Occupational therapists work with fine motor development as a cornerstone of treatment. With the current trend toward STEM education, it makes sense to blend the two into fine motor STEM activities and treatment in order to be more efficient and effective.
What is STEM?
STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and mathematics. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, STEM occupations are growing at 24%, while other occupations are growing at 4%. Children in the United States score lower on science and math than students in other countries.
The push for STEM curriculum helps bridge the gap between genders and races, that are sometimes found in science and math fields. Students with special needs also lag in these academic areas. Research shows there are not enough students pursuing science, technology, engineering, or mathematic degrees, as compared to the available jobs.
According to the National Science Foundation, “In the 21st century, scientific and technological innovations have become increasingly important as we face the benefits and challenges of both globalization and a knowledge-based economy. To succeed in this new information-based and highly technological society, students need to develop their capabilities in STEM to levels much beyond what was considered acceptable in the past.”
Why Fine Motor and STEM?
Science, technology, electronics and mathematics do not just involve cognitive ability. Fine motor skills are needed for STEM careers that involve typing, building, writing, solving equations, experimenting, research, surgery, as well as everyday function.
STEM fine motor activities are going to be much more important to build these important skills. As technology gets more scientific and advanced, so too will the need for precise fine motor skills. Surgeries are much more advanced than 100 years ago. Engineers are working on tiny circuits and micro computers.
I saw a BMW prototype last week that morphs from a car to a plane that can soar over traffic! Imagine the dexterity it takes to build that kind of machine!
When should I start working on STEM fine motor activities?
Caregivers start addressing fine motor skills in babyhood. Encouraging a passion for science and technology can start at the same time.
Selecting a few fine motor toys for young learners that address fine motor skills while developing STEM education.
For example, check out this super cute (Amazon affiliate link) Frog Balancing Game that can be modified for many different levels of learners. This one game involves:
math – counting, sorting, adding, number recognition
science -measuring weight, comparison
fine motor skills – pick up and manipulate the small objects, hold the cards
visual motor skills – read the cards and process the information
How do I make this transition to fine motor STEM?
Change is hard. Especially for seasoned therapists who have used a certain system for a long time, or feel that what they are doing works. The good news is, you have already been doing STEM fine motor activities with your learners.
On The OT Toolbox, we share tons of fine motor activity ideas to incorporate STEM into fine motor treatment. Occupational therapists do not usually correlate these activities with STEM, but they fit into both categories.
Remember pegboard Geo Boards? This classic game builds fine motor strength, following directions, coordination, motor planning, visual motor skills, visual perception, frustration tolerance, and executive function. It ALSO addresses math using measurement, shape recognition and patterns; science learning about rubber bands and tension; and engineering to create patterns from a picture.
Fine motor STEM and Lego
Legos are another classic toy. Use activity analysis to break this game down into its fine motor components, as well as incorporating math, engineering, or technology.
There is more to LEGO bricks than being able to follow a diagram to make a Harry Potter Hogwarts Castle (love this by the way!). Speaking of the Hogwarts castle, there was definitely math, engineering, AND fine motor skills needed to build that superstructure.
Learners can also make graphs of their LEGO, use them for adding/subtracting, use engineering to create items with moving parts, and that is just the beginning.
By thinking outside the box, learners with special needs can find their special ability using Legos also.
Fine motor and STEM activities do not have to include experiments, games, and hands-on activities. Worksheets serve the purpose of addressing both categories very well.
The OT Toolbox has great fine motor kits for each season that incorporate math and science along with addressing those needed fine motor skills.
As a seasoned therapist myself, I may dig my heels in at the idea of changing the way I do treatment, or learning a new method. I give a heavy sigh of relief knowing I have been doing STEM all along. I just didn’t call it that.
Even though occupational therapists are providing the right activities to work on goal achievement, they may be running into students with lack of motivation, refusal, and general dislike of many of the treatment ideas asked of them.
Teachers and therapists need to help bridge this gap early on, and find a way to teach all learners a respect for STEM and fine motor education.
You are doing a great job incorporating what you already know, into something new!
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.
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:
Life skills-cooking does not mean learning to make gourmet meals. It means meal preparation to survive. No teenager should go off to college without the means to cook Ramen, macaroni and cheese, cereal, and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Add pizza and Taco Bell to their meal plan, and voila, a complete teenage diet! Life skills tasks like cooking is an essential Instrumental Activity of Daily Living that occupational therapy professionals address.
The goal for any caregiver should be to help their child be independent enough to live alone, or at least care for themselves.
Learning independence and life skills, starts at a very young age. Toddlers learn how to dress themselves, basic hygiene, and where to put their belongings. As they become school aged, children need to learn higher level life skills such as laundry, cleaning, grooming, and cooking.
For some kids that struggle with manipulating utensils as a result of fine motor, visual motor, or cognitive skills, these cooking activities can support development. This is especially true with learning to hold a fork and spoon as well as using utensils to self-feed and cut with a knife and fork, safely.
Life skills Cooking activities
Life Skills Cooking activities not only teach important meal preparation, they address a wide variety of areas.
We’ve covered a bit about the benefits of cooking in previous blog posts:
Reading a recipe – scanning, reading, decoding, processing language
Following directions including sequencing, working memory, problem solving
Fine motor skills are needed to use utensils, cut with a knife, stir, scrape with a spatula, use tongs, crack eggs, spread an item, or scoop food
Bilateral coordination – pouring from a container, holding an item while cutting with the other hand, holding a pan steady while stirring or flipping objects, opening containers, putting items together
Attention to details, timing, frustration tolerance, organization
The thing about cooking and baking tasks is that these are daily life skills that need to be done to survive. Then there is the cleaning aspect of cooking tasks. These chores can be complicated by executive functioning skill deficits. Check out our resource on chores and executive functioning skills for support.
The amount of skills addressed during cooking activities is a great incentive to use them in your treatment sessions, while working with learners of all levels. While it is not essential for all of your learners to be able to bake a cake, look at all the skills it addresses!
Sometimes I ask myself why I am teaching a learner to bake a cake, when it is not a basic necessity. Then I am reminded of the core skills it teaches to be able to move onto higher level cooking activities.
A learner who can not follow a basic recipe on a box, will struggle to read from a cookbook. Someone who can not mix two to three ingredients, will struggle to work with seven in a salad.
The OT Toolbox has a great collection of resources called, Cooking with Kids. It is full of recipes and cooking ideas.
It’s great when you find recipes that have different steps that can be offered to kids when helping in the kitchen. For example, our Greek turkey burger recipe has different steps that can be offered to target specific skills: chopping, slicing, stirring, mixing, scooping, grilling.
Life Skills Cooking ideas
Use these ideas as cooking tasks for learners to start off with. The cooking tasks listed below are great beginner cooking tasks to support development.
Cake from a mix- easy to follow directions with minimal ingredients. Tasty results!
Muffin mix- Martha White and Jiffy Mix often just call for milk and possibly an egg
Macaroni and cheese- this works on a plethora of skills as mentioned above, it is yummy, and a staple for children and young adults. Add some meat and a vegetable, and your learner can have an entire meal
Cookies- start with the ones that are pre formed, or slice and bake
Ramen Soup- what could be simpler than heating noodles and water on the stove or microwave? Again, easy to learn, low cost, filling, delicious, and can be served plain, or with add-ins such as meat or veggies
Pancakes and waffles are a great staple that work on many skills, using limited ingredients. You can use a mix to grade down the activity or use a homemade pancake recipe to offer more opportunities for measurement and pouring.
Sandwich preparation– Sandwiches are a great basic item that involves problem solving, sequencing, following directions, and fine motor skills. This is a safe option for learners to make on their own, as they do not have to use a heating element, and can spread items with the back of a spoon instead of a knife for added safety.
Frozen dinners- early or lower level learners may need to spend time working on making frozen dinners using the microwave. While this seems like a simple task, it still involves several steps, including problem solving and judgment.
Rainbow Smoothie- This is a great way to add different fruits as nutrition but also a way to practice slicing bananas, chopping different textures, pouring liquid, managing buttons on a blender, and using safety strategies: blender buttons, placing the lid, using a knife, reaching into a blender, plugging in a kitchen utensil, washing dishes, etc.
Beyond the Basic Cooking Activities
Once your learner has mastered a few basic skills, it might be important or relevant to teach these next level skills. If your learner is not likely to ever need these skills, you can continue to work on mastery of basic food items.
Cooking vegetables like potatoes, carrots, broccoli
Grilling meat, either on an actual grill or countertop grill. The George Foreman grill is relatively easy to use
Using a crock pot to make a soup or stew
Baked goods: making cookies or muffins from scratch
Cooking meals that involve more than one pan. Learning to time spaghetti and sauce, or meat and vegetables
Sensory Based life skills Cooking Activities
Cooking is a great way to engage sensory seekers and avoiders. It is helpful to work with picky eaters on cooking, as well as those with tactile sensitivity. Making food can be motivating. as your learner may be more excited to try something they have created.
Pizza – mixing, kneading, rolling, pounding, stretching the dough. Touching the toppings adds different sensory components
Pretzels – similar to pizza, learners have fun creating pretzel shapes
Cut out cookies – rolling, cutting, sprinkling, and tasting
Meatballs – mixing, rolling the meat into balls
Salad – handling different items, cutting, sorting, and preparing
Lasagna – while this might not be a young learner’s favorite, it is a messy task that involves several textures
Tips and Strategies for teaching Life Skills cooking
These tips are helpful for all learning, not just cooking.
Break the tasks down into smaller chunks to make them more manageable. The learner may not be able to do all the cooking, but can probably stir items in a bowl or pour ingredients
Choose times for learning when there is not a rush. Learners cannot work under pressure
Set realistic expectations. Your two year old might not be able to make a sandwich independently. That’s ok, they can help find the ingredients
Accept mediocracy. Learn to accept food might not look or taste the best.
Before starting, think about any sensory/motor/logistical components of the task and problem solve through them
Backward or forward chain. Backward chain would be to do all of the work for your learner, then have them come in and finish the final step. This offers a sense of accomplishment. Forward chaining is having your learner do the first step, just before they become overwhelmed, you finish for them. This gives confidence that they can do some of the tasks, if not all
There are many steps for a learner to remember during any life skills task
Minimize distractions and sensory input prior to starting
Stay calm and do not add more pressure
Let your learner do for themselves, only intervene when they start to get upset. Do not rush to fix everything so quickly. They will not learn that there is a problem if you constantly fix the errors before they notice the problem
Give the learner opportunities to be independent, even at a small task
If your learner has sensory related concerns, the OT Toolbox has a great resource called the Sensory Lifestyle Handbook, with checklists and strategies to weave sensory activities into your learner’s day
Life skills checklist
Cooking skills can be developed from a very young age. These cooking tasks listed below promote cognitive development, direction-following, decision making, motor skill work, and many other areas.
Important things to note:
We’ve separated these tasks into ages, but this is a generalized list of ages. Some kids will not accomplish the tasks listed below, and that’s ok! It’s a way to know where and when to work on age-appropriate cooking activities with kids.
This list is also not necessarily guided by age. While ages are listed below, the cooking tasks can be viewed as a sequential progression based on cognitive skills needed, safety considerations, executive functioning development, etc. Look at the list as a guide to progress toward life skills achievement in the area of cooking skills.
When you view the cooking life skills checklist below in that way, it can be used to support life skills development for any age, including teens, adults working toward more independence with cooking abilities.
Toddler Cooking Skills
Generally these tasks can be accomplished from 1-2 years of age, during the toddler years.
Help rinse fruit and veggies
Pour with assistance
Tear lettuce and other leafy foods
Stir with assistance
Brush butter or olive oil on foods
Retrieve and sort ingredients in the kitchen
Sort ingredients
Turn pages in recipe book
Obtain utensils when setting the table
Help identify items in the grocery store
Help wipe up safe spills
Drain small canned foods with drainer
Sprinkle seasonings or cheeses
Dipping food items into sauces, oils, etc.
Learn essential safety rules in kitchen
Open/close cabinet doors and drawers
More specifically, some cooking skills broken down by age include:
2 Years
Stack cups
Place utensils into a basket or caddy (not sorted)
Wipe up spills with direction and support
Bring dinner plate to sink
Passive participation in cooking (playing in the kitchen while an adult is cooking)
Pretend play cooking with toys, kitchen toy set, etc.
Preschool Cooking Skills
During the preschool years, young children are developing more motor skills, behavioral and emotional regulation, and cognitive processes. These relate to less support with some of the previous tasks, as well as more independence with others.
Some ways your preschooler can help in the kitchen:
Rinse fruit and veggies
Pour liquids and dry ingredients with assistance
Tear lettuce and other leafy foods
Stir with assistance
Brush butter or olive oil on foods
Retrieve and sort ingredients in the kitchen
Sort ingredients
Obtain utensils when setting the table
Help identify items in the grocery store
Find recipe in recipe book
Help wipe up safe spills
Drain small canned foods with drainer
Sprinkle seasonings or cheeses
Dipping food items into sauces, oils, etc.
Learn essential safety rules in kitchen
Broken down into age group, try using these cooking tasks to develop skills:
3 YEars
Sort utensils into a caddy
Help set the table, using support and visual/verbal cues
Wash hands before a meal
Help clear the table
Pretend play to feed and cook for baby dolls or toys
4 Years
Set the table
Dry dishes (non-breakable)
Pour water from a pitcher into cups (not filled completely) with spilling
Help with cooking with one step directions: gathering ingredients, pouring, mixing, kneading, stirring at a counter
Cut dough with cookie cutters
5 Years
Help to make snacks
Scoop dry ingredients
Open containers with assistance
Slice bananas or other soft fruits
Elementary Cooking Skills
As children gain more precision and dexterity, as well as ability to read and write, they gain more independence in cooking tasks. These activities can be a great help around the home as the child aged 6-8 helps out in the kitchen.
Cut and dice fruits and vegetables
Use the toaster
Crack eggs with some shells
Preheat the oven
Use a can opener
Use a peeler and corer for potatoes and apples
Spoon and place food items into pans or trays
Begin to stir food on stovetop with supervision
Help make the grocery list
Clean up simple to moderate spills
Transfer food bowls and plates to table
Help make a grocery list and identify food items at the store recognizing cost
Begin to read recipes and follow the steps with guidance
Whisk and if older, use a mixer with guidance
Use the microwave with support
Help load and unload the dishwasher
Broken down by age, these cooking tasks can look like:
The cooking tasks listed below can be started with older kids. This list is a great place to start for the teen or young adult who hasn’t had much experience in the kitchen. For graduates heading off to college, or the young adult going out on their own, go through this list to ensure life skill development in the kitchen:
9- 12 Years
Make scrambled eggs
Cook hot dogs
Read and understand nutrition labels
Plan a balanced, healthy meal for the family
Write down a recipe
Complete cooking tasks in a certain amount of time
Use a microwave with assistance
Cut, slice, and dice fruits and veggies
Crack eggs without shells
Use a can opener, peeler, grater, whisk, and corer
Drain larger food items
Follow basic recipes
Complete baked good recipes with guidance
Make sandwiches and salads
Use stove top to complete simple frying such as grilled cheese and eggs
Stir and sauté foods on stovetop with supervision
Help plan and develop a grocery list
Clean up advanced spills
Transfer some hot food bowls and plates to table
Help to identify food items at the store recognize cost
Begin to read recipes and follow the steps with guidance
If older, use a mixer with guidance
Use the microwave with guidance
Load and unload the dishwasher
13 Years and older
Slicing raw meats with various knives and utilizing hygiene safety
Chopping ingredients using various knives
Using stove top and oven
More independence with making recipes
Using various kitchen appliances such as mixers, blenders, grills, wok, grater, etc.
Complete operation of dishwasher
Frying foods on stove top
Use a peeler, chopper and corer
Retrieving hot items from stove top and oven with oven mitts
Planning a meal, building a grocery list, and shop with guidance in budget awareness
Clean up significant spills utilizing proper sanitation
Transfer got food bowls to table
Reading and completing multi-step recipes
Here is another great checklist from the Focus on the Family website.
Common Pitfalls with Cooking tasks
There will be roadblocks with unexpected twists and turns along the way. Expect these, and learn to adapt quickly as needed. Here are a few:
What if the timer goes off but the item is not yet ready?
The timer has not gone off yet but the item is clearly burning
Your learner adds too much or little of an ingredient (hopefully they will learn from mistakes or the item will still taste ok)
There are multiple items to attend to at once, and your learner forgets something
The item ends up a complete disaster
You realize there are some serious safety concerns (learner does not understand how hot something is, or how to handle hot objects)
These examples come from my personal experience. I did not think of these variables that ended up happening in my sessions. I had to learn to let go of some control, as long as my learner was safe. There were definitely some mistakes and disasters.
True story: I worked with a sixteen year old for several months. One of her main goals was life skills cooking. She had difficulty with problem solving. I decided to let her make mistakes, so she could learn from them. I figured that a cup of salt instead of sugar, or a cup of oil instead of a quarter cup, would ruin an item enough to teach her to be more careful. It turned out by some miracle, each of these items turned out ok! They tasted fine to her, and she could not tell there was a mistake. That was one of those life lessons for me, to learn to back up and let go of some control.
Cooking Tips
Start early
Practice
Be realistic (your learner may never want to learn to cook more than Ramen, PBJ and Mac&Cheese)
Create room for error and problem solving
Mix things up so your learner can learn to be flexible
Do not be that parent who sends their teenager off to college with zero life skills
Even the lowest level or smallest learner can often help with some part of the task if they can not do it themselves (I work with a boy whose job is to watch the baby and yell when she wakes up)
Cooking with learners can be a fun AND yummy treatment session!
Use a picture story sequence to work on individual tasks of cooking. This is a great strategy for all aspects of cooking life skills!
For the record, my daughters went to college well prepared in the life skills department. The common sense department was clearly lacking (the prefrontal cortex does not develop until mid 20’s). My stepson, on the other hand, has neither life skills, nor common sense. Bless his heart!
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. 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.