Lower extremity strength and coordination are areas of development needed for so many functional tasks that children complete throughout the day. Here we have a fun and creative way to develop gross motor coordination by building strength in the legs and core of the body so that lower extremity coordination and mobility are used in daily tasks such as self-care, mobility, and play. Motor planning in the lower extremities drives play, and play drives lower extremity strength!
These are great activities and ideas to add to an obstacle course.
Add this to our other balance activities to develop stronger legs and lower body in kids here on the site. We’ve talked before how the development of balance occurs through play.
Lower Extremity Strength
When it comes to building strong core, legs, hips, and ankles, there are many lower body strengthening exercises that can be done:
Lunges
Squats
Planks
Yoga
Animal walks
Wall sits
Side-lying Leg Lifts
Prone Leg Lifts
Bridges
While these exercises develop strength and stability in the core and lower body, they are just that…exercises. There is no function to completing them. However, as occupational therapists, our practice is driven by function.
If a client wishes to develop the strength and stamina to complete exercises such as the ones listed above, that is the functional task, and working on these exercises in a graded manner is a no brainer. It’s the functional task which is being addressed.
There is another side to the coin as well. Using lower extremity strengthening exercises to support development, stamina, add resistive feedback, and develop motor planning skills can drive functional performance by building on underlying areas.
When therapists use lower extremity strengthening exercises in therapy sessions, several underlying areas are addressed all at once:
Balance
Coordination
Muscle strengthening
Eye hand coordination
Vestibular input
Stretching
Proprioceptive input
Stability
Body awareness
Personal space
Lower extremity strength is needed for functional tasks such as:
hopping
skipping
jumping
kicking a ball
riding a bike
playing on playground equipment
running
tying shoes
getting dressed
bathing
toileting
so much more!
Lower Extremity Exercise Activity
One way to make this skill into a game is to use the skill-building as a game, an obstacle course, or a challenge.
This lower extremity exercise challenges motor planning, balance, and vestibular input, while encouraging the child to pull weight back over their heels in dynamic stance.
Materials needed:
Ball
Something to use as a target (cone, bucket, bowl)
To do the lower extremity and motor planning exercise:
Set up a basket, cone, or bucket, or other target behind the child.
Ask the child to stand with feet shoulder width apart, in front of the basket/bucket.
The child can reach through the legs to place a ball or small toy through their legs and into the target.
Challenge them to return to standing and pull the toy or ball up to shoulder height and repeat.
This interactive and hands on game to teach matching uppercase and lowercase letters is a fun gross motor game for preschool and kindergarten. Use this interactive letter activity along as an alphabet matching with objects and a sensory-motor learning activity!
Matching uppercase letters to lowercase letters is a literacy task that supports reading skills, but also challenges visual discrimination skills, form constancy, and visual scanning, all of which are visual processing skills needed for handwriting and reading comprehension. What’s fun about this activity is that it builds these skills in a fun way!
Be sure to grab our color by letter worksheet to work on letter matching, visual discrimination skills.
Matching Uppercase and Lowercase Letters
Learning letters and matching upper and lower case letters is a Kindergarten skill that can be tricky for some kids. We made this easy prep letter identification activity using items you probably already have in the house. If you’ve seen our blog posts over the last few days, you’ve noticed we’re on a learning theme using free (or mostly free) items you probably already have.
Use a permanent marker to write one lower case letter of the alphabet on each coffee filter.
With your child, match the magnetic letters to the lowercase letters on the coffee filters.
Ask the child to help you crumble each letter inside the coffee filter that has its matching lowercase letter.
Continue the play!
More ways to match uppercase and lowercase letters
By matching the magnetic uppercase letter to the lowercase letter on the coffee filter, kids get a chance to incorporate whole body movements and gross motor activity while looking for matching letters.
With your child, first match up each lower case coffee filter letter to the upper case magnetic letter.
You can spread the filters out to encourage visual scanning and involve movement in the activity, OR you can stack the coffee filters in a pile and one by one match up the letters. This technique requires the child to visually scan for the upper case magnet letters.
Try both ways for more upper/lower case letter practice!
We then wrapped the coffee filters around the magnets in a little bundle. There are so many games you can play with these upper and lower case letters:
Match the same letter– match uppercase letters to uppercase letters and lowercase letters to lowercase letters.
Alphabet matching with objects– Match an object that starts with the letter of the alphabet. Use small objects inside the coffee filter and match it to lowercase letters written in the coffee filter with uppercase magnet letters.
Match the picture with the letter– Print off pictures of words that start with each letter of the alphabet. Then match the picture with letters of the alphabet using lowercase letters written on the filter and uppercase letters in magnetic letter form.
Play a letter memory game– Hide letters around the room and challenge kids to find the letters in order to match the uppercase letter to the lowercase letters.
Letter sound matching– Make a letter sound and challenge kids to find the letter that makes that sound.
Letter Hide and Seek- Hide the bundled up letters around the room while your child hides his eyes. Send him off to find the letters and ask him to open the bundle and identify the letter.
Letter Toss Activity- Toss the coffee filter bundles into a bucket or bin. Any letters that make it into the bin are winners!
Name the letters- Unwrap the bundles and name the letters. Spread the coffee filters out around the room. Toss magnetic letters onto the matching lower case letter.
Letter toss game- Toss a bean bag onto the coffee filters. The child can identify the lower case letter, then go to the pile of magnetic letters and find the matching upper case letter.
Can you think of any more ways to work on upper and lower case letter matching with coffee filters and magnetic letters?
Matching Big and Small Letters
The nice thing about this activity is that you can teach the concepts of big and small letters. When we say “big letters” and “small letters”, we are showing the concept of letters that touch the top and bottom lines, or the upper case letters.
And teaching children the difference between those big letters and the small letters which touch just the middle point are part of the visual discrimination process that is needed for handwriting on the lines, or line awareness skills.
You will enjoy more alphabet posts from our archives:
Research has a lot to say about nature play. When it comes to outdoor play, there is a lot that can be discussed too. Occupational therapy professionals encourage a lot of open-ended play, outdoor games, and outdoor play. There is a natural sensory aspect to outdoor play, which supports self-regulation, emotional regulation, attention, and learning, all through just playing outside! Today we are talking all about what the research has to say about outdoor sensory diet activities and outdoor play.
Benefits of Nature Play
Taking sensory diet strategies outside is nothing new. But, doing so may just be a meaningful way to create the “just right” state of alertness and calming nature that, well, nature provides! But to take it a step further, did you know there are benefits of outdoor games? Did you know that the outdoors support executive functioning skills, self-regulation, and motor skill development…all through playing outside?
Use this information when explaining about what a sensory diet is and what a sensory diet looks like for kids with sensory needs.
There are quite a few benefits to sensory experiences in the outdoors:
Children have a large opportunity for sensory input through playground play. But, in recent times, children experience playgrounds that are more safe, allowing for less risky play. Encouraging specific activities such as a playground sensory diet on playground equipment can be beneficial to sensory needs.
Another item to consider is the aspect of applying sensory diet strategies within the classroom or home environments as a fix for sensory processing needs. The specific and prescribed sensory diet activities for a particular child can be very helpful in addressing specific sensory-related behaviors.
However, the use of a sensory tool such as an alternative seating system within the classroom provides only one type of vestibular and/or proprioceptive input, such as up and down vestibular input. The child who plays outdoors encounters a wide variety of sensory input across all sensory systems!
You might even call sensory tools used to address specific needs a sensory band-aide. What if we as therapists could encourage authentic sensory input in the outdoors (or indoors, as indicated) that addresses all of the sensory systems. Using meaningful play experiences not only provide all the benefits of play. They encourage healthy development through the senses.
Research on Outdoor Play
There are many benefits of outdoor play.
There have been decades of research on the benefits of play in kids. The information below depicts how outdoor play impacts sensory needs in kids. This is not an exhausted review of the literature, simply a smattering of research available on the topic.
Research shows us that some of the developmental and primary tasks that children must achieve can be effectively improved through outdoor play.
These benefits of outdoor play include:
exploring
risk-taking
fine and gross motor development
absorption of basic knowledge
social skills
self-confidence
attention
language skills
Wow! Playing outside has a bigger impact than we may have thought!
Other research has shown an increase in communication, along with more observed emotions, and increased interactions in children with autism when more time was spent outdoors.
Studies have found that dynamic and varied outdoor play offers opportunities for decision making that stimulate problem solving and creative thinking, opportunities that aren’t as easily found in the more static indoor environment.
Still other research supports the many health benefits:
One study found a sensory diet in outdoor play along with sensory integration therapy resulted in better functional behavior of kids with ADHD (Sahoo & Senapati).
Using sensory activities that are specific in time and quality such as those in a sensory diet should be done in an authentic and meaningful manner in a child’s life. In this way, sensory input is motivating to the child in that it goes along with interests and the environment in which the child lives.
It’s a fact that kids are spending less time playing outdoors. From after-school schedules to two working parents, to unsafe conditions, to increased digital screen time, to less outdoor recess time…kids just get less natural play in the outdoors.
Some therapists have connected the dots between less outdoor play and increased sensory struggles and attention difficulties in learning.
Knowing this, it can be powerful to have a list of outdoor sensory diet activities that can be recommended as therapy home programing and family activities that meet underlying needs.
From an occupational therapy perspective, nature play offers supports for underlying skill development. Children have the opportunity to develop motor skills, visual perceptual skills, confidence, executive functioning skills, and self-regulation that enables them to feel confident in their abilities. These areas of development support functioning and independence!
When heading outdoors, you can put on a coat, boots, or jacket and work on self-dressing skills. You can experience all of the motor rich opportunities for movement in the outdoors. Navigating the environment (whether in the woods or the city) offers visual perception, motor planning, and eye-hand coordination opportunities.
Just going outside for a walk is an exercise in skill-building!
Outdoor Sensory Play Ideas
Knowing the benefits of outdoor games and free play, let’s cover some fun ways to offer the movement, regulation, and input from the outdoors. Here are some outdoor play ideas that tick all of the boxes.
Need some outdoor sensory play ideas? Try these outdoor backyard sensory diet activities that inspire free play in the outdoors while encouraging sensory input of all kinds!
Sensory diets and specific sensory input or sensory challenges are a big part of addressing sensory needs of children who struggle with sensory processing issues. Incorporating a schedule of sensory input (sensory diet) into a lifestyle of naturally occuring and meaningful activities is so very valuable for the child with sensory needs.
Sensory diets and specific sensory input or sensory challenges are a big part of addressing sensory needs of children who struggle with sensory processing issues. Incorporating a schedule of sensory input (sensory diet) into a lifestyle of naturally occurring and meaningful activities is so very valuable for the child with sensory needs. That’s why I’ve worked to create a book on creating an authentic and meaningful sensory lifestyle that addresses sensory needs. The book is now released as a digital e-book or softcover print book, available on Amazon. The Sensory Lifestyle Handbook walks you through sensory diet creation, set-up, and carry through. Not only that, but the book helps you take a sensory diet and weave it into a sensory lifestyle that supports the needs of a child with sensory processing challenges and the whole family. Get The Sensory Lifestyle Handbook here.
That’s where the Outdoor Sensory Diet Cards and Sensory Challenge Cards come into play. They are printable resource that encourages sensory diet strategies in the outdoors. In the printable packet, there are 90 outdoor sensory diet activities, 60 outdoor recess sensory diet activities, 30 blank sensory diet cards, and 6 sensory challenge cards. They can be used based on preference and interest of the child, encouraging motivation and carryover, all while providing much-needed sensory input.
30 blank sensory diet cards, and 6 sensory challenge cards
They can be used based on preference and interest of the child, encouraging motivation and carryover, all while providing much-needed sensory input.
Research tells us that outdoor play improves attention and provides an ideal environment for a calm and alert state, perfect for integration of sensory input.
Outdoor play provides input from all the senses, allows for movement in all planes, and provides a variety of strengthening components including eccentric, concentric, and isometric muscle contractions.
Great tool for parents, teachers, AND therapists!
Be sure to grab the Outdoor Sensory Diet Cards and use them with a child (or adult) with sensory processing needs!
Benefits of Nature Play References:
Frost, J. & Sutterby, J. (2017). Our Proud Heritage: Outdoor Play Is Essential to Whole Child Development. Retrieved from: from: https://www.naeyc.org/resources/pubs/yc/jul2017/outdoor-play-child-development
Hanscom, A (2017, October). The decline of play outdoors and the rise in sensory issues. OccupationalTherapy.com, Article 3990. Retrieved from http://OccupationalTherapy.com.
Moore, R. (2014). Nature Play & Learning Places. Creating and managing places where children engage with nature. Raleigh, NC: Natural
Learning Initiative and Reston, VA: National Wildlife Federation
Version 1.2.
Von Kampen, M. (2011). The Effect of Outdoor Environment on Attention and Self-Regulation Behaviors on a Child with Autism. Retrieved from: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://search.yahoo.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1118&context=cehsdiss
Sahoo, S. & Senapati, A. Effect of sensory diet through outdoor play on functional behavior in children with ADHD. The Indian Journal of Occupational Therapy. Vol. 46, (2 ) 49-54.
What are your favorite outdoor play ideas?
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 sensory blanket activity is a simple home sensory diet activity that offers heavy work input using only a blanket. Did you know you can use a blanket as a calming sensory tool? One way that I love to help regulate and calm down over-responsive sensory systems is through heavy work activities.
Calming Proprioception Activity with a Blanket
Using a blanket as a sensory tool is one of the easiest ways to offer heavy work , or proprioceptive input, through the whole body as a calming strategy.
There are a few reasons why using a blanket works to calm the sensory systems.
Rolling a child up in a blanket is a great way to provide deep input to a child’s whole body. This is calming and organizing.
Additionally, the warm temperature helps to calm the body.
A benefit to this sensory strategy is that every home has a blanket of some type.
Use this proprioceptive activity to offer calming input to help self-regulate emotions and sensory needs by rolling up in a blanket, either on the floor or with additional heavy work input. Check out all of our proprioception activities here.
How to use a blanket for calming sensory input:
Grab a blankets and spread it out on the floor.
Ask the child to lay down on the blanket, near one edge.
Roll your child up like a burrito. Keep rolling until the whole blanket is used. Wrap the blanket tightly.
Add additional proprioceptive input for calming and regulating by piling pillows on top of your child after they’ve been wrapped up in the blanket. Press evenly and gently, but firmly, with both hands to provide deep pressure input.
Tortilla Blanket Sensory Activity
Have you seen the (Amazon affiliate link) tortilla blankets? These are a great, fuzzy blanket to use in this sensory blanket activity! Kids can be the burrito as they are wrapped up in the tortilla blanket. Plus, the warmth from this fleece blanket is extra cozy and calming!
Use the tortilla blanket to make a kid-sized burrito that adds calming sensory input!
Another sensory activity using blankets is to use the blanket roll as a balance beam or to lay on (without the child inside).
For more heavy work activities using materials already found in the home, check out these low-prep heavy work exercises!
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 indoor ice skating activity is an older blog post on The OT Toolbox, but the gross motor benefits are perfect for today! Did you know you can use an indoor balance and coordination activity like paper plate ice skating (and the inside skating task below) to challenge and integrate proprioceptive input, vestibular sensory input, and work on various gross motor skills. This is a fun indoor gross motor activity kids love.
Indoor Ice Skating Activity
Sometimes, you come across a play activity that provides many skill areas and is just plain old fun. These indoor ice skates proprioception and vestibular activity is one of those.
A few years ago, we shared a bunch of winter sensory integration activities. This is on of those movement sensory ideas (that we’re just getting around to sharing this year!)
With this indoor ice skating activity, you can play indoors AND incorporate proprioceptive input, vestibular input, crossing midline, visual scanning, motor planning, among other therapy areas…all with play.
Use the indoor skates to move in circles, curved lines, and move as a real ice skater.
Ask the skater to carry objects from one point to another.
In this skating activity, kids are really challenging strength and balance. The carpeted surface is a slick and slippery surface when sliding with a non-resistant surface when sliding on a paper plate, wax paper, or cardboard. TO slide, you need to move the legs along without lifting along the carpet, using core strength to maintain balance.
To move the feet, kids need to engage muscles of the core help maintain balance without falling or sliding.
Tissue Box Ice Skates
This is an activity that I remember doing as a kid. When the weather is too cold or icy to get outdoors, adding any vestibular or proprioception input can be just what the child with sensory needs craves.
To make your own indoor ice skating activity, all you need is a couple of cardboard tissue boxes and a carpeted floor.
If you don’t have tissue boxes, you can use other materials to make indoor ice skates. Or, try some of these ideas. The options are limitless:
Depending on the material and the user’s motor skills, you may need to strap the cardboard pieces onto shoes with pieces of tape. Other users can slide their feet to move the materials along carpeted surface by sliding their feet.
There are many skills that are developed with this indoor ice skating activity. Let’s cover those therapy skill areas:
Use cardboard boxes to make a pair of indoor “ice skates” that work on a carpet.
Indoor Ice Skating and proprioception
Use empty tissue boxes to create ice skate “boots”. Moving the feet along the carpet requires heavy work, coordination, balance, and awareness of position in space.
Incorporate proprioceptive input by using a blanket and pull your child around a carpeted area. Ask them to squat down to a skater’s ready position as you pull them, too.
Try skating with the tissue boxes as an adult pulls the child along with a blanket or towel. Play tug of war with the blanket, too.
A child can work on vestibular input by skating fast from one target to another. Encourage them to position themselves in different ways as they skate around a carpeted room.
This activity works on crossing midline as the child “skis”. Sometimes you might see children with vestibular difficulties who have difficulty determining proper motor planning in activities. They might have trouble crossing midline in functional tasks as well as difficulties with reading and writing.
A movement activity that challenges the body’s position in space like this one can help with these problem areas.
Incorporate the ice and snow activities in our Penguin Therapy Kit to work on fine motor skills, handwriting, gross motor skills, self-regulation, sensory input, pencil control, and much more.
Use the ice and snow themes in our Snowman Therapy Kit with gross motor, fine motor, self-regulation tasks, sensory diet activities, crafts, and much more.
Snowman Therapy Kit
This print-and-go snowman-themed therapy kit includes no-prep fine motor, gross motor, sensory, visual processing, handwriting, self-regulation, and scissor skill activities to help kids develop essential skills. Includes everything you need for therapy tasks, home therapy sessions, and movement-based learning.
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.
If you are looking for outdoor sensory activities, this is the place to start. Here, you’ll find outdoor sensory ideas to address each sensory system. Also included are sensory play ideas to use in the backyard when creating an outdoor sensory diet for children.
Outdoor Sensory Activities or a Sensory Diet?
So often, kids are sent home from therapy with a sensory diet of specific activities and sensory tools that are prescribed for certain sensory processing needs. When a therapist creates a home exercise program, they do their best to ensure carryover through small lists of activities, parent education, and motivating activities that are based on the child’s interests and personal goals.
The important thing to recognize is that there is a difference between sensory play and sensory diets. Read here for more information on what a sensory diet is and isn’t.
When therapists develop a specific and highly individualized sensory diet, it’s not just throwing together a day filled with sensory input. A sensory diet is a specific set of sensory tools used to meet and address certain needs of the individual based on sensory need and strategizing.
Each of the sensory diet activities above should meet specific needs of the child. Every child is different so applying sensory input to one child may look very different than that of another. Parents should use the tactics below along with your child’s occupational therapist.
So, using sensory diet tools within the context of environments or activities that are deeply meaningful to a family and child such as play that is already happening, can be the meaningful and motivating strategy to actually get that sensory diet task completed. And it benefits the child along with the whole family.
Outdoor Sensory Activities
These outdoor sensory activities are those that can be included into backyard play. That may look like independent play by the child or it might mean family time on a Sunday afternoon. Use these outdoor sensory diet activities in the backyard to as sensory tools that double as playtime for the child while he/she learns and grows… or to meet the sensory needs of the child while creating memories and enjoying time together!
Below is a huge list of outdoor sensory activities, but to focus on each sensory system, check out these resources:
Backyard dance party. Encourage lots of whole body movements and spinning.
Cartwheels
Tumbles
Hopscotch
Play Leapfrog
Mini trampoline (or the big sized-trampoline) Catch a ball while standing, sitting, swinging, rolling a ball, catching between legs, etc.
Hit a tennis racket at a target including bubbles, falling leaves, large balls, small rubber balls, and balloons
Catch butterflies in a net
Bubble pop, including popping bubbles with a toe, knee, foot, head, finger, or elbow
Play with goop
Draw in shaving cream on a cookie sheet outdoors. Then squirt off in the hose.
Backyard Sensory Equipment
There are outdoor play items you may have already that can be repurposed to use in outdoor sensory play. These are common backyard toys or things that might be in your garage! It can be fun to re-think these items for a means of adding sensory input.
Make a bin of outdoor toys that are readily available in your garage or storage area so that sensory play experiences are at your family’s fingertips. For example, all of these items could be used in an outdoor balance beam.
Hoola Hoops
Jump Ropes
Balls
Bat
Tennis Racket
Butterfly Net
Baby Swimming Pool
Tarp or Slip and Slide
Water Hose
Scoops and cups
Sidewalk chalk
Bike
Scooter
Skateboard
Cardboard
Target or net
Shovels
Buckets
Play wheelbarrow
Swing set
Climbing structure
Flashlight
Magnifying glass
Cones
Bubbles
Bean bags
Outdoor Sensory issues
Summer can mean sensory processing issues that impact kids with sensitivities or over responsiveness to sensory input. For autistic children or anyone with a neurodiversity that impacts sensory processing, summer can mean a real hatred for being outside in the hot summer months.
So what are some of the reasons that sensory kids have issues with being outside during the summer?
It can be hard to encourage outdoor play (and gain all of the benefits of outdoor play) when the summer months add a different level of sensory input. Here are some of the reasons that sensory kids are challenged in the summertime:
For kids with sensory needs, it can be overwhelming to have an open space full of sights, sounds, scents, and textures.
Tolerance of the cuffs of shorts or sleeves
Tight bathing suits
Sensation of sunscreen
Sensation of socks or other clothing in hot weather
Humidity changes
Summer thunderstorms (can change the air temperature)
Short clothing that brushes on legs or arms
Sandals or open-toed shoes
Crowds or places where others are in close contact
Wearing a mask in warmer temperatures
Honking horns, barking dogs, and other sounds that frequent the backyard or lawn can be too much for the child with sensory sensitivities
Bright sun that is at a different angle in the sky than other months of the year
Interoceptive issues with body temperature, increased need for water, less hunger due to heat
All of these sensory issues can occur unexpectedly and that unexpectedness of sensory input can be overwhelmingly alarming for those with autism or neurodiversity.
How to help with summer sensory overload
Visual schedule
Help the child know what to expect
Wear shoes instead of sandals or bear feet
Proprioceptive input such as firm touch to the shoulders
Limit time outdoors
Know triggers for sensory overload and plan ahead when possible
Oral motor jewelry
Communicate travel or outdoor time needs
Calming vestibular sensory input such as side to side or forward-front slow swinging
Play that involves throw and play catch with a weighted ball
Bucket of water to rinse hands if child is sensitive to messy hands or dirt
Sheltered area if child is sensitive to wind blowing on skin
Wear a lightweight wind jacket
Bring a water bottle with straw for proprioceptive input
Calming or alerting snacks
Portable fan to help with overheating if needed
Hat with brim to reduce bright light or intense light in eyes or on face
Umbrella to deflect direct sun rays and prevent overheating
Sunscreen with firm touch before going outdoors
Scent free sunscreen
Sunscreen lotion vs. spray sunscreen (or vice versa depending on the particular needs and preferences)
Sensory friendly clothing, bathing suits, goggles
Wear sunglasses
Wear headphones to reduce background noise
Be aware of freshly cut grass which as a strong scent
Wear thin gloves for tactile activities
Use water shoes or crocks instead of sandals
More about outdoor sensory diet activities
Sensory diets and specific sensory input or sensory challenges are a big part of addressing sensory needs of children who struggle with sensory processing issues. Incorporating a schedule of sensory input (sensory diet) into a lifestyle of naturally occurring and meaningful activities is so very valuable for the child with sensory needs. That’s why I’ve worked to create a book on creating an authentic and meaningful sensory lifestyle that addresses sensory needs. The book is now released as a digital e-book or softcover print book, available on Amazon. The Sensory Lifestyle Handbook walks you through sensory diet creation, set-up, and carry through. Not only that, but the book helps you take a sensory diet and weave it into a sensory lifestyle that supports the needs of a child with sensory processing challenges and the whole family.
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 week’s occupational therapy theme is all about the butterfly activities. And, these butterfly exercises help with coordination, motor panning, coordination, and add heavy work input. You’ll love the butterfly yoga activities that are fun, motivating, and engaging! Add these butterfly gross motor exercises to your Spring occupational therapy activities.
In this free slide deck, you’ll love the heavy work and gross motor coordination activities with a butterfly theme. Butterfly exercises get those kiddos moving and building coordination skills so they can move, play, and develop skills.
Butterfly exercises
Kids will love these gross motor exercises that challenge the following skills in kids:
Balance
Coordination
Motor planning
Crossing midline
Movement changes
Sequencing
When kids follow along with the visual images in the slides, they can work on planning out gross motor actions, crossing midline, and building core strength that helps with attention, following directions, and getting much needed proprioceptive and vestibular sensory input.
These are fantastic butterfly gross motor activities for preschool, Pre-K and grade-school kids as a brain break that builds gross motor skills.
Butterfly yoga
In the slide deck are butterfly yoga positions to challenge balance and build strength. These exercises use a variety of yoga positions with a butterfly theme. Some of the activities use the butterfly yoga pose and others have visual images of a butterfly net or other images to make the yoga exercises motivating and fun for kids.
Can they balance on one foot while pretending to catch a butterfly with their net?
Butterfly gross motor activities
You’ll also love the deep breathing exercise in the slide deck to encourage deep breathing. Try using this deep breathing exercise while doing the butterfly yoga!
Use the butterfly life cycle heavy work activities in the Heavy Work Cards to work on calming proprioceptive input.
Butterfly Exercises Slide Deck
Want to add these butterfly yoga and butterfly exercises to your therapy toolbox? Enter your email address into the form below to access this slide deck.
Note that if you are using a school system’s email address, the PDF delivery may be blocked by your institution or workplace as a result of your system’s security measures. A personal email address may be better used.
Spring Fine Motor Kit
Score Fine Motor Tools and resources and help kids build the skills they need to thrive!
Developing hand strength, dexterity, dexterity, precision skills, and eye-hand coordination skills that kids need for holding and writing with a pencil, coloring, and manipulating small objects in every day task doesn’t need to be difficult. The Spring Fine Motor Kit includes 100 pages of fine motor activities, worksheets, crafts, and more:
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.
Want to help kids with balance, coordination, strength, and mobility? Need some core strengthening and stability activities to help with balance and vestibular integration? These flower balance activities are fun ways to help kids work on these very areas so they are able to move, play, learn, and function in day to day tasks. And, it’s all packaged up in a free Google slide deck so you can use these balance exercises in therapy sessions, at home, in the classroom, or clinic. These are Spring gross motor activities that really build skills!
Balance Activities
You’ll find a lot of balance activities and exercises here on The OT Toolbox. We’ve shared balance beams, obstacle courses, brain breaks, prone extension activities, movement activities, and vestibular activities before. you may have even seen this DIY wobble disk made from ice. All of these activities are so great to help kids develop strength, coordination, movement pattern skills, and get them moving through play.
The free slide deck that I have available today, adds just one more balance tool into your therapy toolbox. It’s a fun way to challenge kids to move while copying visual images of body positioning. These exercises integrate visual processing to see the image and copy the positioning as well as motor skills as kids coordinate their body to move their arms or legs into the correct positioning.
I’ve tried to use both sides of the body in this flower balance activity, so they can work on left-right discrimination as well.
When kids incorporate one leg stance, and holding a body position in a squat or lunge, they are adding proprioceptive input, so they gain the calming regulatory benefits, too.
And, the therapy slide decks use a flower icon in various positions on each slide. So the user can copy the form by placing a pillow, stuffed animal, roll of socks, or bean bag into different places while maintaining balance. This can be a real challenge for some children!
There is a fun flower deep breathing exercise in the slide deck as well.
Free Balance Exercise Slide Deck
Want to use this free slide deck in teletherapy, in home programs, or in the classroom as a brain break? Just enter your email address into the form below.
NOTE- Due to an increase in security measures, many readers utilizing a work or school district email address have had difficulty accessing free resources from the delivery email. Consider using a personal email address and forwarding the delivery email to your work account.
Spring Fine Motor Kit
Score Fine Motor Tools and resources and help kids build the skills they need to thrive!
Developing hand strength, dexterity, dexterity, precision skills, and eye-hand coordination skills that kids need for holding and writing with a pencil, coloring, and manipulating small objects in every day task doesn’t need to be difficult. The Spring Fine Motor Kit includes 100 pages of fine motor activities, worksheets, crafts, and more:
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.
Today’s free resource in the Spring Week tools are these free Heavy Work activities in printable card version, with a Spring theme! These are just the thing to get kids moving and adding much-needed gross motor movement into the classroom, home, or occupational therapy session. I modeled these printable exercise cards off our heavy work teletherapy activities freebie, so these are the perfect addition to your therapy toolbox.
Heavy Work Activities
Heavy work activities help kids to incorporate balance, endurance, and motor planning into functional activities. By integrating the proprioceptive sense and vestibular sense, or balance, equilibrium, position in space, and movement, kids are able to better move their body with awareness of how their body moves. This body awareness is needed for most every activity.
Adding resistance, or heavy work activates the muscles and joints in the body and “wakes them up”. Proprioception and calming vestibular work can have an organizing effect on kids. This enables a ready state for completing tasks.
Getting kids to incorporate the whole-body movements that they need to regulate and develop strong, healthy bodies isn’t always easier, now more than ever. That’s where the Spring Gross Motor activities come into play. These are whole body activity, Spring-themed activities that make fun brain breaks.
Functional Heavy Work
Many heavy work activities can be incorporated right into the daily tasks. Things like pushing a vacuum, moving furniture, carrying a laundry basket are day-to-day chores that add a ton of heavy work input.
Other heavy work tasks can integrate these senses as well.
Tasks like using a moldable eraser, coloring with crayons vs. markers, or pulling on socks offer heavy work just as well, on a smaller scale.
These are all strategies that play into a sensory lifestyle, or a sensory diet that is well ingrained into the day-to-day tasks. You can learn more about creating a sensory lifestyle into every day activities in my book, The Sensory Lifestyle Handbook.
Heavy Work and Gross Motor Skills
There’s more about heavy work than just sensory processing benefits.
Heavy work tasks improve balance, core strength, motor planning, equilibrium needed for movement changes, stability, coordination, and movement patterns. All of these skills require equilibrium of the vestibular system for movement and changes in planes. They also require position in space changes. Heavy work has so many benefits!
There’s more: Heavy work input also incorporates areas such as range of motion, flexibility, motor planning, crossing midline, muscle tone, and core stability.
Free Heavy Work Activity Cards
Would you like to get your hands on a set of free heavy work printable activities? This is a free resource that you can print off and use in therapy sessions, in home programs, as classroom brain breaks, and to just get those kids moving.
To grab this free resource, enter your email address into the form below.
More heavy work brain breaks and Spring activities
You can find more Spring brain breaks and heavy work activities in the Spring Occupational Therapy Activities Pack. Right now, it’s a BONUS add-on to our newly released Spring Fine Motor Kit!
Spring Fine Motor Kit
Score Fine Motor Tools and resources and help kids build the skills they need to thrive!
Developing hand strength, dexterity, dexterity, precision skills, and eye-hand coordination skills that kids need for holding and writing with a pencil, coloring, and manipulating small objects in every day task doesn’t need to be difficult. The Spring Fine Motor Kit includes 100 pages of fine motor activities, worksheets, crafts, and more:
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.
