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visual motor skills

Finger Dexterity Exercises

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finger dexterity

Fine motor skills are a complex thing, but one thing that plays a major role in fine motor coordination is finger dexterity. The precision movements and endurance in small motor activities is driven by the ability to maneuver fingers and isolate the joints in holding and manipulating small objects. Let’s explore the role of manual dexterity in fine motor skills.

The finger dexterity activities and exercises in this post can be used along with manual dexterity goals to support functional tasks.

finger dexterity

Fine Motor Dexterity

Fine Motor Skills in kids are so important for independence in self care tasks.  Children need to develop the ability to manipulate their fingers in a coordinated manner in order to skillfully maneuver buttons, zippers, shoe laces, pencils…and the tools of learning and play…TOYS! 

Dexterous movements are used in everyday activities throughout our day.

What is finger dexterity?

Finger dexterity refers to the ability to use coordination and manipulation of objects in the hands with precision. Dexterous motor skills can be broken down into areas: grasp and release, coordination with in the hand (in-hand manipulation), and proprioception (knowing how much effort is needed to manipulate objects without dropping them). There are many other contributions that impact finger dexterity and we list these below.

Together, these precision skills enable us to pick up an object with the right amount of pressure and motor dexterity so you can grasp the object accurately taking eye-hand coordination skills into consideration.

After grasping the object without overshooting or missing the item, it is necessary to position or rotate the object within the hand. Isolation of the joints of the fingers and thumb allow for precise movements and coordination when manipulating objects in functional tasks.

The nine hole peg test is a good way to assess for finger dexterity.

 

Finger Dexterity Examples

 
Fine motor dexterity also looks like:
  • manipulating coins
  • picking up small beads
  • opening a tube of toothpaste
  • threading a needle
  • holding items in the palm of the hand and putting them down one at a time
  • crafts with small objects
  • peeling stickers off a page
  • opening or closing a clasp on a necklace
  • tying shoes
  • opening a bread tie
  • putting a pony tail holder in hair
  • braiding hair
  • maneuvering a pencil within the hand (rotating the pencil, erasing a small spot on the page)
  • turning a pencil in a handheld pencil sharpener
  • zippering– inserting a zipper into the zipper carriage
  • buttoning a shirt
  • lacing up shoes
  • stacking coins
  • holding playing cards in your hands
  • any other task that requires small motor tasks
 
 
We’ve got lots of posts dedicated to fine motor skills.  Finger Dexterity is a necessary step in development of fine motor skills. 
 
 

 

 
Kids will love to play this finger dexterity activity to work on fine motor skills.

 

Skills needed for Finger Dexterity

Children develop their hand skills from infancy. Hand strength develops from the time a small baby is placed in tummy time. You’ll start to see finger dexterity in action when a baby picks up cereal pieces using a pincer grasp.
 
Finger dexterity requires components such as: 
 
The terms that make up finger dexterity are explained in each of the blog posts in the list.
 
There are developmental milestones for fine motor development that are necessary for independence each stage of childhood. When kids struggle with handwriting, manipulating small objects, hand fatigue in small motor tasks, finger dexterity and the underlying contributions should be considered.
 
Children also need to demonstrate dexterity in order to manipulate objects.  They need to maneuver their fingers independently of one another (this is called finger isolation) and with separation of the two sides of the hand. 
 
Without these skills, modifications or adjustments are often made by the child. We’ll cover more specifics about the relationship of finger dexterity and these components below.


Finger Dexterity and Separation of the two sides of the hand

When using the small muscles of the hands in dexterity tasks, one uses the side of the thumb-side of the hand. 
 
The precision side of the hand is the thumb, pointer finger, and middle finger.  These are the fingers needed for dexterity tasks and fine motor skills. 
 
The ring finger and pinkie finger are involved in providing stability during precision tasks.  When the index and thumb are involved in a small motor activity, the ring finger and pinkie finger are tucked into the palm and proved a support during handwriting and shoe tying. 
 
They also provide power during grip and the force behind a gross grasp. 
 
So when will you see the two sides of the hand separated during activities?? Tying shoes, pulling a zipper, fastening a button, and manipulating small pegs into a pegboard are some examples of separation of the two sides of the hand.


Finger Dexterity and Finger Isolation

Finger isolation is a key part of finer dexterity and begins when an infant begins to point at objects with one finger. 
 
Using the fingers independent of one another is needed for tasks like turning a page in a book, typing, molding dough, sign language, and finger plays (“where is Thumbkin” and other fingerplay songs are great ways to practice finger isolation and dexterity!) 
 
Kids can identify colors by playing this fine motor game.

 

Finger dexterity Activity

 
This finger strength exercise is actually a game, which makes it a great activity for developing precision in those little muscles of the hands, isolating fingers, and separating the two sides of the hand…all SO important in independence and play.
 
Try this activity to work on separating the two sides of the hand with a fun activity for kids. 

This post contains affiliate links.

Our finger dexterity activity began with a little prep work.  We used acrylic paints to paint circles on the back of bubble wrap paper. 

Kids will explore colors in this finger dexterity game.

 

I painted the back side of large bubble wrap with different colors.   We let these dry (and it was slightly difficult to remain patient!!)

Kids will love to play "Twister" in this fine motor exercise.

 

Once our paints were dry, we got our fingers ready to play some finger dexterity games!  I had Little Guy get his fingers ready by making “legs”. 

This is a great way to encourage use of the two sides of the hand.  He tucked his pinkie and ring fingers into the palm of his hand and got his pointer and middle finger busy as they “walked” around.

Fun fine motor game for kids.

 

We played a color matching game with the colored bubbles.  I called out a color and he had to “walk” his fingers to the color and pop the color.  He was working on color awareness at the same time as we practiced finger dexterity.

kids can work on fine motor skills needed for independence in many tasks.

 

As I called out different colors, he had to “walk” his fingers around to the different colors.  He really worked on those finger isolation skills as he searched for a bubble that was not yet popped. 

Other ways to work on finger isolation and separation of the two sides of the hand include using small objects in manipulation like crafting pom poms.

The index, middle finger, and thumb are needed to manipulate items in fine motor tasks. This activity is a great way to encourage dexterity in kids.

 

Even Baby Girl wanted to get in on the fun!  This finger dexterity exercise is a great way to “warm up” the hands before a handwriting or typing task for older children. Using handwriting warm ups prepares the hands for tasks like writing with a pencil.

When there is weakness in the small muscles of the hands, it is often times, difficult for children to write, color, or type with appropriate grasp and positioning of the fingers and wrist. 

A dexterity exercise like this one is a fun way to play and get those muscles of the hand moving and strengthened in order to improve endurance and positioning.

Manual Dexterity Activities

Looking for more fun ways to practice manual dexterity of the fingers?  These are some fun games and activities you may want to try:

Finger dexterity exercises

Using the activities listed above are great ways to build fine motor skills. You can also improve manual dexterity with the following exercises:

  • Pinch putty or playdough 10 times, with 3 repetitions (find more reps in our theraputty exercises blog post)
  • Place pegs into a pegboard- time the student to see how many they can place in 30 seconds. Try to beat that time.
  • Hand gripper workouts to improve proximal stability
  • Stack 10 coins or game tokens into a pile. Then pick them up one at a time and place them into the palm of the hand
  • Deal a deck of cards
  • Creating a fine motor home exercise program
  • Using the exercises described in the Weekly Fine Motor Program
  • Finger aerobics shown in the video below.

Working on fine motor skills, visual perception, visual motor skills, sensory tolerance, handwriting, or scissor skills? Our Fine Motor Kits cover all of these areas and more.

Check out the seasonal Fine Motor Kits that kids love:

Letters Fine Motor Kit
Kit de motricidad fina de verano
Summer Fine Motor Kit
Outer Space Fine Motor Kit
Space Fine Motor Kit
Spring fine motor kit
Valentines Day fine motor kit
winter fine motor kit
Winter Fine Motor Kit

Or, grab one of our themed Fine Motor Kits to target skills with fun themes:

Want access to all of these kits…and more being added each month? Join The OT Toolbox Member’s Club!

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

Ambidexterity or Mixed Dominance

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What is ambidexterity

Many parents see their child switch hands during tasks, or show refined use of both hands and wonder if their child is ambidextrous. Maybe a child uses their left hand to throw a ball, but bats with their right hand. Maybe they kick a ball with their right foot, but hold a pencil with their left hand. Ambidexterity is a common question among parents of kids who switch hands in activities or don’t use one hand consistently.

In this blog post, you’ll find information on

Ambidextrous Or Mixed Dominance?

Here, we are covering several aspects of ambidexterity. We’ll go over the difference between being ambidextrous and having mixed dominance. We’ll cover what it means when a child uses both hands to write or color. And, we’ll go over some activities to support a dominant hand.

How do you know if your child is ambidextrous or if they are showing signs of mixed dominance? This post will explain a little more about ambidexterity as well as mixed dominance and what it means in motor skills.

Ambidextrous refers to use of both sides of the body in equal ability and refined finger dexterity. This can refer to a bilateral refined movement and skill in the hands, feet, and eyes. Ambidexterity is the ability to use both hands equally well. It means that a person can perform tasks with either hand without any noticeable preference.

Cross dominance refers to a situation where a person’s dominance does not favor one side over the other. In simpler terms, it means that your child hasn’t developed a clear preference for using either their right or left hand for tasks.

Mixed dominance is an other name for cross dominance. It can extend beyond just hand preference and also involve other body parts like the eyes or feet. For example, a child with mixed dominance may have a dominant hand different from their dominant eye or foot. This means that their dominance is spread across different sides of their body.

In other words, cross dominance or mixed dominance is different than ambidextrous in that an individual with cross dominance might switch between dominant sides depending on the task they’re performing. For instance, they may write with their right hand but prefer to eat with their left hand.

Let’s break this down further to explore ambidexterity.

What is ambidexterity? Is my child ambidextrous?

What does Ambidextrous Mean?

The definition of ambidextrous is use of both hands with equal refined precision and motor skill. This means that each side of the body is equally able to write with natural motor planning, fine motor control, strength, and refined motor movements.

According to the definition of ambidexterous, there is equal refinement and precision. You might think this means just the hands and fingers are involved with equal use of both sides. However, that’s not exactly the case.

Those who are truly ambidextrous may have equal use of hands, as well as feet, eyes, and even toungue motor skills.

An ambidextrous child will play naturally with toys using both hands. You might notice equal use of the hands and feet, or switching left to right or right to left during play, sports, school work, and other tasks.

When it comes to someone being ambidextrous and fine motor involvement, this can refer to:

  • Writing
  • Scissor use
  • Clothing fasteners
  • Play
  • Hand strength
  • Brushing teeth and hair
  • Many other every day tasks

Ambidextrous also refers to the feet too.

An ambidextrous person will be able to kick equally strong and with the same amount of force with both feet. They are able to “take off” from a running stance with equal feet placement, whether they start out running on their left foot or their right foot. Gross motor ambidexterity can be seen in:

  • Jumping
  • Running
  • Skipping
  • Hopping
  • Balance
  • Kicking a ball
  • Throwing a ball
  • Catching a ball
  • Among many other every day tasks

Ambidexterity can be observed in the eyes, too. Typically, all of us have one eye that is stronger, or a naturally dominant eye. We can complete a visual screening to identify this, or a visual exam may be in order.

Finally, an ambidextrous individual may show motor overflow movements with the tongue to both sides of the body.

Are you wondering about a child who uses both hands to write or perform tasks? Maybe you know a child who uses both hands equally and with equal skill. Perhaps your child uses one hand for specific tasks and their other hand for other tasks.

Mixed Dominance or Ambidexterous?

Just yesterday on The OT Toolbox, we discussed mixed dominance. In this post, we will cover more about true ambidexterity and what that means.

A child with mixed dominance demonstrates clear, stronger patterns based on the side of the body they are utilizing to complete the task.

For example, a child who is left hand dominant will develop a stronger fine motor pattern then a child who is not left side dominant but compensating for fatigue and is moderately adept at utilizing the left hand as a coping skill.

Is my child ambidextrous

A child who is truly ambidextrous will be equally as skilled at utilizing both sides of the body and it will look and feel natural to the child. Statistically, only 1% of the population is truly ambidextrous—it’s really very rare, and it is more likely that your child is experiencing mixed dominance patterns.

True ambidexterity requires both hands to be used with equal precision and there is no true preference in either the right or left hand for either both fine or gross motor tasks.

Can you make yourself ambidextrous?

This is an interesting question. Many times there is a perceived benefit to being ambidextrous, or switching hand or foot use during a task. Some perceived benefits might be:

  • Switching hands when one is fatigued from use during a task
  • Switching dominant sides during a sport such as baseball or softball to pitch with the other arm, batting from another side, dribbling to the other side when bringing up the ball during basketball, or kicking a ball with the other foot during soccer.
  • Writing equal legibility with both hands

Actually being ambidextrous is different than teaching yourself to become ambidextrous.

To use both sides of the hand as a learned concept takes cognitive attention whereas natural ambidexterity occurs without thought. Because of the neuroplasticity of the brain, humans have the ability to teach themselves to use their non-dominant hand or side to complete tasks. It takes practice, practice, and more practice.

Read here on motor planning where we cover this concept.

Ambidexterity or Mixed Dominance?

Is my child ambidextrous? Isn’t that what mixed dominance is? These are two questions that therapists get asked frequently when evaluating a child for the first time for mixed dominance and other concerns. The answer is no, they are not the same thing.

This is a tricky area. Therapists recognize mixed dominance as a miscommunication or poor integration of the left and right sides of the brain and that’s how it’s explained to parents. However, there is a lot of information out there on this topic that may or may not be relevant to your child and her struggles— keep this in mind when Googling information.

It is more likely, that your child’s brain is utilizing the left and right sides for very specific motor skills such as writing, eating and throwing a ball. This can lead to motor confusion—this is where the poor integration and lack of communication between the left and right sides of the brain comes into play.

When the child is not utilizing one side of the brain more dominantly for motor patterns, confusion and poor motor learning occur leading to delays and deficits in motor skills.

how to tell if your child is ambidextrous

It is unclear why the brain develops this way, but it does happen, and it is okay. In fact, it is easily addressed by an occupational therapist.

Determining if your child is ambidextrous, meaning they have equal proficiency and comfort using both hands, can require some observation. Here are a few signs that may indicate ambidexterity in your child:

  • Equal use of hands
  • Kicks a ball with either foot with equal distance and force
  • Balances on each leg equally
  • Equal tongue movements laterally
  • Proficient functional performance with either side of the body
  • Efficient use of tools with assistance of the other hand: scissor use, pencil use, feeding utensils, and other functional tools

In addition to these abilities, you can take a look at areas of functional performance. These include the underlying skills that impact function.

  • Frequent hand-switching: Observe if your child regularly switches hands during activities such as writing, drawing, eating, or playing sports. Ambidextrous individuals often demonstrate fluidity in using either hand without a clear preference.
  • Equal proficiency: Notice if your child shows similar levels of skill and coordination when using both hands for various tasks. They may exhibit no significant difference in handwriting quality, drawing ability, or manipulating objects with either hand.
  • Ease in learning new skills: Ambidextrous children tend to adapt quickly when asked to perform tasks with either hand. They may show little to no difficulty when switching hands for activities.
  • Mirror-like movements: Pay attention to your child’s movements. Ambidextrous individuals may display symmetrical movements, where actions performed with one hand can be mirrored almost identically by the other hand.
  • Lack of hand dominance: Ambidexterity implies the absence of a clear hand dominance. If your child does not consistently favor one hand over the other for a majority of tasks, it suggests a potential ambidextrous inclination.

Ambidexterous Motor Development

I already touched on this a little, but a child with mixed dominance may switch sides for task completion when experiencing fatigue. Due to this, their motor development and precision is typically delayed.

The most common area that this is noted in is in fine motor development for handwriting. This is because the child is equally, but poorly skilled with both hands, and will switch hands to compensate for fatigue.

Motor delays may also be noticed later on when it comes to the reciprocal movements needed to throw/catch or kick a ball and when skipping. A child with mixed dominance may attempt to catch and throw with the same hand, hold a bat with a backwards grip, or stand on the opposite side of the plate when hitting.

They may also experience a moderate level of confusion, and frustration as they are unsure of how to make the two sides of their body work together leading to overall poor hand/foot-eye coordination skills.Ambidexterity or mixed dominance and what this means for kids who use both hands to complete tasks like handwriting.

For a few fun hand dominance activities, try these ideas to help kids establish a

Ambidextrous hands and eyes

If you have more questions and want to learn more on a dominant eyes and understanding how the eyes and hands work together during activities, you’ll want to check out our Visual Processing Lab.

It’s a 3-day series of emails that covers everything about visual processing, visual motor skills, and eye-hand coordination. We take a closer look at visual skills and break things down, as well as covering the big picture of visual needs and how the hands and eyes work together.  

In the visual processing lab, you will discover how oculomotor skills like smooth pursuits make a big difference in higher level skills like learning and executive function. The best thing about this lab (besides all of the awesome info) is that it has a fun “lab” theme. I might have had too much fun with this one 🙂  

Join us in visual processing Lab! Where you won’t need Bunsen burners or safety goggles!  

Click here to learn more about Visual Processing Lab and to sign up.

ambidextrous eye dominance

Hand preference is something we are often aware of, whether we are right-handed or left-handed. However, many parents may not realize that we also have a preferred or dominant eye. This aspect of eye dominance is often overlooked because we typically use both eyes together for most activities.

So, how can you determine which eye is dominant?

Observing monocular tasks: When using a camera, telescope, microscope, or squinting with one eye. Pay attention to which eye you naturally prefer to use. This eye is typically your dominant eye. In most cases, eye dominance aligns with handedness, meaning that if you are right-handed, you are more likely to be right-eye dominant. However, there are instances where the dominant eye may differ from handedness.

Knowing about eye dominance is important because it can help to gain insights about a child’s visual processing and to identify any variations in eye-hand coordination. This knowledge can be particularly helpful when engaging in activities that require controlled motor planning, speed and timing of movement, and accuracy.

 
Free visual processing email lab to learn about visual skills needed in learning and reading.

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.

Cutting Playdough

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cutting playdough

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

cutting playdough

Cutting play Dough

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

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

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

Why cutting play dough?

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

Expand the activity to cut play dough with scissors

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

More fine motor activities:

Working on fine motor skills, visual perception, visual motor skills, sensory tolerance, handwriting, or scissor skills? Our Fine Motor Kits cover all of these areas and more.

Check out the seasonal Fine Motor Kits that kids love:

Letters Fine Motor Kit
Kit de motricidad fina de verano
Summer Fine Motor Kit
Outer Space Fine Motor Kit
Space Fine Motor Kit
Spring fine motor kit
Valentines Day fine motor kit
winter fine motor kit
Winter Fine Motor Kit

Or, grab one of our themed Fine Motor Kits to target skills with fun themes:

Want access to all of these kits…and more being added each month? Join The OT Toolbox Member’s Club!

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

OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY SUPPLIES MATCH IT CARDS

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OT Spot it game for occupational therapy

Children love Spot It games and OT professionals love to use Spot It in occupational therapy to develop skills! Today’s free resource for OT month is a fun OT Spot It type of game. This occupational therapy supplies match it activity develops visual perceptual skills and uses common OT materials and supplies. If you are working with kids, you’ll want to grab this freebie as a tool to use during OT month, but also all year long!

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

OT Spot it game for occupational therapy

OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY Spot It Game

This therapy game is part of a larger set that you can find in our OT Materials Bundle. And, incase you missed the OT month freebie that we shared already, be sure to grab this set of OT coloring pages, too. Both are great resources to add to your toolbox.

If you have ever played the (Amazon affiliate link) Spot It card game, you will love these Occupational Therapy Supplies Match it Cards!  Spot it games come in dozens of different styles to motivate even the most resistant learner. With these occupational therapy tools matching cards, learners can practice visual perceptual skills using a familiar platform. 

Why are visual perceptual skills important?

We’ve previously shared a great post explaining the importance of visual perception on learning.  Visual perception is important for reading fluency, decoding words, scanning a page, remembering what has been seen, finding things in a drawer or closet, playing games like puzzles, recalling/recognizing correct spelling, completing math equations, and so much more.

As a related resource, this free visual perception packet covers many different visual perceptual skills.

Spot It Game for Visual Perception

If you’ve seen the Spot It game being used in therapy sessions as a tool for development, you may have wondered how this popular game supports visual perceptual skills.

What visual perceptual skills are used in the occupational therapy supplies match it game?

  • Visual Attention: The ability to focus on important visual information and filter out unimportant background information.
  • Visual Memory: The ability to recall visual traits of a form or object.
  • Visual Spatial Relationships: Understanding the relationships of objects within the environment.
  • Visual Figure Ground: The ability to locate something in a busy background.
  • Visual Form Constancy: The ability to know that a form or shape is the same, even if it has been made smaller/larger or has been turned around.

All of these skills are addressed through the use of the Spot It games, and that’s why we wanted to create an OT version to develop skills!

Use the OT Match IT Game

Because April is OT month, it is a great time to talk about the role of occupational therapy with other students, or to work with learners on understanding why they get OT. 

They may not understand why they get to see this awesome person every week.  By educating learners about the role OT plays in their lives, they can begin to explain it to other people.  When we educate other adults about occupational therapy, we are advocating for the profession, as well as teaching them how we can help.

WHERE WILL YOU TAKE THIS ACTIVITY?

  1. A great place to start would be by ordering the rest of this occupational therapy supplies match it cards HERE. This bundle of occupational therapy activities includes 13 printable products that can be printed off and used with students in therapy sessions to celebrate all of the therapy tools kids use. This packet is great for OT month, and all year long.
  2. An all inclusive lesson plan can easily be made by using all of the occupational therapy month themed activity freebies:
  1. Create a visual perception theme addressing several of the important visual perceptual skills.  The OT Toolbox has some brand new resources for visual perception. 
  2. Color and laminate these cards to build a reusable game set.  Make a special game set for your learners to take home and share with family
  3. Have learners research and learn more about occupational therapy and the supplies or tools we use

HOW TO DOCUMENT Spot IT Games in Therapy

If you are using these occupational therapy supplies match it cards as part of your treatment plan, you will need to accurately document your learner’s skill level. 

  • The percentage of correct cards matched
  • How long it takes to do each card
  • Attention to detail, following directions, prompts and reminders needed, level of assistance given
  • Can your learner scan the page to identify the correct items?  Are they recognizing what they are matching or merely matching shapes?
  • How many times do you need to repeat the directions so your learner can follow them?
  • How many reminders does your learner need while doing this activity?
  • First determine what goals and skills you are addressing. Are you looking strictly at visual perception and picture matching?  Or something else entirely such as executive function and behavior?
  • Focus your observations on the skills you are addressing.  It is alright to address one (or ten) skills at once, just be sure to watch for those skills during the activity.  This can take practice to watch everything all at once. Newer clinicians often videotape sessions and go back and review clinical observations they may have missed.
  • Use data to back up your documentation. Avoid or limit phrases such as min assist, fair, good, some, many, etc.  They are vague and do not contain the numbers and data critical to proficient documentation.  Instead use percentages, number of trials, number of errors, time to do a task, number of prompts, minutes of attention.  You get the idea.
  • This type of documentation may feel foreign at first if this is not what you are used to, however insurance and governing agencies are becoming more strict on accurate documentation.

TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF AS WELL AS OTHERS

Take time this month not only to advocate for occupational therapy, but to celebrate each other for the fabulous work we do!  Share stories of success, funny moments, learning opportunities, and resounding failures.  Every time I think I have heard or seen it all in my thirty years practicing, a new surprise or hilarious moment comes my way!  Someone should publish a book or page about all of the funny things people say during a therapy session. 

This profession is rewarding but also very tough.  Burnout is common among health professionals. In fact, caregiver stress and burnout applies to many therapy professionals! If you can’t find a moment of levity, it will break you.  

While this post is highlighting the occupational therapy match it cards, take time to reflect about what great work you are doing, spread the word about OT, and practice your own self care.

Free Match IT Game for OTs

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

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

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

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

Join the Member’s Club today!

Free Occupational Therapy Spot It Game

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

    Hand Eye Coordination Activities for Toddlers

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    hand eye coordination activities for toddlers

    If you are looking for fun ways to help toddlers develop skills through play, then this hand eye coordination activities for toddlers is for you. During the toddler years, there is much development happening. Whether you need fun ways to help little ones build gross or fine motor skills, this hand eye coordination activity will support the cognitive and physical development the young child can use for learning and play.

    hand eye coordination activities for toddlers

    Hand Eye Coordination Activities for Toddlers

    Hand eye coordination refers to the coordination between visual input through the eyes and physical motor movements through an integration of the visual and motor systems in order to use the hands and arms.

    These early years have many fine motor milestones that support functional skills and self-care. Additionally, the visual motor development of this age is huge!

    Hand Eye coordination for toddlers is necessary for play, self-feeding, and increasing independence in young children.

    This is a developmental skill that begins at a young age and progresses in skill and precision.

    Examples of Hand Eye Coordination in Toddlers

    Toddlers gain precision and accuracy in motor skills at a rapid rate. You’ll notice this as they become more and more refined in motor skills. Some examples of activities that require hand-eye coordination during the toddler years includes:

    • Throwing a ball
    • Catching a ball
    • Drawing with a crayon (Read about the best crayons for toddlers)
    • Stacking blocks
    • Age-appropriate toys like dolls or figures
    • Taking off socks/putting on socks
    • Taking off clothing (shirts/pants) and putting on clothing
    • Putting toys into containers, bags, purses
    • Participating in pretend play
    • Self-feeding using feeding utensils (Read here for tips on how to hold a spoon to encourage self-feeding skills
    • Drinking from an open cup

    All of these functional areas of day to day activities for toddlers build skills through actually participating in the task. However, you can definitley foster the underlying skills needed to support independence through play! For example, we love using play based learning or a craft for 2 year olds and all ranges of toddlerhood!

    Why build hand eye coordination in toddlers?

    There are many benefits to encouraging hand eye coordination activities in toddlers. Through play, you can create opportunities for young children to gain the type of play that the young child needs. This includes fine motor play, gross motor play, and not screen use!

    Some benefits for toddlers to participate in hand eye coordination tasks includes:

    Toddler Hand Eye Coordination Activities

    Hand eye coordination activities for toddlers can be simple, yet fun. Some ideas include:

    Try the hand eye coordination activity we did using an inner tube. This is a great color activity for young children.

    This was a fun little play activity for the Toddlers.  Niece and nephew (19 months) was with us one day and LOVED doing this.  

    I put the blue inner tube and a little basketful of balls out on the dining room floor.  I put one ball into the center of the inner tube and he was INTO it!  Little nephew went crazy putting the balls in the center, taking them out, putting them back into the basket.  This was FUN!

    What are we learning with this activity?

    • Eye-Hand Coordination
    • Toddler Visual-motor skills
    • Cause and effect (if I throw this ball into the center, it might bounce out…)
    • Learning colors
    • Gross Motor Skills (throwing, rolling, bouncing)



     
    We’ve been on a BLUE kick around here these days.
     
    This was a fun little play activity for the Toddlers.  Nephew (19 months) was with us one day and LOVED doing this.  
     
     
     


     
     
     
     
    This little (and EASY…seriously, it does not get much easier than this…) game will be coming out again.  This Aunt can clean up the breakfast mess when something like this is going on!
     
     

     

    Tips for Toddler Hand eye coordination skills

    When setting up activities for toddlers, some tips include following the child’s lead. Offer support when needed, but allow the young child to participate in the process. Sometimes working and playing along side the toddler offers a model that the young child can copy if they like, but they won’t feel pressured and they still have the autonomy that gives them a sense of success.

    Most of all, have fun!

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

    Sorting Colors Activities

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    sorting colors

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

    Sorting colors

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

    Sorting Colors

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

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

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

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

    Sorting Colors Development

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

    Development of color sorting progresses through these stages:

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

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

    Color Sorting and Visual Perception

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

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

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

    Color Sorting Teaches Mental Flexibility

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

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

    Color Sorting and Functional Tasks

    Why do some people have difficulty organizing and cleaning up? 

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

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

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

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

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

    How would you tackle this chore?  

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

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

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

    Color Sorting Activities

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

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

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

    Color sorting activities can include ideas such as:

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

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

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

    SO much learning is happening with color sorting!

    Fine Motor Color Sorting Activity with Straws

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

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

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

    Color sorting activity with straws

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

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

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

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

      color sorting activity using straws

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

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

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

    Kids love to work on fine motor skills through play!

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

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

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

    Importance of Color sorting for toddlers and preschoolers

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Color Sorting Activity with Straws

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

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

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

    Looking for more fun ways to work on color sorting?

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

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

    Colors Handwriting Kit

    Rainbow Handwriting Kit– This resource pack includes handwriting sheets, write the room cards, color worksheets, visual motor activities, and so much more. The handwriting kit includes:

    • Write the Room, Color Names: Lowercase Letters
    • Write the Room, Color Names: Uppercase Letters
    • Write the Room, Color Names: Cursive Writing
    • Copy/Draw/Color/Cut Color Worksheets
    • Colors Roll & Write Page
    • Color Names Letter Size Puzzle Pages
    • Flip and Fill A-Z Letter Pages
    • Colors Pre-Writing Lines Pencil Control Mazes
    • This handwriting kit now includes a bonus pack of pencil control worksheets, 1-10 fine motor clip cards, visual discrimination maze for directionality, handwriting sheets, and working memory/direction following sheet! Valued at $5, this bonus kit triples the goal areas you can work on in each therapy session or home program.

    Click here to get your copy of the Colors Handwriting Kit.

    Sensory Activities For 1 Year Olds

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    sensory activities for 1 year olds

    This blog post is one of the oldest posts on the site, but the sensory activities for 1 year olds that we shared way back when are just as fun now! When this post was written, the babies that played with the balls and muffin tins were just 11 months and going on 1 year. Those little ones are now 11 years old! This is such a great brain building activity for babies that I wanted to reshare the idea for the latest crop of babies out there!

    If you are looking for more Baby activities, try the fun over on our Baby Play page. You’ll also find some great ideas for different ages on this post on baby sensory play.  We’ve been busy!

    sensory activities for 1 year olds

    sensory activities for 1 year olds

    This sensory activity for 1 year olds is an easy activity to set up. You’ll need just a few items:

    • colorful balls
    • muffin tins

    You can add create another sensory activity for the babies with the same colorful balls and a cardboard box or basket. We also used an empty cereal box with hole cut into the sides.

    Each sensory activity here supports development of eye-hand coordination, grasp and release, core strength and stability in dynamic sitting, positioning and seated play on the floor (floor play).

    Baby and Toddler Brain Building activity using balls and a muffin tin. Perfect for developing fine motor skills, visual perceptual skills in an active activity for sitting and mobile babies.

    An important consideration is the use of baby positioners as they can impact powerful movement-based play in babies.

    The best for sensory play for 1 year olds is just playing on the floor! There are so many benefits to playing on the floor with a basket of balls and a few muffin tins.

    Baby and Toddler Brain Building activity using balls and a muffin tin. Perfect for developing fine motor skills, visual perceptual skills in an active activity for sitting and mobile babies.

    What do babies love to do? Take things out and put them back into containers.

    We have a bunch of different colored and sized balls that are so fun to play with in so many ways. I had my niece and nephew here one day and we needed something different to do. My nephew and my Baby Girl are both 11 months old and they absolutely loved this play activity! 

    I pulled out my muffin tins and they had a blast putting the balls into the tins, taking them out, putting them back into the box, and pulling them out again!

    Little Guy (my 3 year old ) loved joining in too. Really, who could resist playing with all of these colorful balls???

    Peek a Boo Sensory Activity for 1 year olds

    What else do babies love? The peek-a-boo game!

    It’s at this age (around one year) that babies often struggle with separation anxiety when being dropped off at a caregiver’s when separated from their parents or caregivers. You will even see signs of separation angst when a parent goes into another room, which can especially happen when the baby is tired.

    The next sensory activity for baby was a fun one!

    We had an empty cereal box that I cut circles into. They had a ton of fun putting the balls into a hole, and pulling a different one out as the box moved around…there were a lot of little hands in there moving that box around 🙂

    The it’s-there-then-it’s not of a great game of peek-a-boo (or peek-a-ball in this case!) is awesome in building neural pathways of the brain. 

     

     

    More sensory activities for babies

    Other sensory activities for 1 year olds and babies include using small baskets or boxes to transfer the balls from one container to the other.

    Transferring from box to box…working those hands to pick up different sized/weighted/textured balls.  Dropping the ball to see what happens is so predictable, but it is important in learning for babies. Just like when baby drops the cup from her highchair a million times…

    We had a ball!

    (couldn’t resist that one…heehee)

    Baby and Toddler Brain Building activity using balls and a muffin tin. Perfect for developing fine motor skills, visual perceptual skills in an active activity for sitting and mobile babies.

    Need more sensory ideas for 1 year olds? Try these:

    • Sensory tables- put interesting toys, textures, scoops, and containers on a low table like a coffee table. The new cruiser or early walker can stand at the table and explore the textures
    • Messy play on a highchair- Strap baby in and encourage messy food play. Thing about apple sauce, pudding, or mashed potatoes.
    • Textured fabrics- Put a bunch of fabric scraps into a box and invite the one year old to pull them out and put them back in.
    • Play with cups and spoons– with supervision- This is a great activity for eye hand coordination skills.
    • Use a baby gym to encourage reach and play in various positions.

    How to Use Graph Paper

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    graph paper uses

    Do you know how to use graph paper to meet specific OT goal areas? We can use grid paper in occupational therapy sessions to develop many goal areas. Did you ever see a student using graphed paper in occupational therapy and wonder about the pre-gridded paper purpose in supporting goals? Not only is graph paper a type of adapted paper for some, it can be a tool too! There are so many different reasons to use this type of paper to support specific handwriting or visual perception needs. Here we are discussing using graph paper and why this type of therapy tool can be helpful.

    Graph paper uses in occupational therapy for handwriting and other areas.

    Graph Paper Purpose in OT

    Graph paper comes in many sizes!  Specific activities can be easily graded in difficulty just by making it easier when boxes are large and of course more challenging as boxes become smaller in size. 

    Graph paper can be used as a tool to support many areas of development:

    How to Use Graph Paper

    Try these paper activities in occupational therapy sessions or at home. Here are ideas on using graph paper to meet specific goal areas in OT or at home:

    Graph Paper for Visual Perception

    Tasks like forming letters the correct size, using margins, aligning lists or columns are all visual perceptual areas of handwriting. You can use grid paper to support these needs.

    Graph paper is great to use for math problems! Simply place one number in each box and line them up so numbers are easily read and there’s a spot for each number in your answer. Your math work just might be easier to do and it will for sure be easier to read.

    Graph paper for visual motor skills

    Related to the visual perception aspect is the contribution of motor skills. In order to copy shapes, copy and write words, recreate graphs, plot lines, etc. one needs visual motor skills.

    Graph paper can be used to address visual motor skills with these activities:

    • Create a plot diagram. Use a ruler to connect lines.
    • Copy shapes and designs using the grid blocks on the paper.
    • Form block letters with or without a model.
    • Cut shapes and trace the shape using the graph paper template.
    • Create symmetry drawings by folding the graph paper in half.
    • Create pencil control exercises to work on precision with pencil use.


    I love to use graph paper for imitating drawings. I will draw an odd shape or maybe even a specific item and ask a student to copy my drawing by counting and using the boxes to replicate my shape. Students can also draw their own shape and try to “stump” the therapist or other player.


    If the adult/other player is creative, s/he can label the boxes with letters and numbers across the top and side edges (kind of like a BINGO board) and the student is asked to fill in box A-1, or C-3, etc. to create a picture that will mysteriously become visible at the end. The one helping here must do a little homework on their own first to make sure the colored in boxes will actually create a picture.

    Draw shapes–

    The student can also be instructed (verbally or with written cues) to draw shapes, lines, letters, etc. in certain boxes or at the intersection of certain lines (e.g. put a yellow circle in box A-1, or draw a tree at line F-7 or similar). 

    This helps to follow written instructions, draw a specific shape, and locate the correct space on the graph paper.  Be creative and make it fun!

    Graph paper Letter Size Activity-

    Finally, it would be an injustice to graph paper if I didn’t mention the use it can play in creating letter boxes for a box and dot handwriting task.  Your student may already be familiar with this through OT sessions. 

    Graph lines can be used to outline the space in which a letter sits, using one single box for lower case letters.  Upper case letters and lower case tall letters: (t, d, f, h, k, l, b) will need to include the box ON TOP to make it a one wide by a 2 tall defined space. 

    Lower case letters that are descending below the line, or tail letters (q, y, p, g, j) must include the box BELOW, making it also a one wide by 2 space, but the box on bottom goes below the line on which the letters are written. 

    Missing letter activities-

    Making up a “key” of words, or a game, have the student place the letters in the proper defined word space that has letter boxes outlined or maybe even just the word outlined.  This may be a fun way to practice spelling words. 

    Cutting activity-

    If nothing else, you can always use graph paper to practice cutting on the lines, creating a colored picture, making paper air planes, or crumpling into a ball to play a game.  Graph paper is one style of cutting paper with a graded resistance we talk about in our scissor skills crash course.

    I’m sure your student can think of many non-traditional things to do with it on his/her own!

    If you don’t have graph paper on hand, below are resources I have found which may be helpful.

    More handwriting tips

    The Handwriting Book is a comprehensive resource created by experienced pediatric OTs and PTs.

    The Handwriting Book covers everything you need to know about handwriting, guided by development and focused on function. This digital resource is is the ultimate resource for tips, strategies, suggestions, and information to support handwriting development in kids.

    The Handwriting Book breaks down the functional skill of handwriting into developmental areas. These include developmental progression of pre-writing strokes, fine motor skills, gross motor development, sensory considerations, and visual perceptual skills. Each section includes strategies and tips to improve these underlying areas.

    • Strategies to address letter and number formation and reversals
    • Ideas for combining handwriting and play
    • Activities to practice handwriting skills at home
    • Tips and strategies for the reluctant writer
    • Tips to improve pencil grip
    • Tips for sizing, spacing, and alignment with overall improved legibility

    Click here to grab your copy of The Handwriting Book today.

    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.

    Scanning Activities for Reading (Free Download)

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    visual scanning for reading

    Today, we have a fun scanning activities for reading using a printable visual scanning worksheet resource that supports the underlying visual skills to target scanning exercises. Plus, the scanning worksheet users will love the fun theme. Vision truly impacts learning so if we can support the areas of development that help a child thrive, we are moving in the right direction.

    One of the ways that occupational therapy professionals support development is through meaningful occupations, and anything fun and playful is a winner when it comes to pediatric OT! This visual scanning worksheet is just that: a fun skill-builder!

    There are many visual scanning activities that support functional participation. Here, we’re talking specifically about reading skills.

    Visual Scanning and reading

    The end of the school year might feel like coasting into the finish line, however it needs to be focused on meeting goals and preparing learners for summer reading. 

    Learners seem to have a love/hate relationship with reading. I believe the people who hate reading struggle with this task. 

    Becoming a proficient reader takes a combination of skills. Beyond vision, phonics, spelling, and letter recognition, are the visual perceptual skills needed to read fluently. One way to foster the needed skills is with an activity like the visual scanning worksheets shown below. It’s a printable resource that focuses on scanning activities for reading. 

    Visual scanning impacts reading in many ways.

    • The child who struggles with letter reversals
    • The child who labors with reading and commonly skips words or lines of words when reading.
    • Saccadic eye movement, or visual scanning, is necessary for reading a sentence or paragraph as the eyes follow the line of words.
    • Visual scanning allows us to rapidly shift vision between two objects without overshooting as when shifting vision during reading tasks.
    • In copying written work, this skill is very necessary.
    • Skips words or a line of words when reading or re-reads lines of text
    • Must use finger to keep place when reading
    • Poor reading comprehension

    All of these aspects of reading can be an issue because of scanning challenges.

    So what’s going on here, visually?

    Visual scanning is one of several visual perceptual skills. These have been highlighted in posts before, but as a reminder, they are:

    • Visual Attention: The ability to focus on important visual information and filter out unimportant background information.
    • Visual Discrimination: The ability to determine differences or similarities in objects based on size, color, shape, etc.
    • Visual Memory: The ability to recall visual traits of a form or object.
    • Visual Spatial Relationships: Understanding the relationships of objects within the environment.
    • Visual Sequential-Memory: The ability to recall a sequence of objects in the correct order.
    • Visual Figure Ground: The ability to locate something in a busy background.
    • Visual Form Constancy: The ability to know that a form or shape is the same, even if it has been made smaller/larger or has been turned around.
    • Visual Closure: The ability to recognize a form or object when part of the picture is missing

    All of these areas combined make up visual perception, and is part of the bigger picture of how our eyes work functionally.

    Visual perception is the ability to organize and interpret the information that is seen and give it meaning.  This is a common thread in therapy treatment, as it is the foundation for many activities addressed daily.

    Visual perception is essential for reading, writing, math, self care tasks, instrumental activities of daily living, and play.

    How to develop SCANNING Skills FOR READING

    There are ways to support the development and accuracy of visual scanning skills when using visual scanning worksheets.

    1. Reading Readiness Skills- When my girls were young, the summer reading list meant a chance to earn a ticket to Six Flags from the school!  It also meant a dollar per chapter book from mom and dad.  I was out $61.00 just from one kid that summer.  It was worth it. 

    In preparation  we did a lot of scanning activities for reading readiness.  These included worksheets like the ones offered on the OT Toolbox, as well as games.  Amazon has their (affiliate link) visual perceptual games chunked into one search category. 

    This might include using reading prompts, desired books, and short reading passages or use of a short series of images, letters, or icons on visual scanning worksheets.

    Other strategies include working on scanning the environment for details. Ask kids to look for items that are all one color, for example.

    Another reading readiness activity that supports reading is I Spy activities like these I Spy colors game, I spy with real toys, and printable pages (Many are found in our Membership).

    2. Visual Scanning Games- Some activities to develop scanning skills for reading include:

    • Tricky Fingers
    • QBitz
    • Where’s Waldo
    • Highlights Magazine
    • Spot it Games.

    3. Vision Activities– Also be sure to check out these vision activities for kids to support all of the underlying skills that impact reading and learning.

    Specifically, be sure to check out these visual scanning activities that cover the full gamut!

    4. Take a Deeper Look at What’s Going On- When assessing for reading difficulties, once you have ruled out visual acuity issues, use a screening tool or assessment to test for visual perceptual deficits. 

    The Motor Free Visual Perceptual Test, as well as the Test of Visual Perceptual Skills, assesses the different visual perceptual skills, broken down into different areas. 

    5. Visual Scanning Exercises- The free spring weather visual scanning exercise (grab it below!) is just a sample of the larger packet offered HERE on the OT Toolbox. Targeting scanning exercises doesn’t need to be complicated. Using simple three item series of images builds visual scanning skills.

    Below you’ll find a free downloadable spring visual scanning exercise you can use to support visual scanning needed for reading skills. These activities include a weather and Spring theme, but you can use them all times of year. The sun and clouds themes work for everyone with fun scanning exercises kids love.

    This visual scanning exercise is a great scanning activity for reading. It relies on visual attention, discrimination, memory, visual-sequential memory, and figure ground.

    For more scanning work, grab the Spring Fine Motor Packet. This 97 page no-prep packet includes everything you need to guide fine motor skills in face-to-face AND virtual learning. Includes Spring themed activities for hand strength, pinch and grip, dexterity, eye-hand coordination, bilateral coordination, endurance, finger isolation, and more. 

    6. Visual Perception Activities- There are several posts this month highlighting Visual Perceptual Activities for Spring. 

    For some therapists, parents, and educators this scanning activity will be great worksheets for spring break, on those long rides to Grandma’s house.

    Others will find these PDF sheets great for a spring lesson plan. Make a great packet of pages to send home, or do during class.  You can laminate these pages to make them eco-friendly and reusable. Some people project these onto smart boards, however I personally prefer the added skills involved in writing on paper.  However you choose to motivate your learners is the key to success.

    DATA COLLECTION during scanning activities

    Scanning activities for reading readiness are great for data collection. It is easy to measure the number of correct/incorrect guesses.

    Of course, a scanning activity gets tricky when other factors such as impulsivity, attention, and compliance skew the data. Be sure to document these aspects of scanning that impacts reading skills as a functional task:

    • Document the number of errors, while adding narrative about the learner’s behavior. 
    • Provide several different types of visual perceptual tasks to try and determine which specific skills (or combination) are deficient.  This way your treatment can be more efficient, if you can hone in on one or two skill areas, such as visual memory, or scanning. 

    DOCUMENTATION of Scanning tasks to support reading

    • Does your learner scan in sequential order, or all over the page?
    • Are items completely missed when scanning?
    • Is your learner taking their time, or making random guesses?
    • Does your learner thoroughly look at all the choices before giving an answer?

    Some of these questions are not easy to answer. Continue to provide different types of exercises in order to measure progress. 

    Progress is often the answer we seek, rather than “why do they do that?”  Often doctors do not know the why, but have to try different things until they find something that works. 

    Use spring break (if you are lucky enough to have one) to rest and recharge for all of the fun spring activities that can be added to your treatment plans and OT Toolbox!

    As a related resource, check out our blog post on types of eye specialists. Another great resource is our blog post on behavioral optometrists.

    Free scanning activity Download to support reading skills

    Want to add this printable scanning activity tool to your therapy toolbox?

    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 Visual Scanning for Reading Exercise

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

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

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