DIY Light Box for Tracing

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 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:

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!

Cutting Playdough

cutting playdough

This cutting playdough activity is a fine motor hand strengthening activity that builds scissor skills, bilateral coordination, and more! We love using play dough snakes to target these skills, but in this blog post, we’re talking all things cutting playdough with scissors!

cutting playdough

Cutting play Dough

By cutting playdough with scissors, you can quickly target several areas:

Little Guy is just learning how to hold the scissors, how to coordinate both hands together when cutting, how to open and shut the blades of the scissors to cut smooth lines, and how to stay on a line when cutting. 
 
This little activity is perfect to work on all of those things.
 
Plus, he thought it was a ton of fun to Cut. Play Dough. With. Scissors.

 
cutting playdough
 
 
 
 
First, roll out the play dough into a “play dough snake“…this is a perfect fine motor strengthening activity for little hands.
 
Mom, You then use the blades of the scissors to press lines into the “snake”.
 
 

Why cutting play dough?

 
The child will hold the play dough snake with his assisting (non-dominant hand).  Using the helper hand in a coordinated manner can be tricky for the new cutter.  A fun way to practice (like this activity) is a real confidence booster. 
 
Holding the scissors in a vertical position is sometimes, a big part of the problem with accuracy of cutting paper along lines.  Cutting the play dough snake usually will automatically correct a horizontal or diagonal position of the scissors.  Practice will help to carry-over the positioning when cutting paper. 
 
The nice wide and short lines in the play dough snake are great for practicing line awareness and the “open/shut” motion of the scissors when cutting.  Plus, the slight resistance of the play dough really provides feedback to the child. We cover this in our post on graded precision.
 
Just be sure to do this activity with your child.  This shouldn’t be an unsupervised activity…a little finger can get caught in the scissors easily.
 
 
This one looked like so much fun that Big Sister had to join in too 🙂
 
 

Expand the activity to cut play dough with scissors

One way to make this activity more difficult, or to add resistance to the playdough for greater hand strengthening is to freeze the play dough. Popping it in the freezer makes the dough more resistant, adding greater feedback through the hands.

More fine motor activities:

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:

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!

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.

Pincer Grasp Activities

pincer grasp

The development of fine motor skills such as the pincer grasp is an important aspect of a baby’s growth and development. As a baby grows and gains more control over their movements, they begin to develop the ability to grasp objects with increasing precision. One of the most significant fine motor milestones in this journey is the emergence of the pincer grasp. This grasp enables babies to pick up small objects and use their fingers with greater finger dexterity, allowing them to explore their surroundings in new and exciting ways.

However, the functional use of a pincer grip doesn’t stop in babies and toddlers. Pincer grip use supports independent and manipulation of items with precision and dexterity and is an important part of fine motor work. 

In this blog, we will delve deeper into the pincer grasp, exploring what it is, how it develops, and why it is such an important milestone for a baby’s growth and development. 

pincer grasp

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

What is Pincer Grasp?

The pincer grasp is a significant hand grasp that enables one to pick up and manipulate items with the tips of the fingers and is used to manipulate items such as small pieces of cereal or other little items. When we manipulate objects between the pad of the thumb to the pad of the pointer finger (index finger), we are using pincer grasp.

Pincer grip is essential for babies who are beginning to explore self-feeding with finger foods and begins to develop with the raking motion of the hands used to grasp at items such as food or cereal pieces. The hand eye coordination progression builds from here.

The raking grasp motion we see in young babies is actually a prerequisite to facilitate a pincer grasp development as the motion supports strengthening and coordination with all of the fingers, allowing for development of finger isolation in the index finger and thumb. 

 With the pincer grasp, the baby can pick up small items between the tips of their index and thumb fingers and bring them to their mouth. 

Pincer grip can be broken down into types:

  • Inferior pincer grasp- Also known as crude pincer grasp, or pad-to-pad grasp, the inferior pincer grasp uses the pads of the index and thumb to grasp objects. 
  • Pincer grasp- Slight flexion of the DIP joint of the index finger and IP joint of the thumb results in a round thumb web space. This grasp component utilizes the tips of these fingers. 
  • Neat pincer grasp- Also known as superior pincer grasp, Neat pincer grasp pulls the tips of the fingers in closer to the thumb web space and requires more flexion of the thumb IP joint and index finger DIP joint as well as flexion of the thumb MP joint and index PIP joint. Neat pincer grip is a more refined and dexterous grip used for extremely precise fine motor tasks such as picking up very small objects like a pin, thread, or sequin.

Development of Pincer Grasp

Pincer grip is one of the first dexterity skills to develop. The grasp pattern is a precision motor skill that emerges when a baby is between 8 to 10 months old and is guided by self-feeding and exploring objects through the primary sensory system at this young age: the mouth. 

Inferior pincer grasp begins at 6-9 months. Before a true pincer grasp is established, you’ll notice a lateral pincer grasp, or an inferior pincer grasp. This progression begins as a raking motion from the fingers to grasp at the food pieces, but this movement is typically not successful in picking up small foods like baby puff snacks. The next stage of pincer grasp development progresses as the baby uses the lateral side of the index finger and the thumb to pick up small food pieces using the thumb and the side of the pointer finger to grasp items (not a true pincer grasp).

Pincer grasp develops around 9-12 months of age.  This is when you see the baby pick up baby puffs and small chunks of food pieces to pick up the items with the thumb and the pad of the index finger.

Neat pincer grasp develops between 12-18 months and is a much finer skill. This is a common part of feeding developmental milestone achievement which allows babies to pick up and then feed themselves using that pincer grasp. This is when you will see babies pick up small crumbs from the carpet. Baby proofing takes on a whole new level once pincer grasp has developed!

Pincer Grasp Activities

We can use play-based pincer grasp activities to support this development based on the child’s age, development of these motor skills build independence, too. This pincer grasp activity supports precision needed to manipulate a pencil.

Pincer grasp and neat pincer grasp are precision fine motor skills that develop when babies start to pick up cereal in self-feeding. The developmental skill is essential for development of fine motor skills and manipulation of toys and items in play and discovery.  

Try these pincer grasp activities:

  1. Stacking blocks
  2. Practice buttoning with buttons. Here are button activities to try.
  3. Build puzzles
  4. Play with nuts and bolts
  5. Open drawers with knobs
  6. Pound golf tees into an egg carton or hammering golf tees into the ground
  7. Flip pages of a board book
  8. Spray water with a spray bottle to strengthen the arches of the palm
  9. Color with small crayon pieces. Read more about the benefits of coloring.
  10. Play with play dough- Roll play dough into small balls and place onto a target. Use our play dough mats for inspiration.
  11. Bend pipe cleaners into different shapes
  12. Play with stickers. Read this resource on 10 reasons why every kid needs to play with stickers.
  13. Poke holes in a cardboard box and thread pipe cleaners into the holes.
  14. Press a pushpin into a lid of a container or cardboard box
  15. Use tongs to manipulate objects and sort craft pom poms by color
  16. Use tweezers to pick up cotton balls
  17. Tissue paper art- crumble tissue paper and dip into glue, then paste to paper
  18. Offer small food items in a cupcake pan
  19. Glue beans onto lines on paper
  20. Tread beads onto pipe cleaners or string
  21. Play with marbles (this marble slime activity is fun!)
  22. Water play with an eye dropper and colored water.
  23. Clip clothespins onto paper. These clothes pin ideas will give you more fun ways to build a stronger pincer grasp.
  24. Play with Cheerios or small pieces of cereal
  25. Build with LEGO blocks
  26. Play with wind-up toys
  27. String pasta onto yarn or pipe cleaners
  28. Geoboard and pegboards

What is Neat Pincer Grasp?

Neat pincer grasp is used to pick up very small items such as perler beads, a thread from a surface, or a needle.  You might see the tip-to-tip grasp to pick up a sequin or fuzz from clothing.


Think about the “ok” sign with the thumb and pointer finger touching and a nice round “O” in the thumb web space.  That tip-to-tip pinch is neat pincer grasp.


If neat pincer grasp is not developed, kids can potentially present with less thumb IP joint flexion and difficulty opening the thumb web space when manipulating very small items.  This can lead to fumbling and decreased dexterity during fine motor tasks.


This post contains affiliate links.


Neat Pincer Grasp Activities

Neat pincer grasp uses the tips of the thumb and pointer finger to stabilize objects.  When using a pincer grasp, children use the pads of the thumb and finger to stabilize the object.  

These neat pincer grasp activities are creative ways that can help kids develop the small motor skill area.

 

Neat pincer grasp activities for kids to develop dexterity and fine motor skills.

 

Neat pincer grasp activities for kids to develop dexterity and fine motor skills.



More fine motor skills you will love to explore:

 Pincer grasp fine motor activity
 
 

Neat Pincer Grasp Fine Motor Activity Buttoning Tips and Tricks https://www.theottoolbox.com/2015/11/benefits-of-playing-with-stickers-occupational-therapy.html
 
 
 
 
 

In the Fine Motor Kits here on our website, you’ll find many precision activities that support development of pincer grasp. Specifically, there are tearing activities, crumbling activities, pinch activities, and other hand strengthening activities using themed fine motor activities.

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:

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!

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

Occupational Therapy Coloring Pages

occupational therapy coloring pages

In celebration of Occupational Therapy Month, we’ve got a series of free OT PDFs and these occupational therapy coloring pages will get you started with the OT fun. April is Occupational Therapy Month!  Not only is it a month to celebrate the occupational therapists in your life, but to advocate for our profession.  Raise your hand if you have been asked, “what the heck is occupational therapy?”  This question comes from adults as much as children. This spring, in celebration of OT month, the OT Toolbox will be offering a series of resources to help educate young learners about the role of occupational therapy. These therapy coloring pages will make advocating for the profession fun AND engaging as users build motor skills!

You’ll also love our President’s Day coloring pages that are great for all US holiday themes.

Occupational therapy coloring pages for therapy skills

Today’s resource is occupational therapy coloring pages to start the journey towards advocacy and education. 

Therapy Coloring Pages

We wanted to create a set of therapy coloring pages that are as useful as a therapy coloring tool as they are useful for advocating for the profession of occupational therapy. OT professionals know the value of an engaging activity on developing and refining skills in their clients, and these therapy coloring pages do just that! Each therapy coloring sheet includes images of OT equipment which users can color while also learning about the value of OT in supporting client needs.

A therapeutic coloring page is a tool for therapy providers to use with clients because the OT practitioner can target goal areas such as:

  • Fine Motor Skills
  • Hand Strength
  • Visual Motor Skills
  • Eye-Hand Coordination
  • Force Modulation (color this item light red and this other therapy picture dark red)
  • More!

Then, when the therapy coloring sheet is completed, the pictures are great to hang on a bulletin board, door, or hallway and advocate for the powerful nature of occupational therapy!

It is important for people to know who we are and what we do, so they can ask for help when needed, and see that what we do matters. A persons’ occupation is their job.  Also known as functional skills, occupations are the day to day tasks we do all day long. Occupations go beyond the workplace. 

A child’s occupation is to learn to care for themselves, go to school, play, and develop social skills.  An adult’s occupation entails self care skills, social function, caring for others, instrumental activities of daily living (cooking, cleaning, laundry, fixing the car, etc.) along with any work functions they have.

Occupational therapy (OT) helps bridge the gap between where the learner currently is functioning, and independence. For children we might say we bridge the gap between functional and chronological age. 

OT might be restorative, or teach new skills. OTs can be found in schools, hospitals, clinics, rehabilitation centers, daycares, home therapy and many other places.

Add these occupational therapy coloring pages to your OT month awareness packet!

Occupational Therapy Coloring Pages

OTs use some fun toys!

Younger learners, especially in schools, have seen many tools therapists use to help their students. These range from fidgets, swings, trampolines, alternative seating, slant boards, pencil grips, and more.

Some often wonder why our learner gets to play with the OT, and get fidget toys to use in class.

Using these occupational therapy coloring pages will help start the conversation about what these tools are, and how they are used. Share these OT coloring pages both with the learners on your caseload, as well as the other students in the school.

While it is true we use some fun toys in therapy, these are tools for the learners who need them. Occupational Therapy for young learners is play based

This is  because the role of the young learner is to play. You will notice that the learner who NEEDS the fidget or other adaptations will use it appropriately as a tool to help them get organized, while the neurotypical student tends to use it as a toy.

Use these occupational therapy coloring pages to talk about what each piece of therapy equipment does for the learner. 

Beyond educating others about our amazing profession, great skills are being addressed with these coloring worksheets:

  • Hand strength and dexterity – coloring inside the lines builds hand muscles and develops muscle control. 
  • Visual motor skills –Combining what is seen visually and what is written motorically.  It takes coordination to be able to translate information from visual input to motor output. Coloring, drawing, counting, cutting, and tracing are some visual motor skills.
  • Visual Perception – Developing figure ground to see where one item starts and finishes, scanning to find all items to color, and recognizing the border lines while coloring. 
  • Proprioception – pressure on paper, grip on pencil
  • Social/Executive Function – Following directions, turn taking, task completion, orienting to details, neatness, multi-tasking, attending to task, and impulse control can be addressed using these occupational therapy coloring pages PDF.
  • Fine motor strengthening, hand development, and grasping pattern
  • Bilateral coordination – remembering to use their “helper hand” to hold the paper while writing.  Using one hand for a dominant hand instead of switching back and forth is encouraged once a child is in grade school or demonstrates a significant strength in one or the other.
  • Strength – core strength, shoulder and wrist stability, head control, balance, and hand strength are all needed for upright sitting posture and writing tasks.

April is also Disability Awareness month.  This is a great opportunity to talk about different disabilities, while addressing the tools used to help people. How can you incorporate both of these important awareness months into a teachable moment?

While pediatric occupational therapists do have a lot of fun at our jobs, we are also providing an amazing service to the people we work with. Advocacy for our profession is so important.

With the push to integrate young people with special needs into the mainstream classroom, teachers are finding it more difficult to educate everyone at the same time. Our role as an occupational therapist is to help learners become more independent, provide tools and suggestions to classroom teachers to make their job easier, and help them identify which learners might be struggling.

The OT Toolbox is full of amazing resources for therapists, teachers, parents, and learners of all ages. This post shares what occupational therapy is all about and what tools are needed to make life easier.  Stay tuned for more occupational therapy month activities during April.

Free OT Coloring Pages

Want to add these resources to your occupational therapy toolbox? Enter your email address below to grab these printable PDF coloring sheets. These materials are also available in the OT Toolbox Member’s Club!

Level one members will have the opportunity to sign up for and download five different occupational therapy month activities.  Level two members will have access to all of these plus the larger collection of OT themed materials.  

Want to add this resource to your therapy toolbox so you can help kids thrive? Enter your email into the form below to access this printable tool.

This resource is just one of the many tools available in The OT Toolbox Member’s Club. Each month, members get instant access to downloadable activities, handouts, worksheets, and printable tools to support development. Members can log into their dashboard and access all of our free downloads in one place. Plus, you’ll find exclusive materials and premium level materials.

Level 1 members gain instant access to all of the downloads available on the site, without enter your email each time PLUS exclusive new resources each month.

Level 2 members get access to all of our downloads, exclusive new resources each month, PLUS additional, premium content each month: therapy kits, screening tools, games, therapy packets, and much more. AND, level 2 members get ad-free content across the entire OT Toolbox website.

Join the Member’s Club today!

Free Occupational Therapy Coloring Pages

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    Victoria Wood, OTR/L is a contributor to The OT Toolbox and has been providing Occupational Therapy treatment in pediatrics for more than 25 years. She has practiced in hospital settings (inpatient, outpatient, NICU, PICU), school systems, and outpatient clinics in several states. She has treated hundreds of children with various sensory processing dysfunction in the areas of behavior, gross/fine motor skills, social skills and self-care. Ms. Wood has also been a featured speaker at seminars, webinars, and school staff development training. She is the author of Seeing your Home and Community with Sensory Eyes.

    NOTE*The term, “learner” is used throughout this post for readability and inclusion. This information is relevant for students, patients, clients, preschoolers, kids/children of all ages and stages or whomever could benefit from these resources. The term “they” is used instead of he/she to be inclusive.

    Occupational therapy materials bundle

    NEW RESOURCE: Occupational Therapy Bundle!

    The Occupational Therapy Materials Bundle includes:

    • I Spy OT Dynamic Duos- School Based OT
    • I Spy OT Dynamic Duos- Outpatient OT
    • OT Coloring Pages
    • OT Writing Prompts
    • OT Copy the Words
    • OT Fine Motor Copy Kit
    • OT Fine Motor Game
    • OT Homework Bingo
    • OT Materials Toothpick Art
    • OT Supplies Match It Game
    • OT Supplies-What’s Missing
    • OT Visual Schedule Cards
    • OT Word Search
    • 8 OT articles on professional development

    • Pipe Cleaner Bunny and Carrots

      These pipe cleaner bunny crafts are a fun Easter craft that supports fine motor skills. We LOVED making these and then using them over and over again! With Easter being right around the corner, these pipe cleaner bunny crafts and pipe cleaner carrots are a great way to add fine motor skills to your Easter…

    Grab The Occupational Therapy Materials Bundle during OT Month to grab this 21 resource bundle for just $8!

    Occupational Therapy Fine Motor Game

    occupational therapy fine motor game

    Today, we’ve got a fun occupational therapy fine motor game up for grabs in our series on OT month free downloads. In case you missed the memo, April is occupational therapy month!  An entire month dedicated to you, the amazing occupational therapist. 

    Be sure to grab the OT Match It game here,

    the occupational therapy word search here,

    and the occupational therapy coloring pages here.

    Ready to add a new OT themed PDF tool to your toolbox?

    Free PDF- Occupational therapy fine motor game for precision and dexterity skills.

    Occupational Therapy Fine Motor Game

    Looking for an occupational therapy fine motor game you can print off and target several skills, making one game applicable to your whole caseload? This printable fine motor game does just that. Plus, this OT game printable is perfect for promoting the profession of occupational therapy at the same time!

    What makes us amazing?

    We focus on the most important skills.  Physical therapists might teach people to walk, but I would like to be able to put clothes on if I am going for a walk, or open the refrigerator once I get where I am going!  Speech therapists work on speaking and language, but who am I going to talk to if I can’t make friends? 

    Occupational Therapists (OTs) often get overlooked because people have no idea what we do.  What we do makes the MOST impact on people’s lives. Use this month to advocate for the OT profession. Use tools found on the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) website, or highlighted here at the OT Toolbox. The OT Toolbox is rolling out several great activities such as this Occupational Therapy Fine Motor Game to teach others what we do.  

    The occupational therapy fine motor game is more than just a fun game. It is a tool to work on several skills, while providing a conversation starter to explain what we do, and how we do it.

    WHAT SKILLS DOES THE OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY FINE MOTOR GAME BUILD?

    • Hand strength and dexterity – picking up and placing the beads one at a time builds coordination and the intrinsic muscles of the hands. Rolling the dice builds dexterity also
    • Visual motor skills –Combining what is seen visually and what is done motorically
    • Visual Perception – Developing figure ground to see where one item starts and finishes, scanning to follow the path, visual sequencing to follow the pattern, and visual memory to remember the number on the dice while counting the items
    • Proprioception – feedback from the muscles and joints to roll the dice, and grasp/release the beads onto the correct squares
    • Counting/Learning Numbers – Count the number on the dice to understand number concepts in addition to picking up and placing the correct number of beads
    • Executive Function – Following directions, task completion, orienting to details, multi-tasking, attending to task, and impulse control can be addressed using this occupational therapy fine motor game
    • Coloring – if you choose to have your students color the page first, this builds visual motor skills, along with neatness, accuracy, and attention to details.
    • Bilateral coordination – remembering to use their “helper hand” to hold the paper while playing.  Using one hand for a dominant hand instead of switching back and forth, is encouraged once a child is in grade school, or demonstrates a significant strength in one or the other.
    • Strength – core strength, shoulder and wrist stability, head control, balance, and hand strength are all needed for upright sitting posture and writing tasks.

    How to Use this OT fine motor game in therapy sessions

    This game not only develops the underlying skills mentioned above, but there are so many ways to grade this activity and to use it to work on the level that the child or individual is at to challenge and develop skills.

    Other tips and tricks to play the occupational therapy fine motor game:

    • Lowest level learners can use larger items than beads such as pompoms, coins, buttons, or marshmallows
    • Middle level learners can write the words they see on the game board
    • Higher level learners can write an idea about the therapy tools in the game. This turns into a multilevel activity. They can also draw about their ideas, or copy the designs.
    • Laminate the page for reusability. This saves on resources, and many learners love to write with markers! Note: some children love to use wipe off sheets, while others become upset that they can not take their work with them.
    • Make this part of a larger lesson plan including gross motor, sensory, social, executive function, or other fine motor skills
    • Vary the size of the items to be picked up.  Swap out the dice for a spinner for a different fine motor experience
    • Talk about the items on the board, describe their characteristics, and give context clues to help your learner understand why they help students learn
    • Two students can play against each other in a head to head competition. This adds a social element to game play
    • More or less prompting may be needed to grade the activity to make it easier or harder.
    • More advanced learners can work on social skills by teaching beginners to play
    • Learners can explore other games they could make using this activity 

    Occupational therapy, especially with younger learners, is all about play.  That is the occupation of a child. 

    Use activities like the occupational therapy fine motor game, to build a conversation about how the tools we use help other people learn. 

    Observations to make with this OT fine motor game PDF

    While there are many skills being addressed with a single game like this one, we’ll cover the example of using the OT fine motor game to focus on the development of in-hand manipulation skills. Let’s go over some of the observations we can make while playing this fine motor game with a child.

    Because this is more than just a game, think about what you are looking for while building in-hand manipulation:

    In-hand manipulation observations:

    • Can your student pick up the beads one at a time without using a raking grasp or sliding them off of the table?
    • How many items can your student hold at once without dropping some?
    • Can your student move the items from the palm of their hand to their finger tips to get them out, or do they drop the beads by opening their fingers?
    • How many times do you need to repeat the directions so your student can follow them?
    • How many reminders does your student need while doing this activity?
    • What is your student’s frustration tolerance when they have to start over?
    • Is there any cheating or cutting corners going on? There always is.

    All of these game observations can be monitored and documented to monitory for progression of skills.

    As an added idea, try these games with paper clips using a single item (a great therapy bag addition) to support precision skills and refined motor planning.

    Occupational Therapy is a growing profession.  Unfortunately there are more and more people needing our services every day. The good news is we are here to help people gain or regain vital skills for independence.

    Free OT Fine Motor Game

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    Free Occupational Therapy Fine Motor Game

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      This month the OT Toolbox is highlighting occupational therapy month by providing insight into what occupational therapists do, along with offering FREE resources to add to your lesson plans.  Keep an eye out for more posts from this series, including:

      Victoria Wood, OTR/L is a contributor to The OT Toolbox and has been providing Occupational Therapy treatment in pediatrics for more than 25 years. She has practiced in hospital settings (inpatient, outpatient, NICU, PICU), school systems, and outpatient clinics in several states. She has treated hundreds of children with various sensory processing dysfunction in the areas of behavior, gross/fine motor skills, social skills and self-care. Ms. Wood has also been a featured speaker at seminars, webinars, and school staff development training. She is the author of Seeing your Home and Community with Sensory Eyes.

      Building Block Towers

      what type of skill is building towers of blocks or stacking blocks?

      Building block activities like building block towers, and stacking blocks support development of many skills for young children. Development occurs through play and play is the job of the child. By using creative block activities in play, children can thrive in their skill development. We’ve shared specifics on fine motor skills using blocks, however, the skill-building doesn’t stop there. Here, we’ll discuss how and why building with blocks is so powerful in development of kids. We’re covering all things building block activities and exactly HOW to maximize skills like fine motor skills, visual perception, and even social emotional skills…all with toy blocks!

      You’ll also love our DIY cardboard bricks activity to develop skills!

      what type of skill is building towers of blocks or stacking blocks?

      Building Blocks for Kids

      Most of us have strolled through the toy aisle and found a set of building blocks for kids. Building blocks come in different sizes, colors, shapes, and even patterns. Did you know, however, that despite building block activities being one powerful way to build skills, that most sets are not played with once they are in the home?

      That’s right…most of the time, those building block sets just sit they’re collecting dust. Today, we’re talking all about how to use building sets with kids to build skills!

      Block activities to improve visual processing skills, fine motor skills, executive functioning and more.

      The block set in this picture is our set of Lovevery blocks.

      what type of skill is building towers of blocks or stacking blocks?

      Toy blocks a are classic toy…and there is good reason. When kids build towers with blocks they are developing skills through play. Knocking blocks over is another set of skills, and stacking blocks to create shapes or forms (a train made from a handful of blocks, for example) is another set of skills. They are all related, however, and together, building towers with blocks results in powerful underlying skills that children can use in later years.

      Research tells us that early experiences with blocks stimulate the development of spatial language, cognitive, and problem-solving skills. All of these are the literal building blocks for higher level tasks like reading, writing, executive functioning, math, and communication skills.

      We talked previously about the connection between fine motor skills and math. Building blocks are a literal building block to math skills.

      There’s more. By building with blocks, kids are establishing concepts of cause and effect (that tower falls down if I build it too high), reasoning (I need to place the blocks flat on each other so they don’t topple over), and creativity, self-esteem, fine motor STEM concepts, early math, language, and motor planning. Wow!

      Let’s break this down further.

      Building a tower with blocks

      When a child builds a tower with blocks, there are several motor and cognitive skills at play:

      • Visual perception
      • Eye-hand coordination
      • Visual motor skills
      • Fine motor skills
      • Gross motor strength and core stability/strength (placing a block on a stack requires posture and positioning, especially as the tower gets taller)
      • Fine motor precision and graded release, or force modulation- It takes a gentle hand to place a block on a tower with precision and manual dexterity.

      Knocking a tower over

      Every baby, toddler, and preschooler knows the fun of knocking over a stack of blocks, particularly when it’s a sibling or friend’s tower! What’s happening here?

      • hand-eye coordination
      • Cause and effect
      • Self-confidence (I did that!)
      • Emotional practice- when another child’s tower is knocked over, there is sure to be an emotional response. This is not always a malicious act on the part of the tower-knocker! It is a repetition in what will happen however. We see facial expressions, emotions, and outbursts. This can be a good opportunity for problem solving, age-appropriate emotional regulation, personal space, body awareness, force modulation, and language skills.

      Building things with blocks

      Taking the block tower a step further, we can see more development and precision when creating shapes and forms with blocks. This is another set of skills that are expanded upon:

      We’ve covered the fine motor development that occurs by playing with blocks. We’ve also addressed visual perception and block play.

      Today, we are discussing the various ways to play with blocks that build more than wooden buildings…blocks build skills!

      Block Activities for Toddlers

      For the young child, presenting kids with just a jew blocks is the key to avoiding overwhelm. The nice thing about a variety set of blocks is that the various blocks can be used in different ways while working various skill areas.

      During toddler play, young children develop many areas that impact functional skills and independence.

      Try these block activities for toddlers to support development of skills. We used the Lovevery block set for these activity ideas.

      Lovevery blocks for toddlers and preschoolers

      One of the block sets in our Lovevery block set.

      Sorting Shapes Block Activity– By sorting the colors and shapes of blocks, they are working on so many skills. Visual perceptual skill development begins at a young and age, including the ability to visually discriminate. We know that young babies are able to visually differentiate their mother from another female adult by visual assessment. The same skill can be used and honed with toy blocks

      Use a small set of blocks and ask the child to pile clocks into sets according to color or shape. You would be surprised at a young child’s sorting ability and visual discrimination skills.

      Sorting block shapes occurs around 15 months and at that time, a shape sorter is the perfect tool for encouraging matching. Visual discrimination skills will improve over the toddler years as your little one begins to recognize differences in shapes such as triangles and pentagons.

      Sorting blocks is a literal building block for visual perceptual skills, math skills and executive functioning skills.

      use blocks to work on fine motor skills and imagination

      Pretend Play Block Activities– Children can use blocks as pretend play items as they interact with adults or other children. Giving blocks a name and a voice offers opportunities act out scenarios, express needs and wants, and practice communication.

      By using blocks as pretend people, cars, trains, and animals, toddlers and preschoolers experiment with imagination and creativity. This is the beginning of social emotional skills.

      Show your little one how they can set up a little family with the blocks as they talk to each other in words and phrases that your child knows. What a great way to work on communication and language.

      building with blocks help development of visual motor skills and fine motor skills

      Building Activities- The sky is the limit when it comes to building with blocks. You can show a young toddler how to stack two blocks while the develop the fine motor precision and refined grasp to place blocks and releasing their hand without knocking over the blocks.

      Show your little one how to stack one or two blocks with specific colors. By asking them to copy your block form, not only are they working on fine motor skills, they are also building visual perceptual and visual motor skills.

      Lovevery block set and block activities for kids

      Use Blocks to Make Patterns- Building on the copying skills mentioned above, using blocks to copy and create patterns is an exercise in early visual motor skills, visual perception, and fine motor skills.

      It’s also a fun way to introduce early math concepts. Little ones can copy and create patterns using different sizes, shapes, and colors of blocks.

      Start out by creating a simple pattern with an AB pattern of blocks. Preschool children can use blocks to create ABB and ABC patterns too.

      Gross Motor Skills with Blocks- Just because using blocks with preschoolers is a fun fine motor activity, there’s no reason to leave out the gross motor skill development. Use a small wagon, or create a pulling system to help kids with pushing, and moving the whole body while moving blocks from one place to another.

      There is a reason why toddlers and preschoolers love to move their toys around in bags or carts…the proprioceptive input that they achieve by pushing or pulling a cart full of toys provides much needed sensory input that helps them organize and calm their bodies. Pretty cool, right?

      Another gross motor coordination activity with blocks is a pretty simple one to set up. Use blocks to create obstacle courses, paths, and games. Kids can animal walk from block to block, tip toe between block paths, or transport blocks one by one in a relay race. Block play is so open-ended and can meet any child’s needs.

      Build Letters with Blocks- Block activities for preschoolers can involve building and making letters. Letter recognition begins around 24-36 months and during that time is a great way to teach letter identification.

      Use building blocks to help kids trace letters using a finger. Point out how the letters are formed and you can even build those letters higher with another layer. Here is information on how to build letters with correct formation.

      Use blocks to make dominos for a fine motor activity

      Stack and Knock Over- Building towers with blocks or a trail of dominos is one way to help kids better understand STEM concepts, cause and effect, and problem solving.

      Ask your little one how they can make one block fall over by using another. See if they can figure out how far apart to place blocks to make them push one another over in a row of “dominos”. It’s a fantastic exercise in eye-hand coordination.

      Building Borders- Use about 10-20 blocks to create small squares and rectangles to form a border or home for small toys, dolls, or other small toys. By creating a “home” for their toys, children can work on shape identification as well as various skills: eye-hand coordination, visual motor skills, fine motor skills, precision of grasp and release, bilateral coordination, and crossing midline.

      Take the house building up a notch by adding layers to the walls. Children can begin to stack blocks and attempt to create higher walls without knocking them over.

      Amazon links included below.

      Lovevery Blocks are a new product created by the folks at Lovevery. The 70 piece set is valued at $90.00 and is perfect for kids aged 12-48+ months (and higher! My big kids are loving this set right now!)

      Lovevery has thought of your child as they grow. The set includes an activity guide with over 20 block activities designed to build learning and developmental skills as they grow. These are beautifully made blocks that will grow with your child.

      • 70 wood pieces in a rainbow of 18 different hues
      • 18 different shapes and tools
      • Activity guide with block play ideas to promote skills like visual perception, eye-hand coordination, fine motor skills, gross motor skills, and more
      • Arrives in a wooden storage box that converts into a pull car
      • Drawstring cotton bag for flexible storage
      • Solid wood blocks made of sustainably harvested FSC-certified wood
      • Water-based non-toxic paint and finishes
      Lovevery building block activities for kids

      Block Activities and Ideas

      Some of the smartest and most creative folks I know are the readers of The OT Toolbox. I asked readers to tell me sensory strategies they personally love and use to address sensory modulation. Scroll through the comments…you might just find some new sensory strategies that will work for you! Hopefully we can learn from one another!

      Also, check out these other soy 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 

      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:

      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!

      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.

      Sorting Colors Activities

      sorting colors

      Sorting colors is a big deal. Young learners in the toddler and preschool stage start out by sorting items such as blocks, plastic animals, coins, or colored items.  Later in child development, sorting colors morphs into sorting silverware, matching socks, organizing drawers, or filing papers to name a few life skills. 

      Sorting colors

      Sorting by color is an important skill for organizing items into categories to make sense of them, or for ease of locating them later. It is far easier to find a pair of socks in a drawer when they are matched together rather than in a large multi-colored pile. But what developmental skills are required for sorting colors? How can you support this essential skill?

      Sorting Colors

      First, let’s break down what we mean by sorting colors…

      Sorting by color can refer to anything from colored blocks to silverware does not involve being able to name the item. 

      Developmentally, a young learner does not need to know their colors in order to sort. They are arranging the items according to their properties. You could sort foreign coins into their respective piles without any idea what they are. By participating in sorting color activities, the young child obtains hands-on practice in several areas of development: 

      Hopefully as your learner continues to sort items, they may start recognizing the qualities of each item.  This can include shade, or color, shape, form, number, etc.

      Sorting Colors Development

      As with many skills, there is a hierarchy of learning to sorting tasks. Young children develop these skills through hands-on play and by playing with toys.

      Development of color sorting progresses through these stages:

      1. Grouping items that are exactly the same.  Examples; colored plastic bears, blocks that are all the same size, coins, pompoms
      2. Sorting items that are similar: different brands of socks in similar colors, silverware in varying sizes, towels, a bag of buttons
      3. Sorting items that are similar AND different: sorting items by the color red, that are all different items. Sorting socks that are all different sizes, shapes, weights, and colors. Sorting items by colors that vary (five different shades of red).
      4. Sorting items that have more than one category This stage of development progresses to categorizing objects that can be sorted such as a pile of paper to file. In this case there needs to be one similar quality selected first in order to sort, such as putting all the medical bills together, sorting by date, alphabetizing the papers. The last stage is where we may see challenges impacted by working memory. Those struggling with development of executive functioning skills can be limited in sorting objects in various categories, particularly when a background is busy such as a messy desk, cluttered locker, or home.

      Sorting by color is not the easiest way to sort. When there are multiple items that are similar such as 100 colored plastic balls, your learner may not recognize these as different items.  They see balls first, not colors. Try sorting very different items first.  Example: 5 identical buttons, 3 towels, 4 pencils, and 6 spoons.

      Color Sorting and Visual Perception

      Sorting involves recognizing an item’s properties, but also visual perception.  Through development of these skills, children move from thinking through the sorting of colors to visual efficiency which allows for automaticity in tasks.

      Below are some thought processes that integrate color sorting with visual perceptual skills:

      • Figure ground lets the “perceiver” see the items as part to a whole, 
      • Form constancy recognizes that two balls of different colors are still balls. or two shades of red are still red.  
      • Visual discrimination allows the learner to tell difference between items. 
      • Visual memory is the ability to remember what is seen as the eyes are scanning the items

      Color Sorting Teaches Mental Flexibility

      When teaching sorting, teach mental flexibility.  Sort many different items in many different ways. Sort by, color, size, similarity, quality (4 legged animals), texture, weight, or two qualities.  

      Sort the same items two different ways.  First sort the plastic fruit and veggies (affiliate link) into color, then sort by type.  Later your learner can sort by larger categories such as fruits versus vegetables.

      Color Sorting and Functional Tasks

      Why do some people have difficulty organizing and cleaning up? 

      Sometimes a large task seems very overwhelming, therefore shut down and refusal tends to occur.  The most effective way to combat this is to teach sorting and categorizing. Go into your child’s messy room and look for the categories.  

      • Books all over the floor
      • Dirty clothes everywhere
      • Papers and trash scattered around
      • 9 dishes and plates
      • 29 stuffed animals
      • 84 hair clips
      • 64 crayons

      Now this task seems much more manageable.  I often had to solve this dilemma with my younger daughter.

      What other, more complicated ways could she organize this messy room?

      • Sorting the books into genre, size, type, or alphabetizing
      • Organizing the dirty clothes into whites and colors
      • Determining trash versus recyclables
      • Crayons may be part of the “school supplies” category
      • Hair accessories or toys might be a larger category

      How would you tackle this chore?  

      • Sort into the larger category first such as books, then sort into their subcategories?  
      • Sort into subcategories such as stuffed animals, games, action figures, puzzles, then group into toys?  

      There is no wrong answer depending on how your brain works. Actually the only wrong answer is not getting started or having a meltdown.

      When working on basic sorting colors, and feeling it is futile or pointless, think about the bigger picture.  A person who can put their laundry, silverware, and toys away will be more independent than one who can not.

      Color Sorting Activities

      So, are you wondering about a fun way to build development in this area? We’ve got plenty of ideas.

      The OT Toolbox has a great resource for teaching sorting using everyday items.

      Amazon has tons of toys and games for sorting!  (affiliate link) Don’t limit yourself to store bought items though.  Your kitchen, bathroom, junk drawers, and desk are filled with items that can be grouped and sorted.  

      Color sorting activities can include ideas such as:

      • Sorting colored circles (cut out circles from construction paper)
      • Sort different objects by color and drop them into baskets or bowls
      • Use color sorting activities along with a scavenger hunt. This color scavenger hunt is one fun idea.
      • Cut out cardboard shapes and sort by color or shape. This cardboard tangram activity is an easy way to make shapes in different colors.
      • Sort colored markers or crayons
      • Laminate a piece of construction paper and use it as a play mat. Sort different colored craft pom poms or other objects onto the correct mat.
      • Print out color words and sort them along with small objects. The Colors Handwriting Kit has these color words and other printable activities for playing with color.
      • Make dyed pumpkin seeds and sort by color.

      This color sorting activity is a powerful fine motor activity and a super easy way to learn and play for toddlers and preschoolers.  We’ve done plenty of activities to work on fine motor skills in kids.  This straw activity is the type that is a huge hit in our house…it’s cheap, easy, and fun!  (a bonus for kids and mom!)  

      A handful of straws and a few recycled grated cheese container are all that are needed for tripod grasp, scissor skills, color naming, and sorting.  

      SO much learning is happening with color sorting!

      Fine Motor Color Sorting Activity with Straws

      This color sorting activity is a powerful fine motor activity and a super easy way to learn and play for toddlers and preschoolers.  We’ve done plenty of activities to work on fine motor skills in kids.  This straw activity is the type that is a huge hit in our house…it’s cheap, easy, and fun!  (a bonus for kids and mom!)  A handful of straws and a few recycled grated cheese container are all that are needed for tripod grasp, scissor skills, color naming, and sorting. 

      This color sorting activity is great for toddlers and preschools because it helps to develop many of the fine motor skills that they need for function.

      I had Baby Girl (age 2 and a half) do this activity and she LOVED it.  Now, many toddlers are exploring textures of small objects with their mouths.  If you have a little one who puts things in their mouth during play, this may not be the activity for you.  That’s ok.  If it doesn’t work right now, put it away and pull it out in a few months. 

      Color sorting activity with straws

      Always keep a close eye on your little ones during fine motor play and use your judgment with activities that work best for your child.  Many school teachers read our blog and definitely, if there are rules about choking hazards in your classroom, don’t do this one with the 2 or 3 year olds. 

      You can adjust this color sorting activity to use other materials besides straws, too. Try using whole straws, pipe cleaners, colored craft sticks, or other objects that are safe for larger groups of Toddlers.  

      There are so many fun ways to play and learn with our Occupational Therapy Activities for Toddlers post.

      Kids can work on scissor skills by cutting straws into small pieces.

        color sorting activity using straws

      We started out with a handful of colored straws.  These are a dollar store purchase and we only used a few of the hundred or so in the pack…starting out cheap…this activity is going well so far!  

      Cutting the straws is a neat way to explore the “open-shut” motion of the scissors to cut the straw pieces.  Baby Girl liked the effect of cutting straws.  Flying straw bits= hilarious!  

      If you’re not up for chasing bits and pieces of straws around the room or would rather not dodge flying straw pieces as they are cut, do this in a bin or bag.  Much easier on the eyes 😉  

      Kids love to work on fine motor skills through play!

       Once our straws were cut into little pieces and ready for playing, I pulled out a few recycled grated cheese containers.  (Recycled container= free…activity going well still!)   We started with just one container out on the table and Baby Girl dropped the straw pieces into the holes. 

      Here are more ways to use recycled materials in occupational therapy activities.

      Toddlers and preschoolers can work on their tripod grasp by using small pieces of straws and a recycled grated cheese container.

      Importance of Color sorting for toddlers and preschoolers

      Color sorting activities are a great way to help toddlers and preschoolers develop skills for reading, learning, and math.

      Sorting activities develop visual perceptual skills as children use visual discrimination to notice differences between objects.

      By repeating the task with multiple repetitions, kids develop skills in visual attention and visual memory. These visual processing skills are necessary for reading and math tasks.

      The ability to recall differences in objects builds working memory too, ask kids remember where specific colors go or the place where they should sort them.

      These sorting skills come into play in more advanced learning tasks as they classify objects, numbers, letters, etc.

      And, when children sort items by color, they are building What a great fine motor task this was for little hands!  Sorting straws into a container with small holes, like our activity, requires a tripod grasp to insert the straws into the small holes of the grated cheese container.   

      These grated cheese containers are awesome for fine motor play with small objects!

      Sorting items like cut up straws helps preschoolers and toddlers develop skills such as:

      • Fine motor skills (needed for pencil grasp, scissor use, turning pages, etc.)
      • Hand strength (needed for endurance in coloring, cutting, etc.)
      • Visual discrimination (needed to determine differences in letters, shapes, and numbers)
      • Visual attention
      • Visual discrimination
      • Visual perceptual skills
      • Left Right discrimination (needed for handwriting, fine motor tasks)
      • Counting
      • Patterning
      • Classification skills

      Preschoolers can get a lot of learning (colors, patterns, sorting, counting) from this activity too.  Have them count as they put the pieces in, do a pattern with the colored straws, sort from smallest to biggest pieces and put them in the container in order…the possibilities are endless!

      Cut straw into small pieces and provide three recycled containers to sort and work on fine motor skills with kids.

      Color Sorting Activity with Straws

      Once she got a little tired of the activity, I let it sit out on the table for a while with two  more containers added.  I started dropping in colored straw pieces into the containers and sorted them by color. 

      Use colored straws to sort and work on fine motor skills with recycled containers.

      Baby Girl picked right up on that and got into the activity again.  This lasted for a long time.  We kept this out all day and she even wanted to invite her cousin over to play with us.  So we did!  This was a hit with the toddlers and Little Guy when he came home from preschool.  Easy, cheap, and fun.  I’ll take it!

      Looking for more fun ways to work on color sorting?

      You’ll find more activities to build hand strength, coordination, and dexterity in this resource on Fine Motor Skills.

      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.

      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.

      Valentine’s Day Occupational Therapy Activities

      Here, you’ll find Valentine’s Day Occupational Therapy Activities that you can use this time of year to help kids develop skills. This is the time of year that red and pink hearts are everywhere, so why not use the theme of love and friendship in therapy interventions with fun Valentines day activities? Add these heart crafts, and love ideas to your therapy toolbox to work on things like fine motor skills, regulation, scissor skills, and more, all with a Valentine’s Day theme!

      Be sure to grab these printable Valentine’s Day cards, too!

      Use these valentine's day occupational therapy activities in therapy planning, classroom activites, and to work on skills like handwriting, fine motor skills, scissor skills and other developmental areas.

      Valentine’s Day Occupational Therapy Activities

      There are so many love and heart themed activities here on The OT Toolbox. Over the years, we’ve done a lot of fun activities that double as a skill building strategy. Check out these ideas and pick a few to add to your therapy line up and plans over the next few weeks. Some of these hear crafts and sensory ideas or games would make great additions to a Valentine’s Day party that builds skills, too!

      One great tool is our Valentines Day I Spy activity for visual motor and fine motor skill-building.

      Free Valentine’s Day Printables

      We love to create multi-purpose free worksheets and printable activities that support development. Worksheets can get a bad rap, but we at The OT Toolbox attempt to create occupational therapy worksheets that focus on play as a function.

      When we can use a printable founded in play, the user is performing a daily occupation that is important to them, and the play is both the tool and the skill that is being developed. That’s why these Valentine’s Day worksheets are so loveable!

      Conversation Heart Sort– Print off this sorting worksheet for a fine motor activity with conversation hearts.

      Valentine’s Day Hat Craft– Print off this hat template and work on coloring skills, scissor skills, and executive functioning to build and create the Valentine craft.

      Valentine Hole Punch Cards– These free pintables are perfect for occupational therapy Valentine parties. Use the printable activity to build skills in eye-hand coordination, hand strength, bilateral coordination, arch development, visual scanning, and more.

      Heart Deep Breathing Exercise– Print off this heart poster and use it to develop skills in mindfulness, self-regulation, and even proprioception through the chest and upper body. It’s a very calming activity that can be a great addition to the sometimes chaos and unexpected situations in a classroom Valentine’s Day party. use it to support sensory needs at a Valentine’s Day party!

      Valentine’s Day Activity Sheet– This printable tool is a great activity that can be used to develop many different skills depending on the needs of the individual. Use a single activity sheet to target: visual scanning, visual memory, visual peripheral skills, form constancy, fine motor skills, eye-hand coordination, dexterity, pencil control, motor planning, coloring and more.

      Valentine Matching Alphabet Cards– Cut out these love letter cards and match uppercase to lowercase letters. These cards are used for cursive letters to build skills in letter recognition, visual discrimination, and more.

      Valentines Fine Motor Worksheet– Print off this Valentine worksheet and build motor skills in many ways. have fine motor races with small objects like beads or mini erasers. Use tweezers to move items along the path. Work on pre-writing lines by using the paths on a vertical or diagonal. Work on a vertical plane to build core strength and shoulder stability. Use the sheets to practice letter formation by writing in the circles. There are so many ways to play and develop skills with a heart theme!

      More Valentine’s Day Activities

      That’s not all! Use the activity ideas below in planning OT sessions, or in Valentine’s day parties that also build skills.

      One thing I love about holiday events this time of year is that kids are excited about Valentine’s Day activities. It’s fun, friendly, and full of kindness and empathy. However, there are so many ways to develop skills with the old-fashioned Valentine fun:

      • Cut out paper hearts- Cut hearts from cardstock or construction paper for more resistance
      • Fold paper hearts in half- This is great for bilateral coordination, hand strength, pinch strength, eye-hand coordination, motor planning, and visual perception.
      • Stick heart stickers on paper- Add small targets by drawing dots and placing the heart stickers on the dots. This is great for fine motor precision and eye-hand coordination. Place the paper on a vertical surface and further develop core strength and balance.
      • Write on Valentine’s Day cards- what a functional and fun way to work on handwriting and to teach kids to write their name.
      • Make a Valentine’s Day box- Don’t worry about the fancy Pinterest V-Day boxes! Some of those require way too much parent help. Help a child wrap the box in wrapping paper (anther great functional life skill!) and then cut out hearts or draw right on the box.
      • Make a Valentine’s Day snack– Work on executive functioning skills, direction following, fine motor skills, and more.

      Valentine’s Day Therapy Slide Decks

      Working virtually? Use a done-for-you therapy slide deck. These are therapist-created and designed to meet the needs of a variety of levels of users. Adjust the slides and therapy activities to meet your needs and the needs of the learners you are working with.

      If you are needing occupational therapy teletherapy resources, check out the hands-on Valentine’s Day activities below. They are great for February parties and therapy at home activities for this time of year, too.

      Valentine’s Day Sensory Activities

      From sensory bottles, to discovery activities, to heart painting and more, these sensory play activities can be a fun way to help kids develop skills through the senses. How can you use these Valentine’s Day occupational therapy activities in sessions or at home?

      Valentines day sensory bottle for self regulation and sensory processing or visual processing

      Valentine’s Day Sensory Bottle– Use this sensory bottle activity as a way to build fine motor skills while kids help to create the sensory bottle and add materials. Then use it in self-regulation, sensory processing needs as a calm down bottle. Sensory bottles are fantastic to work on visual processing skills like visual discrimination, figure-ground, and other visual perceptual skills.

      Olive You Thumbprint CraftFingerprint art is a great way to work on finger isolation, an essential fine motor skill that kids need to manipulate items and improve pencil grasp. Here is more information on how fingerprint art improves fine motor skills. Add this artwork to a card or Valentine’s Day craft for fine motor fun.

      Valentines Day play dough to build fine motor skills

      Valentine’s Day Play Dough Activity Use a recycled chocolates box in a play dough activity that builds skills like strengthening of the intrinsic muscles and arches of the hands. This is a fun Valentine’s Day activity that can be used in classroom parties or in the therapy room to build skills.

      Bilateral coordination activity for valentines day

      Bilateral Coordination Heart Sensory Tray Use sand, rice, or other sensory bin material to create a bilateral coordination and visual motor activity for kids. They can work on eye-hand coordination, motor planning, and other skills. The point of the activity is to establish direction and orientation relative to the child’s body.  The movement activity addresses hand-eye coordination in different visual fields, promotes spatial awareness and visual discrimination, addresses left and right awareness, improves peripheral vision, promotes body awareness and coordination with specialization of the hands and eyes, and works on gross motor movement skills.

      Valentine’s Day Fine Motor Activities

      Try these Valentine’s Day fine motor activities in your occupational therapy interventions or home programs. The activities here are fun ways to help kids develop hand strength, dexterity, precision, grasp development, and motor control.

      Be sure to check out the Valentine’s Day Fine Motor Kit. In the 25 activity printable kit, you’ll fine hands-on activities to build fine motor skills. Activities include coloring and cutting cards, pencil control sheets, heart crafts, Valentine’s Day write the room activities, hole punching exercises, and so much more. Grab the Valentine’s Day Fine Motor Kit here.

      Visual perception activity and heart maze for valentines day

      DIY Heart Maze- Look out visual motor skills…this heart maze is one you can make and print off for your whole caseload. Adjust the use according to your kiddos. Children can place objects like paper hearts, mini erasers, etc. on the hearts in the maze to double down on fine motor work, or color in the hearts to work on pencil control. This maze is a visual processing powerhouse. Find more information on visual processing here.

      Fine motor heart activity

      Teeny Tiny Sprinkle Heart Activity– This is a fine motor activity that builds precision and dexterity in the hands. It’s a fine motor workout kids can use to build hand strength and endurance for fine motor tasks. Use it in math centers to work on one-to-one correspondence and counting or sorting.

      Heart fine motor and eye hand coordination activity

      Heart Eye-Hand Coordination Activity– Work on eye-hand coordination and fine motor skills tongs and heart s cut from cardboard. If you are like me, you have a ton of delivery boxes coming to the house. Use those boxes in a fine motor skills building activity. Write numbers or letters on the hearts to make it a sorting, math, or spelling activity.

      heart keychain made with salt dough

      Salt Dough Keychain– This is a fun heart craft that goes along with the children’s book, “The Kissing Hand”. Use it to help kids work on fine motor skills, and hand strengthening. This keychain craft makes a great Valentine’s Day gift idea too!

      Valentines Day crafts

      One Zillion Valentines Book and Craft– Pairing a book with therapy or when working on skills with kids is a fun way to open up conversation, problem solving, and strategizing to create a project or activity based on the book. This Valentine’s Day book for kids is just that. One Zillion Valentines is one children’s book that pairs nicely with a fine motor craft for kids.   Kids can work on fine motor skills, motor lanning, direction following, and executive functioning skills while folding and making paper airplanes, and the cotton clouds in this fun craft idea.

      Valentines day handprint art

      I Love Ewe Handprint Craft– Use a handprint art activity as a tactile sensory experience. Pair scissor skills, pencil control, direction following, and copying skills to work on various areas needed for handwriting and school tasks. Pls, this makes a great Valentine’s Day craft or addition to a card!

      Valentines Day activities to build skills for kids
      valentines day color sorting fine motor activity

      Valentines Day Color Sorting Fine Motor Activity– Grab a couple of cookie cutters and some beads. This is a fine motor activity that kids can use to build skills like in-hand manipulation, separation of the sides of the hand, finger isolation, open thumb webspace, and more.

      love bugs valentines day crafts

      Love Bugs Crafts– Work on fine motor skills, scissor skills, direction-following, eye-hand coordination, bilateral coordination, and more with these cute bug crafts for kids.

      valentines day sensory bin

      Valentine’s Day Sensory Bin– There are so many benefits to using a sensory bin in building fine motor skills. Pour, scoop, and stir with the hands for a tactile sensory experience. Using a sensory bin can be a great way to work on visual perceptual skills like figure-ground, visual discrimination, and other essential visual processing areas. Find and ovate objects or add a learning component by writing sight words or math problems on hearts. This is an open-ended activity that can be used in so many ways.

      valentines day books

      I Love You Books for Kids– These Valentine’s Day books for kids are a fun way to combine books with crafts or love themed activities. Use them to work on copying words or sentences for handwriting practice. The options are limitless. What love and heart themed books would you add to this list?

      Valentines day activities to build fine motor skills
      heart play dough

      Valentine’s Day Crayon Play Dough– Use play dough to work on so many areas: hand strength, arch development, separation of the sides of the hand, endurance, eye-hand coordination…But have you ever had trouble getting a a really vivid red play dough when using food coloring? The answer to the red play dough problem is using vivid crayons! Here is our crayon play dough recipe that gives you the brightest colors, perfect for using in Valentine’s Day play dough activities!

      heart craft to work on fine motor skills like scissor skills

      Heart Bookmark Craft– This is such a fun and easy Valentine’s Day craft to use when working on scissor skills with kids. The strait lines of the bookmark and curved lines of the heart make it a great activity for kids just working on the basics of scissor skills.

      Valentines day craft for kids

      Heart Butterfly Craft- Work on scissor skills, handwriting, and fine motor skills to make this fun card. The directions to make this Valentine’s Day craft are over here on a guest post we did for Hands On as We Grow. Use this fun craft with a group. It’s a great Valentine’s Day party idea!

      Valentines Day craft for kids to work on fine motor skills and scissor skills

      Valentine’s Day Tea Craft– This Valentine’s Day craft is a fun way to work on scissor skills, handwriting, and fine motor skills. Kids can make this craft as a gift for friends or parents and work on skill development, too.

      More Valentines’ Day Activities

      Try some of these other ideas:

      Valentine’s Day Sensory Bin with Fine Motor Paper

      Valentine’s Day Snacks for Kids

      Valentine’s Day Goop Painting

      Valentine’s Day Fine Motor Sparkle Craft

      Crunchy (Sensory Diet!) Heart Tortilla Snack

      Teach Buttoning with Heart Buttons

      So, what are your favorite ways to work on skills with a holiday theme? Try some of these heart activities at Valentine’s Day parties, at home when making cards for loved ones, or in therapy planning! Have fun!

      Want to add more Valentine’s Day activities and movement tools to your skill-building?

      he Valentine’s Day Fine Motor Kit is here! This printable kit is 25 pages of hands-on activity sheets designed to build skills in pinch and grasp strength, endurance, eye-hand coordination, precision, dexterity, pencil control, handwriting, scissor skills, coloring, and more.

      When you grab the Valentine’s Day Fine Motor Kit now, you’ll get a free BONUS activity: 1-10 clip cards so you can challenge hand strength and endurance with a counting eye-hand coordination activity.

      Valentines Day 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.

      Crayons for Toddlers

      crayons for toddlers

      One question therapists get all the time is about the best crayons for toddlers and specifically which crayons are best to support development. During the toddler years (preschool stage as well), there is a lot of motor and cognitive development happening, making it a great stage to introduce crayons. Let’s talk about the best types of crayons for the toddler years and beyond!

      A lot of the recommendations below are based on the development happening during the toddler years, and the crayon recommendations take hand eye coordination of toddlers into consideration.

      crayons for toddlers
      Crayons for toddlers

      Crayons for Toddlers

      There are many benefits to coloring with crayons and for many toddlers, it is natural to want to color, making it a win-win in building sensory motor skills.

      There is a plethora of  information floating around the web about correct crayons and writing utensils for young people. There are a lot of choices, some great, others not so good.

      When thinking about crayons for toddlers, there is more to it than simply placing a crayon in the palm! Some things to consider include:

      • Coloring with a crayon both develops and requires a grip on the crayon. Forcing coloring too early can promote an immature grasp on the crayon when used in small hands.
      • Coloring offers resistive feedback through the hands by marking the paper. This is a great strengthening activity, but for babies and young toddlers, this can strengthen and add feedback to immature grasps.
      • Likewise, coloring at the toddler stage can be developmentally great when offering the “just right” strengthening and sensory motor feedback needed to move through grasp patterns.

      If you’re thinking about shopping around for the best crayons for toddlers, you’re already in the right frame of mind, because coloring is a tool for creativity that kids need at such a young age.

      Coloring with toddlers is all about the unique shape of the crayons out there on the market that are designed to fit small hands: Think rock crayons, egg crayons, and even something called honeysticks.  

      Do these options surprise you? 

      Then consider the other options out there to worry about:

      • Jumbo crayons vs. Triangular crayons
      • Thick crayons vs. regular sized crayons
      • 96 pack of crayons vs. 8 crayon pack
      • Brands like Crayola crayons vs. Melissa & Doug crayons
      • Washable crayons vs. paraffin wax crayons
      • Pure beeswax crayons vs. crayons with vibrant colors 
      • Non-toxic crayons vs. natural ingredients crayons
      • Large crayons vs. choking hazard sixed crayons
      • Food-grade pigments vs. non-toxic natural wax

      With all of these considerations, how do you choose crayons that make THE very best crayons for toddlers??

      crayons for kids
      Crayons for kids based on development

      Best Crayons for Toddlers

      Before deciding which crayons are best for toddlers, understanding the “why and when” is most important. To do so, we need to run through the developmental stages leading up to toddlers coloring with crayons. This is important because you may see some of the earlier considerations in place when a child is not developmentally ready to color. In those situations, is a good idea to back up and build on skills from a developmental standpoint.

      Birth to one year: This article from Parents magazine highlights the hand development of babies from birth to one year.  In the article it does not mention crayons at all.  

      Why? Because babies’ hands are not ready for crayons of any kind. Crayons for babies exist out there on the market…but it’s just not developmentally appropriate. The hands of babies do not have the muscle control for handling objects like crayons until about 11 months. 

      To prepare toddlers to use crayons to support development, the preparation is a must. Spend the time before the toddler years working on overall fine motor development through picking up objects, self feeding, exploring the environment, cause and effect toys, and dumping objects out of containers. This resource on baby play has a lot of great ideas.

      If crayons are introduced too early, maladaptive grasping patterns will develop.  

      From 12-18 months, the toddler stage, little ones begin to refine their hand development. You’ll see in our resource on fine motor milestones, that there is a lot happening during the toddler years. 

      Around 12 months, children may find it challenging to manipulate small objects with dexterity. At this stage, they are picking up small objects like food pieces with their thumb and pointer finger in a pincer grasp. However, it is difficult for children this age to use dexterity in the fingers of the hand or by isolating fingers or hand separation.

      In six months time, by around 18 months of age, manipulating objects such as toys, utensils, and household objects becomes more coordinated.

      Is it time for crayons yet?  Yes and no. 

      Making marks on paper, and starting to make strokes, but not with pencils or traditional crayons quite yet. 

      Remember, those hand muscles are still very primitive at this point, thus the tools need to be also. Think about how large the knobs on toddler puzzles are, or how chunky beginner spoons are. Writing tools need to be designed the same for little hands.  

      Here are some fine motor and coordination activities to support use of crayons for toddlers:

      Amazon affiliate links are included below.

      • Writing and creating lines with fingers in shaving cream or pudding
      • Finger painting
      • Egg shaped chalk (Amazon affiliate link) like these Egg shaped pieces of chalk fit the whole hand without forcing the fingers to grasp the writing tool
      • Egg shaped crayons like these (affiliate link) also offer resistance when coloring or marking using the whole hand to grasp rather than force a grasp using the fingers which are not ready for that stage yet.
      • Make your own crayons by melting crayons into muffin trays.
      • While there are several iPad apps for writing using finger pointing, research shows children under age 2 should have no exposure to electronics.  Stick with the basics.

      Some coordination activities for 12-18 months can be used to promote eye-hand coordination, proprioceptive input, shoulder stability, and motor coordination. These activities include:

      Children ages 2-3: At this stage of toddlerhood, hand development is starting to become more defined. 

      This is the stage when the young child begins to develop more muscle control needed for precision and dexterity of motor skills in the hand.

      You’ll begin to notice finger isolation, hand separation, and arch development. You’ll also see more refined movements with the thumb in finger opposition. This is where precision in fine motor skills is seen.

      This is also a stage of visual motor growth. Children will begin to integrate the visual input with motor output needed to copy a straight line. A word of caution: at this stage, don’t be concerned with tracing letters or shapes, or copying shapes. Focus is on the simplest of lines: horizontal, vertical lines, circles, and a cross. Read here about pre-writing lines development.

      Is it time for regular crayons yet? 

      Again, yes and no.

      Those tiny hands, while that can certainly hold a regular or chunky crayon, are not ready to do so correctly. The grasp starts out as a gross grasp, then to a pronated grasp, finally ending with a tripod grasp around age 4.

      Children often get stuck in one of these primitive grasping patterns when given crayons too early. A gross grasp is an appropriate stage of hand development, as is a pronated grasp, however the grasping pattern is supposed to continue to develop to a mature tripod grasp over time.

      It often fails when tiny weak hands are holding onto small pencils, crayons, or pens. 

      Coloring can happen, but it’s at the child’s interest, and shouldn’t be forced.

       Here are some crayons for toddlers and preschoolers using this information:

      (Amazon affiliate links included below.)

      • Continue to use the large egg shaped crayons and chalk, as well as finger paints
      • These unusual looking rocket type crayons have a large bulb for palmer grasping that support development but also don’t force young children into holding utensils with an underdeveloped grasp.
      • I also love these crayon rocks for toddlers and preschoolers:
      • Dot markers, while fun and entertaining, also promote the gross and pronated grasps appropriate for this age.
      • Bath finger paints are a great alternative to using crayons.

      Ages 4-5 the preschool age.  Is it time for crayons yet?  Yes!  However, not all children are ready for traditional crayons. 

      One-two inch crayons are the best for children through elementary school.  It is almost physically impossible to get a fist around a one inch crayon. This promotes a tripod grasping pattern.

      During each stage described in this blog post, but especially during the 4-5 age range, don’t feel rushed to put a pencil in the hands of a preschooler. It is common for preschool teachers to think tracing lines, doing simple “prewriting” mazes, tracing their name, and even letter writing activities (including sensory writing trays) is appropriate. Developmentally, it is not. More important at this stage and each stage before, is the PLAY. Play builds the motor, cognitive, sensory, and emotional skills needed for pre-writing. Also read our resource on tracing sheets which needs to be considered for young learners.

      If you have children do not like the idea of broken crayons, there are ready-made flip crayons. (affiliate link)

      What about the chunky crayons? 

      You have probably seen the jumbo sized crayons out there. They are commonly offered to the kindergarten age range. You may have even seen these large, chunky sized option in a triangular shape. 

      However, when it comes to oversized crayons, one size does not fit all. This goes for crayons too. The problem with handing out boxes of large, over-sized crayons to the entire kindergarten class is that, the children that are receiving these boxes of crayons have small fingers, hands, and wrists. 

      In fact, some hands are much too small for chunky crayons, thus leading to more of a gross grasping pattern, or all fingers around the crayon. 

      Other children are able to use a tripod grasp but need a larger size to form this grasp properly. 

      The one benefit to using triangular crayons is that in the classroom setting, they don’t roll across the desk or table and fall on the floor. This is a huge benefit to using the triangular shape because at the kindergarten and first grade age, managing materials as well as body awareness can be a challenge for some kids.

      What about traditional crayons? 

      These can be used if your child has an appropriate grasping pattern such as a tripod, or alternate tripod with two fingers on top.

      The thumb wrap grasp, underwrap, and too many fingers on the writing tool are signs your child is not ready for traditional crayons yet.

      Understanding the why and when behind hand development and tool use, is critical to selecting the correct tools for each stage of development.

      Important note about the ages and stages listed above: Do not rely strictly on the ages above, as children will develop at different ages. These are ballpark ranges for hand development. 

      While it is going to be impossible to convince “the powers that be” to slow down preschool and kindergarten curriculum, being armed with tools and resources will help children be ready to face this onslaught of demands. 

      The OT Toolbox is a great resource for articles, worksheets, printables, crafts, and thousands of ideas and products to work on development.

      *The term, “child” is used throughout this post for readability, however this information is relevant for students, patients, clients, children of all ages, etc. The term “they” is used instead of he/she to be inclusive.

      Victoria Wood, OTR/L is a contributor to The OT Toolbox and has been providing Occupational Therapy treatment in pediatrics for more than 25 years. She has practiced in hospital settings (inpatient, outpatient, NICU, PICU), school systems, and outpatient clinics in several states. She has treated hundreds of children with various sensory processing dysfunction in the areas of behavior, gross/fine motor skills, social skills and self-care. Ms. Wood has also been a featured speaker at seminars, webinars, and school staff development training. She is the author of Seeing your Home and Community with Sensory Eyes.