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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.

    Spring Visual Perception Activities

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    Spring themed visual perception activities for kids

    Have you been following along with the Spring Occupational Therapy activities this week? All week long we’re covering various aspects of development and function with fun and creative spring-themed ideas. Today you’ll find Spring Visual Perception Activities. These are ways to promote visual perceptual skill development and the visual components that are needed for skills like reading, writing, and functional tasks.

    Spring Visual Perception Activities

     
    Working on visual perceptual skills in kids to help with handwriting, reading, or other skills? These spring themed visual perception activities will help.

    If you missed the other posts this week, you can check them out here:

    For a more exhaustive set of strategies, activities, and ideas, be sure to grab the Spring Fine Motor Kit (PLUS bonus kit which covers everything you need for Spring Break) that is on sale now for just $10. You’ll be loaded up on all kinds of tools that will last all season long.

    Each Spring theme includes activity ideas. To see all of the posts from this week (and to see what we’re coving tomorrow), head over to our Spring Occupational Therapy Activities page.

    For more creative strategies and ideas to use in therapy this time of year, you will want to grab the Spring Fine Motor Kit that includes our Spring Occupational Therapy Activities Packet. It’s loaded with tools and ideas to put into place in therapy sessions starting today. 

    For OT Toolbox readers and newsletter subscribers, you can access both of these materials in our Spring Fine Motor Kit DEAL which includes the bonus materials at the time of your purchase.

    Use the ideas in fine motor or gross motor warm-ups, or add them to a home program. You’ll find more visual perceptual activities and worksheets that can be used over and over again. You’ll also find handwriting prompts in list form so you can really focus on things like letter formation, spacing, and line use in short writing tasks. You’ll love the Spring themed brain break cards that can be used in the classroom or at home.

    Grab the Spring Occupational Therapy Activities Packet and bonus Spring Break Kit here.

    Working on visual perceptual skills in kids to help with handwriting, reading, or other skills? These spring themed visual perception activities will help.

     

    Spring Visual Perception Activities

    When we breakdown the term “visual perception”, you will see that there are many sub-areas that are needed for functional skills like reading, handwriting, spelling, coordination, and many functional tasks.

    Below, you’ll find an explanation of visual perceptual skills that impact function, as well as Spring-themed activities to help improve these areas.  

    Read more about how visual perception impacts handwriting here.  

    Visual Perceptual Skills

    Visual Memory- This visual perceptual skill allows us to store information that we see and use that information for future use. In order to recall visual information, we need visual attention.

    The selection and perception of visual input requires that information is perceived via the eye’s visual fields, and in coordination with oculomotor control, is processed through the visual cortex in the brain. This is how visual processing happens.

    Visual memory allows for discrimination of details of such things as letter discrimination, sight word identification, etc.  

    Spring Visual Memory Activities-

    • Use different colored plastic eggs or other items such as mini erasers. Put them in a series of three and show the student. You can then cover up the objects and then ask the student to replicate that series.
    • Create a Spring Memory game. Use pictures or stickers of flowers, chicks, bunnies, caterpillars, butterflies, etc. to create a DIY Memory game.
    • What’s Missing Game- Use those mini erasers from a dollar store to create a What’s Missing Game. Place a handful of erasers on a tray. Allow the child to memorize the items. Then cover them and remove one or more. The child needs to recall and identify the missing items.
    • Spring Memory Game (Free download)– print off this free printable and play memory games with a Spring theme.

    Visual Discrimination– This visual perceptual skill allows us to identify the features of a form/object/letter/number so we can tell the difference between objects.

    Using visual discrimination, we can identify similarities and differences related to the objects and use that information in conjunction with visual memory.  

    Spring Visual Discrimination Activities- 

    • Cut a spring picture or card into pieces. Kids can position the pieces to recreate the whole picture. Make this activity easier or more difficult as needed by the child.
    • Use a packet of spring stickers. Many times there are several sheets that contain the same stickers. Use them to make small cards. Mix up all of the cards and ask the child to find the matches.

    Form Constancy- This visual perceptual skill allows for recognition of objects in various environments or with attention to details and orientation.

    This allows us to recognize letters or numbers no matter their font or size.  

    Spring Form Constancy Activities-

    • Write lists of spring words on index cards in different sizes or fonts, or upper case/lower case letters. Hide the cards around the room. The child can look at one card and go off to find the matching font and word.
    • Using plastic eggs, draw shapes that are similar in form, but are different sizes on each half of the egg. Then, mix up the eggs and as the child to find matches and put them together.

    Visual Closure– This visual perceptual skill enables the identification of objects or forms and allows us to identify an object by viewing just a portion and using mental skills to complete the object’s form in our mind.

    Visual closure is a skill necessary for reading and recognizing words by viewing just the beginning letters. Visual closure is related to and requires visual memory and visual attention.

    Spring Visual Closure Activities- 

    • Gather several Spring-themed items such as small animal figures, flowers, cookie cutters, plastic eggs, etc. Place them on a tray and cover half of the items. Ask the child to name each item without seeing the whole object.
    • Make an “I Spy” Frame- Cut a hole or rectangle in an index card. Place it over a spring picture or item. Ask the child to name the object or item by seeing only a portion.

    Visual Figure Ground- This skill enables us to locate items in a busy background.  Finding hidden items in a hidden pictures puzzle works on this skill by visually scanning and identifying items within a busy scene.  

    In handwriting, visual figure ground is necessary for copying written work from a model and locating the place left off when shifting vision.

    Spring Visual-Figure Ground Activities-

    • Use small items such as mini-erasers of various shapes like bunnies, carrots, and flowers. Spread them out on a table in a pile. Ask the student to sort the like shapes into piles.
    • Go on an “I Spy” nature walk and look for signs of Spring.
    • Flip through a catalogue or grocery flier to find specific items on a list. These can be items needed for a Spring event like Mother’s Day or Easter, or items needed for a recipe. 

    Visual Sequential Memory- This visual perceptual skill is the ability to visually take in and then later recall the sequence or order of items in the correct order. This skill is important in reading and writing.

    Visual sequential memory is important in spelling words correctly and recognizing that words are not spelled correctly.

    Spring Visual Sequential Memory Activities- 

    • Make an order of three or more items like three flowers. Ask the student to memorize the order and then to replicate it.
    • Talk about the steps to complete a task such as planting a flower seed. Write out or draw the steps. Cut the paper so the steps are separated. Mix up the order by spreading the various steps on a table surface. Ask the student to place them back into order. 

    More Spring Visual Perception Activities

    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:

    Spring fine motor kit set of printable fine motor skills worksheets for kids.
    • Lacing cards
    • Sensory bin cards
    • Hole punch activities
    • Pencil control worksheets
    • Play dough mats
    • Write the Room cards
    • Modified paper
    • Sticker activities
    • MUCH MORE

    Click here to add this resource set to your therapy toolbox.

    Spring Fine Motor Kit
    Spring Fine Motor Kit: TONS of resources and tools to build stronger hands.

    Grab your copy of the Spring Fine Motor Kit and build coordination, strength, and endurance in fun and creative activities. Click here to add this resource set to your therapy toolbox.

    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.

    Spring Occupational Therapy Activities

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    Spring occupational therapy activities

    There might just be a turn in the weather! Spring therapy takes on a whole new meaning with these Spring occupational therapy activities! With a new season comes a new set of OT activities for the school-based occupational therapist or the OT working in early intervention or an outpatient clinic. I’m excited to share an update to our Spring Occupational Therapy packet that now has a TON of therapy tools and Spring activities to develop various skills like fine  motor, gross motor, visual perceptual, handwriting, sensory tolerance and play, and more.

    Use these Spring OT ideas in everyday play!

    If you are specifically looking for SPRING CRAFTS that support occupational therapy goals, we have that, too!

    Spring occupational therapy activities for helping kids develop skills, in school based OT, early intervention, and at home.


    Spring Occupational Therapy Activities

    Looking for fun ways to add a creative spin to therapy sessions this time of year? You’re in luck! This week on The OT Toolbox, you’ll find loads of Spring activities. Each day, we’re rounding up activities, ideas, strategies, and tips that all have a Spring theme in common. Use these activities in your therapy plans to meet the specific needs of kiddos. 

    You’ll find tons of activity ideas in our Spring Fine Motor Kit, too.

    Click here to grab the Spring Fine Motor Kit.

    Here’s what you can find when it comes to Spring Occupational Therapy activities here on The OT Toolbox:

    Spring fine motor activities
    Spring gross motor activities
    Spring handwriting activities

    Spring Fine Motor Activities– Spring crafts, spring fine motor precision activities, sorting insects, mixing colors, and beading rainbows! These Spring fine motor activities develop hand strength, coordination, pincer grasp, and a functional pencil grasp!

    Spring Gross Motor Activities – Work on balance, coordination, core strength, and motor planning skills with these gross motor activities for Spring. Kids will love the therapy slide decks that challenge skills (great for pediatric physical therapy, too!)

    You’ll love the Spring balance beams, sequencing activities, and more (with shoulder stability, balance, coordination, and core strengthening activities at the focus!)

    Spring Sensory Activities– these Spring sensory play ideas include sensory bins and heavy work activities that are great for sensory diets. While you’re at it, be sure to grab these Spring OT tools:

    • Spring Sensory Stations– great for building a sensory walk with a Spring theme
    • Outdoor Sensory Diets– so much information about supporting sensory needs through being outdoors.
    • Sensory Garden– Create a sensory garden on a large scale or small scale to support sensory needs through gardening this Spring.

    Spring Visual Perception Activities– Use these Spring OT ideas to support visual perceptual skills like visual discrimination, visual closure, form constancy, figure ground, and other visual motor skills with a Spring theme.

    Spring Handwriting Activities– School based OTs will love these handwriting occupational therapy ideas to support legibility, functional pencil grasp, writing on lines, and letter formation.

    So, be sure to check out each link above to load up on creative ways to promote healthy development of kids!

    Spring handwriting activities
    Spring sensory activities
    Sensory stations free printables
    Use these Spring Occupational Therapy activities to promote skills like fine motor work, gross motor skills, bilateral coordination, eye-hand coordination, and more, all with a spring theme!

     

    Working on occupatioanl therapy goals? Here are OT activities designed to use a spring theme for fine motor skills, gross motor skills, handwriting, visual motor skills, sensory processing, bilateral coordination, and more.



    There’s more…
    This time of year, one of our more popular products here on The OT Toolbox is our Spring Fine Motor Kit!

    Spring fine motor kit activities
    Spring Fine Motor Kit

    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.

    Valentine’s day activity sheet

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    valentine's day activity sheets

    In today’s free printable the Valentine’s Day Activity Sheet, all the Valentine stuff is certainly mixed up!  This set of Valentines pencil control scanning worksheets combines visual motor and visual perceptual skills in several different PDF forms to delight and entertain even the most picky learner! Add this resource to your Valentine’s Day occupational therapy activities.

    Valentine's Day activity sheets to work on visual perceptual skills

    Valentine’s Day Activity Sheet

    Add this hearts and roses worksheet to your therapy line-up. This is such a fun time of year to add creative resources like the Valentine activity sheet described below. It may even become a new Valentine tradition!

    Do you have any Valentine’s traditions? Maybe making handmade valentines, baking cookies, or going out to a favorite restaurant.  Sometimes traditions are purposeful, while other times they just happen. If something “works” one year, it tends to become a tradition whether you want it to or not.  There are expectations in motion, or maybe just lack of creativity.  Hey, she liked it last year, let me do it again for 25 years.

    For at least fifteen years I received a box of Russell St****rs chocolates for Valentine’s day.  I am not a fan of this kind of chocolate.  I probably faked enthusiasm the first year, thus starting a tradition.  In short, traditions are ok, but it is also awesome to mix things up a little!

    Before looking at the Valentine’s Day Activity Worksheets, we need to understand:

    What is visual perception and why is it important? 

    Visual perception is being able to look at something and make sense of it.  Items have to be “perceived” in the correct way for motor output, reading, following directions, self care, and just about everything we do. That jacket that is inside out?  It takes more than just fine motor skills to right it.  The eyes and brain need to “see” that the jacket is inside out, where the problem stems from, then use motor skills to correct it. 

    Check out this article from the Vision Learning Center about breaking down visual perceptual skills.

    While righting jackets and reading are not the most enticing tasks for developing visual perceptual skills, Valentine Printable Scanning Sheets are!

    Better yet, to avoid having to submit your email address each time, consider becoming a member of the OT Toolbox! Membership has it’s perks. As a member you will not only be able to find every single one of the free printables offered on The OT Toolbox, but you’ll:

    • Be able to download each of them with a single click (No more re-entering your email address and searching through folders!)
    • Receive early access to new printables and activities before they’re added to the website (You’ll find these in the What’s New section.)
    • Receive a 20% discount on all purchases made in the The OT Toolbox shop!

    Valentine’s Day Activity Sheet for Visual Perception

    This great bundle of free visual scanning/pencil control printables works on several different visual perceptual skills:

    • Visual memory – remembering what was seen long enough to find it somewhere else
    • Visual scanning – being able to look at all of the choices (either in random or sequential order)
    • Visual form constancy – looking at items that might be slightly different or in a different position and recognizing they are the same figure

    four more visual perceptual skills

    We use these to make sense of what is seen.  Can you think of examples of activities or everyday tasks that require these skills?

    • Visual figure ground – picking out items from competing backgrounds
    • Visual spatial relations – identify items in relation to other items. What is in front, next to, behind
    • Visual closure – making sense of an item when only given part of it, such as doing a puzzle
    • Visual discrimination – the ability to idenfity differences between objects which may be obvious or subtle

    When thinking about figure ground, picture looking for an item in the refrigerator.  This skill requires being able to perceive or “see” the item among a forest of other items.  Visual spatial relations may be looking at pictures to determine what is in the foreground and what is in the background, or how far something is.  There are a lot of pictures and games that trick the mind’s eye into thinking it is seeing something else.  The brain has to work extra hard to decipher these.

    In case you missed it, Colleen Beck posted a great article on visual perception:

    Visual Perception Toys

    Some people have amazing visual perceptual skills, while others really struggle. I have mentioned before, there is a gender divide when it comes to visual perceptual skills.  Males were designed to hunt/gather/protect, therefore their eyes do not perceive subtle differences.  Do not despair!  These can be taught, or at least compensated for.  

    Knowing that visual perceptual skills can be a weakness for many, it is important to address these difficulties early, and train the brain to recognize the difference between objects, be able to find things, and solve puzzles.  Learners who struggle with anything, are going to be less likely to want to do something that is challenging.  Make it fun!  Get puzzles that have the theme your learner gravitates toward. The OT Toolbox has a great Valentines Day Fine Motor bundle to add to your theme. Use food or other motivating items to teach these skills.

    While I tend to discourage more electronic use than is already imposed on young minds, here are a couple of fun examples of online games that are motivating AND build visual perception from the Sensory Toolbox.

    As always, there are a dozen ways to adapt and modify these Valentines Day Activity Sheets to meet the needs of most of your learners.  

    This Valentine scanning pencil control worksheet is no exception:

    • Laminate the page for reusability. This saves on resources, and many learners love to write with markers!
    • Print in black and white or color for different levels of difficulty
    • Cut the shapes and make a matching game instead of using a writing tool to draw lines
    • Talk about the items, describe their characteristics, and give context clues to help your learner understand why certain pictures match
    • Copy some of these designs to add to the visual motor element
    • Try different writing utensils. This is not only motivating, but some learners work better with markers as they glide easier on paper. Did you know that golf sized pencils promote more of a tripod grasp than traditional long pencils? Try having your learner color with one inch crayons to enhance their grasp
    • Enlarge the task for beginning writers who need more writing space
    • Shrink the task for older learners who need to learn to write smaller
    • Velcro the back of the Valentine items, after laminating and cutting them,  to create a matching game
    • Have students write on a slant board, lie prone on the floor with the page in front to build shoulder stability, or supine with the page taped under the table
    • Project this page onto a smart board for students to come to the board and write in big lines
    • Graded prompting may be needed to grade activity to make it easier or harder
    • Make this part of a larger lesson plan including gross motor, sensory, social, executive function, or other fine motor skills
    • Don’t miss this great post on Valentine’s Day Activities, including Valentine’s Day Playdough, and a Valentine’s Day Shredded Paper Sensory Bin

    Besides visual perception and/or writing, what else is being addressed using this Valentine’s scanning, pencil control printable?

    • Fine motor – grasping pattern, wrist stability, intrinsic hand muscle development, pencil control
    • Bilateral coordination – hand dominance, using “helper hand”, crossing midline
    • Proprioception – pressure on paper, grip on writing tool
    • Strength – shoulder, elbow, wrist, hand, core, head control
    • Visual perception – scanning, figure ground, line placement, crossing midline, visual closure, seeing parts to whole
    • Executive function/behavior – following directions, attention, focus, sequencing, planning, task completion, frustration tolerance
    • Social function – working together in a group, problem solving, sharing materials and space, turn taking, talking about the activity

    It can be very frustrating if you have excellent visual perceptual skills and other people do not “see” the world as you do. Take comfort in the fact that these skills can be learned with a little bit of effort.  Until then, make sure the Ketchup is always on the same shelf, and the clothing is never inside out!

    Free Valentine’s Day Activity Sheet

    Just submit your email address to be able to download this FREE Valentine’s Day Activity Sheet.

    FREE Valentine’s Day Activity Sheets

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      Superior visual perceptual skills here! – Victoria Wood, OTR/L

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

      **The term, “learner” is used throughout this post for readability, however this information is relevant for students, patients, clients, 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.

      Looking for more pencil control activities?  Look no further:

      Pencil Grasp Bundle Sale

      Christmas I Spy

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      Free Christmas I Spy worksheet

      Are you looking for a quick and easy activity to address the components of visual perception that you can also use to address numeral formation this holiday season?  This Christmas I Spy is a fun activity that can be used in a variety of ways to target the skills your students need including visual perception and numeral formation. Add this I Spy printable to your occupational therapy Christmas ideas!

      Use this printable Christmas I Spy worksheet for a party activity or in Christmas occupational therapy activities!

      Christmas I Spy

      It’s the busiest time of the year and this Christmas I Spy is a no prep printable you can take from the printer right to your therapy sessions with your students.  The best part of this worksheet is that it can target so many skills at once! 

      Some of the skills addressed with Christmas I Spy will target the components of visual perceptual skills.  Visual perceptual skills are foundational to reading and writing.  There are many components of visual perception that play a role in our student’s performance at school, but this activity primarily addresses visual discrimination and visual memory.  

      You can begin using this worksheet with your students by asking them to name some of the pictures they see on the page.  Then, focus their attention to the bottom of the page to the pictures they will look for during the activity. 

      Support Visual Skills with a Christmas I Spy

      Using their visual discrimination skills, ask your students to identify each of the pictures at the bottom.  Encourage your students to use a different color for each picture they find.  This is a strategy you can teach them to support their visual discrimination skills.  The students can circle each picture working on their fine motor dexterity skills or they could color each small picture.

      This activity is also great for addressing visual memory.  Visual memory is the ability to retain and recall visual information.  Visual memory is essential in reading and writing, but it is also important for completing tasks like Christmas I Spy in an efficient way.  

      As the students begin to work, they will be using their visual memory and scanning skills together to recall where they have seen each picture.  

      Visual scanning is also an important skill that will be addressed with Christmas I Spy.  Visual scanning is a function of the oculomotor system that involves using the eyes in a coordinated way to scan the environment for information. 

      For students who may have difficulty with visual scanning, try teaching strategies such as moving a ruler down the page as they track across, encourage them to scan in an organized manner from left to right, or you can reduce the demand by asking “can you find 3 candy canes”, for example. 

      Another way to support students who may have difficulty with visual perceptual tasks such as I Spy, would be to take turns finding the different pictures.  Not only would this take away some of the demand for struggling students, but it would also allow you to model visual scanning skills at the same time.  

      Work on Number formation with a Christmas I Spy Activity

      Finally, Christmas I Spy provides your students with an opportunity to address number formation.  After they find and color each picture, they will need to write the number in the box. 

      Here is a place where you can take this pencil/paper task and make it a kinesthetic learning experience for your students!  Many students need kinesthetic learning experiences or the opportunity to touch, move, and feel in order to learn. 

      Occupational therapists are uniquely trained to provide these types of kinesthetic learning experiences to students.  You will find that when you design an intervention to include a sensory, tactile, or movement experience, your students will be instantly engaged.  Engagement and participation are the keys to learning!

      More ways to use this Christmas I Spy Printable

      You could extend this activity to include a kinesthetic component by: 

      • Forming the numbers using gingerbread scented playdough, like this Gingerbread Salt Dough Recipe
      • If snow is more your style, try this snow dough recipe Snow Dough Recipe
      • And for an even more sensory experience try Candy Cane Moon Dough from
      • Pair the printable with this Hot Chocolate Craft for a winter themed activity.
      • Bend red and white “candy cane” pipe cleaners into the numbers your students need to practice
      • Use sand trays to practice numeral formation.  Use red and green sand to stick with the holiday theme or get inspired to use other materials/textures from ideas here: Writing Trays for Handwriting
      • Practice writing numbers in shaving cream.  Add a little silver glitter to mimic snow.

      So, grab your hot cocoa and hit print on Christmas I Spy! You will have so much fun with your students this holiday season while working on important visual perceptual and numeral formation skills!

      FREE Christmas
      I Spy Worksheet

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        Katherine Cook is an occupational therapist with 20 years experience primarily working in schools with students from preschool through Grade 12.  Katherine graduated from Boston University in 2001 and completed her Master’s degree and Certificate of Advanced Graduate Study at Tufts University in 2010.  Katherine’s school based experience includes working in integrated preschool programs, supporting students in the inclusion setting, as well as program development and providing consultation to students in substantially separate programs.  Katherine has a passion for fostering the play skills of children and supporting their occupations in school. 

        Printable Santa Emotion Worksheet

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        Printable Santa Emotion Worksheet

        Want a printable Santa emotion worksheet designed to support facial expression identification? This Santa emotion PDF is just that! And even better yet, if you are looking for ways to address visual discrimination using visual scanning activities with your students, this Santa Claus Emotions I Spy will check all the boxes!  Not only will you be able to address visual discrimination and visual scanning skills with this fun printable, but you can easily incorporate many other skills addressed in occupational therapy including fine motor control and emotional regulation.  Not to mention, this feelings worksheet is an easy way to have some fun this Christmas season in your treatment sessions with your students!

        Kids will love this printable Santa emotion worksheet to work on emotion identification and visual discrimination skills.

        Visual discrimination is one skill that makes up our visual perception. Visual discrimination is an essential skill for students to participate in school in both their roles as a student for tasks such as reading and writing, as well as their role as a friend.  We use our visual discrimination skills to read others emotions or changes in the environment.   As you can see, it is so important to address visual discrimination skills using scanning activities. This printable Santa Emotion worksheet I Spy activity will make it easy!

        What is visual discrimination?

        Visual discrimintation is the ability to recognize similarities and differences between visual images or objects.  Visual discrimintation is an important skill for students in school because of its link to reading and writing.  When looking at words on the page, readers need to be able to discriminate between subtle differences in letters like “b” and “d” or “5” and “S”.  Providing opportunities to build visual perceptual skills helps students engage in their occupations as a student! 

        Why is visual scanning important?

        Visual discrimination is a component of visual perception, but in order for students to use visual discrimination skills effectively, they also need to use their visual scanning skills.  Visual scanning sends the visual information to the brain, visual discrimination tells us why that visual information is important.  In order for the visual system to work, we need both!  Visual scanning is an important component of visual perception and there are so many fun ways to address scanning in your treatment sessions.  Try marble painting, using a flashlight, or looking at a Christmas I Spy book to address visual scanning.

        As mentioned before, students also need to rely on visual discrimination skills when reading other’s emotions.  When you begin this activity with your students, start by reviewing the pictures of Santa at the bottom of the page.  Talk about the similarities in the pictures, then talk about the differences.  Have the students select a color to match with each emotion.  This would be a great place to include Zones of Regulation colors and terminology if you use that program.  Emotional regulation is essential for social participation and this is a great way to hit on that skill with your students.  

        identifying emotions worksheet with a Santa Theme!

        Once you have reviewed the visual information and the emotions and filled in the coordinating colors, now it’s time to start coding or coloring in the Santa faces!  As the student scans and discriminates each Santa, watch to see that their visual system is working to support their performance.  There are many ways you could adapt or modify this activity to meet the needs of your students. 

        Here are some ideas to support visual scanning:

        • Use another paper to cover some of the visual information
        • Teach a strategy to help scan by making a mark on the page to indicate which row they are working on
        • Use a ruler to help students keep their place as they are working

        More ways to use this feelings worksheets pdf

        • Use bingo daubers for students who have not yet developed fine motor precision skills
        • Use tape or sticky tack to secure the printable Santa emotion worksheet to a vertical or inclined surface to address shoulder strength
        • Set up a container of markers on one side of the room and put the worksheet on the other side.  Have the students use a scooter board back and forth to retrieve the markers they need.
        • Use tongs and pom poms or beads to work on fine motor skills at the same time

        If your focus is on emotional regulation, you can easily extend this activity to target the student’s ability to identify their emotions.  When discussing Santa’s emotions, ask your students to think of a time when they felt happy, sad, excited, or mad.  It may also be fun for students to think about the self regulation tools Santa might use to help him regulate his emotions throughout the Christmas season!

        Free Printable Santa Emotion Worksheet

        Do you know a kiddo that would love this printable Santa emotion worksheet? You can download this emotions PDF and start working on skills like visual discrimination, scanning, coloring, feelings identification, and more!

        Free Santa Emotions I Spy Worksheet

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          Katherine Cook is an occupational therapist with 20 years experience primarily working in schools with students from preschool through Grade 12.  Katherine graduated from Boston University in 2001 and completed her Master’s degree and Certificate of Advanced Graduate Study at Tufts University in 2010.  Katherine’s school based experience includes working in integrated preschool programs, supporting students in the inclusion setting, as well as program development and providing consultation to students in substantially separate programs.  Katherine has a passion for fostering the play skills of children and supporting their occupations in school. 

          Christmas Worksheet PDF- Hidden Picture Worksheet

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          Christmas hidden picture worksheet

          Are you looking for a Christmas hidden picture worksheet that doubles as a visual figure ground activity? This Christmas worksheet PDF can be used with students to also address fine motor skills and coloring?  Christmas Color and Count is a printable hidden picture printable PDF 2 page resource that will help you address these skills with your students. 

          This Christmas worksheet PDF is a printable hidden pictures activity for the Christmas season.

          Christmas Worksheet PDF: Hidden Pictures

          This Christmas hidden picture resource includes 2 printable PDF pages to use with your students during the holidays.  The first page has Christmas lights and stars and the second page has 2 different types of gifts. 

          These printable hidden picture PDFs work on several areas over the holiday season…when kids might not want to work on difficult skill areas. A festive and fun themed activity can help address the underlying areas that impact handwriting, reading, and other visual processing tasks.

          How do Hidden Picture Worksheets Help?

          Hidden picture worksheets can address many areas that impact function. Let’s take look at all the ways to use this free hidden picture puzzle in therapy”

          These worksheets target the visual perceptual skill of visual figure ground.  You will also be able to use these worksheets to work on fine motor skills at the same time while finding and coloring the Christmas stars and holiday lights.

          Visual Figure Ground Skills- First, let’s look at the visual perceptual skill of visual figure ground.  Visual figure ground is the ability to differentiate or pick out an object from a busy background.  This skill is essential for supporting the occupations of students in school, from reading text to finding an item in a cluttered desk. 

          Students use their visual figure ground skills to be able to differentiate words in a book, when copying information from the board, or when looking for something in their backpack.  

          You could easily use these Christmas Color and Count worksheets paired with other therapy activities to support visual figure ground skills.  An important function of visual figure ground is the ability to scan the environment and find the important visual information. 

          More ideas using the Christmas Hidden Picture

          There are more ways to use this Christmas Printable PDF in a variety of therapy activities to incorporate gross motor skills, fine motor skills, coordination, and more…

          Use the Christmas Hidden Picture Printable PDF in an I Spy Game- It would be fun to extend this activity to include a scavenger hunt or I Spy Game in your therapy space, either as a warm up activity or as a game to end your session. 

          1. Hide stars or an image of Christmas lights around your space. 
          2. You could ask your students to collect the stars or play I Spy with the images of colored Christmas lights. 

          Other fun games to address visual figure ground include (Amazon affiliate links) Spot It or I Spy Board Game.

          Visual Discrimination Activity- Once you have completed a scavenger hunt or other warm up activity and your students are ready to move on, you can begin by having them look at the pictures at the top of the page. 

          1. Ask them to identify and describe the key features of the objects they will count.  For example, the star has angles and the Christmas lights are rounded. 
          2. Ask them to describe the differences between how the 2 gifts look on the second page. 

          Executive Function Activity- Next, ask your students how they plan to start this activity. 

          This helps with executive functioning and organization. 

          1. Will they find all of one item and then move to the next? 
          2. Will they start at the top and scan in a left to right manner? 
          3. Asking your students to verbalize their plan will help you understand their organizational strategies and how you may best support their executive functioning.

          Visual Scanning Activity- Now, your students are ready to scan and color each shape. 

          Coloring is a great way to develop fine motor strength and endurance.  Coloring is a skill that needs to be taught to support the fine motor development of students. Coloring is a skill that requires hand strength. 

          Often children with decreased hand strength dislike coloring because they do not have the endurance to complete the task.  If you have students who struggle with coloring try offering alternatives to crayons, and then work your way up using crayons or colored pencils. 

          Often students who have difficulty with the fine motor components of coloring prefer using markers.  Markers provide less resistance and for many students they provide more visual interest.  Using markers to increase visual attention and motivation for coloring is a great tool for students struggling to build fine motor and visual skills.

          For students who may struggle with coloring, think of ways to make it more fun and interesting for them.  Here are some ideas:

          Christmas Hidden Picture and Strengthening Activity- For students who need additional strengthening opportunities, think about how you can challenge their postural strength and upper body stability. 

          Other ways to incorporate strengthening into this activity:

          • Tape the worksheets to the wall at eye level which will address shoulder strength and stability
          • You could also tape the worksheets under the table and have your students work while lying on their back.  This a fun and different way to work on fine motor strengthening!
          • Find some floor space and have the students lie prone, propped up on elbows while coloring.  This position will help strengthen their postural muscles and increase shoulder stability.
          • Use a large therapy ball instead of a chair to challenge postural strength while coloring at the table.  

          For students who avoid or dislike coloring, incorporating different positions into your session may help them start and stay engaged, building not only their fine motor skills, but also strengthening their visual attention. 

          Free Christmas Hidden Picture Worksheet PDF

          Christmas Color and Count is a great activity for building important visual figure ground skills and strengthening fine motor endurance at the same time!

          FREE Christmas Hidden Picture Worksheet

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            Katherine Cook is an occupational therapist with 20 years experience primarily working in schools with students from preschool through Grade 12.  Katherine graduated from Boston University in 2001 and completed her Master’s degree and Certificate of Advanced Graduate Study at Tufts University in 2010.  Katherine’s school based experience includes working in integrated preschool programs, supporting students in the inclusion setting, as well as program development and providing consultation to students in substantially separate programs.  Katherine has a passion for fostering the play skills of children and supporting their occupations in school. 

            Forest Animals Worksheets for Skills

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            free forest animal worksheets

            In this blog post, you can grab a fee set of forest animals worksheets for building skills in several fine motor and visual motor areas. Develop cutting, coloring, and visual perceptual skills all in one task! The forest animal activities include bear, fox, and even a forest mushroom to work on scissor skills, coloring, and visual perception.

            Free forest animal worksheets to address coloring, scissor skills, and visual perception with a woodland animal theme.

            Forest Animals Worksheets for Therapy

            Children have the attention span roughly equal to their age x 3-4 minutes. According to this site, a five year old can hold his/her attention for about 15 minutes before wanting to change tasks.

            As a practicing therapist, working with non-typical students, I find this is a stretch. In my experience, children can attend for about ONE minute for every year they age. This being said, finding activities that build multiple skills at once, such as cutting and coloring in one task is key. 

            The free download below, is just such an activity. When kids complete the forest animals coloring and cutting pages, they develop many skill areas:

            • Hand strength (coloring and cutting)
            • Scissor skills
            • Bilateral coordination
            • Pencil control
            • Line awareness
            • Spatial awareness
            • Visual perceptual skills
            • Attention
            • Visual memory

            With electronics taking over classrooms, it is especially important to take time to work on building foundation skills such as cutting, coloring, pasting, and visual perception using hands-on activities such as these Scissor Skills Puzzles.

            Too many young children do not have the right fine motor skill development, creating maladaptive pencil grasp, poor handwriting, or inability to manipulate fasteners. 

            It is often difficult to motivate children to work on cutting and coloring. Because it is a challenging task with many opportunities for failure, it is often avoided by children. Math, while presenting many challenges itself, is predictable and steady, thus a more preferred task for those who struggle with visual motor development.

            Free Forest Animals Worksheets

            The Forest Friends Scissor Skills Puzzles are great worksheets to build fine motor skills such as cutting and coloring, while also developing visual perceptual skills. 

            You will find ways to make tasks such as Forest Friends Scissor Skills Puzzles engaging, interesting, and motivating to each individual learner. A few colored markers, some glitter, and a theme your child enjoys, can make the difference between a positive and negative task.

            These worksheets can be adapted and modified to meet the needs of several types of learners. Consider these ideas to grade this activity: 

            Change the Scissors to address various skill areas: 

            ● Change the scissor size or tool: small toddler scissors are just right for tiny hands. 

            ● Self opening or loop scissors are another way to make cutting easier for those learning to cut, or lacking the intrinsic hand muscles to open and close scissors. 

            ● Did you know left handed people cut in a clockwise direction while their right handed friends cut counter-clockwise? This allows the helper hand to support the paper adequately while cutting. 

            ● See this article on developing scissor skills for more ways to develop cutting skills using this free download.

            Change the Paper to address various skill areas:

            ● lightweight paper is much more difficult to stabilize than heavy weight construction or cardstock paper. 

            ● Colored paper may be easier or more difficult for children to work with because of color contrasts. 

            ● The page can be laminated first, using wipe off markers to color in the design. This is a great way to make this page reusable. Cutting the pieces before coloring it may be necessary. Although this takes away the cutting task, it may be a great adaptation for children who are not able to cut yet. 

            Use various Writing utensils with these forest animal worksheets:

            ● There are endless possibilities for coloring. Markers, crayons, colored pencils, paints, watercolor, chalk, or dry erase pens all provide different input, and require different levels of fine motor skill to manipulate. 

            ● Small one inch crayons are excellent for developing those tiny hand muscles. 

            ● Chalk, with its grainy texture, provides sensory feedback and can be a positive (or negative) experience 

            ● Markers glide easily, requiring less precision and grip strength ● Change writing utensils to appeal to different students and improve their level of motivation. 

            Use the Forest animal worksheets to address Visual perception: 

            ● Puzzles are a great way to work on visual perception.

            ● Figure ground, parts to whole, and visual closure are important to academic development. 

            ● Many adults are unable to complete puzzles or find missing objects because they can not perceive parts to a whole. They only see the forest, not the individual trees. 

            For more cut, paste and color activities, check out this Animal Alphabet workbook! 

            To improve cutting skills, this scissor skills workbook is also available.

            With children’s limited attention span, and increasing demands on therapy time, an all in one activity that develops cutting, coloring and visual perceptual skills at the same time is an efficient and fun way to build the fine motor foundation.

            Download the free forest animals worksheets

            To use these forest animal color and cut puzzles, enter your email address into the form below. Start working on fine motor and visual perceptual skills in man different ways!

            Free Forest Animals Worksheets

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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.

              Free Halloween Visual Scanning Worksheet

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              Halloween find and color worksheets

              Today I have a free Halloween visual scanning worksheet. This one is a find and color activity that develops visual processing skills. Just print off this visual scanning worksheet to include in your Halloween occupational therapy activities. If you’re looking for a low-prep Halloween printable that builds skills, this freebie is the way to go!

              Halloween find and color worksheets are a great Halloween visual scanning worksheet activity for visual perception and fine motor skills.

              Kids love this Halloween visual perceptual worksheet…and you’ll also want to grab our Halloween monsters I Spy printable.

              Halloween Visual Scanning Worksheet

              Therapists will love this Halloween visual scanning worksheet for the visual perceptual skills and visual scanning skills that it develops. Just print off this worksheet and grab some crayons to work on visual scanning skills with kids.

              The free Halloween worksheet set comes in two sizes. One is a very small set of coloring images. This can be used with colored pencils to work on pencil control and precision of the small muscles of the hands. For kids that are working on small motor movements of the fingers, this is a great page to use.

              You’ll also see a larger set of Halloween images in the PDF. These larger images can be used with crayons or markers to color within the lines while working on hand strength using crayons or accuracy of line awareness when using markers.

              This not-so-spooky activity goes well with our Halloween I Spy activity and all of the Halloween Occupational Therapy activities.

              To better understand what is visual scanning, you can read more here on the website.

              Visual scanning is a visual processing skill needed for so many functional tasks! Check out this resource on visual motor skills to read more.

              For more visual scanning fun, try this DIY visual scanning worksheet activity.

              Find and Color Activities

              When kids complete find and color activities like in this printable Halloween coloring page, they are developing many areas needed for functional tasks:

              Plus, when asking children to color in a small area like the mini pumpkins, ghosts, spiders, and bats on this Halloween worksheet, they are working on pencil control, eye-hand coordination, and fine motor skills.

              Related, you’ll love these spider activities for building skills in therapy during the Halloween season.

              More ways to use this Halloween Visual Scanning Worksheet

              I love to offer creative materials that can be used in a variety of ways to develop many skills. Try using the Halloween find and color worksheet in these ways:

              Fine Motor Play

              Cover the items on the coloring page with a small object like a coin, beads, or craft pom poms. This encourages fine motor control, eye-hand coordination, motor planning, in-hand manipulation, and more.

              We also love using Halloween fine motor exercises shown in the video below. Use the ghost, pumpkin, witch, and other Halloween themed dexterity exercises as a warm up to pencil and paper tasks. You can also view the video on YouTube.

              These Halloween dexterity exercises build fine motor skills, finger isolation, and motor planning.

              Work on eye-hand coordination

              Use a BINGO dabber to add a dot of paint on each of the objects as the child finds them.

              Handwriting Activity

              Work on visual perceptual skills and handwriting- Ask the child to count the number of other Halloween objects on the page and write out each word and number to work on handwriting skills.

              How would you use this Halloween visual scanning worksheet in your therapy toolbox?

              Print off this free Halloween worksheet and use it in your therapy practice or classroom during the weeks leading up to Halloween. Or, print off a bunch and use it as a fine motor and visual perceptual activity during Halloween parties this year. However you use this free worksheet, it’s sure to be a hit!

              More Halloween Ideas

              Add this Halloween find and color pages to these ideas:

              Halloween visual perceptual worksheets

              This Halloween visual perceptual worksheet is a great addition to your therapy toolbox this time of year.

              Want to get a copy?

              Enter your email address into the form below and we’ll email you the Halloween visual perception sheet. You’ll find many more Halloween activity pages in The OT Toolbox membership club.

              Halloween Visual Scanning Worksheets

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                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.

                Pumpkin activity kit
                Pumpkin Fine Motor Kit

                Grab the Pumpkin Fine Motor Kit for more coloring, cutting, and eye-hand coordination activities with a Pumpkin theme! It includes:

                • 7 digital products that can be used any time of year- has a “pumpkins” theme
                • 5 pumpkin scissor skills cutting strips
                • Pumpkin scissor skills shapes- use in sensory bins, math, sorting, pattern activities
                • 2 pumpkin visual perception mazes with writing activity
                • Pumpkin “I Spy” sheet – color in the outline shapes to build pencil control and fine motor strength
                • Pumpkin Lacing cards – print, color, and hole punch to build bilateral coordination skills
                • 2 Pumpkin theme handwriting pages – single and double rule bold lined paper for handwriting practice

                Work on underlying fine motor and visual motor integration skills so you can help students excel in handwriting, learning, and motor skill development.

                You can grab this Pumpkin Fine Motor kit for just $6!

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