This pinwheel painting is a creative art idea and sensory painting art activity is one that we actually did YEARS ago. It was such a fun messy, creative art activity and a fun one to add to your summer painting ideas, and I wanted to be sure to show you all! My kids still talk about painting with pinwheels, so we’ll be doing this one again soon, especially now that the weather has warmed and we can get back outside for sensory play with the kids! This is such a fun creative painting activity!
Painting with pinwheels is such a simple and fun outdoor painting activity for summer. Or, if you’re looking for a “letter P” theme for preschoolers, painting with pinwheels would be perfect!
You can definitely take this painting activity indoors, with paper spread over the table surface.
To paint with pinwheels, there is just steps to set up this sensory painting activity:
Set the stage- Find a space to work in the grass or on a table which can be wiped down. This is a messy sensory painting activity! Consider using a wipeable plastic table cloth.
Pour a little washable paint into bowls. (Click here for our favorite paint for it’s bright colors that don’t fade as they dry.)
Prepare your paper or canvas. We used a giant roll of paper for big art.
Dip the pin the pinwheels into the paint.
Roll, blow, spin, and tap the pinwheels onto the paper with color mixing. This is such a fun and creative painting activity!
Sensory Painting Activity
The paint coated pinwheels make the paint spray, especially as kids start getting more into the activity and discover that blowing the pinwheels makes paint spray in super artistic ways!
There are many sensory benefits to this Sensory painting activity:
Oral motor benefits- When children blow out through their mouth with concentrated effort, they are gaining proprioceptive input through their mouth. This is a calming and regulating sensory input that can help to organize and calm down. Read here about the development of oral motor skills. And, check out these oral motor activities for summer play.
Visual Convergence benefits- When we visually track an object as it nears our eyes (such as a pinwheel), and then track it as it moves away from the eyes, visual convergence is occurring. This visual processing skill is needed for functional tasks that we do throughout the day. Here is more information on convergence insufficiency and here are more activities to promote visual convergence skills.
Let us know if you do this Pinwheel Painting art with your kids or your class. More creative sensory painting techniques you may enjoy:
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.
This rainbow sort activity is a fine motor skills idea to help kids sort colors while developing dexterity and precision and learning colors. By sorting the colors of the rainbow into small containers, a rainbow fine motor activity is a colorful way to help kids develop fine motor skills. Add this idea to your rainbow theme in therapy interventions, or home activities for developing motor skills.
Extend this activity and sort the rainbow colors to make a Fruit Loop rainbow craft for more fine motor and visual motor fun.
Rainbow Sort
We have been on a rainbow kick recently and have a ton of rainbow projects going on right now. This color sorting activity was a fun one that the big kids and my toddler really got into.
This rainbow sort activity is easy to set up. All you need is colorful craft pom poms and an ice tray or two. The ice trays are the perfect size for the crafting pom poms.
Preschool Rainbow Activities
This color sorting activity is great for toddlers to develop fine motor skills in the preschool and toddler years. Baby Girl (17 months) got right in there.
In the preschool years, fine motor skills are a precursor for handwriting and pencil grasp. This pre-writing activity is perfect for preschool aged children.
Add this rainbow fine motor activity to the preschool classroom or home by adding tongs, tweezers, or scoops to help kids develop the precision, motor coordination, and eye-hand coordination skills kids need at the preschool age.
Plus, this rainbow sort activity is a great way to teach preschoolers colors, too.
To work on pre-writing skills in other ways, try this rainbow prewriting activity available on a free slide deck.
Tongs are a powerful fine motor tool to use in occupational therapy activities that develop fine motor skills. To elevate this fine motor activity, ask kids to make their own craft stick tongs to manipulate these colorful craft poms. Preschool children can sort the colors using different colored tongs that are easy to make.
She is ALWAYS watching the big kids and copies everything!
Look at that concentration. And that cute little baby belly!
I can’t stand the cuteness!
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.
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.
There are so many ways to include multisensory play in teaching colors to children. Here, you’ll find hands-on, creative ways to teach colors of the rainbow using play that helps kids develop skills, move, and grow. Use these color activities in preschool or to teach toddlers colors. It’s a fun way to develop visual discrimination skills in young children.
Teaching colors and coloring goes hand-in-hand. Our resource on the best crayons for toddlers is a huge help, especially when deciding on the type of crayon to use at the age of teaching colors to toddlers and young children.
I’m including color activities for kindergarten and school-aged children, as well, because this color themes can be used in therapy activities or to help kids develop handwriting, or visual motor skills in the older grades. There is a lot of fun, hands-on activities listed here that help children learn colors and explore through play!
Teaching Colors to Toddlers
Toddler play and development is all about the hands-on exploration of the world. We have a lot of toddler activities designed to develop motor skills and learning here on the website that you’ll want to check out.
To teach colors to toddlers, it’s all about making things fun. These toddler activities will get you started with hands-on development activities.
So many color activities in the toddler years involve sorting colors, identifying colors, and pointing out colors. All of these activities lay the building blocks for visual discrimination that kids will use in reading and writing down the road.
Try these activities for teaching colors to toddlers:
Toddler Color Sorting with Toys– This activity uses toys and items that are found around the home, making the color identification part of every day life. You can use items that the child uses and sees every day.
Teach Color Sorting Activity– This simple color sorting activity is great for families that have a preschooler and a toddler. The preschooler can cut foam sheets and work on scissor skills and then both the preschooler and toddler can sort the paper scraps by color. This is a nice activity that allows siblings to work together to learn concepts and grow skills together.
Color Sort Busy Bag– Toddlers love to drop items into containers, and put things into buckets, bins, and bags…and then take them back out again. It’s all part of the learning process! This color sorting busy bag gives toddlers colored craft sticks or dyed lollipop sticks and has them sort by color. It’s a great activity for developing fine motor skills and coordination, too.
Cup Sorting for Toddlers– This color sorting activity uses items in the home, like plastic toddler cups! There is just something about toddlers playing in the kitchen with baby-safe items…and this one builds pre-literacy and pre-math skills that they will use long down the road…through play!
Talk about colors– Pointing out colors during play, conversation, in reading books, and going for walks…there are so many ways to teach colors to babies and toddlers through everyday conversation. It’s as simple as saying, “look at that blue flower” to add descriptive terms to kids.
Color with painting– Incorporate all of the colors of the rainbow in multisensory activities from a young age. These art play activities incorporates colors into play and learning through art with toddlers.
In the preschool stage, learning occurs through play! These color learning activities are designed to promote learning through hands-on exploration, because those are the ways that learning “sticks”…when hands are busy and developing motor skills that they will later need for holding and writing with a pencil. Let’s look at some ways to teach colors in the preschool years:
Color by Letter Worksheets– These are great for the preschool age because they are getting the exposure to letters in uppercase and lowercase format but not through writing. the coloring builds hand strength and fine motor skills needed in kindergarten and beyond.
Teaching Shapes and Colors with Rainbow Rocks by Fun-A-Day- This activity is fun because it uses the heavy weight of rocks to teach colors and shapes. But, kids are also strengthening their hands and gaining motor feedback about objects as they explore colors and other discriminating factors like weight and size.
Color and shape sorting– This preschool color sorting activity gives kids fine motor experiences with wikki stix. Ask preschoolers to copy the shapes, too for extra fine motor skill building and visual motor integration.
Fine Motor Color Sort– Grab an old spice container or cheese container, and some straws. This color sorting activity lays the groundwork for fine motor skill development and math skills. Kids can count the straws as they drop into the container and work on sorting colors while developing open thumb web space, separation of the sides of the hand and arch strength.
Color Matching Water Bin– This color learning activity is a sensory motor activity that also teaches letters. It’s perfect for preschool and kindergarten or even older grades as kids are immersed in multi- sensory learning with letters and pre-reading skills.
Clothespin Color Match– Children will love this fine motor activity that builds hand strength in a big way.
Bear Sees Colors Book and Activity– We used a snack to explore colors with a beloved preschool book. This is multisensory learning at its finest.
Gross Motor Color Games– There are many ways to explore and teach colors using games. Try some of these to add movement and play into learning colors at the preschool level:
Color I Spy- Call out a color and kids can run to touch something that is that color. Add variations of movement by asking kids to skip, hop, leap, crawl, or bear walk to touch the colors.
Color Simon Says- Call out directions based on clothing colors that kids are wearing. Add as many variations of movement and auditory challenges. This is a great activity for building working memory skills in preschoolers.
Color Tag- Kids can play tag and when they tag another player, they need to say a color for that person to go to. Another variation is having the players who are tagged run to a color that the tagger calls out.
Teach Colors in Kindergarten and older grades
Once children are school-aged, teaching colors doesn’t end. In the school years, children explore color mixing, learning about primary colors, and more. Look at all of these color experiences that kids learn during the school years:
Spelling color names
Learning Primary Colors
Learning secondary colors
Color mixing
Color theory
Color wheel
Complimentary colors
Try some of these color activities for older children:
Color I Spy free therapy slide deck- This color themed scavenger hunt will get kids up and moving, using the items they have in their home as they work on visual perceptual skills, handwriting, and more. Kids can visually scan around their home to match the colors on the slide deck. Then, there is a handwriting component. This is a great slide deck for anyone working on handwriting skills with kids, virtually.
Color Exercises– Use gross motor exercises and stretches as well as fine motor exercises to get kids moving while working on SO many skill areas: bilateral coordination, motor planning, strengthening, core strength, precision, dexterity, visual motor skills…
Rainbow Deep Breathing Exercise– This free printable PDF is super popular. There’s a reason why: kids love the deep breathing activity and We love the mindfulness, coping skills, calming, and regulation benefits. Great for all ages.
Rainbow Binoculars Craft– Kids can use paper towel tubes in a craft that helps them look for and identify colors. Use these rainbow binoculars in visual scanning, visual discrimination, visual figure-ground, and other perceptual skills.
Colored pencils activities– All you need is a couple of colored pencils (or substitute with a regular pencil if that’s all you’ve got on hand) to work on pencil control, line awareness, pencil pressure, and letter formation.
Make crayon play dough– Explore colors with heavy work input through the hands and arms using all the colors of the rainbow. This crayon play dough recipe is a popular sensory recipe here on the website.
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.
This February fine motor activity is a fun way to use an item you probably have on hand: cookie cutters! We used heart cookie cutters and beads to build fine motor skills in a fun and themed way. There’s a lot of learning that happens during activities with kids. We put together this Valentine’s Day busy bag activity as a way to practice fine motor skills and color sorting. It’s another Valentines Day occupational therapy activity that builds essential skills.
You’ll also love our printable Valentine cards for more fine motor work including writing, folding, coloring, and cutting.
Heart Busy Bag Activity
This sorting heart busy bag is a powerful way to improve in-hand manipulation skills. In-hand manipulation is a fine motor dexterity skill needed for tasks like managing clothing fasteners, using a pencil when writing, manipulating items like coins or beads, and more.
Valentine’s Day Busy Bag Activity
Busy Bag Activities are a great way to learn and play during quiet time or down time.
This post contains affiliate links.
We started with a big bin of beads and a few heart cookie cutters. I showed Little Sister (age 3) how to sort the beads by color into the hearts. She had a blast examining each bead and saying “Oh, this one looks pinkish! Oh this one looks purple-ish!”
Fine Motor Valentine’s Day Activity
Manipulating the beads in the big bin to grab certain colors works on some great fine motor skills. You need to pick up the beads with a pincer grasp (tips of the pointer finger and thumb) with fine dexterity.
Once she grasped a bead, Little Sister would “squirrel away” the colors into the palm of the hand. This transfer of beads from the tips of the fingers into the palm of the hand is in-hand manipulation(fingers to palm translation).
Manipulating small items like beads in this way works on the muscles of the hands and is a great way to work on pre-handwriting or handwriting skills. A child needs strength of the intrinsic muscles (the muscles within the hand) to manipulate the pencil and maintain endurance for writing and coloring.
More Fine Motor Heart Activities
The 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.
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.
Did you know you can work on tripod grasp using everyday items found around the home? There are so many ways to improve pencil grasp and the fine motor skills needed for strong hands using materials like cardboard boxes, straws, and other household items. Here, you’ll find fun ways to improve tripod grasp with the items you already have in your home. Also be sure to check out our blog post on grasp patterns, as understanding various grasps can make the process easier.
It’s the everyday items that help a household to run that are seen by children and experimented with in playful ways.
“How fast can I push this basket across the carpet?”
“Can I stab this spoon into the dirt of that potted plant?”
Kids experiment through play and while they are antagonizing the Spider Plant in the corner, they are learning so much. They are building and developing skills that they need for handwriting, buttoning, and cutting with scissors.
Sometimes it’s the everyday household objects that are so much more fun than toys!
Today’s tips use everyday items to work on a fine motor skill that kids need for handwriting: tripod grasp! Recently, I shared with you a series of 31 Days of Occupational Therapy. It was a fun series, and I loved sharing tips using free or mostly free items. Today, I’ve got an activity that almost made the series, but I just ran out of days. This tripod grasp activity is a fun one in our house .
Tripod Grasp with Straws
This post contains affiliate links. This tripod grasp activity was one that we put together one day while cleaning out a cupboard. I shared it over on Instagram recently.
This Peg Board with 1000 Pegs is one that I’ve had in my OT treatment bag for 20+ years. It’s one of my favorite treatment tools for working on so many areas. Push small pegs into the holes to work on in-hand manipulation, tripod grasp, and pincer grip. Copy designs with pegs and work on hand-eye coordination, visual scanning, visual perceptual skills, form constancy, and more. Turn it over and use the back as a mini geoboard with string small loops. Tilt it on a slant and work on an extended surface. This little pegboard has been used by tons of kids working on so many skills. It really is one of my all-time favorite OT activities.
I love that I now get to share this pegboard with my own kids.
We pulled out a handful of straws from a box of juice drinks. These straws were left over from a party where we didn’t use the straws. You could save small straws like this from juice drinks and wash them out. I showed my daughter how to push the straws into the peg holes and she took over, arranging the straws over and over again. We then used cut up pieces of straws and threaded them onto the straw pegs.
Work on tripod grasp with straws
Using a material like straws to develop fine motor strength and dexterity is just one way to work on tripod grasp with everyday items.
Cut a straw into small pieces and thread them onto the juice straws. Picking up the small straw “beads” and threading them onto the juice straws is a great way to work on tripod grasp.
Using the thumb, index finger, and middle finger to pick up small items uses a tripod grasp. This efficient grasp is needed to hold a pencil effectively while handwriting. The small straw pieces require an open thumb web space and defined arches of the hands. What a fine motor workout this is!
Improve tripod grasp with everyday household items
Ok, so say you don’t have juice box straws to use in a pegboard. You can use a variety of other household items in a similar way to work on a tripod grasp.
These are some of my favorite every day items to work on tripod grasp. You might find them in a junk drawer or in a closet somewhere. Use them to work on a tripod grasp and efficient handwriting:
These Colorful golf tees are bright and colorful, and perfect for pressing into stryofoam or thing cardboard.
Straws can be cut into small pieces and used as beads. Thread them onto pipe cleaners, string, or other straws.
Screws, nuts, and bolts are a great way to work on tripod grasp and other fine motor skills like in-hand manipulation and rotation.
Cotton swabs make a great writing utensil. Work on tripod grasp while painting with them.
Use Push Pins to work on tripod grasp like we did here. Watch the pointy end with younger kids!
Use a Kitchen sponge to work on a tripod grasp by cutting the sponge into small squares. Squeeze water to fill a container, or use them to paint.
Want to know how to fix a problem with pencil grasps? Need help knowing where to start when it comes to immature pencil grasps or a child hating to write because their hand hurts? The Pencil Grasp Challenge in open for you! In this free, 5 day email series, you’ll gain information, resources, specific activities designed to promote a functional, efficient pencil grasp.
The pencil grasp challenge is a free, 5 day mini course and challenge. During the course of five days, I’ll be teaching everything you need to know about the skills that make up a functional pencil grasp. You’ll learn what’s going on behind the inefficient and just plain terrible pencil grasps you see everyday in the classroom, clinic, or home. Along with loads of information, you’ll gain quick, daily activities that you can do today with a kiddo you know and love. These are easy activities that use items you probably already have in your home right now.
Besides learning and gaining a handful (pun intended) of fun ideas to make quick wins in pencil grasp work, you’ll gain:
5 days of information related to pencil grasp, so you know how to help kids fix an immature pencil grasp.
Specific activities designed to build a functional pencil grasp.
Free printable handouts that you can use to share with your team or with a parent/fellow teachers.
You’ll get access to printable challenge sheets, and a few other fun surprises.
And, possibly the best of all, you’ll get access to a secret challengers Facebook group, where you can share wins, chat about all things pencil grasp, and join a community of other therapists, parents and teachers working on pencil grasp issues.
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.
You know we like to use materials that are on hand to help kids develop fine motor skills. This snowman craft uses hole reinforcement stickers to make a cute craft that works on fine motor skills. We do a TON of Fine Motor activities here! This Fine Motor Snowman art craft was just the thing to work on a little fine motor dexterity while keeping with our wintery freezing theme! We worked on tip to tip grasp, bilateral hand coordination, and intrinsic muscle strength, while creating our snowmen. Read all about it below!
Pulling the reinforcement stickers from the sheet required bilateral hand coordination to manage the page and pull the sticker off with the other hand. Managing two hands together in a coordinated manner is bilateral hand coordination. This skill is very important for self care tasks such as buttoning and zippering clothing, tying shoes, and handwriting.
We placed the stickers into a snowman by placing one sticker above the others. It was starting to look like a snowman party!
Pinching the small stickers from the sheet required precise fine motor dexterity. Using a tip-to-tip grasp to peel the sticker from the sheet was necessary because the stickers were so small. A tip-to-tip grasp occurs when the ends of the pointer finger and thumb are used to pick up very small items. Think about picking up a needle from a table surface. This can be a very difficult and advanced fine motor skill for some!
Once our snowman were placed on the paper, we painted them with blue paint.
Picking up the glitter and sprinkling activates the small muscles of the hands~ the intrinsic muscles. These are the muscles that allow for strength in the arches of the hands and are very important for endurance in coloring and writing with a pencil. The glitter stuck on the paint and made very sparkly snowmen!
To finish the project, peel the reinforcement stickers away and you’ll find a snowman. Be sure to peel away the reinforcement labels away while the paint is still wet, otherwise it will be difficult to pull them away.
Want more ways to boost fine motor skills with a snowman theme or winter theme? The Winter Fine Motor Kit is on sale now!
This print-and-go winter fine motor kit includes no-prep fine motor activities to help kids develop functional grasp, dexterity, strength, and endurance. Use fun, winter-themed, fine motor activities so you can help children develop strong fine motor skills in a digital world.
More than ever, kids need the tools to help them build essential fine motor skills so they develop strong and dexterous hands so they can learn, hold & write with a pencil, and play.
This 100 page no-prep packet includes everything you need to guide fine motor skills in face-to-face AND virtual learning. Includes winter themed activities for hand strength, pinch and grip, dexterity, eye-hand coordination, bilateral coordination, endurance, finger isolation, and more.
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.
There are many benefits of coloring with crayons in occupational therapy interventions. Coloring with crayons is a fine motor skill that builds other skills. Did you know that the act of coloring with a crayon can help children develop fine motor strength, dexterity, grasp, and endurance in their hands? Be sure to check out this resource on the best crayons, based on development and fine motor skills.
And, coloring skills develop by more coloring. Here’s the thing: occupational therapists use crayons to help children develop fine motor skills, but they also work on the development of coloring skills as a functional task that is part of play, and typical child development. Let’s talk about all of the coloring skills that occupational therapy addresses with a simple box of crayons.
You know that smell, right? It’s kind of waxy and flaky (if that’s a smell…) and so distinctive! If you open a box of crayons that have the little marks of each crayon inside the cardboard box, it has an even stronger smell. Crayons smell like childhood! This post on coloring skills is part of my 31 Days of Occupational Therapy series, where each day is a creative activity using OT treatment materials that are free or almost free.
Fine Motor Skills with Crayons
Crayons are something that most homes have in a pencil box, in an old tin, or in a drawer somewhere. Did you know those childhood memory sticks (aka Crayons) can be used in SO many skill areas?
Consider fine and gross motor strength, tool use, sensory processing, pencil grasp, line awareness, hand-eye coordination, dexterity, endurance, self-confidence, creativity, task completion, and learning objectives like color identification, and color matching. Crayons develop the very skills needed for pencil grasp and carryover of that pencil grasp. Whew! No wonder crayons get worn down to nubs with all of those areas that they are working on!
One tool I love is our color by letter worksheet to support fine motor skills while coloring in a small space.
Benefits of Coloring for Children
There are so many developmental benefits to coloring! It’s more than creating a colorful preschool work of art.
Related Read: Read about how we worked on carryover of pencil grasp and strengthened fine motor skills and so many other areas with our 3 Crayon Challenge activity.
Coloring with crayons Improves Tool Use
Coloring with crayons improves a child’s ability to manipulate tools such as pencils, scissors, utensils, grooming and hygiene tools, and other functional tools with ease. By developing coloring skills, kids have a natural opportunity to explore a writing utensil in a way that is fun and creative.
They can use different colors by placing crayons back into the box with a coordinated manner. To further develop tool use with children, offer a crayon pencil sharpener, a small bin or zippered pouch that needs opening or closing, and a variety of crayon sizes and shapes. All of these can extend fine motor skills with more practice in tool use as well as dexterity.
Coloring with Crayons improves Bilateral Coordination
Bilateral Coordination is a fine motor skill needed for so many tasks. Using both hands together in a coordinated manner is a skill needed for handwriting, scissor use, and many functional tasks. When coloring, a child needs to hold the paper as they color. Using the assisting, non-dominant hand as a stabilizer allows a child to build strength and dexterity in their dominant hand. This skill will carry over to writing tasks, and makes coloring a great activity for kids who are switching hands in activities.
Coloring with Crayons Improves Endurance
Building on the fine motor skill areas, coloring can deepen a child’s endurance in completing writing tasks.
Many times, kids will complain of hand fatigue while coloring. They can build muscle endurance by coloring with the small muscles of their hands and allow for greater endurance when writing, too. To help a child develop hand strength, use coloring!
You can help kids improve hand strength with this simple coloring exercise: Instruct a child how to color in small circles to work on the strength and endurance of the intrinsic muscles. Ask them to fill in the complete circle. To extend the activity, create more circles. This exercise can be extended further by working on a vertical surface such as an easel or by taping the page to a wall. This develops proximal stability at the shoulder girdle as well as core strength, allowing for postural stability in written work.
If a child needs to work on this area, you can show the student how to color on a slanted surface like a slanted table surface or elevated surface. Here is an easy way to create a DIY slant board.
Broken Crayons help with hand strength!
Coloring develops Tripod Grasp
Coloring is a fine motor strengthening tool that many Occupational Therapists recommend and use in treatment sessions. Coloring is a resistive task that provides the small muscles in the hand to work the waxy crayon onto coloring sheets. When a child holds a crayon, they are working on the strength of the intrinsic muscles of the hand.
Using broken crayons requires more work and is a greater strengthening task for kids who need to work on their tripod grasp. For more strengthening, encourage your child to color more resistive surfaces such as construction paper, cardboard, or even sand paper.
Coloring offers sensory input
Coloring with a crayon can be an opportunity to add heavy work through the hands. This sensory feedback is proprioceptive input that “wakes up” the muscles of the hands and can be calming input.
Unlike a marker, children can color lightly or very dark by exerting more pressure. The proprioceptive system comes into play when a child attempts to vary the amount of pressure they are exerting through the crayon.
Coloring with markers just doesn’t provide that resistive feedback that coloring with a waxy crayon does. Markers are smooth and don’t give kids the sensory input that help with learning letters. For a fun twist on letter formation activities, grab a box of crayons!
To help kids write with heavier or lighter pencil pressure when writing, encourage children to shade and combine colors by being aware of how lightly or darkly they are coloring. There is also that crayon scent that children are aware of, either consciously or unconsciously. If you recall the scent of crayons from your childhood, then you know what I’m talking about here!
Coloring Skills Develop Spatial Awareness
Coloring skill development progresses as children gain experience in coloring. By developing coloring skills, kids can improve visual perceptual skills. Spatial awareness is an aspect of perceptual skills.
Visual perception is so important to many functional skills in handwriting: awareness of the body’s position as it moves through space, line awareness, using margins on a page, and writing within a given space. Coloring is a great tool in working on these areas as children color within lines and given spaces.
But sometimes, kids have trouble staying in the lines or coloring in areas without leaving large spaces uncolored. Verbal prompts, highlighted lines, bold lines, thick coloring lines, and physical prompts like raised lines can improve spatial awareness in coloring.
Coloring Skills and Eye Hand Coordination
One reason that coloring in occupational therapy sessions is so well-used as an intervention strategy is the development of eye-hand coordination skills. There are benefits of coloring with crayons when it comes to coordinating vision and motor skills. When writing or coloring, children must coordinate their physical movements with information received from their visual system.
Controlled movements are essential for handwriting, letter formation, and neatness in handwriting. Coloring helps with practicing coordination of the visual input with physical movements of the hands in very small spaces or large areas.
Providing smaller areas of coloring require more controlled movements and dexterity. For difficulties in this area, consider adding boundaries to coloring areas, with darkened and thicker lines or raised boundaries like using Wikki Stix around the coloring area.
Coloring Benefits Creativity and Self-Confidence
Another of the benefits of coloring with crayons involves self-confidence. Coloring inspires creativity in kids. A blank piece of paper and a box of crayons can inspire stories and pictures. Being creative allows a child to build their self-confidence in other areas, especially handwriting and pencil tasks. If you’ve ever received a coloring masterpiece from a child, then you know the pure delight they have when giving a creation they have made. That boost of self-confidence will entice them to complete other paper/pencil tasks.
Coloring helps with Color Identification and Color Matching
Crayons are color! Kids can be encouraged to practice color identification with the bright and vivid colors in a crayon box. Use a color by number activity to work on color matching skills.
These visual discrimination skills, visual scanning, visual attention, and visual memory needed to identify and match colors are part of the visual perceptual skills we talked about above. All of these are needed skills for reading, writing, math, and other higher level cognitive skills.
Coloring in occupational therapy teletherapy
All you need to develop the skills listed above is a simple box of crayons. This makes coloring a powerful tool in occupational therapy teletherapy, because many homes have crayons available.
Working on fine motor skills in teletherapy can be difficult because so many of an occupational therapist’s favorite fine motor tools might not be available. This is where using crayons to work on a variety of skills can be so powerful.
Try some of these teletherapy activities using crayons:
So, now you know the many benefits of coloring with crayons. How can you use crayons in developmental and functional tasks? Let’s explore crayons for various ages and stages.
Toys for Coloring Skills
You’ll want to start by reading this article on the best crayons for toddlers. There, we cover crayons for building coloring skills from the youngest age, and highlight therapist-recommended crayons based on development.
First, start with our free President’s Day coloring pages (great for any US holiday!) and use the coloring therapy toys below.
Here are some creative learning and play ideas that kids will love. Some of these are more pricey than just a box of crayons, but your crayon fan will enjoy using these toys and games and won’t even realize they are working on so many skills!
(We’re including affiliate links.) One of our favorite books is The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Dewalt. This is a book for crayon fans! We grab this book from the library anytime we see it, and it’s got a great message, too. Kids will be inspired to color after reading this book about crayons.
It’s no secret that crayons are a fine motor powerhouse when it comes to developing that tripod grasp! You can use larger crayons for smaller kids or children who need to work on other grasps, like a lateral key grasp, or children who need to work on thumb adduction in functional tasks like scissoring. These ALEX Jr. Tots First Crayons are just the thing to try!
Work on more fine motor skills, like finger isolation when using Finger Crayons.
Kids can get creative and explore sensory play while using crayons in the bathtub.
Do you remember rubbing crayons over fashion design kits as a kid? There is a reason to do this play activity with kids!
This Fashion Design Activity Kit provides proprioceptive input and strength to little hands in a fun and creative way.
With 152 colors, this Crayola Ultimate Crayon Case will give your kiddo a color for every creative whim. This looks so inviting!
There is a coloring book out there for everyone! Even adults can get in on the coloring fun with creative coloring like this Art Nouveau Animal Designs Coloring Book . Color alongside your child for calming and relaxing art time.
For more creative fun, try Dry Erase Crayons right on a dry erase surface. This is a great way to practice spelling words on a resistive surface.
Little artists will love to create their own t-shirt designs using Fabric Crayons . This is a fun way to work on fine motor strength and bilateral coordination. Holding down that cotton t-shirt is a bilateral coordination workout!
Colors Handwriting Kit
Working on handwriting skills in occupational therapy sessions?
Need to help your child with handwriting legibility, letter formation, spacing, and sizing in written work?
Working on handwriting in the classroom and need a fun colors of the rainbow theme for motivating handwriting tasks?
In the 60 page printable kit, you’ll find handwriting worksheets, fine motor activity pages for A-Z, colors “write the room” cards for uppercase letters, lowercase letters, and cursive letters. This kit has evertyhing you need for helpiing kindergarten-2nd grade students with handwriting 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.
Wondering about lateral pinch strength? Hoping to help kids build tip to tip strength? Trying to build pinch strength in general? Here, I am sharing pinch exercises to strengthen pinch strength so that tasks that require strong hands (like coloring without fatigue, or holding the pencil and writing with endurance) can maneuver and manipulate objects. Check out the pinch strength exercises listed here and add these to your hand strengthening activities toolbox. All you need are clothes pins to build muscle strength and pinch patterns in occupational therapy sessions.
Before we get into the pinch exercises below, be sure to bookmark the popular series about Occupational Therapy activitiesthat can be done using free or almost free materials. This post is included in that series, and you will find other activities designed to build skills using everyday materials.
(Affiliate links are included in this post.)
Pinch Exercises for Kids
Today, I’m going back to the early days of my OT career and sharing fun ways to work on a few different hand pinch grasps. For this fine motor activity, we’re using wooden clothes pins…something you probably have in your house or could get for a dollar at the dollar store. There are many pinch grasp tools on the market designed to build pinch strength, but having an easily accessible (and inexpensive) option is key to carryover, use, and feasibility in building strength.
Types of Pinch Grips
Ok, the basics: When you use your hand to do …anything… you’ll use one or more of the different types of pinch grips. These pinch patterns are developed through use. Les cover the types of pinch grips, as well as some common terms when we talk about pinch.
Lateral Pinch Grip (aka Key Pinch Grip)- The thumb opposes the lateral side of the pointer finger. This grasp is used when holding and using a key.
Lateral Prehension Grip– A sub group of the lateral grip type of pinch is the Lateral Prehension Grip. In the lateral prehension grip, the thumb is flexed (bent) and it’s pad opposes the lateral side of the tip of the pointer finger. This grip is used to hold an index card or paper, sometimes.
Three jaw Chuck Pinch Grip– The thumb is flexed (bent) and opposes the pads of the pointer finger and middle finger. Holding a small cap like a toothpaste lid uses this grip. This is the grip used in holding a pencil.
Tip to Tip Grip– The tip of the thumb touches the tip of the pointer finger. The thumb and pointer finger form an circle (or open thumb web space). This grasp is also called a pincer grasp. It is used to pick up small items like cereal or beads. If very small items are picked up (like a needle), a Neat Pincer Graspis being used.
Lateral Grip– Pinching an item between the pointer and middle fingers use this grip. You would use this grip in holding a cigarette. While this is not a functional grasp for kids (obviously), you might see kiddos fiddle with a pencil by holding it between two fingers.
Prehension
Prehension is another common term that you may have heard mentioned. But what is prehension?
The definition of prehension is the act of holding or grasping. The ability to hold and grasp an object in the hand requires prehension of the fingers. Prehension can also refer to the ability to hold a concept or idea in the brain to allow for understanding. Here, we are talking about prehension skills that allow us to manipulate items or objects. We are covering prehension patterns in the way of pinch grips.
To break this down further, prehension can be identified in the different types of pinch grips.
Tip prehension refers to the ability of the tip of the thumb, or the last joint of the thumb (known as the IP joint) to bend in isolation so that the rest of the thumb is stabile while just the last joint bends, or flexes. This tip prehension works in combination with opposition of the thumb as it rotates at the base, in order to oppose the tip of the index finger. Prehension can refer to the precision of grasp in the index finger as it bends at the PIP joint (proximal interphalangeal joint, or the middle joint of the finger), and the DIP joint (distal interphalangeal joint, or the end joint of the finger). This tip prehension is needed for small motor movements such as picking up a button or coin, threading a needle, etc.
There are other types of prehension, like palmer prehension. This dexterity refers to in-hand manipulation, which we cover in other places on this website.
Still other types of prehension are included in each of the pinch grasp patterns described above. Specific motions of the joints related to each pattern, and stability offered by related joints such as the wrist or metacarpophalangeal joints, and the arches of the hand allow for dexterity and precision of grasp…or prehension!
We’ve created a video specifically showing how to target different grasp patterns using clothes pins. These clothes pin exercises are a great way to build hand and finger strength with a few repetitions. Simply clip the clothes pins onto the edge of a sheet of cardboard or cardstock paper for building pinch strength in the fingers.
Watch this video for an example of how to position the fingers on the clothes pins for each pinch grasp: (If you can’t view the video due to blockers on your device, check out the video on The OT Toolbox YouTube channel.)
Pinch Grip Exercises
So, how can you work on these grips in a fun way? Try using something you probably have in your home: Wooden clothes pins. These are a therapy treatment bag staple. You can work on each of the pinch grasps above to improve strength, arch development, open web space, and dexterity using clothes pins.
Lateral Pinch Exercises
Hold the clothes pins between the thumb and the side of the pointer finger, like holding a key. Clip the clothes pins onto an index card.
Hold the clothes pin between the thumb and the side of the pointer finger, like holding a key. Use the clothes pin to pick up an object like a craft pom pom to drop it into a color-coded bowl, cupcake liner, or onto a marked circle on a piece of paper.
Tip to tip Grasp Exercises
Hold the clothes pin between the thumb and the pointer finger. Be sure the tip of the thumb is doing the work. The IP joint of the thumb should be bent. Do several repetitions of this exercise to open and close the clothes pin.
Holding the clothes pin between the tip of the thumb and the tip of the pointer finger, try to clip the clothes pin onto the single page of a book. Then, try to clip the clothes pin onto 10-20 pages of a book. Try to increase the increments and number of pages that are clipped between the clothes pin.
3 Jaw Chuck Pinch Exercises
Hold the clothes pin between the thumb and the pointer finger and middle finger. Clip the clothes pins onto a shirt or edge of clothing. Using both the index finger and the middle finger allows for more strength through the 3 jaw chuck grip pattern, so try clipping items of clothing together, like pairs of socks or two shirts. Clip several clothes pins around the edge of the clothing.
Hold the clothespin between the thumb and the pointer finger/middle finger. Try to clip clothing to a string or clothes line.
Prehension Exercises
All of these exercises listed above can be completed in increasing repetitions. You might notice that the exercises listed include a functional component, like hanging clothes, or play. This is part of what makes occupational therapy, well, occupational! Try to include an aspect of function or daily tasks like painting, moving and manipulating objects with sorting for a learning aspect, or other aspect of independence.
Here are more pinch activities clothes pins:
Use the grips described above in the play and art activities below. Try using different grips while completing the tasks, to work on the grips or skill areas appropriate for your child. Start with these fine motor activities using clothes pins.
Pinch clothes pins along a string.
Line the edges of an index card with clothes pins. Try using the different pinches described above.
Make clothes pins into a superhero craft and pinch them onto strips of paper.
Write letters on each clothes pin and match them to letters written along the edge of a piece of paper in this sight word activity to spell sight words or create a sentence with sight words.
Pinch clothes pins onto a ruler.
Use clothes pins to pinch and grab small items like crafting pom poms, small erasers, or crumbled up pieces of tissue paper.
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.
Pencil grasp development is a common concern for many parents, teachers, and therapists. So often, we see children holding a pencil with all of their fingers wrapped around the pencil, or very awkward pencil grips and wonder what is a typical pencil grasp. But, did you know that children typically progress through pencil grasp development in a predictable pattern? It’s true! Let’s talk pencil grasp.
Secondly, it’s important to note that grasp development, while it can be predictable, can also vary in timing. And when grasp doesn’t follow the progression listed below…it can be ok! In fact, a functional pencil grasp is perfectly fine for children.
Pencil Grasp Development
Grasp development follows three main categories: primitive grasps, transitional grasps, and mature grasps.
Primitive Pencil Grasps
In this beginning pencil grasp, the whole arm moves the pencil. These grasps include two specific grips which are described below:
Palmer Supinate Grasp (a whole hand grasp)
Digital Pronate Grasp
1. Whole Hand Grasp/Palmer Supinate Grasp- (Typically seen between 12 months-1.5 years) Child holds the crayon with their whole hand, with the writing end of the crayon sticking out near their pinkie side of the hand. It looks like they are holding a paint stirrer or potato masher.
2. Digital Pronate Grasp/ Pronated Wrist Grasp- (2-3 years) Crayon is held in the hand so the tip of the crayon (or the drawing end) is held on the thumb side of the hand.
Transitional Pencil Grasps
In the transitional pencil grasp stage, the child’s forearm and/or wrist moves the pencil.
1. Quadrupod Grasp, or Four Fingered Grasp- (3-4 years)- Crayon is held between their thumb, and tips of the pointer finger, middle finger, and ring finger. As the child progresses, these four fingers may pull down to the tip of the finger into a quadrupod grasp.
2. Static Tripod Grasp- (3.5-4 years)- Child holds the writing utensil with the thumb, pointer finger, and rests the utensil on the last joint of the middle finger. The ring finger and pinkie fingers are tucked into the palm of the hand.
3. Other grasp patterns- There can be many variations of grasp patterns that occur in the transitional stage, marked by the use of the wrist or forearm to move the pencil.
Mature Pencil Grasps
In the mature pencil grasp stage, the child holds and maneuvers the pencil using mobility in the fingers or the hand.
Mature grasp patterns include:
Dynamic Tripod Grasp
Lateral Tripod Grasp
Dynamic Quadrupod Grasp
Lateral Quadrupod Grasp
1. Dynamic Tripod Grasp- (4-6/7 years) Thumb and pointer finger hold the pencil as it rests on the last joint of the middle finger. Pencil movements occur via manipulation of the fingers and hand. Note that a true dynamic tripod grasp may not be established up until around 14 years of age.
2. Lateral Tripod Grasp- Thumb is pressed in against the pencil (or adducted) to hold the pencil against the side of the pointer finger. The tip of the thumb may bend over (or flex) over the pencil in a “wrapped” position. This grasp is sometimes called a thumb wrap grasp because the thumb is not involved with the distal movement of the pencil. Distal mobility occurs, but it is the index and middle fingers manipulating the pencil.
3. Dynamic Quadrupod Grasp- Grasp is similar to the dynamic tripod grasp, but opposition includes the thumb, pointer finger, middle finger on the pencil shaft.
4. Lateral Quadrupod Grasp- Grasp is similar to the lateral tripod grasp, with its thumb wrapped positioning of the thumb, but uses the pointer, middle, and ring fingers are on the pencil shaft and manipulate the pencil.
Quadrupod Grasp
One thing that is important to mention is the quadrupod grasp. You might have noticed this term was mentioned a few times above, and in difference areas of development through the progression of pencil grasp development.
The quadrupod grasp is considered a four finger grasp, in which four fingers (thumb, pointer finger, middle finger, ring finger) are used to hold the pencil. Quadrupod grasp progresses from a static form to a dynamic form where there is fluid motion and repositioning in the joints of the hands.
Quadrupod Grasp- If the thumb opposes the pointer finger, middle finger, and ring finger this may be called a quadrupod grasp. A quadrupod grasp can also occur with the pencil resting on the side of the ring finger.
The quadrupod stage is an important part of grasp development as the fingers move into a dynamic position with pronation and extension of the wrist. However, don’t get stuck on a quadropod grasp if this type of grip is used with older children or if students are established with their quadrupod grasp!
Quadrupod grasp or Tripod Grasp?
Research tells us that the quadrupod grasp is a very functional grip and the use of one extra finger (as opposed to the traditional sense of a tripod grasp) is actually very functional in written work.
Some may say that the quadrupod grasp is more restrictive than the tripod grasp, however that extra stability can actually promote more mobility in the pencil and be used in very efficient and effective handwriting.
When the child that the uses a quadrupod grp on the pencil is forced to use a tripod grasp, you may see a decrease in written work legibility due to decreased stability. The arches of the hands may need to compensate for strength and dexterity in the fingers and that precise placement that the ring finger adds to the shaft of the pencil just isn’t as targeted with the arches of the hand and the stability offered through the ulnar side of the hand. For those who have the stability in the ulnar side and within the arches or intrinsic muscles, a tripod grasp can be more precise and lead to more refined pencil motions.
So you can see that it all is up to each individual when it comes to forcing a student to move from quadrupod to tripod. It just may not make sense to do so for some…and that’s ok and very functional!
Other Functional Pencil Grasps
There are other grasps that can be considered “functional” in which the child holds the pencil differently than described here, but can also write in an efficient manner.
These can include (but not be limited to) a thumb wrap grasp, thumb tuck grasp, inter-digital brace grasp, or a finger-wrap grasp.
How to help with pencil Grasp
Want to know more about pencil grasp progression, development, and strategies to use to help children build a strong, efficient, and functional pencil grasp? It’s all in the Pencil Grasp Bundle!
The Pencil Grasp Bundle is for those struggling to help students with carryover of skills. It’s designed to make pencil grasp practice meaningful and motivating. The Pencil Grasp Bundle is 16 pencil grasp resources, guides, worksheet sets, and tools.
Pencil Grasp Success Was Never Easier.
It can be a real struggle to help kids address tricky pencil grasps. It is frustrating and difficult to weed through all of the information and pull out what will work for a child.
You struggle with kids who work on skills but can’t carryover handwriting and pencil grasp into the classroom.
Therapists may search for fresh ideas to address pencil grasp needs and wonder whether a grasp is considered functional or needs changing.
Therapists need pencil grasp screening and educational materials to address a huge influx of therapy referrals.
Parents wonder about development and skills.
Teachers will love the Centers activities to incorporate into learning to impact carryover of handwriting skills.
The Pencil Grasp Bundle includes 16 products and is valued at over $73. It’s bundled together and offered at just $24.
More pencil grasp help
Want to know how to fix a problem with pencil grasps? Need help knowing where to start when it comes to immature pencil grasps or a child hating to write because their hand hurts? The Pencil Grasp Challenge in open for you! In this free, 5 day email series, you’ll gain information, resources, specific activities designed to promote a functional, efficient pencil grasp.
The pencil grasp challenge is a free, 5 day mini course and challenge. During the course of five days, I’ll be teaching everything you need to know about the skills that make up a functional pencil grasp. You’ll learn what’s going on behind the inefficient and just plain terrible pencil grasps you see everyday in the classroom, clinic, or home. Along with loads of information, you’ll gain quick, daily activities that you can do today with a kiddo you know and love. These are easy activities that use items you probably already have in your home right now.
Besides learning and gaining a handful (pun intended) of fun ideas to make quick wins in pencil grasp work, you’ll gain:
5 days of information related to pencil grasp, so you know how to help kids fix an immature pencil grasp.
Specific activities designed to build a functional pencil grasp.
Free printable handouts that you can use to share with your team or with a parent/fellow teachers.
You’ll get access to printable challenge sheets, and a few other fun surprises.
And, possibly the best of all, you’ll get access to a secret challengers Facebook group, where you can share wins, chat about all things pencil grasp, and join a community of other therapists, parents and teachers working on pencil grasp issues.
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.
