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Developmental Tools for Teaching Letter Recognition
This blog discusses activities for teaching letter recognition. At its most basic, letter recognition refers to letter identification. It is one of the main skills children need to know before they can name, write, or sound out the letters. The following fun letter recognition games for preschoolers are based on development and skill progression. Be…
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How to Encourage Growth Mindset Mistakes
When using a growth mindset mistakes can help you grow! Rather than thinking our intelligence is fixed and unchanging, the growth mindset encourages people to see their abilities as things that can improve. Here, we’re covering why it is important to teach students the growth mindset. You’ll also find strategies to move from a fixed…
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Thanksgiving Parade BINGO
Grab a copy of our Thanksgiving parade bingo and connect with family, develop fine motor skills all while watching the Thanksgiving day parade! This free printable thanksgiving bingo is perfect for Thanksgiving morning while watching the parade with the family. Add this fine motor tool to your Thanksgiving occupational therapy activities! Thanksgiving Parade Bingo Cards…
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Emotions Playdough Mats
One fun therapy tool to address social emotional learning in children are emotions playdough mats. Kids can use the printable play dough mats as tools to develop emotional awareness. understanding feelings, naming feelings, and practicing facial expressions. All of this occurs along with the many benefits of play dough! Let’s get some emotions play dough activities into your hands! Emotions…
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Snipping Paper
For young children, snipping paper with scissors is a challenge! Today we are covering this first stage of using scissors so you can teach preschoolers, kindergarteners, and older kids how to snip paper, even if they have never touched a pair of scissors before. Using scissors is a part of every classroom and many times we see kids come into the school environment…
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Crayons for Toddlers
One question therapists get all the time is about the best crayons for toddlers and specifically which crayons are best to support development. During the toddler years (preschool stage as well), there is a lot of motor and cognitive development happening, making it a great stage to introduce crayons. Let’s talk about the best types…
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The Ultimate Guide to Occupational Therapy Toys
Wondering about occupational therapy toys to give as gifts? There are so many therapist-recommended toys that support development of skills! Pediatric OT professionals use toys in occupational therapy interventions and are often asked about their recommendations for the best occupational therapy toys. Many times, parents are looking for holiday or birthday ideas or they want to pass on…
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Drawing Mind Maps
You’ve probably heard of mind maps as a tool for planning, prioritization, task completion, and other executive functioning skills, but have you heard of drawing mind maps? Drawing a mind map is such a fun way to put goals down onto paper and actually accomplishing them. All of this can be done through drawing, doodling,…
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Tips for Legible Handwriting
When it comes to legible handwriting, there are a few tips that occupational therapy practitioners suggest. Handwriting is a complex task that incorporates motor skills, sensory processing, executive functioning skills as well as the creative writing aspect when it comes to thinking about what is being written. We’ve explored handwriting analysis in the past, including specific areas too look…
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Easy Ideas for Motoric Hand Separation
There are many times throughout the day that hand separation in fine motor dexterity is used to stabilize and manipulate objects. But what do we mean by this phrase, “hand separation” and exactly What is Motoric Separation of the Two Sides of the Hand? We’ll get into that here, as well as cover specific separation…
