bilateral coordination

Activities for Teaching Colors

by
teaching colors

There are so many ways to include multisensory play in teaching colors to children. Here, you’ll find hands-on, creative ways to teach colors of the rainbow using play that helps kids develop skills, move, and grow. Use these color activities in preschool or to teach toddlers colors. It’s a fun way to develop visual discrimination skills in young children.

Teaching colors and coloring goes hand-in-hand. Our resource on the best crayons for toddlers is a huge help, especially when deciding on the type of crayon to use at the age of teaching colors to toddlers and young children.

Multisensory activities to teach colors to toddlers, preschoolers, kindergarteners.

I’m including color activities for kindergarten and school-aged children, as well, because this color themes can be used in therapy activities or to help kids develop handwriting, or visual motor skills in the older grades. There is a lot of fun, hands-on activities listed here that help children learn colors and explore through play!

Activities to teach colors to toddlers

Teaching Colors to Toddlers

Toddler play and development is all about the hands-on exploration of the world. We have a lot of toddler activities designed to develop motor skills and learning here on the website that you’ll want to check out.

To teach colors to toddlers, it’s all about making things fun. These toddler activities will get you started with hands-on development activities.

So many color activities in the toddler years involve sorting colors, identifying colors, and pointing out colors. All of these activities lay the building blocks for visual discrimination that kids will use in reading and writing down the road.

Try these activities for teaching colors to toddlers:

Toddler Color Sorting with Toys– This activity uses toys and items that are found around the home, making the color identification part of every day life. You can use items that the child uses and sees every day.

Teach Color Sorting Activity– This simple color sorting activity is great for families that have a preschooler and a toddler. The preschooler can cut foam sheets and work on scissor skills and then both the preschooler and toddler can sort the paper scraps by color. This is a nice activity that allows siblings to work together to learn concepts and grow skills together.

Color Sort Busy Bag– Toddlers love to drop items into containers, and put things into buckets, bins, and bags…and then take them back out again. It’s all part of the learning process! This color sorting busy bag gives toddlers colored craft sticks or dyed lollipop sticks and has them sort by color. It’s a great activity for developing fine motor skills and coordination, too.

Cup Sorting for Toddlers– This color sorting activity uses items in the home, like plastic toddler cups! There is just something about toddlers playing in the kitchen with baby-safe items…and this one builds pre-literacy and pre-math skills that they will use long down the road…through play!

Talk about colors– Pointing out colors during play, conversation, in reading books, and going for walks…there are so many ways to teach colors to babies and toddlers through everyday conversation. It’s as simple as saying, “look at that blue flower” to add descriptive terms to kids.

Color with painting– Incorporate all of the colors of the rainbow in multisensory activities from a young age. These art play activities incorporates colors into play and learning through art with toddlers.

Teach colors with a ball pit– Use ball pit balls in a baby pool. You can bring a baby pool indoors as a baby ball pit to teach colors. Here are other ball pit activities that can be used to teach colors.

Teaching colors to preschoolers with multisensory learning activities

Teaching Colors in Preschool

In the preschool stage, learning occurs through play! These color learning activities are designed to promote learning through hands-on exploration, because those are the ways that learning “sticks”…when hands are busy and developing motor skills that they will later need for holding and writing with a pencil. Let’s look at some ways to teach colors in the preschool years:

Color by Letter Worksheets– These are great for the preschool age because they are getting the exposure to letters in uppercase and lowercase format but not through writing. the coloring builds hand strength and fine motor skills needed in kindergarten and beyond.

Teaching Shapes and Colors with Rainbow Rocks by Fun-A-Day- This activity is fun because it uses the heavy weight of rocks to teach colors and shapes. But, kids are also strengthening their hands and gaining motor feedback about objects as they explore colors and other discriminating factors like weight and size.

Color and shape sorting– This preschool color sorting activity gives kids fine motor experiences with wikki stix. Ask preschoolers to copy the shapes, too for extra fine motor skill building and visual motor integration.

Fine Motor Color Sort– Grab an old spice container or cheese container, and some straws. This color sorting activity lays the groundwork for fine motor skill development and math skills. Kids can count the straws as they drop into the container and work on sorting colors while developing open thumb web space, separation of the sides of the hand and arch strength.

Color Matching Water Bin– This color learning activity is a sensory motor activity that also teaches letters. It’s perfect for preschool and kindergarten or even older grades as kids are immersed in multi- sensory learning with letters and pre-reading skills.

Clothespin Color Match– Children will love this fine motor activity that builds hand strength in a big way.

Bear Sees Colors Book and Activity– We used a snack to explore colors with a beloved preschool book. This is multisensory learning at its finest.

Gross Motor Color Games– There are many ways to explore and teach colors using games. Try some of these to add movement and play into learning colors at the preschool level:

  • Color I Spy- Call out a color and kids can run to touch something that is that color. Add variations of movement by asking kids to skip, hop, leap, crawl, or bear walk to touch the colors.
  • Color Simon Says- Call out directions based on clothing colors that kids are wearing. Add as many variations of movement and auditory challenges. This is a great activity for building working memory skills in preschoolers.
  • Color Tag- Kids can play tag and when they tag another player, they need to say a color for that person to go to. Another variation is having the players who are tagged run to a color that the tagger calls out.
Teaching colors to kindergarten children with multisensory learning activities.

Kindergarten Color Activities

At the kindergarten level, children are moving beyond basic color naming and into more advanced use of color in learning. At this stage of development, most children can consistently identify and name common colors, and they begin to understand how color relates to academic tasks such as sorting, categorizing, and following multi-step directions.

From a developmental perspective, kindergarteners are refining:

  • Color discrimination (noticing subtle differences between shades)
  • Conceptual understanding (recognizing that objects can be different colors)
  • Language use (describing and comparing colors)
  • Application of color knowledge in structured tasks

Color learning at this stage supports reading readiness, math concepts, and classroom participation. Children are often expected to follow directions such as “circle the green object” or “underline the word in red,” which requires both recognition and functional use of color.

Kindergarten Color Activities

  • Color-coded math sorting (by shape and color)
  • Graphing objects by color
  • Color pattern creation with blocks or beads
  • Following multi-step directions using color cues
  • Color scavenger hunts with written checklists
  • Color mixing experiments with paints
  • Sorting classroom objects into colored bins
  • Color-coded center activities
  • Matching shades and gradients
  • Color word recognition and labeling
  • Highlighting sight words by color
  • Directed drawing using specific colors
  • Color-coded obstacle courses
  • Using colored manipulatives for math problems
  • Sorting and categorizing by multiple attributes (color + size)

Teach Colors in Kindergarten and older grades

Once children are school-aged, teaching colors doesn’t end. In the school years, children explore color mixing, learning about primary colors, and more. Look at all of these color experiences that kids learn during the school years:

  • Spelling color names
  • Learning Primary Colors
  • Learning secondary colors
  • Color mixing
  • Color theory
  • Color wheel
  • Complimentary colors

Preschool Color Activities

Teaching colors in preschool is a huge part of the curriculum.

Teaching Colors to Preschoolers

In preschool, children are just beginning to develop the ability to recognize and name colors. This stage is focused on exposure, repetition, and meaningful interaction with color in everyday activities.

Developmentally, preschoolers are building:

  • Visual perception skills (noticing differences in color)
  • Early language development (learning color names)
  • Attention and memory (recalling color information)
  • Concept formation (understanding color as a property)

At this stage, children may recognize a color before they can name it. They also commonly confuse similar colors or use color names inconsistently. This is a normal part of development.

Why Teaching Colors Matters in Preschool

Teaching colors in preschool supports:

  • Early communication skills
  • Following simple directions
  • Participation in play and routines
  • Preparation for academic tasks

Color learning is most effective when it is embedded in play and daily experiences rather than taught in isolation.

How to Teach Colors to Preschoolers

  • Use repetition in daily routines (e.g., “Here is your blue cup”)
  • Focus on one or two colors at a time
  • Pair colors with familiar objects
  • Use hands-on, sensory-based activities
  • Keep learning playful and engaging
  • Color sorting with large objects
  • Matching colored blocks or toys
  • Simple color scavenger hunts
  • Finger painting with one or two colors
  • Color matching with stickers
  • Sorting pom-poms by color
  • Matching colored cups and objects
  • Color-themed sensory bins
  • Color hop games (jump to the color called out)
  • Matching colored shapes
  • Using dot markers for color matching
  • Sorting crayons by color
  • Color I Spy activities
  • Matching colored puzzle pieces
  • Rolling and matching colored balls

Try some of these color activities for older children:

Color I Spy free therapy slide deck- This color themed scavenger hunt will get kids up and moving, using the items they have in their home as they work on visual perceptual skills, handwriting, and more. Kids can visually scan around their home to match the colors on the slide deck. Then, there is a handwriting component. This is a great slide deck for anyone working on handwriting skills with kids, virtually.

Color Exercises– Use gross motor exercises and stretches as well as fine motor exercises to get kids moving while working on SO many skill areas: bilateral coordination, motor planning, strengthening, core strength, precision, dexterity, visual motor skills…

Rainbow Deep Breathing Exercise– This free printable PDF is super popular. There’s a reason why: kids love the deep breathing activity and We love the mindfulness, coping skills, calming, and regulation benefits. Great for all ages.

Rainbow Binoculars Craft– Kids can use paper towel tubes in a craft that helps them look for and identify colors. Use these rainbow binoculars in visual scanning, visual discrimination, visual figure-ground, and other perceptual skills.

Colored pencils activities– All you need is a couple of colored pencils (or substitute with a regular pencil if that’s all you’ve got on hand) to work on pencil control, line awareness, pencil pressure, and letter formation.

Benefits of coloring with crayons– Just grab a box of crayons and build so many fine motor and visual motor skills.

Make crayon play dough– Explore colors with heavy work input through the hands and arms using all the colors of the rainbow. This crayon play dough recipe is a popular sensory recipe here on the website.

Key Differences Between Preschool and Kindergarten Color Learning

  • Preschool focuses on exposure, recognition, and early naming
  • Kindergarten focuses on consistency, application, and use in academic tasks

Understanding this progression helps ensure that activities are developmentally appropriate and support functional skill development.

One activity book we love is our Colors Handwriting Kit:

Colors Handwriting Kit

Rainbow Handwriting Kit– This resource pack includes handwriting sheets, write the room cards, color worksheets, visual motor activities, and so much more. The handwriting kit includes:

  • Write the Room, Color Names: Lowercase Letters
  • Write the Room, Color Names: Uppercase Letters
  • Write the Room, Color Names: Cursive Writing
  • Copy/Draw/Color/Cut Color Worksheets
  • Colors Roll & Write Page
  • Color Names Letter Size Puzzle Pages
  • Flip and Fill A-Z Letter Pages
  • Colors Pre-Writing Lines Pencil Control Mazes
  • This handwriting kit now includes a bonus pack of pencil control worksheets, 1-10 fine motor clip cards, visual discrimination maze for directionality, handwriting sheets, and working memory/direction following sheet! Valued at $5, this bonus kit triples the goal areas you can work on in each therapy session or home program.

Click here to get your copy of the Colors Handwriting Kit.

Colleen Beck, OTR/L has been an occupational therapist since 2000, working in school-based, hand therapy, outpatient peds, EI, and SNF. Colleen created The OT Toolbox to inspire therapists, teachers, and parents with easy and fun tools to help children thrive. Read her story about going from an OT making $3/hour (after paying for kids’ childcare) to a full-time OT resource creator for millions of readers. Want to collaborate? Send an email to contact@theottoolbox.com.

DIY Light Box for Tracing

by
Child tracing letters with a pen on a light table. Text reads DIY light table for tracing

This DIY light box for tracing is an easy light box we put together in minutes. All you need is an under the bed storage container and a string of lights to make a tracing tool that kids will love. There are benefits to tracing and this tool is a fun way to build fine motor skills and visual motor skills as a visual motor skill leading to better handwriting.

Amazon affiliate links are included in this blog post. As an Amazon Influencer, I earn from qualifying purchases.

DIY Light Box for Kids

A DIY light box is a simple and effective tool that can be used for learning, play, and creativity. Light boxes provide a bright surface that makes it easier to see lines, shapes, and images for tracing or visual exploration. You can easily create a light box at home using materials like a plastic storage bin, LED lights, and a translucent lid.

This type of setup is especially helpful for kids because it makes activities more engaging and visually clear. A homemade light box can be used for tracing, drawing, sensory play, and even early writing activities.

DIY Light Box for Tracing

A DIY light box for tracing is perfect for helping children practice handwriting, drawing, and visual motor skills. The light shining through the surface allows kids to clearly see letters, shapes, or pictures placed underneath a sheet of paper.

This makes it easier for children to trace lines accurately, which supports motor planning and control. A DIY tracing box can be used for tracing alphabet letters, numbers, shapes, and simple drawings. It is a great tool for kids who are just beginning to learn how to write or who need extra visual support.

Sensory Light Box and Tracing Table Ideas

A sensory light box adds an extra layer of engagement by combining visual input with hands-on exploration. Kids can place different materials on the light surface, such as colored shapes, beads, or translucent objects, to explore how light changes the appearance of items.

You can also use your light box as a tracing table by placing worksheets or drawings underneath paper. This creates a bright, inviting workspace that encourages focus and creativity. Sensory light boxes are especially helpful for children who benefit from visual and tactile learning experiences.

Can You Make Your Own Light Box?

Yes, you can absolutely make your own light box at home with simple materials. Many DIY versions use:

  • A clear or translucent storage bin
  • LED strip lights or push lights. You can also use a tablet or studio lights (a video ring light found at many stores)
  • Wax paper or parchment paper (to diffuse light)
  • A flat surface lid

By placing lights inside the bin and covering the top with a translucent surface, you can create an affordable and functional light box. This DIY option works well for home use, classrooms, or therapy settings.

Can I Use My iPad as a Light Box?

Yes, an iPad or tablet can be used as a simple light box alternative. By increasing the brightness and displaying a white screen, the tablet can provide enough light for basic tracing activities.

However, there are some limitations. Tablets are smaller than most light boxes and may not provide as much working space. They are also more delicate, so supervision is important. A tablet can be a convenient option for quick tracing tasks, while a DIY light box offers a larger and more durable surface for regular use.

Reduce glare by upping the brightness when placing the tablet inside the plastic bin.

Specific Tracing Activity Ideas

Using a DIY light box for tracing opens up many opportunities for learning and skill development. Here are some beginner-friendly tracing ideas that parents, teachers, and therapists can start using right away:

Letter Tracing

Place alphabet worksheets under paper and have children trace uppercase and lowercase letters. This supports handwriting development and letter recognition.

Shape Tracing

Use simple shapes like circles, squares, triangles, and stars. This helps build pre-writing skills and visual motor coordination.

Name Tracing

Write a child’s name in large letters and have them trace over it. This is a motivating way to practice writing.

Picture Tracing

Trace simple pictures such as animals, vehicles, or objects. This supports creativity and drawing skills. Make sure you use white paper to see the objects.

Line and Pattern Tracing

Use straight lines, zig-zags, curves, and waves to build control and precision needed for writing.

Number Tracing

Practice forming numbers by tracing over large, clear models.

Themed Tracing Pages

Create seasonal or themed tracing sheets (weather, holidays, animals) to keep activities engaging.

Why Use a DIY Tracing Box?

A DIY tracing box makes learning more interactive and accessible. The light helps children see lines more clearly, which can reduce frustration and improve accuracy. This tool supports fine motor skills, visual tracking, and hand-eye coordination while making writing practice feel more like play.

DIY light box for tracing

A light box is a fun activity, and one you see in preschool classrooms, as it’s intended for hands-on play and exploring the senses. But did you know there are many benefits to using a light box for tracing (and other exploring play)?

How to Make a DIY Light Table for Tracing

This DIY Light Box was something I’ve seen around Pinterest and have wanted to try for a while…Once we had our Christmas lights outside, I thought we would definitely be doing this project after we pulled all of the lights back in.  So, after we brought the Christmas lights in from the outside bushes, this was easy to put together for a cold evening’s play!

You need just two items to make a DIY light table:

(Amazon affiliate links)

  1. Strand of white Christmas lights
  2. Clear, plastic under-the-bed storage bin

Important: The under the bed storage bin needs to be made of clear plastic or have just a slight opaque color to the plastic. Also, the top should be smooth. Many storage bins have textured surface or a white surface. The flat, smooth lid is important for sensory play as well as tracing with paper on the DIY light table. This brand (affiliate link) is a good one to use.

Instructions to make a DIY light box:

  1. Plug in the lights.
  2. Place them into the bin.
  3. Either cut a hole in the base of the bin for the lights to go through or cut a small notch into the lid so the strand of lights can go under the lid.

To make this homemade light box safer and not use plug in lights, you can use battery operated button lights (affiliate link) inside the storage bin. Or, there are many battery operated LED lights available now too. These are a great idea because many of them have a color-changing capability and can be operated from an app on your phone.

IMPORTANT: This homemade light box project should always be done under the supervision of an adult. The lights can get warm inside the bin and they should be unplugged periodically.

This is not a project that should be set up and forgotten about. The OT Toolbox is not responsible for any harm, injury, or situation caused by this activity. It is for educational purposes only. Always use caution and consider the environment and individualized situation, including with this activity. Your use of this idea is your acceptance of this disclaimer.

I put all of the (already bundled-up) strands of Christmas lights …seriously, this does not get much easier…into an under-the-bed storage bin, connected the strands, and plugged in!

 

DIY light box for tracing

A DIY light box made with Christmas lights
 

Once you put the top on, it is perfect for tracing pictures!
 
Tracing on a DIY light box
 
 

Tracing pictures on a light table

 
This is so great for new (or seasoned) hand-writers.  They are working on pencil control, line awareness, hand-eye coordination…and end up with a super cool horse picture they can be proud of!
 
Use printable coloring pages and encourage bilateral coordination to hold the paper down. You can modify the activity by taping the coloring page onto the plastic bin lid. 
 
Tracing a picture on a DIY light table
 
 Big Sister LOOOOVED doing this!  And, I have to say, that she was doing the tracing thing for so long, that we had to turn the lights off because the bin was getting warm. 
 
 
 
trace letters on a light table
 

Other ways to use a DIY Light Table

 
We went around the house looking for cool things to place on top of the bin.  Magnetic letters looked really neat with the light glowing through…Baby Girl had a lot of fun playing with this.
 
You can add many different items onto the DIY light table:
  • Magnetic letters (the light shines through them slightly)
  • Sand for a tracing table- We cover how to use a sand writing tray in another blog post and all the benefits of tracing in a sensory medium. With the lights under the tracing area, this adds another multisensory component to the learning.
  • Shapes (Magnatiles would work well)
  • Feathers
  • Coins
  • Blocks
  • A marble run
 
letters on a light table
 
What a great learning tool…Shapes:
 
 
Letter Identification, spelling words:
 

 Color and sensory discrimination:
 
 
 
…All in a new and fun manner!  We had a lot of fun with this, but have since put our Christmas lights back up into the attic.  We will be sure to do this one again next year, once the lights come back out again 🙂
 

Please: if you do make one of these light boxes, keep an adult eye on it, as the box did warm up…not to burning warmth, but I would worry about the lights becoming over heated.  This is NOT something that kids should play with unsupervised!

Colleen Beck, OTR/L has been an occupational therapist since 2000, working in school-based, hand therapy, outpatient peds, EI, and SNF. Colleen created The OT Toolbox to inspire therapists, teachers, and parents with easy and fun tools to help children thrive. Read her story about going from an OT making $3/hour (after paying for kids’ childcare) to a full-time OT resource creator for millions of readers. Want to collaborate? Send an email to contact@theottoolbox.com.

Working on fine motor skills, visual perception, visual motor skills, sensory tolerance, handwriting, or scissor skills? Our Fine Motor Kits cover all of these areas and more.

Check out the seasonal Fine Motor Kits that kids love:

Letters Fine Motor Kit
Kit de motricidad fina de verano
Summer Fine Motor Kit
Outer Space Fine Motor Kit
Space Fine Motor Kit
Spring fine motor kit
Valentines Day fine motor kit
winter fine motor kit
Winter Fine Motor Kit

Or, grab one of our themed Fine Motor Kits to target skills with fun themes:

Want access to all of these kits…and more being added each month? Join The OT Toolbox Member’s Club!

Fine Motor Rainbow Pipe Cleaner Craft and Play Activity

by
rainbow pipe cleaners craft

Today, we have a rainbow pipe cleaner craft that builds skills and uses a common craft items you probably have in your occupational therapy supplies: pipe cleaners and beads. Add this activity to your rainbow themed activities for supporting development.

rainbow pipe cleaners craft

Rainbow Pipe Cleaner Craft for Kids

This rainbow pipe cleaner craft is a fun and simple activity that kids love. Using colorful materials and easy steps, children can create bright rainbow designs while building important fine motor skills. This craft works well in classrooms, at home, or in therapy sessions and is a great option for seasonal themes, weather units, or creative play.

A pipe cleaner rainbow craft is especially engaging because it combines hands-on building with creativity. Kids can bend, twist, and shape materials into arches, creating a rainbow that they can display or use in pretend play. This type of craft encourages problem-solving and supports hand strength as children manipulate the materials.

Materials for a Pipe Cleaner Rainbow Craft

To create a simple rainbow, gather:

  • Rainbow pipe cleaners (or rainbow fuzzy sticks)
  • Paper or cardboard base
  • Glue or tape
  • Cotton balls (for clouds)
  • Scissors

Children can arrange the pipe cleaners into a rainbow shape and attach them to paper. Adding cotton balls at each end creates a cloud effect and makes the finished craft even more fun and visually appealing.

Fine Motor Benefits of This Craft

A rainbow pipe cleaner craft is more than just a fun activity. It supports important developmental skills. Bending and twisting pipe cleaners strengthens hand muscles needed for writing. Positioning the rainbow pieces helps with visual motor skills and spatial awareness.

This pipe cleaner rainbow craft also encourages finger isolation and coordination, which are important for tasks like handwriting, buttoning, and using tools in the classroom.

Pipe Cleaner Rainbow Craft Ideas for Kids

This pipe cleaner rainbow craft is a great activity for kids who love hands-on, creative projects. Using bright, bendable materials, children can build a simple rainbow arch while exploring the color of the rainbow in a fun and meaningful way. This activity works well in classrooms, at home, or in therapy sessions and can be adapted for different ages and skill levels.

To get started, gather rainbow pipe cleaners, cotton balls, and a sturdy base like paper or cardboard. Children can shape each red pipe cleaner and additional colors into curved lines to form a rainbow. Once the arch is complete, add cotton balls at each end to represent clouds. This adds a soft texture and makes the finished craft more engaging.

For assembly, younger children can use glue or tape, while adults may choose to use a hot glue gun for a stronger hold (with supervision). The process of bending, shaping, and attaching the pipe cleaners makes this a colorful pipe cleaner craft that supports fine motor skills and creativity at the same time.

This pipe cleaner rainbow craft is not only visually appealing but also supports important developmental skills. Kids practice hand strength, coordination, and bilateral hand use as they manipulate the materials. It’s a great activity for encouraging creativity while reinforcing concepts like color sequencing and visual organization.

If you follow this blog, you know that we love easy fine motor activities.  This bead and pipe cleaner rainbow is one of those fun, easy, and creative ways to play while developing fine motor skills.  Kids can work on so many fine motor skills and hand strength while completing crafts and activities with beads and pipe cleaners.  We pulled out our huge bin of beads and got busy with this fun Spring rainbow project.
 


 
 

Pipe Cleaner and Bead Rainbow Craft

 
We always have pony beads, wooden beads, and jingle bells in our craft supply closet.  They really came in handy to make our rainbow jingly, textured, and fun!
 
Fine Motor skills with rainbow pipe cleaners

 

We started with a bunch of pipe cleaners
in rainbow colors.  I bent them a little to make a little rainbow shape, but you don’t need to do that before beading.

The kids sorted through the beads to find matching beads.  Baby Girl loved adding the bells to her colors. 
 

How pretty are these beads?? 


RELATED READ:  Try these neat pincer grasp activities to develop fine motor skills.


Fine Motor Skills with Beading

Manipulating beads on pipe cleaners is a great fine motor activity for toddlers

 

Threading the beads onto pipe cleaners is a great way to reinforce fine motor skills with toddlers and preschoolers. We love it for focusing on finger dexterity. 

(Older kids love this activity too!  Big Sister came home from school later in the day and had to make a few colors of her own!)

Kids need to manipulate beads with both hands together in a coordinated manner.  Bilateral Hand Coordination is a key skill for many self-care and school-based tasks.  You couldn’t tie shoes, manage buttons and zippers, cut paper, or hold paper when writing without using both hands in a coordinated way. 

Picking up the beads uses a pincer grasp (pinching the beads between the tips of the index finger and thumb.  This is a precise grasp and picking out one bead among many in a tray really works those fine motor skills.

To thread the bead on a pipe cleaner, the child really works on their tripod grasp.  What a great way to work on pre-handwriting skills!

Rainbow pipe clearners and beads

Our rainbow is almost finished! 

 

To get a little more fine motor work into this activity, I pulled out a sheet of Styrofoam.  I helped the kids by poking a hole into the board  with a pencil.  Then, I showed them how to push the end of the pipe cleaners into the holes to make a rainbow.  Little Guy was my helper and engineer in this part of the activity.  He liked to tell me the order of the colors we needed and helped with bending the arches of our rainbow.

 

 
Our rainbow is ready for playing! Little Guy pulled out our leprechaun peg dolls from our St. Patrick’s Day Small World and added them to the rainbow.  There was a little sliding under the rainbow and some leprechaun horse play between the two peg dolls.  Typical boy stuff 🙂
 
Looking for more rainbow activities?  Try one of these colorful ideas:
 
 

Easy Variations for Rainbow Crafts

There are many ways to adapt this activity using rainbow fuzzy sticks:

  • Create a 3D rainbow by stacking pipe cleaners
  • Make mini rainbows for cards or decorations
  • Add beads to pipe cleaners for extra fine motor work
  • Create patterns by alternating colors
  • Turn the rainbow into a bracelet or wearable craft

These variations keep the activity fresh and allow children to explore creativity while continuing to build skills.

Snowman Craft for Occupational Therapy

by
snowman collage using junk mail

Helping kids develop fine motor skills doesn’t require a bunch of fancy therapy equipment or carefully selected developmental toys. Here, I’ll show you how to use junk mail to help kids improve motor skills. This snowman collage is a winter craft that kids can use to work on areas like scissor skills, eye-hand coordination, visual motor skills, and hand strength!

You’ll also want to check out our other snowman crafts too. It’s a fun indoor activity for winter when the kids need something different to do. Grab that junk mail, we’re going to build a snowman!

A Fun and Easy Snowman Craft for Preschoolers and Toddlers

This snowman craft is as simple as it gets! It’s packed with developmental benefits. Using junk mail, old magazines, or recycled paper to rip and glue inside a snowman outline makes it the perfect easy snowman craft for young children.

I love using this snowman craft in occupational therapy. It’s a great Winter activity for kids because you can target several skill areas.

Whether you’re in a classroom, therapy session, or at home with toddlers, this no-prep activity can be adapted for various ages and skill levels. Just draw or print a snowman outline and let the tearing and gluing begin!

Supports Fine Motor Skills Through Paper Tearing and Gluing

Tearing paper works on small hand muscles, particularly the intrinsic muscles of the hands and fingers, which are essential for pencil grasp, cutting, and functional hand use. This snowman fine motor craft also promotes bilateral coordination. Kids use one hand to hold the paper and the other to rip it. The gluing portion supports hand-eye coordination and precision. These are foundational skills for writing, buttoning, and scissor use.

Why This is a Great Snowman Craft for Preschoolers and Toddlers

Preschoolers benefit from activities that are both simple and meaningful. This snowman craft for preschoolers offers a tactile, sensory-rich experience using familiar materials.

The tearing action is developmentally appropriate for toddlers, too, who may not yet have the skills for cutting but can participate in a creative process. For toddlers, you can provide pre-ripped paper chunks, while preschoolers can tear independently. It’s also a great way to reinforce body part vocabulary (“Let’s glue paper onto the snowman’s belly!”), introduce sequencing (first tear, then glue), and encourage attention span.

Snowman Crafts That Build School Readiness

Crafts like this are more than just cute, they support kindergarten readiness. The fine motor development, attention to task, visual-motor integration, and sequencing involved in completing this snowman all build the skills kids need for success in early childhood education.

For therapists, it’s an ideal winter-themed craft that supports multiple goal areas while still being fun and seasonal.

Extend the Snowman Craft idea

For added engagement, you can turn this into a math or handwriting activity by adding a number to each snowman and having kids glue that many pieces of paper.

Or, use a black marker to have kids write their names, a winter word, or a letter of the week on the snowman’s hat. Encourage creativity by offering different paper textures, colors, or even letting kids add googly eyes, cotton ball “snow,” or stickers to decorate their snowman.

Fine motor snowman collage using junk mail to help kids with motor skills and visual motor skills.

Snowman Collage Craft

We got a bunch of junk mail today with random neighborhood coupons inside… When my kids were younger, they loved to use scissors to practice cutting. And, actually, using the coupons found in junk mail to practice scissor skills, is actually a very functional and easy way to practice cutting along lines.

Junk mail is easily accessible and a material found in most homes. So, why not use it to help kids develop fine motor skills?

Junk Mail Craft

While we used junk mail to create a snowman collage, this craft technique can be used for any shape or theme.

Kids can use junk mail to work on snipping paper with scissors, eye-hand coordination, and visual motor skills. Try these strategies using junk mail:

  • Work on snipping along the edges of paper to create a fringe- This is a great bilateral coordination activity for preschool aged children and new scissor users.
  • Work on cutting along lines or coupons for early scissor skills- Cutting coupons or basic shapes is an early scissor skill activity. Junk mail often times includes flyers that are made from cardstock or heavy materials, as well as thinner materials, so it’s easy to progress through a graded activity to meet the needs of all levels of kids.
  • Cut out pictures- Use junk mail to cut out pictures or shapes. This is a nice way to work on simple to complex cutting skills. Progress from easy or basic shapes to more complex shapes.

For more scissor skills activities and how to progress along various grades, check out these Scissor Skills Crash Course.

To further along from basic scissor skills, use the junk mail materials to create a collage craft. You could use the steps below to make any shape or theme, making it a great addition to weekly therapy themes or preschool themes.

Snowman Collage

For our snowman craft, I first drew a snowman shape onto blue paper. This part could be graded as well. Use a larger shape for younger children or make a smaller shape for addressing more refined skills and precision.

Next, ask your child to cut out blue and white pieces of junk mail. This is where the craft gets open-ended. You can let kids snip random shapes, or you could request that they cut all squares. I love that this scissor skills craft fits with all levels and needs.

When kids are sorting through a stack of junk mail for specific colors, they are developing a variety of skill areas:

  • Eye-hand coordination
  • Visual scanning
  • Finger isolation (page turning)
  • Precision and refined grasp (manipulating one page at a time)
  • Visual attention and visual memory

Next, you will need squeeze glue from a bottle. As a pediatric occupational therapist, I love the use of a squeeze glue bottle over a glue stick for so many reasons. By using a squeeze glue bottle, kids are building refined use of skill areas:

  • Refined grasp
  • Hand strength
  • Eye-hand coordination
  • Arch strength
  • Open thumb web-space
  • Visual motor skills

You can focus on certain areas with use of a squeeze glue bottle by asking kids to place glue onto specific spots. Just use a marker to dot throughout the shape. Kids can then place glue dots on those specific spots.

If working with glue bottles is a helpful activity for the children you serve, you will love the Glue Spots Exercises in the Winter Fine Motor Kit.

Next, kids can place their junk mail pieces onto the glue and within the collage area to create the snowman.

Snowman collage craft using junk mail is a nice way to help kids work on fine motor skills using materials found in the home.
Use junk mail and squeeze glue bottle to help kids with fine motor skills using junk mail.

Ask kids to line up strait and curved edges along the curved lines of the snowman. This is a great way to work on visual motor skills.

To grade this activity to make it easier, make the lines of the snowman thicker with a black marker.

Cute junk mail collage snowman for preschoolers

You can see that we completed this craft on the floor, making it a shoulder strengthening activity as well.

Make a junk mail snowman craft to help kids with scissor skills and fine motor skills.

  That’s a pretty cute snowman…and great for practicing those snipping skills!

Want more ways to boost fine motor skills with a snowman theme or winter theme? The Winter Fine Motor Kit is on sale now!

winter fine motor kit

This print-and-go winter fine motor kit includes no-prep fine motor activities to help kids develop functional grasp, dexterity, strength, and endurance. Use fun, winter-themed, fine motor activities so you can help children develop strong fine motor skills in a digital world.

More than ever, kids need the tools to help them build essential fine motor skills so they develop strong and dexterous hands so they can learn, hold & write with a pencil, and play.

This 100 page no-prep packet includes everything you need to guide fine motor skills in face-to-face AND virtual learning. Includes winter themed activities for hand strength, pinch and grip, dexterity, eye-hand coordination, bilateral coordination, endurance, finger isolation, and more. 

Click here to grab the Winter Fine Motor Kit!

Colleen Beck, OTR/L has been an occupational therapist since 2000, working in school-based, hand therapy, outpatient peds, EI, and SNF. Colleen created The OT Toolbox to inspire therapists, teachers, and parents with easy and fun tools to help children thrive. Read her story about going from an OT making $3/hour (after paying for kids’ childcare) to a full-time OT resource creator for millions of readers. Want to collaborate? Send an email to contact@theottoolbox.com.

 
 
 

Coffee Filter Butterfly Craft

by
coffee filter butterfly craft for kids

I love using coffee filter butterfly crafts in occupational therapy to work on several skill areas. The fine motor benefits are huge with this one. This coffee filter butterfly craft is a great fine motor and bilateral coordination activity for kids. If you are looking for butterfly life cycle crafts, this one is a great addition. Or, if you are seeking Spring OT activities, be sure to add this colorful fine motor butterfly craft to your list.

Coffee filter butterfly craft to build fine motor skills in kids.

Why make a Coffee Filter Butterfly Craft?

One craft that hits on several skill areas is a benefit in pediatric occupational therapy sessions. This coffee filter craft is a nice one to develop skills because it works on so many areas that are covered in therapy sessions:

  • Pinch and grip strength
  • Eye hand coordination
  • Bilateral coordination
  • Motor planning
  • Crossing midline
  • Precision and dexterity
  • Open-thumb web-space
  • Arch development
  • Separation of the sides of the hand
  • Finger isolation
  • Thumb IP joint flexion (great for pencil grasp!)

How to make a coffee filter butterfly craft

This was an easy set-up and fun craft we did one afternoon recently.  You’ll need the following materials:

  • Coffee filters
  • Water color paints/water
  • A straw
  • Clothes pin
  • Pipe cleaner
  • String (to make a banner)

Directions to make a tie dye coffee filter butterfly

  1. Use a paint brush to add a bit of water to the wells of a water color paint pallet. To really work on fine motor skills, use your thumb to drop water droplets into the paint tubs.
  2. Use the straw to drip colored water from the water color paints. Then drop them onto the coffee filter. Allow the colors to blend into one another. If you add more water to the paint wells, you can transfer that water with the straw.

This version of painting a coffee filter can be a challenging fine motor task but one that really develops separation of the sides of the hands, thumb IP joint flexion, and motor planning skills.

To make this painting process easier, try using a eye dropper where the child can squeeze the end of a small dropper to draw up water from the water color wells. Another option is using a small plastic syringe to draw up watercolor paint and dropping it onto the coffee filter.

Read more about the thumb IP joint and thumb wrap grasp in pencil grip. This craft is a powerful way to work on this functional grasp skill!

Make a coffee filter craft and build fine motor skills with kids using a straw to paint.

Little Guy and Big Sister both loved dropping the water into the color wells.  Big Sister felt pretty good about showing her little brother how to drop the water into the color wells using her straw. 

Use straws to paint with watercolors and work on fine motor skills with kids.

This is a great activity to work on thumb isolation and control of the thumb during fine motor activities. 

Next, dip the edges of the coffee filters into the colors so the water creeps onto the edges of the coffee filter.

Other ways to add the color can use the straw end or the paint brush. This craft is nice because it can be adjusted for many different kids.

When kids drip the color on with a paintbrush, or drop color with the straw, it’s fun to try different ways to color the filters and see the colors blend together.  

Work on fine motor strength with clothes pins to make a butterfly coffee filter craft.

Next, use clothes pins to pinch the middle of the coffee filter together in the middle. This is a great hand strengthening and eye-hand coordination task.

Finally, add a pipe cleaner to the end of the clothes pin for the antenna of the coffee filter butterfly. Bend the pipe cleaner around the clothes pin and twist it up to make antenna.

Coffee filter butterfly craft for building fine motor skills.

If you like to create several butterflies in a variety of colors, you can clip them onto the string for an other bilateral coordination task.

They look pretty!  Big Sister wanted to hang them on the ceiling of her room.  We strung the butterflies on yarn and taped them to her ceiling.  This would be a great way to display a whole client caseload of coffee filter butterflies and really show off those fine motor skills!

Add this butterfly craft to a butterfly theme in therapy or home programing.

These heavy work cards include a page of butterfly life cycle activities that incorporate calming heavy work activities for motor planning and proprioceptive benefits.

Or, in the Spring Fine Motor Kit, you’ll find butterfly and caterpillar activities that are designed to build a variety of fine  motor manipulation, dexterity, and strengthening tasks.

Butterfly coffee filter craft

Spring Fine Motor Kit

Score Fine Motor Tools and resources and help kids build the skills they need to thrive!

Developing hand strength, dexterity, dexterity, precision skills, and eye-hand coordination skills that kids need for holding and writing with a pencil, coloring, and manipulating small objects in every day task doesn’t need to be difficult. The Spring Fine Motor Kit includes 100 pages of fine motor activities, worksheets, crafts, and more:

Spring fine motor kit set of printable fine motor skills worksheets for kids.
  • Lacing cards
  • Sensory bin cards
  • Hole punch activities
  • Pencil control worksheets
  • Play dough mats
  • Write the Room cards
  • Modified paper
  • Sticker activities
  • MUCH MORE

Click here to add this resource set to your therapy toolbox.

Spring Fine Motor Kit
Spring Fine Motor Kit: TONS of resources and tools to build stronger hands.

Grab your copy of the Spring Fine Motor Kit and build coordination, strength, and endurance in fun and creative activities. Click here to add this resource set to your therapy toolbox.

Colleen Beck, OTR/L has been an occupational therapist since 2000, working in school-based, hand therapy, outpatient peds, EI, and SNF. Colleen created The OT Toolbox to inspire therapists, teachers, and parents with easy and fun tools to help children thrive. Read her story about going from an OT making $3/hour (after paying for kids’ childcare) to a full-time OT resource creator for millions of readers. Want to collaborate? Send an email to contact@theottoolbox.com.

 

 

Play Tunnel Activities

by

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 Play Tunnels Help Kids

Play tunnels are one of the best tools for therapy as you can work on so many skills if you just put a little creativity into it. Tunnel activities simply invite kiddo fun and engagement while working on very important skill development across a spectrum of areas. You can use fabric tunnels or nylon, pop-up tunnels depending on the skills you want to address with tunnel play. With a little imagination you can build your own DIY tunnels too!

Tunnel for Occupational Therapy

There is a reason why OTs love using tunnels in occupational therapy sessions!

Keep reading to get some play tunnel ideas using different materials. For home-based therapists, DIY tunnels are a great tool for families to use in the home environment providing an opportunity for a fun and easy to implement home-based program. Some of these tunnel activities for babies and tunnel activities for toddlers can be used to address specific needs through play.

Play tunnel activities using a sensory tunnel
Tunnel activity for sensory input

Play Tunnels and Sensory

During tunnel play, not only do therapists want to work on the obvious gross motor skills such as crawling, bilateral coordination, motor planning, core strength. Then there is the neck/upper extremity strength, lower body strength, and body awareness.

They also like to use tunnels for sensory needs such as vestibular and proprioceptive input. In the simplest of terms, the vestibular sense is known as the movement sense telling us where our body is in space, while the proprioceptive sense is known as the deep pressure sense telling us the direction, speed, and extent of our body movement in space.

These senses are important to help a child develop balance, body awareness, understand the position of their body in space as well as knowing how much speed and pressure their bodies are exerting when completing an activity or moving within their environment.

Adding a play tunnel into sensory diet activities to meet a variety of needs. It’s an easy way to encourage sensory input in the school environment, home, or clinic.

Tunnel activities using pool noodles

So, you may be asking, how can children gather vestibular input from tunnel time activities? You can have children roll within the tunnel, perform various body movements such as forward and backward crawling, balancing on all fours while simply crawling through the tunnel, slither on their backs, or have them crawl in the tunnel placed on top of cushions and pillows.

These activities are great for supporting the development of crawling in babies and toddlers, especially because we end up seeing challenges down the road for kids that skip crawling. Here’s what an OT has to say about types of crawling.

Fabric tunnel for proprioceptive input.

Proprioceptive input can be obtained while the child is bearing weight on the upper and lower extremities during crawling providing input to the joints and muscles. They can push objects through the tunnel such as large therapy balls or large pillows, army crawl through the tunnel, and shaking the tunnel while child is inside can provide valuable proprioceptive input.

By using a play tunnel to address proprioception to improve body awareness, the proprioceptive sense allows us to position our bodies just so in order to enable our hands, eyes, ears, and other parts to perform actions or jobs at any given moment. Proprioception activities help with body awareness. Using a fabric tunnel that is snug against the body can provide good input which can also have a calming effect for some children.

DIY tunnel activity using cardboard boxes
Use these play tunnel activities to improve motor skills and sensory activities.

Play tunnel activities

When using a tunnel, you can work on other skills that address multiple areas for children. Try some of these fun tunnel time activities:

  1. Play Connect Four with pieces on one
    end and the game played on the other end.
  2. Assemble puzzles with pieces on one
    end and then transported through the tunnel to the other end.
  3. Clothespins attached on end to transport
    and place on the other end. You can use clothespins with letters to spell words.
  4. Push a large ball or pillow through
    the tunnel.
  5. Crawl backwards from one end to the
    other.
  6. Slither through the tunnel (rocking
    body left and right) to get from one end to the other.
  7. Scoot through the tunnel using hands
    and feet or even crab walk through the tunnel.
  8. Recall letters, shapes, or words from
    one end and highlight on paper at the other end.
  9. Recall a series of steps to complete
    a task at the other end.
  10. Blow a cotton ball or pom-pom ball through the tunnel. Kids
    love this to see how many they can blow in a timed fashion.
  11. With pennies on one end, have child transport them to the
    other end to insert into a bank. You can even give them the pennies at end of
    the session if you want.
  12. Push a car through the tunnel to drive it and park it at the
    other end.
  13. Build a Lego structure by obtaining blocks at one end of the
    tunnel and transporting to the other end to build.
  14. Intermittently crawl through the tunnel and lie within one
    end to work on a drawing or handwriting activity. This is just a different and
    motivating way to encourage handwriting practice.
  15. Crawl over pillows or cushions placed inside or outside of
    the tunnel.
  16. Use a flashlight and crawl through the tunnel gathering specific
    beads that have been placed inside to string at the other end of the tunnel. You
    could work on spelling words with letter beads or simply just string regular
    beads.
  17. Place Mat Man body pieces at one end and have child obtain
    pieces per verbal directive and then crawl through the tunnel to build at the
    other end.

tunnel activities for preschoolers

Ok, so for the preschool age range, let’s come up with tunnel activities for preschoolers that support development at this stage.

  • Crawl through a tunnel while holding a puzzle piece like a letter from an alphabet puzzle. Then they can place the puzzle piece in the puzzle when they get through the tunnel.
  • Set up an obstacle course with tunnels to crawl through
  • Play “follow the leader” through the tunnel. This is great for direction following and body awareness for preschoolers.
  • Crawl through a tunnel to match objects or sort colors. I like using blocks to sort into baskets.
  • Pretend the tunnel is a cave or secret hideout during imaginative play.

tunnel activity for toddlers

Next up are some of my favorite tunnel activities for toddlers. These also help to support development at the toddler stage.

  • Crawl through a fabric or pop-up tunnel
  • Push a toy car or ball through a tunnel
  • Play peek-a-boo at each end of the tunnel
  • Roll a ball back and forth through the tunnel
  • Crawl to retrieve objects placed inside the tunnel. I like to pair this idea with our ball in a muffin tin activity.
DIY tunnel activity

Next, I want to share some DIY play tunnel ideas because as occupational therapists, we are always coming up with fun play ideas using everyday materials!

DIY Play TUnnel Ideas

So, as mentioned previously, what if you don’t have a tunnel or you want to create one within a home for developing a home-based program? Well, make one! How can you do this? Read on for a few fun ideas.

  1. Create a tunnel by crawling under
    tables or chairs.
  2. Create a tunnel in the hallway with
    use of pool noodles. Bend them over in an arch to fit or simply cut them down
    to size to slide directly between the walls.
  3. Use large foam connecting mats and assemble
    a tunnel.
  4. Use tape or yarn and string to
    alternating walls down a hallway to crawl under.
  5. Use sturdy pieces of foam board
    positioned or connected together to make a tunnel.
  6. Use an elongated cardboard box. Sometimes
    you can get large boxes at an appliance, hardware, or retail store.
  7. Stretch a sheet or blanket over
    furniture and crawl.
  8. Simply place a sheet or blanket on
    the floor and have child crawl under it (a heavier blanket works well).
  9. Place a therapy mat inside a series
    of hula hoops.
  10. Use PVC pipe to build a tunnel. Add sensory items to the PVC
    frame to create a fun sensory element to the crawling experience. One such
    tunnel was built by my wonderful fieldwork student, Huldah Queen, COTA/L in
    2016.  See the picture below.
  11. Sew a fabric tunnel (if you have that skill).
  12. Use pop up clothes hampers connected together after cutting
    out the bottoms.
  13. Simulate tunnel crawling with simple animal walks or moves.

Tunnel activities can facilitate child engagement while providing an optimal skill development setting.  Tunnel time can address gross motor and sensory needs while also incorporating other activities making tunnel time a skill building powerhouse tool. Incorporate fun fine motor and visual motor activities to make tunnel time a “want to do” activity every time!

Regina Allen

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!

Bilateral Coordination Toys

by
Bilateral coordination toys

Here we are covering all things bilateral coordination toys. When it comes to bilateral integration, coordinating both sides of the body in play can be a challenge for some children. These bilateral skills impact functional use of the body, motor planning, and bilateral integration as a whole. It’s through play with occupational therapy toys targeting bilateral skills that children can strengthen and develop this essential motor skill. Let’s dissect a few select toys that promote this skill.

Amazon affiliate links are included in this blog post. As an Amazon Influencer, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Bilateral Coordination Toys

We’ve previously covered both fine motor toy ideas and gross motor toys. Today’s topic closely mirrors those areas. Today is all about the bilateral integration that goes into motor play. 

First, let’s talk Bilateral Coordination Toys!

Bilateral coordination toys are an occupational therapy intervention that helps children develop essential skills in bilateral integration. Toys that use both hands in a coordinated manner help children with bilateral coordination, crossing midline, and using both hands in tasks. These are essential skills that allow for an integration of both sides of the body, but more than that, bilateral coordination tells us that the brain is communicating effectively and sharing information between sides of the brain.

Today, I’m excited to share bilateral coordination toys and games to help support this essential skill.

Bilateral coordination toys for kids to develop coordination of both sides of the body.

Bilateral integration

Bilateral coordination in functional tasks makes up much of our day! Think of all of the other areas where you are using both hands or both sides of the body at the same time: getting dressed, tying shoes, cooking, typing, holding a book while reading, pouring a glass of water…the list could go on and on!

Read about bilateral integration in the cross crawl exercise resource.

This integrated use of both sides of the body can be developed through play.

Using both sides of the body together is a skill needed for many tasks: writing with a pencil with one hand while stabilizing paper with the other hand is one such activity.

Another bilateral coordination task is cutting with scissors with one hand while holding and manipulating paper with the other hand.

For children with difficulty in crossing midline, or using integrated bilateral skills, using toys in play is an effective way to work on and nurture this skill.

Looking for a toy to work on bilateral coordination to add to your gift giving this holiday season? Today we are covering ways to build bilateral coordination skills using toys and everyday items. We also have another giveaway to share today. This time it’s a fine motor toy that promotes a variety of sills, bilateral integration being one of them. I wanted to highlight this as a toy for building bilateral coordination because as we know, promoting this skill is a valuable building block to other tasks such as handwriting, cutting with scissors, self-care tasks, and more.

Working on bilateral coordination in play is a means and a strategy for building this essential skill. So, why is bilateral coordination so important? And what exactly does bilateral coordination mean?

DIY Bilateral Coordination Toys

We’ve shared quite a few bilateral coordination toys and DIY activities here on this site in the past.

A bilateral coordination lacing plate is a DIY toy and activity that can be used to work on coordinated use of both hands with a variety of themes.

Using puzzles and games that you already have with an extra special addition can be a great way to work on bilateral coordination with puzzles.

Play dough and sensory doughs are fun ways to play while working on skills like bilateral coordination and other motor skills.

Stickers are an easy way to work on bilateral coordination and can be used in the classroom, clinic, or home and in combination with obstacle courses and other motor activities.

Pegboards (both DIY and store-bought versions), are a fantastic way to work on bilateral coordination in play and in developing visual motor skills and coordination.

DIY pick-up sticks are a fun way to address bilateral integration and coordinated use of both hands together.

Making DIY lacing cards are a fun way to work on bilateral coordination. Making the lacing cards is part of the fun.

Miniature rhythm sticks can be a musical and creative way to encourage bilateral coordination.

Lock and keys games like with this DIY lock and key activity makes fine motor development an out of the box way to work on skills kids need for independence and instrumental activities of daily living.

Bilateral Coordination Toys

There are many bilateral coordination toys on the market as well. Let’s take a look at some toys and games that you can add to your therapy toolbox.

Amazon affiliate links are included below.

Pop Tubes Toy for Bilateral Coordination– (affiliate link) Pop tubes can be used in many ways to work on bilateral skills. Use them for a fine motor bilateral coordination task, or use them to work on a large scale or small scale. Wrap one around a wrist and build off of that tube. Or create a chain of tubes. Hold one and drop objects through the tube and into a container. How will you use this bilateral coordination toy?

Bilateral coordination toy for use in bilateral coordination obstacle courses and other occupational therapy interventions.

TruBalance Bilateral Coordination Toy– (affiliate link) This toy requires both hands as well as the eyes to challenge balance, coordination, and bimanual skills. Kids can work with this toy while sitting, standing, or in more challenging positions. Try incorporating couch cushions for a balance activity. Use this toy in a bilateral coordination obstacle course. Kids can use the pieces in a scavenger hunt type of activity where the parts are scattered at various levels and positioning, allowing the child to crawl, climb, walk, or squat while balancing the toy. The options go on and on!

Use nuts and bolts activities to help kids develop bilateral coordination.

Nuts and Bolts Bilateral Coordination Toy– (affiliate link) This nuts and bolts activity is great for developing fine motor skills as well as bilateral coordination by requiring the child to use one hand to manipulate the parts while the other hand acts as a stabilizer. This is a nice way to develop skills needed for tasks like handwriting, pouring, stabilizing, cooking, etc.

Another great option is a tube building toy. This has a lot of open-ended creative building that can be done.

Zoom ball in therapy can be used to work on bilateral coordination, visual convergence, core strength, shoulder stability, and motor planning.

Zoom Ball– (affiliate link) This classic toy is such a great way to work on many skills: bilateral coordination, core strength, shoulder stability, visual convergence, motor planning, and coordination. Just like the TruBalance toy, a zoom ball can be used in different positions to challenge balance and vestibular input: Try using the zoom ball in sitting, standing, kneeling, standing on couch cushions, a slant…again, the options are limitless! Use our favorite zoom ball games to get started.

Thumbs up is a bilateral coordination game for kids.

Thumbs Up Game– (affiliate link) This bilateral coordination game requires players to place rings on their thumb in a “thumbs up” position while they race to scoop and find the correct combination of colored rings to add to their thumb. It’s a fun racing game that builds visual perceptual skills too: figure ground, visual discrimination, visual memory, as well as the visual processing skill of scanning.

Lacing cards help kids develop bilateral coordination skills.

Lacing Buttons– (affiliate link) There is no doubt about the power of lacing cards when it comes to developing bilateral coordination skills. However, this lacing buttons activity takes it up a notch with the eye-hand coordination and visual processing skills. Kids can lace buttons onto wooden shirt pieces while building bilateral skills, fine motor skills, and eye-hand coordination. However, the set also includes puzzle cards that ask the child to lace on colored buttons in specific order so it matches the cards. What a workout in visual processing skills, too!

use lacing beads to help kids with coordination, fine motor skills, and bimanual skills.

Animal Lacing Beads– (affiliate link) These lacing beads are chunky wooden animals that help kids develop bilateral coordination, eye-hand coordination, fine motor skills, and visual perceptual skills. As an occupational therapist, I am drawn to this toy because of the different animals that could be used in sequencing activities, sensory bins, pretend play, stacking activities, and so much more.

Apple lacing activity for bilateral skills.

Wooden Lacing Apple– (affiliate link) This lacing puzzle challenges bilateral coordination skills and can be used to work on eye-hand coordination, tripod grasp, and motor planning. Use this activity to help with stabilization as well.

Press blocks offer a sensory feedback opportunity for building bilateral coordination.

Press and Stay Blocks– (affiliate link) These building blocks require bilateral coordination with a press so they stay, helping kids to develop bilateral coordination and get proprioceptive input to push them together and then take them apart. Building blocks are a great way to build fine motor skills and visual perceptual skills, and these are a great addition to your therapy toolbox collection.

Labyrinth Game– (affiliate link) This maze game is a favorite in our house, and a tool for building bilateral coordination and visual perceptual skills too. Kids need to manipulate two knobs at the same time and coordinate visual information with one hand or the other…or both. It’s a brain building challenge that involves both sides of the body. Challenge kids to do this activity in a kneel or while standing on their knees at a low table to challenge balance and offer proprioceptive input as well.

fine motor toy for kids

Octi Buckle Plush Toy with Hook and Loop Straps– (affiliate link) This play toy is a strategy to encourage development of fine motor skills, problem solving, color matching, coordination, and more. This stuffed play buddy is a toy that promotes development of many skills, bilateral coordination being one of them.

Using toys that double as quiet time activities, busy bags, or travel toys…all while working on skills is what makes toys like the buckle plush toy a therapist-approved toy. A buckle toy, with bright colors, shapes, straps, and zipper pouch will provide countless hours of recognition activities, brain building games and development puzzles. Your little one will stay busy counting the number of straps, connecting them together, pulling them apart, and starting over again. Kids can hide small items and treasures in the zip pouch, then unzip it later and get excited over their discovery!

More Bilateral coordination activities

Amazon affiliate links are included below.

Also, check out these other toy suggestions based on therapeutic development through play.

  1. Fine Motor Toys 
  2. Gross Motor Toys 
  3. Pencil Grasp Toys 
  4. Toys for Reluctant Writers
  5. Toys for Spatial Awareness 
  6. Toys for Visual Tracking 
  7. Toys for Sensory Play 
  8. Bilateral Coordination Toys 
  9. Games for Executive Functioning Skills 
  10. Toys and Tools to Improve Visual Perception 
  11. Toys to Help with Scissors Skills
  12. Toys for Attention and Focus 

Printable List of Toys for Bilateral Coordination

Want a printable copy of our therapist-recommended toys to support bilateral coordination?

As therapy professionals, we LOVE to recommend therapy toys that build skills! This toy list is done for you so you don’t need to recreate the wheel.

Your therapy caseload will love these BILATERAL COORDINATION toy recommendations. (There’s space on this handout for you to write in your own toy suggestions, to meet the client’s individual needs, too!)

Enter your email address into the form below. The OT Toolbox Member’s Club Members can access this handout inside the dashboard, under Handouts. Just be sure to log into your account, first!

Therapist-Recommended ​
BILATERAL COORDINATION TOYS HANDOUT

​

    We won’t send you spam. Unsubscribe at any time.

    Colleen Beck, OTR/L has been an occupational therapist since 2000, working in school-based, hand therapy, outpatient peds, EI, and SNF. Colleen created The OT Toolbox to inspire therapists, teachers, and parents with easy and fun tools to help children thrive. Read her story about going from an OT making $3/hour (after paying for kids’ childcare) to a full-time OT resource creator for millions of readers. Want to collaborate? Send an email to contact@theottoolbox.com.

    Gross Motor Toys

    by
    gross motor toys

    If you are looking for the best gross motor toys to challenge coordination, balance, motor planning through whole-body movement and heavy work play, then you are in luck with these occupational therapy toys. Each one is designed to develop gross motor skills: strength, coordination, balance, posture, and more.

    PLUS, head to the bottom of this blog post for Day 2 of our therapy toy giveaway. We’re giving away a gross motor kit with agility cones, tossing loops, bean bags, and hula hoops, perfect for gross motor, balance, coordination, and even heavy sensory play through whole body movements.

    We started off the fun with yesterday’s fine motor toy ideas. Today is all about the gross motor play.

    First, let’s talk Gross Motor Toys!

    You’ll also want to check out our blog post on Gross Motor Activities for Preschoolers because many of the gross motor toy ideas listed in this post would be great for the preschool years (and beyond!).

    Amazon affiliate links are included in this blog post. As an Amazon Influencer, I earn from qualifying purchases.

    Gross Motor Toys

    Kids need gross motor movement for so many skills. Today, I have gross motor toys to share! Here, you’ll find the best whole body toys and ideas to help kids with balance, core strength, stability, coordination, and endurance.

    These gross motor games and toys support a variety of skill areas and functional tasks. Gross motor toys can be used to strengthen balance, coordination, motor planning, position changes, and other areas.

    And, when you see kids struggling to kick a ball, walk in a line at school, jump, skip, ride a bike…that’s where therapeutic play comes in!

    Scroll on to check out some therapist-approved toys that help gross motor skill development!

    Gross motor toys to help kids develop skills in running, hopping, jumping, skipping, crawling, and more.

    Gross Motor Toy Ideas

    This list of toys for gross motor skills pairs well with our recent list of Fine Motor Toys. Today however, you’ll find toys that develop a few areas that are essential to areas of child development:

    Bilateral Coordination– Kids need bilateral coordination in whole body movements to move their body in a coordinated way. These whole body movements can include coordination of the upper and lower body, or both arms, or both feet, and all of the above! Here are bilateral coordination toys to address this specific area.

    Motor Planning– Motor planning with the whole body allows children to move in a room without crashing into objects or other people. Gross motor motor planning allows children to climb steps, navigate obstacles, or any movement-based task. Here is more information on motor planning and motor planning toys to address this specific sub-area.

    Gross motor coordination– Coordination of gross motor skills is needed for tasks such as kicking or catching a ball, riding a bike, getting dressed, or any task that uses the entire body. Here are hand eye coordination toys to address this particular sub-area.

    Proprioception– Integration of proprioceptive input allows children to know where their body is in space. It tells the body how much effort is needed to pick up and move objects. Proprioception allows us to understand the body’s position as it moves in a coordinated manner.

    Vestibular input- Integration of vestibular input allows children to navigate the world around them as they move. Going up or down steps or bleachers is an example of this. Moving into different positions during tasks is another example of vestibular integration. Movement through different planes requires integration of vestibular input.

    All of these areas work together in functional tasks and all are rooted in gross motor skills.

    Related: This dinosaur gross motor game is a skill builder, as well.

    Toys for Gross Motor Skill Development

    So often, therapists and teachers purchase items to use in their work using their own money. This giveaway offers a chance for you to win an item that will be useful in helping kids thrive.

    And, given that kids are on screens more than ever before with all of the virtual learning and hybrid learning models being incorporated all over the world, therapists are seeing more need for active, physical play.

    These are gross motor toys that you will find in therapy clinics. There is a reason why…because they are gross motor powerhouses! So, if you are looking for toy recommendations that build whole body motor skills, this is it!

    Amazon affiliate links are included below. You can read more about these items by checking out the links.

    Zoom ball is a great gross motor toy for kids.

    Zoom Ball– This classic toy is such a great way to work on many skills. A zoom ball can be used in different positions to challenge balance and vestibular input. Try using the zoom ball games in sitting, standing, kneeling, standing on couch cushions, a slant…again, the options are limitless! Address skills such as:

    • Bilateral coordination
    • Core strength
    • Shoulder stability
    • Visual convergence
    • Motor planning
    • Coordination
    Pop and catch toys can help kids develop gross motor skills.

    Pop and Catch- Use this coordination toy indoors or outdoors to get kids moving. This toy can be played with while the child is standing, sitting, kneeling, or in a half-sit to challenge the core and eye-hand coordination in a variety of planes. Try playing on all fours on the floor for a shoulder girdle stability activity. Another use for this toy is by playing by standing at a table while the child shoots the ball across the table surface as they play like a ping-pong type of game. There are many uses for this pop and catch activity:

    • Eye-hand coordination
    • Motor planning
    • Vestibular input
    • Core strength
    • Stability of core
    • Stability of shoulder girdle
    use bucket stilts to help kids develop gross motor skills.

    Bucket Stilts– These bucket stilts are perfect for helping kids develop gross motor skills. I love this set because there are 6 colored buckets that make a great gross motor obstacle course tool, too. You could use them as stepping stones to challenge balance and coordination, too. Here are gross motor skills that you can work on using these bucket stilts toys:

    • Core strength
    • Vestibular input
    • Motor planning
    • Coordination
    • Balance
    • Endurance
    • Stabilizing
    use agility cones to help kids build gross motor skills in obstacle courses and more.

    Agility Cones– Sports cones are such an open-ended gross motor toy that can be used to develop so many skills: hopping, jumping, skipping, running, climbing, crawling…the options are endless. Use these agility cones in therapy obstacle courses, challenges, drills, and more. I chose these particular cones because they can go very nicely with a Zones of Regulation activity! Use cones to support these areas:

    • Motor planning
    • Vestibular input
    • Coordination
    • Core strength
    • Endurance
    Use carpet markers to build gross motor skills with gross motor obstacle courses, motor planning, and more.

    Carpet Markers– These carpet markers are an occupational therapist’s dream toy! Use the colored marker spots to help kids work on so many movement skills in obstacle courses, visual perceptual skill activities, direction following, sensory movement breaks, positioning guides, and so much more. The arrows are perfect for addressing directionality. Use them to work on crawling, hopping, jumping, stopping on a point. Just some of the areas that these carpet spots support:

    • Core strength
    • Shoulder stability
    • Motor planning
    • Coordination
    • Endurance
    • Proprioception
    A parachute is a great gross motor toy for kids.

    Parachute– A parachute is another open-ended gross motor toy that the kids just LOVE. This one is small enough for small groups, but builds motor skills in a big way. Use the parachute to help kids develop:

    • Core stability
    • Arm strength
    • Motor planning
    • Endurance
    • Bilateral coordination
    • Proprioceptive input

    Toys for Core Strength

    Toys that develop core strength get kids moving in a variety of positions. These toys support and challenge the vestibular and proprioceptive systems so they can be calming activities as well. Strength and stability in the core is needed for almost all functional tasks. Challenge kids with these core strengthening toys by getting them moving, on the floor in floor play or strengthening the core muscles through movement and balance coordination. Some ideas for developing and strengthening core strength include:

    Toys for balance

    Toys that challenge movement changes, stepping from high to low and low to high, and movement with vestibular input offer opportunities to challenge and develop balance and coordination skills.

    Gross Motor Coordination Toys

    Encourage movement, whole body play, and gross motor coordination with throwing, tossing, and hand-eye coordination or foot-eye coordination skills with these gross motor coordination ideas:

    Obstacle Course Toys

    All of the gross motor toys listed above could be used in obstacle courses…and what a great way to encourage so many skills! These are perfect additions to your obstacle course ideas, and challenge balance, coordination, motor planning, and add sensory input. Use these obstacle course toys to vary movement and encourage the specific skills kids need:

    Want to add these toys to your home, classroom, or therapy practice? I am SO happy to fill your toolbox so you can help kids thrive and build and develop the skills they need!

    More therapy Toys

    Check out the other therapy toy recommendations in the list below:

    1. Fine Motor Toys
    2. Gross Motor Toys
    3. Pencil Grasp Toys
    4. Toys for Reluctant Writers
    5. Toys for Spatial Awareness
    6. Toys for Visual Tracking
    7. Toys for Sensory Play
    8. Bilateral Coordination Toys
    9. Games for Executive Functioning Skills
    10. Toys and Tools to Improve Visual Perception 
    11. Toys to Help with Scissors Skills 
    12. Toys for Attention and Focus 

    PRINTABLE LIST OF TOYS FOR GROSS MOTOR

    Want a printable copy of our therapist-recommended toys to support gross motor development?

    As therapy professionals, we LOVE to recommend therapy toys that build skills! This toy list is done for you so you don’t need to recreate the wheel.

    Your therapy caseload will love these GROSS MOTOR toy recommendations. (There’s space on this handout for you to write in your own toy suggestions, to meet the client’s individual needs, too!)

    Enter your email address into the form below. The OT Toolbox Member’s Club Members can access this handout inside the dashboard, when you search “toys” in the search bar inside the membership. Just be sure to log into your account, first!

    Therapist-Recommended ​
    GROSS MOTOR TOYS HANDOUT

    ​

      We won’t send you spam. Unsubscribe at any time.

      Colleen Beck, OTR/L has been an occupational therapist since 2000, working in school-based, hand therapy, outpatient peds, EI, and SNF. Colleen created The OT Toolbox to inspire therapists, teachers, and parents with easy and fun tools to help children thrive. Read her story about going from an OT making $3/hour (after paying for kids’ childcare) to a full-time OT resource creator for millions of readers. Want to collaborate? Send an email to contact@theottoolbox.com.

      Enter all the giveaways here:

      Check out the blog comments below to see tips and ideas from readers telling us which gross motor toys they would love to use with the kids they work with and love. Have other gross motor favorites that aren’t listed here? Tell us about them!

      Skipping Activities for Kids

      by
      text reads "how I taught a child to skip in occupational therapy" image shows dots with arrows for skipping.

      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! 

      I wanted to update this resource on teaching kids to skip with additional skipping activities I’ve personally used in therapy sessions. You can find that information at the bottom of this page.

      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.

      Wondering how to teach skipping? This blog post breaks down the steps of 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:

      1. 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:
      • 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.

      Teach Skipping in Occupational Therapy

      One thing I love about occupational therapy is that we can help kids with the skills they want to do. I’ve had a few kids that request things like learning to pump a swing so they can play on the swings at recess, or how to do a cartwheel even when body awareness and crossing midline is a problem.

      I’ve had a child or two that wanted to learn how to skip. They wanted to skip because their peers do this at recess and they found themselves missing out. The fact is that skipping is a childhood classic! One student in particular wanted to learn to skip so they could skip down their road after getting off the school bus at the end of the school day.

      Isn’t occupational therapy cool?! We get to help our clients do the things that matter the most to them, and if that’s skipping, hey, that’s what we are going to work on in OT sessions!


      text reads "how I taught a child to skip in occupational therapy" image shows dots with arrows for skipping.

      Here’s how I taught one child to skip in our occupational therapy sessions…

      Skipping Goals in OT

      Some physical therapists might argue that skipping is PT’s domain. But when we are talking about the function and the actual skill that is involved and the child’s motivation to do this task as part of play or functional tasks, we’ve got a great OT goal.

      For my kiddo that wanted to skip at recess, this is exactly what I’m talking about. This particular student wanted to participate in her school day with her peers, and the function was play.

      The skills we need to assess are:

      Another area that’s not often considered when it comes to breaking down the task of skipping is Related, are the concepts of dominance and mixed dominance vs. ambidexterity. This is where occupational therapy can help because we do think of all of these components!

      I helped this student to work on skipping by segmenting the movements into steps. We came up with a routine of sorts. This really helped this particular child because they were really interested in dance and movement. So putting the steps of skipping into a routine with step by step movements really helped her.

      I had her step on a colored dot on the floor with one foot. Then I had her pick up her opposite knee by pulling it up to her trunk section. This step took a little practice because of balance and coordination of the movements. We added some animal poses into the therapy sessions to work on the core strength, balance, and coordination. It also was a great regulation activity for her.

      Then, once she had that step down pat, I had her hop on one foot to another colored dot. We used different colors to add a visual cue to the steps.

      Then, once she was able to do the hop we repeated the process with the other foot.

      Then we put it all together into repeated movements.

      She was able to move really slowly through the steps of skipping by using a pattern of colored dots on the floor. I started with big therapy dots and then we moved onto small round stickers.

      It worked really well! She was very motivated to complete this task so that helped, but by using this process over and over again, she really got the steps and motor planning down to learn the steps of skipping. It became an automatic motion.

      Then, we added in the component of peers and a busy environment by doing the activity outside in the actual space, the playground. Success!

      Colleen Beck, OTR/L has been an occupational therapist since 2000, working in school-based, hand therapy, outpatient peds, EI, and SNF. Colleen created The OT Toolbox to inspire therapists, teachers, and parents with easy and fun tools to help children thrive. Read her story about going from an OT making $3/hour (after paying for kids’ childcare) to a full-time OT resource creator for millions of readers. Want to collaborate? Send an email to contact@theottoolbox.com.