BLANK WORD SEARCH

blank word search

What better way to work on visual perceptual skills AND handwriting, than by adding this blank word search template to your treatment plans? If you’ve seen some of the other St. Patrick’s Day activities on the site this week, then you can add this activity to your March OT lesson plans.

This blank word search is great for visual perceptual skills and handwriting skills.

The OT Toolbox has a lot of St. Patrick’s Day activities including this blank word search template.

Plus you’ll find more free downloads in our Spring Activities headquarters.

BLANK WORD SEARCH TEMPLATE

When my girls were young, I was forever searching for ways to make their homework more fun, especially while learning spelling words.  Straight repetition and memorization might work for some learners, but for the rest, there needs to be more engaging ways to improve working memory for retention of information.

How can you use this blank word search worksheet?

What I love about simple worksheets like this blank word search PDF template, is the flexibility and usability it offers. 

By thinking outside of the box, dozens of treatment ideas can be created!  (This type of activity analysis would be a great project for therapy students or new teachers).

  • Use current spelling words on your learner’s list for the clues to the wordsearch
  • Add thematic words to your grid (winter, animals, foods, colors, clothing)
  • Write random letters in the grid and use this as a scanning task (find all the A’s)
  • Have learners create a grid for other students to use. This works on critical thinking skills, as well as promoting neatness and accuracy
  • Use the printable blank template as a grid for working on letter sizing, letter formation, and neatness
  • Work on speed and dexterity by seeing how many letters/dots/numbers they can write in a given amount of time
  • Use dot markers for accuracy either with a blank grid or while searching for letters or words
  • Laminate the page for reusability and eco friendliness
  • Extend the activity by having students write a sentence after finding each word, draw a picture, or define the words
  • Younger learners do not need to be able to read or spell these words, this will be a copying and visual memory task for those who can not read
  • Try presenting this without including a word bank.  See how many words your learners can find without clues, or remember what words are on their spelling list
  • Enlarge this template onto a smart board for group work, encouraging students to come to the board, and write vertically
  • What other ideas can you come up with?

What is your objective using this blank word search?

As always, shift your focus and observations toward the skills you are building.  In this task it could be:

  • Fine motor: letter formation,  handwriting, grasping, copying from a model
  • Visual perception:scanning, figure ground, visual memory
  • Sensory: arousal level, pressure on paper/pencil, seating position
  • Speed and dexterity
  • social/emotional skills, following directions, frustration tolerance
  • Executive function: organizing work, work completion, task analysis
  • Strengthening, bilateral coordination
  • Any combination of the above, or something entirely different

If your main objective is visual perception, check out this huge visual processing bundle offered in the OT Toolbox.

what and how to document session using this blank word search page

Using this blank word search in therapy sessions covers a variety of areas and goals. But how do you document? And what do you look for when using a tool like this in therapy sessions?

Here are a few things to watch for when learners use this resource:

  • Document in real numbers, percentages, and actual data
  • Accuracy of finding the words
  • Timing for finishing the task
  • Amount of physical and/or verbal assistance
  • Grasping pattern 
  • Sensory skills/problems
  • Behavior, social function

The resources available for individuals/members visiting the OT Toolbox, are great for new teachers/therapists who feel overwhelmed, needing an organized direction for making awesome treatment plans.

Don’t forget seasoned professionals who are burned out, or looking for quick and easy printables, PDF templates, and activities.  Whatever category you fit in, whether you are a professional or parent, the OT Toolbox has you covered!  

more ideas for your St. Patrick’s Day themed lesson plan

Sticking with the winter theme and tired of Frozen songs and worksheets? Try our Spring Fine Motor Kit full of flowers, butterflies, rainbows, and Spring fun. These reproducible activity pages include: pencil control strips, scissor skills strips, simple and complex cutting shapes, lacing cards, toothpick precision art, crumble hand strengthening crafts, memory cards, coloring activities, and so much more.

Understanding why you are doing treatment, what goals you are working on, how to assess and grade each task, document the lesson plan, and troubleshoot the activities, are the most difficult (and important) parts of treatment.  Picking a worksheet is easy, knowing how to use it is where skill is involved.  That is why it is so awesome that these tools are readily available.  No need to keep reinventing the wheel.  

Use the resources available to you at the OT Toolbox, or wherever else you search for quality materials, then take a moment of free time to listen to the Spring raindrops. Grab those Spring fine motor printables, then settle in with a book and a cup of cocoa.

Free Blank Word Search

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 Blank Word Search

    We respect your privacy. Unsubscribe at anytime.

    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.

    *The term, “learner” is used throughout this post for consistency. This information is relevant for students, patients, clients, preschool, 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.

    Shamrock Directionality Maze

    Shamrock directionality maze

    No matter how evolved my directionality is, I will never be able to understand “turn west out of the car park” Wait what?  Directionality is being able to follow or discriminate left and right, top and bottom.  Today’s post is offering a Shamrock Directionality Maze freebie to work on both of these skills.  This is especially important when learning to write or read left to right. 

    Following a map with oral or written directions is much more difficult without the understanding of left and right. Try playing Simon Says with a group of your learners.  This will quickly help point out the directionally challenged right away. 

    Before assuming your learner can not learn visual perception, work on teaching and training the eyes and brain to perceive the difference between items. There are ways to accommodate for this deficit, however, try practice first.

    Today’s Shamrock directionality maze goes really well with our other St. Patrick’s Day Activities free resources for this time of year:

    Can your learner see?

    When addressing vision and visual perceptual deficits, it is important to rule out visual acuity issues before addressing perceptual difficulties.  What might appear to be difficulty learning because of perception, may simply be that your learner is not able to see the words correctly. Glasses are a much simpler fix than working out visual perceptual delays.

    types of visual perception

    There are seven different types of visual perception.  Each plays a key role in visual development.  This Shamrock Visual Discrimination Maze focuses on visual discrimination and directionality.

    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!

    making this shamrock directionality maze purely visual perceptual

    In order to make this purely a visual perceptual activity, any type of writing or coloring needs to be eliminated.  Adding a fine motor skill, while an excellent way to use this visual discrimination maze, muddies your data.  While making this purely a visual perceptual task, prepare your page by coloring all of the items exactly the same, or leaving them all plain, and laminating the page.  Ask your learner to use their finger to follow the direction of the maze.

    Testing Visual Perception with classic tests such as the Motor Free Visual Perception Test (MVPT), eliminates writing or letter recognition, by asking learners to point, or otherwise indicate the correct answer.

    Teaching kids to follow the directions they need to physically move right, left, up, down requires development of spatial concepts such as spatial reasoning. This can be a real challenge for some kids! 

    Many treatment sessions focus on more than one goal. This is more functional and relevant to classroom objectives than isolating skills.  Worksheets like the Shamrock Discrimination Maze encompass more than one skill such as coloring, cutting, gluing, reading, following directions, etc. Add fine motor skills to this free worksheet, by asking your learner to follow the maze with their writing tool, then color the shamrocks as they follow the path.

    We’ve shared directionality activities before that help kids navigate and use maps with movement.

    Other ways to use this Visual Discrimination Activity:

    • Laminate the Shamrock Directionality Maze to make it reusable.  This is efficient, wastes less resources, and learners love markers! Note: not all learners love reusable pages. Some feel it is important to be able to save their work and take it home
    • Project this shamrock activity onto a smart board to make it a group task, or work on large motor movement and shoulder stability
    • Enlarge the task for beginning learners who need more writing or coloring space.
    • Shrink the task for more advanced learners who need to learn to color in smaller spaces, or follow smaller directions
    • Try different writing utensils. Some learners work better with markers as they glide easier on paper. Did you know that golf sized pencils and broken crayons promote more of a tripod grasp than traditional long versions?
    • Try different colored paper for more or less visual contrast
    • Use (Amazon affiliate link) Dot or Bingo markers to mark the path as the arrows are followed
    • Have learners call the direction out loud as they pass it.  Down, right, down, left, etc.
    • Incorporate other methods to teach directionality, such as playing in a mirror, Simon Says, line dancing, follow the leader, Twister, or the Hokey Pokey
    • Add several visual perceptual tasks to further improve skills. The Visual Brain has informative resources on Visual Discrimination and directionality

    Shamrocks and Spring Together!

    Need more shamrocks? The OT Toolbox has a great post including All Things Shamrocks. Check it out.

    If your theme encompasses Spring, the OT Toolbox has a great Spring Occupational Therapy Activities Book filled with 109 activities

    In the Spring OT packet, you will find:

    • Spring Proprioceptive, Vestibular, Visual and Tactile Processing Activities
    • Olfactory, Auditory, Oral Motor, Fine Motor Spring Activities
    • Gross Motor Activities
    • Handwriting Practice Prompts
    • Spring Themed Brain Breaks
    • Occupational Therapy Homework Page
    • Client-Centered Worksheet
    • 5 pages of Visual Perceptual Skill Activities

    East or West may always be confusing

    For some, directionality, visual perception, and laterality come easy.  Others need to be taught repeatedly with activities like the Shamrock Directionality Maze, or given accommodations and strategies to overcome this difficulty.  I fear I may never be able to follow west/south directions. Is there a google maps adaptation for dummies that would translate west and east into left and right?  I have mastered those directions.  

    Even though summer is by far my favorite season, spring is much better than winter!  Let’s hope you are digging out of the snow and getting some warmer days, so you can get out and head west out of your driveway!

    Free St. Patrick’s Day Directionality Maze

    Want a printable resource to build directionality and visual perception skills? Enter your email address into the form below to access this clover maze. This printable is available inside our Member’s Club during the month of March. Members can log in and quickly access the printable, along with all of the other free items here on The OT Toolbox.

    Free St. Patrick’s Day Maze!

      We respect your privacy. Unsubscribe at anytime.

      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 consistency, however this information is relevant for students, patients, clients, kids or 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.

      Heart Crafts That Build Skills

      heart crafts to support fine motor skill development

      Let’s face it, the heart candy and chocolates are already in the stores and children are already anticipating the consumption of all the sweet treats they are going get.  Some children have even begun to plan their Valentine’s gifts and handouts for their friends and family.  Add these heart crafts to your Valentine’s Day occupational therapy activities!

      One of our newest heart crafts is this free Valentine’s Day Hat Template. Kids can color, cut, and assemble the heart hat in OT sessions, in the classroom, or at home. This printable heart hat makes a great craft during February, but it doubles as a skill-builder: Use it to work on fine motor skills, hand strength, scissor skills, eye-hand coordination, executive functioning skills, and more.

      heart crafts to support fine motor skill development

      Heart Crafts for Occupational Therapy

      Whether it is a pink, red, or purple heart, OT practitioners simply love crafts that incorporate a variety of skills and give the flexibility for each step to be modified, so as to upgrade or downgrade as needed, to allow all children to engage in the craft making process while achieving some level of success.

      You’ll find heart craft creations that range from easy to more complex, making them accessible by younger or novice learners that have fewer hand skills, or more advanced learners that need more skill advancement and require increased time to complete. 

      There are numerous enjoyable heart craft ideas in this post. If you need something sweet to jazz up your therapy session, classroom, or at-home theme, this post is right where you need to be. Read on and get ideas that don’t include tasty sweets, but do include all the sweetness of the Valentines holiday!

      Wearable Heart Crafts:

      These fun, festive heart crafts can include wearable jewelry, ornaments, or provide a source of Valentine’s Day gifts. They will encourage separation of the two sides of the hand, in-hand manipulation, precision grasp, and arch development, making them purposeful and productive.

      Paper Crafts: 

      These paper crafts include folding, painting, cutting, pasting, weaving, and writing.

      All of these actions will help your learner of most any age and skill level to work on bilateral hand use, eye-hand coordination, scissor grasp, hand dominance, delicate touch, grasp patterns, and visual motor skills. 

      Foam Crafts:

      These foam crafts are not only cute, but they help learners develop skills such as proper scissor grasp, cutting skills, rotational manipulation, sequencing, and precision skills.

      Once complete, some provide a functional use in the end – a bookmark!

      Cardboard Heart Crafts:

      Cardboard is a material that develops hand strength, pincer grasp, bilateral coordination, hand dominance, stability, and eye-hand coordination. Some of the crafts listed will provide opportunity for lacing, wrapping, poking, cutting, and tearing, all of which give hand skill development a real challenge.

      These fun cardboard crafts will allow focus on a variety of skills while being highly engaging and rewarding.

      Food inspired Heart Crafts:

      While these food inspired heart crafts, do use food as a medium, these festive food crafts will include only decorations and a few ideas for a way to feed the birds.

      Learners will work on building precision grasp, gross grasp, bilateral coordination, and eye hand coordination skills. 

      Tin Foil Crafts:

      These tin foil crafts are unique in appearance, but also help build maker grasp, fine motor control, and tool pressure. If the child tears off their own piece of foil from the roll and wraps the foil themselves, they will also be working on bilateral coordination and touch pressure.

      Older or more advanced learners can be presented with the opportunity to use a glue gun (always use caution with these as even the cold glue guns get hot at the tip). Learners can display their own creativity with these crafts. 

      heart and Valentine themed fine motor page to use in crumble art crafts
      The Valentine’s Day Fine Motor Kit is loaded with activities and craft ideas that promote fine motor skills. Grab your copy today!

      Printable Heart Crafts

      In The Valentine’s Day Kit offered by the OT Toolbox, you will find printable heart activities and craft materials. Just download, print, and start building skills. This pack is a great tool for developing a variety of fine motor skills for Valentine’s day or all year round!

      We hope you enjoyed all of the crafts included in this round-up of ideas and that you have found exactly what you are looking for to help the learners in your life enjoy Valentines day and celebrate the LOVE of this season!  

      Regina Allen

      Regina Parsons-Allen is a school-based certified occupational therapy assistant. She has a pediatrics practice area of emphasis from the NBCOT. She graduated from the OTA program at Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute in Hudson, North Carolina with an A.A.S degree in occupational therapy assistant. She has been practicing occupational therapy in the same school district for 20 years. She loves her children, husband, OT, working with children and teaching Sunday school. She is passionate about engaging, empowering, and enabling children to reach their maximum potential in ALL of their occupations as well assuring them that God loves them!