St. Patrick’s Day Occupational Therapy Activities
Celebrating St. Patrick’s Day with engaging and skill-building activities is a fun way to support child development while incorporating a festive theme. At The OT Toolbox, we believe in using hands-on activities to promote fine motor skills, sensory exploration, and movement, all while keeping therapy sessions fun and engaging. Incorporating St. Patrick’s Day occupational therapy…
Valentine’s Day Heart Craft
Creating a simple heart craft is a fun and engaging way to support fine motor skill development while celebrating Valentine’s Day. It’s a great addition to your Valentine’s Day Occupational therapy activity ideas! As occupational therapists, we believe in using hands-on activities to help children build important skills through play and creativity. Incorporating an easy…
Heart Crafts That Build Skills
Let’s face it, the heart candy and chocolates are already in the stores and children are already anticipating the consumption of all the sweet treats they are going get. Some children have even begun to plan their Valentine’s gifts and handouts for their friends and family. Add these heart crafts to your Valentine’s Day occupational…
Play Tunnel Activities
If you are an occupational therapist like me, then you know the power of using play tunnels in an occupational therapy obstacle course. The heavy work input provided by crawling through a tunnel is unmatched, especially when we use it as a warm up to fine motor tasks or functional activities. Let me explain… How…
Welcome to the Pencil Grasp Challenge!
I am SO excited about this challenge. What is the Pencil Grasp Challenge? Well, if you know a child who struggles with pencil grasp, holds the pencil with a tight or inefficient grip, uses all of their fingers to hold a pencil, or writes with an awkward grasp, the Pencil Grasp Challenge is for you!…
Indoor Recess Ideas
There are certain times during the school year when indoor recess becomes a must. When the temperatures are below freezing or there is constant rain, i seems like there are days on end of indoor recess. We wanted to put together a list of indoor recess activities that can support attention spans and keep kids…
Assistive Technology to use After You’ve Tried Everything with Handwriting
If you are a school-based OT or on a team along with school based occupational therapy professionals, you’ve probably heard this conversation before. We’re talking about what to do to support students that have tried everything when it comes to handwriting interventions. At a certain point, after we’ve exhausted all attempts with handwriting modifications and…
Backward Chaining in Teaching Kids Skills
Here at the OT Toolbox we write about many topics that include “how to” suggestions. One of the suggestions we often recommend is Backward Chaining. There have been several people asking recently about Backward Chaining. In this post, we will review or highlight what “chaining” is, the difference between backward and forward chaining, and explore…
Toys to Improve Pencil Grasp
Have you ever used pencil grasp toys to support development of handwriting? Helping kids with pencil grasp can be a challenge, so using motivating and fun activities to support the underlying skill areas is essential. Today, we’re going over the best occupational therapy toys that target pencil grasp development. Pencil grasp toys to challenge precision,…
Spatial Awareness Toys and Activities
For kids that struggle with body awareness, position-in-space, and overall spatial understanding, spatial awareness toys are fun ways to develop a specific set of skills that impact function of every day tasks. Occupational therapy toys like these space-based play support development of these areas. Want to help kids become more aware of their body position,…
