavioral therapy.

Mindfulness teaches about being in the present, aware of what is really happening around us.

If you sit still for five minutes, what can you hear around you?
What can you see?
Can you sit quietly and just attend to your senses instead of your grocery list?

This is very difficult for many. Imagine monks can do this for hours at a time. Five minutes feels like an eternity to me. Mindfulness is not just about meditating, it is about separating facts from feelings and emotions.

separating facts from feelings

Separating facts from feelings does not mean feelings are not valid. Sometimes our reactions to a situation are not in line with what happened, or we react with emotion instead of common sense.

When a child screams in the grocery store and lies on the floor, learning to separate facts from emotions is a great tool for parents and the screamer.

First, examine the facts.

Is the screamer bleeding or on fire?
Did a huge dinosaur just bite his leg off, or did you just say no cookies for the 15th time?

Once it has been determined no one is bleeding or on fire, everyone can breathe a sigh of relief. The emotions are valid but perhaps overdone. Teaching the caregiver to take a breath and react based on facts versus emotion, is a great start, hence we are being mindful of what actually happened.

This strategy can then be taught as a strategy to reduce screaming or behavioral responses to emotions.

Teach the screamer to be aware of what is actually happening.
No one has had their leg eaten off.
They are in fact disappointed not to be getting a cookie this trip.

Working on using words and deep breathing can be a valuable tool to thwarting meltdowns, or at least shortening their duration.

great Mindfulness audiobook resources

Amazon affiliate links are included below.

Amazon has some great mindfulness audiobook resources for parents and professionals available on Audible and other formats. Audiobooks (affiliate link) are a great alternative to paper books, as they can be listened to almost anywhere.

There are tons of resources on mindfulness in audiobooks. I tried to find ones that had good reviews, were accurate and easy to read/listen to, and provided useful strategies.

Click here start your free Audible Trial Period.

Amazon affiliate links are included below.

Practicing Mindfulness– Resource for incorporating mindfulness strategies within day to day life, adult resource

Meditations on Mindfulness with Pooh– educate kids on mindfulness strategies with Pooh bear

Self Regulation and Mindfulness for Sensory Processing, ADHD, and Autism Spectrum Disorder– Includes mindfulness exercises and worksheets

Positive Ninja, A Children’s Book about Mindfulness. Part of a ninja series– A children’s mindfulness resource on managing negative emotions and big feelings

Calm Ninja, A Children’s Book about Calming Your Anxiety. Part of ninja series– A children’s resource on calming anxiety and worries

The Mindful Dragon, a Dragon Book about Mindfulness. Part of a series– A children’s resource on mindful strategies with a dragon theme

Breathe Like a Bear– A children’s book on deep breathing and other mindful strategies

Think Like a Monk– Great for adults and informing older students, especially mindfulness in teens

the more principle

The current climate with excessive use of electronics and technology has stunted the ability to calm the mind, be still, focus on a singular item, or just sit and rest. Life is filled with “more”.

It is not enough just to watch tv, or drive, or talk on the phone. Now these tasks are often paired with scrolling the phone, eating a meal, shopping online, or a whole host of other distractions. People will call this multi-tasking, but really it is cluttering the mind, and decreasing the ability to be mindful, or calmly focused.

Can you remember a time when you could sit in a waiting room and calmly wait or people watch? Not anymore. It is difficult to sit and wait without a magazine in one hand and a phone in the other. This is not good for anyone, especially the young developing brain.

The OT Toolbox has some great resources on mindfulness including activities, worksheets, and other tools. Mindfulness for Kids is an excellent post full of ideas and resources. Check out The Benefits of Mindfulness on the Toolbox for links to more great articles.

Love audiobooks? Don’t have time to read a book cover to cover? Check out this post on Audiobooks for Occupational Therapists.

Take a step back, teach caregivers to slow down, then pass this skill to young learners. Refrain from so much “multitasking”, and just be.

By Audience

By Category

The benefits of using play dough mats

How to Use Play Dough Mats

Adapting Play Dough Mats

Free Printable Play Dough Mats

A final note on play dough mats:

Note: Only use play dough with the appropriate aged children. take sensible precautions with small or differently abled children, as play dough and small manipulatives can be a choking hazard. Adult supervision should be provided.

Trauma Informed Care: the hypothical backpack

WHAT IS TRAUMA-INFORMED PRACTICE?

Example of Trauma Informed occupational therapy

GUIDELINES FOR TRAUMA-INFORMED Occupational Therapy

6 Trauma-informed Principles:

Trauma Informed Occupational Therapy Do’s and Don’ts

Trauma Informed Strategies for Occupational Therapy

Pool Noodle Games

pool noodles Activities and Games

Gross Motor pool noodle activities:

Fine Motor activities using pool noodles

Sensory pool noodle activities:

Eye-Hand Coordination using pool noodles:

Pool noodle Tools or equipment Ideas:

How to Hold Scissors

how to hold scissors: Pre-scissor skills Pinch and release

Scissor Grasp

Functional Scissor Grasp

How to Teach a Thumbs Up Scissor Grasp

Finger Placement for Scissor Grasp

Activities for holding scissors: addressing open-close

holding scissors with open-close for snipping

Poem to Teach Scissor Grasp

Here are some fun activities for holding scissors:

Snipping activities for learning to cut with scissors

how to hold scissors with repetitive open-close for cutting

Modifications to help correct scissor grip

Sensory Hair Brushing

Sensory Hair Brushing Tips

Tip #1: Brush hair while in the tub or sink

Tip # 2: Turn hair brushing into a Game

Tip # 3: Use Role Play in Hair Brushing

Tip # 4: Let Your Child Do it Themselves

Tip # 5: Use a Wide Tooth Comb

Tip # 6: Hold Hair Close to the Scalp

Tip # 7: Use a Timer

Tip # 8: Use a Social Story

Implementing Tips for sensory issues and hair brushing

Looking for more resources?

ADHD TOOLS

Which way to turn for ADHD TOOLS?

Attention Resources from Amazon

Books for younger learners:

The OT Toolbox ADHD and attention resources

Learn to Skip with Skipping Activities

learning to skip requires motor planning and sensory integration

what about bilateral coordination?

How to Teach Skipping

Skipping Activities

spring has almost sprung!

Interoception The 8th sense

Definition of the interoception sense

How Does Interoception Impact Function?

Interoception and Emotion

Tips for Improving Interoception

Books to Improve Interoception

what is Mindfulness?

separating facts from feelings

great Mindfulness audiobook resources

the more principle

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