This blog post on how to make a sensory bottle is an old one on the website. It was originally written February 21, 2015 and we updated it April 11, 2024. All this time later, the fact is that sensory bottles continue to be a valuable self regulation and calming tool for kids to use to calm down.
We love to play with sensory bottles. They are an amazingly simple way to explore, calm, and investigate. If you are looking for a sensory play idea that is mess-free and can be used as a learning tool as well as a therapy tool, then sensory bottles are the way to go.
This post contains affiliate links.
What is a sensory bottle?
You can find many versions of sensory containers and bottles online. So what is a sensory bottle? They are tools to calm down and encourage self-regulation.
Sensory bottles are a visual and physical tool for calming and relaxing the body. A child (or adult!) can use a sensory bottle when they feel anxious, overwhelmed, “wound-up”, or overstimulated and use the sense of proprioception as they shake the sensory bottle and watch the contents shift. This visual cue is a great calming strategy for many children.
Why do Sensory Bottles Work?
One question that comes up a lot is how do sensory bottles work? How does a sensory bottle or sensory jar calm down a child, especially when they are in a fight or flight state? It has to do with the proprioceptive input paired with visual gaze.
Let’s break this down…
A sensory bottle is a common tool used to support sensory processing needs that impact behaviors and emotions. This type of tool is key when it comes to sensory dysregulation and meltdowns or regulation needs. We call this a sensory coping strategy.
The jar or container has weight to it, offering heavy work, when held and shaken or information to the proprioceptive sensory system. Then, along with that input, the jar has a visually enticing “thing” inside, which might be sand slowly moving through objects, water and oil moving slowly up and down the bottle, or other item that catches the eyes.
Sensory Bottle and Polyvagal Theory
The polyvagal theory is a newer area of study (at least since this blog post was originally written back in 2015!), but the concepts have always been there. The polyvagal theory says that there is a relationship between eye gaze, autonomic reactions, and cognitive performance. This article explains more about a research review related to polyvagal theory.
The key here is to get the eyes into a gazing state. By that I mean the eyes should dilate as if staring off into the horizon or even something that is just 20 feet away. Did you ever sit on a beach and stare off at the horizon with a huge sense of calm and peace? Or have you ever looked off at a mountain pass and felt regulated? This is horizon gazing and we can use that calming strategy when using a sensory bottle as a calming tool.
When you gaze off into a distance without really focusing on something, the pupils are converging. The cool thing is that you don’t need a horizon or something really far way for this to happen. You can just stare at the sensory bottle without really looking and focusing on any one thing. This can be especially helpful to blunt norepinephrine.
When we see these materials move within the bottle, we hold a gaze…AND feel the weight of the bottle…and add deep breathing exercises, this is where we get the calming state!
A sensory bottle is a valuable support tool for these areas. They also serve as a hand-held mindfulness activities and can be added to a child’s “Regulation Toolbox.”
When we use a sensory bottle in therapy sessions, we are focusing on the coping strategy that is used in conjunction with an emotions check in and feelings check in to support self awareness. It’s a self regulation activity that we love because you can use a variety of materials and kids can help make them.
It’s not difficult to make a sensory bottle. Basically, you’ll use materials you already have on hand.
The sensory bottle as a coping strategy are so easy to create. The possibilities are endless when it comes to additions.
In general, there are two types of bottles:
Liquid sensory bottles
Dry materials sensory bottles
To make either type, the process is the same. You need a bottle of some type and items to put into the bottle. Grab a few plastic bottles, glue to secure the lid (Glue is the most important part!), and a few of these items:
After you add the items you want into the container, add a bit of glue to the lid and secure it onto the bottle. Allow the glue to dry before you use the bottle.
We’ve used sensory jars and bottles as a sensory tool many times. Along with crayon play dough, they are one of our favorite ways to to get proprioceptive input through play.
Sensory Bottle Ideas
Some of our favorite sensory bottle ideas include ones that we had as much fun making as we did playing with!
If you are looking for more creative sensory ideas, then you will love our favorite sensory bottle ideas:
Check out the baby sensory exploration bottles we made in this video below:
Baby Exploration Sensory Bottles made with recycled spice containers.
Have you ever made a sensory bottle? What did you add?
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.
It’s that time of year and having a few back to school sensory activities up your sleeve can make all the difference in a stuffy, hot classroom when kids need self-regulation tools after a long summer break. Whether you are looking for classroom sensory diet strategies, or sensory strategies for the school-based OT, putting a back-to-school spin on “sensory” is a hit during the Fall months.
Back-to-School Sensory Activities
The back-to-school season is a prime time to dust off those sensory cobwebs and consider how sensory motor input supports students.
In this blog post, you’ll find a list of ways to support sensory needs using a back-to-school theme. The ideas are great for this time of year when welcoming a new roster of students into the classroom.
Our free sensory strategy toolkit is another great resource that supports school-based OTs, educators, and parents of students with sensory needs.
You’ll also find many resources, including a printable sensory activity sheet here on this article about calm down strategies for school.
These ideas for sensory seekers can be adapted to meet school-based needs (or used in the home for homework time, the after-school period, or homeschooling)
Why Use Back-to-School Sensory Activities?
Heading back into the school year can throw some kids for a spin. The first few weeks can be a change in routine from the safety of home. For kids who are starting up on a homeschool routine, it can be difficult to pay attention when sensory needs and distractions are in the next room. This can lead to self-regulation needs that support the student’s ability to concentrate and learn after a summer off from the routines of school.
Other reasons for using sensory strategies during the back-to-school season include:
Earlier wake-up times after a summer of staying up late and sleeping in. A quick sensory motor brain break can make all the difference.
A new routine may throw some students for a loop.
The transition period can be a real challenge for some children. It might be the early alarm clock or using time management in the morning that is a challenge. For other kids, moving to a new school, or even just going back to the classroom in general can be a challenge. Try these transition strategies to support these needs.
Distractions and Technology: With the prevalence of screen time in kids, and the use of technology/devices, students may find it difficult to focus on schoolwork without being distracted by social media, video games, or other online activities. A quick sensory break can help with attention and distractions.
Social-emotional needs:Social emotional dynamics can change over the summer, and students may feel pressure to fit in or establish their social identity when school resumes. This pressure can affect their self-esteem and confidence. The ability to regulate emotions might lead to challenges with learning due to the emotional regulation and executive function connection.
You may have a child of your own that “crashes” after a week of school during this time of year. There is a lot happening that is just exhausting during the return to school. Sometimes, all it takes for an easy transition into the back to school days is a sensory strategy that meets the needs of the sensory child. Let’s explore these ideas below…
Back-to-School Sensory Ideas
These sensory activities are ones that can easily be used in the classroom or homeschool room. They are strategies that can be incorporated into the student’s daily routine within the school environment.
These school sensory activities are presented in list form for ease and planning, but they can be used in a classroom sensory diet or in various strategies.
The ideas below are ones that easily allow the child to meet their sensory needs in a natural way, so that it is not an interruption to the classroom or other students.
Rather, some of these sensory strategies are movement and heavy work-based ideas that can easily be adapted for the whole classroom for brain break type of activities.
As always, these sensory ideas are ONLY ideas and should be regarded as a reference. Every child is different and has different sensory needs.
The ideas presented below are not regarded as Occupational Therapy treatment and should only be used in addition to and along with an individualized Occupational Therapy plan made following assessment.
Sensory Activities for Back to School
This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Influencer, I earn from qualifying purchases.
1. Wall Push-Ups- Show the student how to push against the wall while doing “push-ups” from a standing position. This is a great heavy work activity, or a quick “brain break” activity that provides proprioceptive input for heavy work for improved focus, calming, and self-regulation.
2. Desk Fidget- Use a DIY fidget or a store bought hand fidget toy (affiliate link) to allow the child tactile sensory or proprioceptive input to the hands for improved attention and focus while sitting and performing desk work.
3. Chair Push-Ups- Allow the child to push up from the seat with his arms, keeping the elbows strait. Pushing up through the arms provides proprioceptive heavy work through the upper body.
4. Move desk/furniture.
5. Erase the chalkboard or dry erase board.
6. Sensory errand- Carry milk crates or plastic bins full of books or supplies from center to center around the classroom or from room to room in the building. Some schools have an “important message” to other classrooms or the office in the form of a folder. Just moving, taking a quick walk through the hallway, to deliver a note or other message can offer a much-needed sensory break. For more heavy work input, add a tote bag filled with books or ask the student to push a cart with materials.
7. Shoe laces fidget- Add a couple of beads to the child’s shoe laces for a fidget toy that can be used discretely while sitting in floor circle time or during desk work.
8. Manual Pencil Sharpener- Turning and sharpening pencils with a manual pencil sharpener provides proprioception to bilateral upper extremities. This can be a good task prior to writing tasks.
9. Backpack for carrying supplies from room to room- Students can carry supplies to other classrooms in a backpack for heavy input. This can be a calming strategy while walking the hallways to other areas in the school as well, such as while walking to the lunch room or special classes. The hallway can be an overwhelming and high-sensory environment so deep pressure to center the child can be helpful.
10. Stapler heavy work- Staple paper or remove staples from a bulletin board for upper body proprioceptive input.
12. Place chairs on rugs. Sliding chairs on classroom floors can lead to auditory overload for some sensory kids. Try using carpet squares under each individual chair. When the child pushes his chair out, he can slide the chair right on the carpet square out from the desk.
13. Hallway March- Get the whole class involved in a “walk this way” activity. They can march from the classroom to specials or the lunchroom. Try other brain break and whole body movements while walking in the line down the hallway, too: Try high knee lifts, toe walking, heel walking, elbows to knees, and patting the knees while walking.
14. Sports bottles for drinking- Sipping water through a long straw or sports bottle (affiliate link) can allow the students to focus and attend given proprioceptive input through the mouth. This is a great whole classroom strategy for helping with attention and self-regulation. Read more about using a water bottle as a sensory tool.
15. Movement breaks in the gym or classroom- A quick brain break can help kids focus during periods of desk work.
16. Push mats in the gym- Moving those big gym mats is a great whole body proprioception activity. Or, ask students to move desks or other equipment that uses the whole body.
17. Auditory support- Headphones for limiting auditory stimulation during center work or times when there is a lot of chatter in the classroom. Here are more tips for auditory sensitivity in the classroom.
18. Visual picture list- Knowing what to expect is a non-traditional sensory strategy. But when you think about it, the visual input is a support when it comes to knowing what is next, how much time is left until lunch, and how much longer the day will last. A visual schedule can be a benefit for the whole classroom. Try this daily pocket chart schedule. (affiliate link)
19. Simon Says Spelling- Try practicing spelling words with a movement and vestibular sensory input Simon Says version. Try these Simon Says commands if there are a few extra minutes to use up during the school day or between transitions.
20. Play dough math for proprioceptive input through the hands. Try a math smash type of activity and use a heavy resistive dough like this DIY proprioception dough. There are many benefits of play dough and sensory input is just one of them!
21. Kneaded eraser for sensory input through the hands- Use a kneaded pencil eraser (affiliate link) for a hand-held fidget that doubles as an eraser with proprioceptive input.
22. Crunchy snack break- Try snacks like pretzels, crackers, kale chips, popcorn, or roasted chickpeas for an alerting snack. Oral motor exercises offer calming or alerting input and using a crunchy (or chewy) snack can support these needs.
23. Sensory bin for math or sight words- Create a sight word sensory bin or even use a sensory bin for math or spelling words. This can be a fun and unexpected way to dive back into spelling after the summer break! Add tactile sensory input to learning using a variety of sensory bin fillers. Ideas include shaving cream, shredded paper, crafting pom poms, among many other ideas.
24. Vibrating pen rainbow writing for sight word or spelling practice- Proprioceptive input to the hands can be very helpful for many kids, especially if they are writing with too much pencil pressure.
25. Jump/move/hop in hallway- Take a movement and brain break with a hallway movement activity. Add learning aspect with spelling, facts, or math.
26. Roll a ball on the legs- Add a vestibular aspect to vocabulary or themed learning, including history, English language arts, or science. Kids can answer questions and when they answer the question, they roll the ball along their legs by bending down to roll the ball on their thighs.
27. Hopscotch Math- Add a hopping proprioception activity to the classroom with a hopscotch board created right in the classroom using masking tape.
28. Graph Paper Writing- Add a visual sensory twist to handwriting, math, spelling, or any written work by using graph paper. The added lines can be just the visual spatial prompt needed for kids with visual sensory processing concerns. Here are more sensory based reasons to use graph paper.
29. Make a desk sensory diet box- Use a dollar store pencil case to create customized sensory diet bins that can fit right into the desk. Items would be used specific to the child’s needs, but might include resistive putty, paper clips for fidgeting, or movable toys (affiliate link). Use these occupational therapy kits for more ideas.
30. Wash desks with spray bottles. Squeezing a spray bottle to wash desks or water plants offers heavy work through the hands.
31. Cut classroom decorations from oaktag. Heavy input through the hands by cutting thicker paper is a great way to add a quick and functional movement break. Students will love to see their handiwork on the walls, too.
33. Try a sensory swing- Sensory swings for modulation can be used when applicable and recommended by an occupational therapy provider. Sometimes, you’ll see these in a sensory room or in a therapy room in the school. Here is more information on types of sensory swings.
All of these ideas support sensory needs and are great activities to use during the back-to-school time. We love that they are fun, functional, and the whole classroom can benefit!
Want more ideas to support sensory needs at school? Grab a free copy of our Classroom Sensory Strategy Packet.
Related resources include our blog post on Ayres Sensory Integration. This is a great place to start with gathering information on the sensory processing systems and the related behavioral, emotional, physical, and cognitive responses that we see.
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.
The Sensory Lifestyle Handbook walks you through sensory processing information, each step of creating a meaningful and motivating sensory diet, that is guided by the individual’s personal interests and preferences.
The Sensory Lifestyle Handbook is not just about creating a sensory diet to meet sensory processing needs. This handbook is your key to creating an active and thriving lifestyle based on a deep understanding of sensory processing.
For our kids who are challenged to visually observe their environment, or who struggle to demonstrate visual tracking in reading or other learning experiences, activities designed to promote smooth pursuits and eye movement can be helpful. The visual activities listed here can be helpful in addressing the smooth pursuits of visual input. Visual pursuits or tacking is an oculomotor skill that is necessary part of visual processing. Read on for various eye exercise that can be done in fun ways as a part of occupational therapy geared toward visual processing skills.
Activities to improve smooth visual pursuits
There are several activities to improve smooth visual pursuits that are used in occupational therapy to target smooth pursuits of the eyes. These smooth pursuit exercises are typically fostered through play, especially in occupational therapy interventions.
Below, you’ll find ocular pursuit activities, but first, let’s cover what visual pursuits are and how they impact a child’s learning.
What are visual pursuits?
Visual pursuits are another term for visual tracking. Visual tracking is an oculomotor skill that is essential for learning, reading, and so many tasks we perform.
Smooth visual pursuits refer to the eye movements that enable us to track moving objects smoothly and accurately with our gaze. It’s the eye following a moving target through coordinated motion of the eye muscles.
When we watch a moving object, follow a moving object with our eyes, or follow a moving ball, our eyes move smoothly to follow the visual input. This allows us to maintain visual focus on the object as it moves. We can use that visual information to understand how fast and far the item is moving based on the object’s trajectory, speed, and direction.
Here are more information about visual tracking activities. You will also love checking out these activities to improve visual tracking.
Visual processing skills have a huge impact on learning. In fact, it is one of the visual skills that can impact learning in a way that isn’t always directly observable.
Visual skills like visual tracking, or smooth visual pursuits are a visual processing skill that allow us to perceive and retrieve visual information. This is an essential part of reading and learning.
Want to learn more about HOW visual pursuits and other aspects of visual processing impact learning (in a really big way)? Scroll below to join our free visual processing lab. It’s a 3 day email series where you will learn SO much about visual processing and how it impacts everything, but especially learning and cognitive skills.
Activities to improve visual pursuits
These visual tracking activities are easy and creative ways to work on eye movement and smooth eye movements. Kids can perform these activities as part of a therapy program and while working on functional skills within an occupation.
1. Relaxing breathing eye stretches- This visual tracking activity is a way to work on smooth pursuits in a very mindful way. Just like yoga brings awareness to the body and a sense of being present, this eye stretch activity is a great way to calm a class during a busy school day.
Combine slow and deep breathing with deliberate eye movements. Kids can watch and follow directions to take deep breaths combined with slowly looking in a single direction. As they look up and breath or look to the left and breath, kids can even use this activity as a coping strategy.
2. Flashlight Tag- Use a flashlight to help kids follow a target in various directions. Try a circle, uppercase letter “H”, triangle, straight/diagonal lines, etc. To make this activity more fun, try adding a deflated balloon to the top of the flashlight. Encourage kids to keep their face steady as they use just the eyes to follow the light.
3. Craft Stick Puppets- Create small craft stick characters puppets to make a visual cue as a visual prompt for follow movement patterns. These barnyard animal puppets make a great DIY puppet tool for a visual pursuit and tracking activity.
This pirate puppet is one idea that builds fine motor skills, too.
4. Marble run activities- There are many marble run products on the market that provide an opportunity for improving smooth pursuit of the eyes. Here are DIY marble run activities that make a great activity in themselves for kids.
We love to add slow moving items to marble run games too, to provide a slower object for visually tracking, encouraging smooth pursuits of the eyes. Encourage kids to keep their face steady while using their eyes only to watch the item fall through the marble run.
5. Roll a ball- Roll a ball up a slanted surface and ask the child to keep their eyes on the ball! Some ideas include creating a sloped surface with a poster board and books.
Simply roll a small ball slowly up the ramp and kids can watch the ball as it rolls. Also try having the child to sit in front of the ramp and be in charge of rolling the ball. Mark off where the ball should reach and stop so the child works on graded movement at the same time.
Sitting in front of the ramp encourages visual convergence and binocular fusion as well. This activity works well with a large ball such as a kick ball and a sidewalk ramp, too.
6. Double Light Eye Tag- Use two different colored lights (light-topped pens work well). Flash one color on and then the other. Kids can move their eyes from color to color or follow directions to look at the two lights when they change.
Hopefully, these activities to improve visual pursuits is a helpful addition to your therapy toolbox. Use these strategies to work on various visual processing skills and oculomotor skills.
7. Hands-on visual tracking therapy activities- Use the ideas below to target visual tracking skills through play:
For even MORE visual tracking and pursuit activities to use in your occupational therapy practice, you will want to join our free visual processing lab email series. It’s a 3-day series of emails that covers EVERYthing about visual processing. We take a closer look at visual skills and break things down, as well as covering the big picture of visual needs.
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!
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.
In The OT Toolbox Membership, you’ll find oculomotor tools that support visual tracking, smooth pursuits, and much more.
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 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.
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!
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.
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.
Have you seen visual perceptual terms like Visual Memory and wondered, exactly What Is Visual Memory? Today we’re sharing how to use our dyed lollipop sticks in a few eye-hand coordination activities including visual memory, and explaining what this term means to development of handwriting, reading, and functional tasks.
This post contains affiliate links.
Amazon affiliate links are included in this blog post. As an Amazon Influencer, I earn from qualifying purchases.
What is Visual Memory?
Visual Memory is one part of a large arena known as visual perceptual skills. Visual memory focuses on one’s ability to recall visual information that has been seen. Visual memory is a critical factor in reading and writing.
When a child is writing a word, he must recall the formation of parts of the letter from memory. It can be terribly frustrating for one with a visual memory deficit to perform a handwriting, spelling, or word copying exercise.
Children with difficulty in visual memory will have trouble copying letters, words, and sentences from a chalkboard or book. They may present with very slow handwriting, trouble forming letters, and mixing up letters or words within sentences.
Producing written work on worksheets and tests may be difficult. Recalling sight words in reading exercises can be hard as well as following along in a reading activity during stop and start tasks, due to comprehension and difficulty recalling what was read. Kids with visual memory deficits can demonstrate difficulty with formation of letters and numbers and appear “lazy” in their written work.
Visual Memory Shape Building Activity
We used our dyed lollipop sticks to build shapes. Make a shape example and have your child copy the form. You can grade the activity as more difficult by removing the example and having the child build the shape using their “mind’s eye”.
Assistance can be provided by giving visual or verbal prompts to assist with building simple shapes. Further extend this visual memory activity by engaging colors and building the shapes with all one color.
Then introduce shape forms with patterning or random colors. Once the child demonstrates succeeds with shape copying, encourage letter and number building using the lollipop sticks.
This simple activity can be extended in so many ways to help work on visual memory!
We did a few shape copying activities as well. Little Sister had fun creating a neighborhood of houses using our colored lollipop sticks.
Visual Memory Activities to help with Visual Memory Deficits:
Encourage the child to recall the items to be found using visual memory.
Form copying games, such as Pixy Cubes (affiliate link) Shape sequencing games, like Mental Blox (affiliate link)
Place a tray of items in front of the child. Allow them 30 seconds to memorize all of the items. Cover the tray with a piece of paper. Ask the child to recall as many items as they can. Another version to this game is removing one or more items and asking the child to recall the missing items.
As always, use your best judgement with your kids. All activities that we document on this blog are supervised. The information on this website should not be used as medical advise. Please contact a therapist for an individualized evaluation if therapeutic advise is needed.
Visual Memory Definition
Visual memory can be defined as the ability to both store and recall visual information, and then retrieve that information for later use.
Visual input such as images, shapes, colors, designs, and patterns contain attributes that allow us to discriminate differences between items in the world around us.
This is important because we can utilize those visual attributes to identify objects and understand information during functional tasks that we complete day in and day out.
Visual memory also refers to the ability to remember what you have seen in the past and to use that information in the present or future. This involves working memory, which is an executive functioning skill and involves more advanced cognitive processes in order to pull information from the “files” in the brain to utilize visual information in a different setting or at another time.
For example, if a child is shown a picture of a pencil, they use their visual memory to remember what a pencil looks like, so they can recognize a pencil the next time they see one.
This is a remedial example, but can be expanded on for practically every aspect of daily activities.
Consider the role that recalling previously seen and understood visual information plays in the following areas:
Learning- Visual recall of information, seeing previously learned information, visual reasoning and problem solving, etc.
Safety- Seeing how the dials on the stove are placed to cook and turned off ater finishing the cooking task, seeing the door knob of the house is locked, visualizing steps to walk up or down, etc.
Driving- recognizing roads, traffic patterns, and even the buttons that operate the vehicle
Community access- Getting around in the neighborhood, recognizing traffic patterns and safety signals to cross the road, going to appointments, etc.
Daily self-care tasks- Recognizing clothing, seeing patterns and colors to match clothing, visualizing items needed to get dressed or bathe, etc.
Taking medicine- Visualizing and recalling medicine bottles, seeing colors of pills, or knowing if one medicine was taken but not the other, etc.
Taking care of others- Visual memory implications might include safety, care, and every aspect of caring for others
Reading- Knowing where you stopped reading, not re-reading a passage over and over again, identifying letters, words, etc.
Writing- Visual memory plays a role in writing including letter formation, number formation, and placement of letters and words on a page.
Math- Visual information includes understanding and knowing numbers, symbols, patterns, equations, math facts, etc. by sight.
Every other aspect of functional performance!
Playing a role in the visual memory and specifically the input, storage, and retrieval of visual information, includes many aspects, or attributes of vision, including:
Color: The hue, saturation, and brightness of an object or image.
Shape: The form or outline of an object or image.
Size: The physical dimensions of an object or image.
Texture: The surface quality of an object or image, such as smooth, rough, or bumpy.
Contrast: The difference between light and dark areas in an image.
Position: The location of an object or image relative to other objects or images.
Motion: The movement of an object or image over time.
Depth: The perception of three-dimensional space in an image.
Pattern: The repetition of visual elements in an image.
Context: The surrounding environment or situation in which an object or image is viewed.
These visual attributes are important for processing and interpreting visual information and are used by the brain to create a coherent and meaningful visual experience. Playing a major role in visual memory is the visual perceptual skill of visual discrimination.
Think of it this way: When you build a 1000 piece puzzle, you dump the puzzle pieces out on a table. Visual memory enables you to:
Sort through the pieces to find all of the straight edge pieces.
Select pieces that have similar colors or patterns.
Notice the shape of pieces.
Build the puzzle while holding visual information in the mind to search for a particular color, shape, or pattern on the piece. For example: you might look for a piece with white background and texture, with a straight edge and a round connecting piece.
Hold information in the mind to look for another particular piece of the puzzle such as another straight edge piece that is red, but when you come across the white piece with a straight edge and the round connecting piece, you recall where to place that puzzle piece.
As you can see there are many factors playing into visual memory, but this visual processing skill is an important part of functional tasks.
Visual memory tests include both a functional aspect and a standardized visual memory assessment.
Testing Visual Memory
When it comes to testing visual memory, occupational therapists evaluate using several standardized tests as well as non-standardized screenings.
Essential to testing visual memory skills is the functional aspect: Can the individual utilize short and long term memory in the retrieval of visual information in order to accomplish functional tasks? Answering this question can provide both opportunities to challenge deficits, as well as target key areas of functional performance that need to be addressed.
Visual memory tests are part of a wider assessment of visual perception or tests of visual motor integration. The occupational therapy provider completes these standardized vision tests during an OT eval. However, there is more to it that the standardized testing.
Using functional performance to assess visual memory is a key part of the occupational therapy assessment. One role of the OT provider is completing a visual motor test during functional tasks, using skilled interventions.
For example, the OT can ask the client to remember items that are needed in a particular activity. They can select and/or identify several items to brush teeth: toothbrush, toothpaste, cup, dental floss, water.
The therapist could assess to see if the client can remember all four words or items after a 10 minute delay, and then a 30 minute delay. At least 3/4 of the items should be recalled. This test can assess visual memory skills in combination with a functional task.
To further analyze the visual memory aspect, the therapist could point to objects in the room and ask the client to recall them immediately, after 5 minutes, and at the end of the therapy session.
Visual Memory Tests
Some of the standardized tests that assess visual memory skills include:
Motor Free Visual Perception Test (MVPT)– overall visual perception screening tool
Test of Visual Perceptual Skills – breaks down skills into categories
The Developmental Test of Visual Perception – thorough test of skills
Test of Visual Motor Skills/Perception – a general screener to assess basic skills. Not a great test of different sub categories.
The Visual Memory Span Test- This test measures visual memory capacity by presenting a series of pictures to the participant and asking them to recall them in a specific order.
Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure Test- This test requires the person to draw a complex figure from memory after seeing it for a short period of time. The test assesses visual memory, perceptual organization, and constructional ability.
Visual Patterns Test- This test requires the person to reproduce complex patterns after seeing them for a short period of time. The test assesses visual memory and visual processing ability.
Benton Visual Retention Test- This test requires the person to look at a series of geometric figures for a short period of time and then draw them from memory. The test assesses visual memory and visual perceptual skills.
Wide Range Assessment of Memory and Learning- This is a comprehensive memory assessment that includes tests for visual memory, verbal memory, and other memory domains. The visual memory tests include tasks such as recalling pictures and designs.
Wechsler Memory Scale- This is another comprehensive memory assessment that includes tests for visual memory, verbal memory, and other memory domains. The visual memory tests include tasks such as recognizing and recalling visual stimuli.
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.
The Visual Processing Bundle has everything you need to work on underlying visual processing skills so you can help students with classroom tasks like copying written work, letter reversals, and messy handwriting in fun and engaging ways!
Over 235 pages of workbooks, worksheets, e-books, handouts, activity cards, tracking tools
Classroom accommodation ideas
Checklists
Multi-level visual-motor integration workbooks
Pencil control worksheets
Classroom and therapy activities
Activity cards
Specific and open-ended activity cards
Visual tracking guide
Target visual memory skills and many other aspects of visual perception and visual motor integration at a special price of just $18 (Regularly $45). Get your copy here.
Visual attention is a hot topic when it comes to learning! There’s more than meets the eye when it comes to being visually attentive, however. Attention to visual information is an area of visual processing that is more than just focusing on a task or leaning activity. Attention and awareness of visual information is a skill necessary for noticing details, adjusting to patterns, reading, and so much more of the giant visual processing umbrella.
Be sure to read our resource on near point copying as visual attention plays a role in copying written work.
Visual Attention
Read on to discover what is visual attention and how this visual skill impacts so much of what we do.
What is visual attention?
First, it’s important to recognize where visual attention lies in the visual processing umbrella. Visual processing is an aspect that includes the cognitive components, once visual information is received through oculomotor skills and visual acuity.
Attention of visual information is an area of obtaining visual information and communicating that information with the brain. This collection of information requires several eye mobility skills including: voluntary eye movements, visual fixation, smooth pursuits (or visual tracking) and visual scanning.
Additionally, visual perceptual skills are included in the visual processing skill. These skills allow us to discriminate details and fill in “missing pieces” such as partially obscured portions of the form and to use the “mind’s eye” to visualize those aspects.
About Visual Processing…
For more information on visual processing and the aspects that are a part of visual skills (oculomotor skills, visual perception, visual motor integration, etc.) join us in a free 3-day email series, the Visual Processing Lab, as we discuss each aspect of visual processing with a fun, chemo or bio lab theme!
As a related component, the visual input from a picture story sequence can support needs of individuals to work on visual attention.
Visual Attention includes:
1.) Alertness- Defined as “the quality of being alert”, alertness is that watchful and attentive manner of being ready and responsive to visual information. Visual alertness requires focused vision and keenness to a specific object or area in the visual field.
2.) Selective Attention- The ability of noticing and processing specific information while disregarding other, less relevant information describes selective attention. This ability to discern visual information is needed for attending visually to information.
3.) Surrounding Attention- This aspect of attention refers to the surroundings and position in space. An awareness of our body position and the environment happening around us, including distance impacts attention at large.
4.) Mindful Alertness- The ability to be mindful and aware of visual input with a concentrated effort allows attention needed for participating in a visual task. The continuous alertness in a focused state allows us to attend with intention.
5.) Shared Attention- This aspect of visual attention allows us to shift focus between visual input. This can involve filtering of unnecessary information.
Visual Attention and Preattentive Features
If visual memory and attention is depiction of and focusing on specific qualities of a form, then pre-attentive features are basic features of visual information that are automatically noticed by the eyes. These features are easily pulled out of a background or group in a visual display.
Pre-attentive features include:
Color
Orientation
Curvature
Size
Motion
Depth Cues
Vernier
Lustre
Aspects of Shape
Visual Attention and Occupational Therapy
Occupational therapy providers address functional skills in their clients. They help to support every day tasks. Visual attention is one of the underlying components that are required in the visual system and plays a key role in supporting visual processing for performance of everyday activities.
There are several types of visual problems:
1. Visual efficiency- This includes eye movements, eye alignment, and eye focusing. These three abilities relate to functional performance.
Consider these questions related to the attentional mechanisms surrounding visual efficiency:
Can you be a good reader if you lose your place constantly while reading, because of poor eye movements?
Can you be a good reader if you are seeing double? Wouldn’t you express visual inattention as a result of double vision?
Can you be a good reader and learner if the words are moving in and out of focus and as a result you have headaches and eye strain? Wouldn’t these hardships signal the eyes to close one to shutdown, thus losing visual attention to the stimulus of the reading task?
Wouldn’t visual efficiency problems impact your ability to think with reasoning and impact comprehension as a result?
Looking at these questions, it’s easy to see the attentional effects that visual efficiency has on maintaining attention to visual stimuli.
2. Visual Perception- Visual perceptual skills impact academic performance, and visual attention is one of these. These skills work together to allow for functional vision! Visual perception and attention skills enable the cognitive processes.
Visual attention
Visual memory (which requires attention)
Visual discrimination (which visual attention is a key component in order to discriminate between details)
Visual closure (in which visual attention is a skill that impacts the mind’s eye in closing a visual image)
Spatial attention in written work
3. Visual motor integration- The components of visual motor integration includes the integrates the perceptual awareness with the motor output, and attentional skills are a main role. Consider:
Automaticity of movement
Rhythm and timing
Body knowledge and control
Laterality and directionality
Reaction time, which is related to the visual attention on a stimulus
Filtering out irrelevant information
All of these areas listed above impact everyday life!
Visual Attention Tests
There are screening tools that can look at visual attention. These allow the examiner to determine both a focus of attention as well as efficiency and accuracy components. Attention tests won’t give the full picture when used in isolation, but they should be considered as contributing evidence of visual attention challenges.
Some visual attention tests include:
Basic vision screening- Follow a tongue depressor with a sticker at one end with the eyes, or follow the end of a pen with the eyes. The visual attention screening tool can be used to examine how the eye moves to follow a stimulus across various fields of vision. Another screening task is to ask the participant to scan between tow stimuli held at different sides of their field of vision. Both are also a way to see the attentional capacity to follow a moving target. Included in this screening is a look at pursuits (eye tracking) and saccades (eye scanning). You’ll find more information in our blog posts on visual tracking and visual scanning.
Automaticity refers to the ability to perform routine activities effortlessly and automatically, or without conscious thought. Every motor task that we do throughout the day required conscious through and effort when it was first learned.
Once we’ve done a task for long enough, it becomes routine and automatic. We can then do other tasks at the same time. You see this when driving a car, for example. When the task of driving become so routine and ingrained that it is automatic, we can do other things at the same time: think about our day, remember a thought, carry on a conversation, change the radio station, etc.
Driving is an extremely complex task that moves to a conscious routine over time!
However, the issue is that we have a sort of blindness when we do other things even during an automatic task. Have you ever driven home from work, only to not recall the drive because you were thinking about other things?
We as humans also challenge ourselves, often unsafely, by thinking we can do other things while performing an automatic task. Think: texting while driving. The results from this is unfortunate.
What is at play with automaticity is the visual attention skill that moves from a conscious effort to an unconscious effort.
Similarly, this ability is present when we read or write.
A proficient reader is able to automatically recognize, recall, and reproduce, or write, letters and numbers without conscious effort to identify each letter and number form.
This attention to detail has become ingrained and automatic.
When we see challenges with reading proficiency, comprehension, speed, and overall the student who is struggling academically, the automaticity may be missing. The visual scene is incomplete without the automatic integration of visual attention.
Visual Attention Activities
Visual challenges with spatial skills, omitting materials in reading or writing, and other functional considerations can mean working on visual attention can help. Attention tasks like the ones below can support this skill.
The goal for using these visual attention activities is to have comfortable, efficient, and accurate vision at various distances through the function of play and learning. We want to see eye alignment, eye focusing, and eye movements, all operating at an automatic and reflexive level, or without conscious effort.
Tangram activities
Laterality or directionality activities
Letter tracking in word searches
Brock string
Bead stringing sequences
Directional jumps
Mazes
Code deciphering activities
Dots game
Sorting items (beads, buttons, etc.)
Hidden pictures activities
I Spy
What’s missing activities
Spot it game
Sequencing activities
For the individual with cognitive impairments such as following a stroke or other impairment in which visual inattention is present, some strategies can include:
Eye patching
Dynamic stimuli (flashing lights)
Activities to activate orientation and overall attention
Tactile cuing to engage the participant to look at the unattended side
Mirror therapy
Using an adaptive approach to visual inattention is important to foster functional participation, independence, and safety. These strategies can include:
Compensation strategies
Incorporate the patient’s awareness
Place necessary items within the patient’s field of vision
How to work on Visual Attention
For more information and specific activities that can address visual attententiveness in fun and meaningful ways, grab the Visual Processing Bundle. In it, you will find 17 digital products, e-books, workbooks, and guides to addressing various aspects of visual processing. The bundle is valued at over $97 dollars for these products, and includes over 235 pages of tools, activities, resources, information, and strategies to address visual processing needs.
References: Wolfe J. Visual attention. In: De Valois KK, editor. Seeing. 2nd ed. San Diego, CA: Academic Press; 2000. p. 335-386.
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 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. This is all part of child development in color recognition.
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:
Grouping items that are exactly the same. Examples; colored plastic bears, blocks that are all the same size, coins, pompoms
Sorting items that are similar: different brands of socks in similar colors, silverware in varying sizes, towels, a bag of buttons
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).
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.
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.
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.
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 😉
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
Vision and visual skills are complex with sub-categories such as visual figure ground. Luckily, occupational therapists are equipped with the ability and knowledge to assess vision at many levels. One type of visual skill that OTs assess for is called visual figure ground. In this post, we will break down what figure ground means, how visual-figure ground it fits into vision as a whole, and some red flags we look for. You’ll find some creative figure ground activities to build this skill, too!
WHAT IS VISUAL FIGURE GROUND?
Visual figure ground is the ability to discriminate between the object of focus and the other objects that are also in view, using visual skills such as attention, visual memory, and other components of visual perceptual skills. This is a hugely important skill in reading and writing, as well as learning and retaining information.
Vision as a whole is made up of many parts. For daily activities, sighted individuals need to have visual clarity/focus (this can be adjusted with glasses), eye movement skills, and visual attention.
In other words, figure ground is the ability to see an object and ignore the background. Without this ability, it may seem like a child needs glasses even though they may have technically perfect vision at the optometrist.
Visual figure ground has to do with visual attention, and how the eyes work with the brain to understand an image.
VISUAL FIGURE GROUND: RED FLAGS
Below a general list of red flags to look for when it comes to visual figure ground. Many of these red flags are the same for other visual perception skills, as it often requires the combination of several skills to perform a task.
This is not an exhaustive list, but some ideas to work from.
Difficulty completing age-appropriate puzzles
Difficulty reading or searching for important information in a text
Unable to complete mazes, “I Spy”, word searches, etc. in a similar way to their peers
Prefers simple artwork/images to complex
Gives up quickly when looking for an item in their desk
Assumes many items are “lost” when they are in view/nearby
Difficulty coping from the board
Unable to find a toy they want from the toy box
Difficulty finding a yogurt cup in the full refrigerator
Being that the primary occupation of children is play, so it is through play that we address underlying skills such as figure ground. You’ll love this long list of visual activities that target a variety of areas, including visual figure ground.
Playing “I Spy” or “hide-and-go-seek” with familiar objects around the house can be a great way to get their brains prepped for visual discrimination of figure ground. They will use visual attention, visual tracking, and problem solving skills to win!
Reading books or engaging in other activities provided by ‘Busy Town’, ‘Where’s Waldo’, or, of course, the ‘I Spy’ series are other great places to start. There are towns of great vision books recommendations for you that work to develop skills through reading.
You can also involve younger children in these types of activities by having them sort colorful cereal into the color categories, dig through the laundry basket to find matching socks, or really, anything that makes sense in your home.
Figure Ground Worksheets
Sometimes, relating the vision skills to a reading or writing task is needed, and that’s where the figure ground worksheets come into play. Worksheets can get a bad rap, but it is possible to make worksheets functional, fun, and meaningful for kids so that they develop essential skills.
We have an awesome apple activity set that was developed to target visual skills, as well as tons of free resources for you to build visual figure ground skills!
These free printable resources target figure ground skills and cover a variety of themes.
Visual Processing Bundle is a collection of resources on visual processing skills.
One of our most popular tools to address visual figure ground is our Visual Processing Bundle. It’s a collection of printable resources, worksheets, handouts, and activity booklets geared towards all things vision.
Sydney Thorson, OTR/L, is a new occupational therapist working in school-based therapy. Her background is in Human Development and Family Studies, and she is passionate about providing individualized and meaningful treatment for each child and their family. Sydney is also a children’s author and illustrator and is always working on new and exciting projects.
You may have heard the term motor planning but wondered what this means and what does it look like to utilize motor planning skills in everyday activities. Here, we are breaking down this important motor skills topic. Occupational therapists are skilled at analyzing movements and underlying skills needed to perform the things we do each day, or the tasks that occupy our time, and establishing an efficient and coordinated motor plan is one of the main aspects of this assessment.
Motor Planning
When we perform an action, there are movements of our bones, joints, and muscles that enable our bodies to move. It’s through this movement that the body and brain receives feedback, or a motor concept that tells the brain and body that we have moved in a certain way in order to accomplish a specific action. This is the motor plan for that particular task at work!
Let’s look at a child’s motor skills in a specific action to really explore this concept.
Ok, so you’re walking along a hallway with an armful of bags and see a ball in your path. You walk around it and continue walking. But, hold on. That was a pretty cool ball. It was all red and shiny. It looked like a really fun ball to bounce. You stop, turn around, walk back to the ball, stoop down, put down your bags, and pick it up. Woah. It’s not only red and shiny, but it’s a little heavy too.
It takes a bit more muscle oomph than you were expecting. You hold your arm up high, with the ball up over your head. Totally not a baseball player’s pose, but all awkward and kid-like. You know. Pure fun throwing.
You toss that red, shiny, heavy ball as hard as you can towards a big old blank wall on one of the hallway walls. Now watch out! That red, shiny, heavy ball is bouncing around like crazy!
It’s bouncing off of the wall and right back at you! You jump to the side and then to the left and right as it bounces back and forth between the walls of that hallway. You have to skip to the side to avoid your bags.
The ball stops bouncing and rolls to the side of the hall.
Well, that was fun. You pick up the ball and hold it while you gather your bags. Now, you see a boy coming down the hall who sees that red, shiny, heavy ball in your hand and says, “Hey! There’s my ball!” You smile and toss the ball as he reaches out his hand and catches. “Thanks!!” he says as you wave and start walking down the hall again.
What is Motor Planning?
Motor Planning happens with everything we do! From walking around objects in our path, to picking up items, to aiming and throwing, drawing, writing, getting dressed, and even dodging red bouncy balls…
Motor Planning is defined as the problem solving and moving over, under, and around requires fine motor and gross motor skills and planning to plan out, organize, and carry out an action. We must organize incoming information, including sensory input, and integrate that information into our plan. We need to determine if a ball is heavy or light to pick up and hold it without dropping it.
You might hear of motor planning referred to as praxis.
Praxis (generally also known as Motor Planning, but also it’s more than simply motor planning…) requires observing and understanding the task (ideation), planning out an action in response to the task (organization), and the act of carrying out the task (execution). A difficulty with any of these areas will lead to dyspraxia in many skill areas.
Praxis includes motor planning, but also involved is ideation, execution, and feedback, with adjustment to that feedback. You can see the similarities in motor planning, which refers to the conscious and subconscious (ingrained) motor actions or plans.
Motor Planning is needed for everyday tasks. Think about the everyday activities that you complete day in and day out. Each of these actions requires a movement, or a series of movements to complete. There are both gross motor movements, fine motor movements, and posture all working together in a coordinated manner.
putting on a coat or jacket (on top of other clothing such as a shirt so that in this case, there isn’t the tactile feedback available of the fabric directly on the skin’s surface)
performing sports actions such as swinging a baseball bat or tennis racket, running, or gymnastics like doing a cartwheel
The interesting thing is that a movement plan, or the physical action that is completed whether the action has been performed in the past or if it is a new movement. A motor plan for a new task can be completed without thinking through how to move the body because it is just inherently completed.
When we complete unfamiliar tasks and need to stop and think through how the body needs to move, is when we see inefficient movement, or motor planning issues.
Motor Planning Difficulties
Above, we talked about praxis as another term or way to name the motor plan concept. When there are difficulties with motor planning, we are referring to the opposite of praxis, or dyspraxia.
Dyspraxia can be a result of poor sensory integration, visual difficulties, fine motor and gross motor coordination and ability, neural processing, and many other areas.
Motor planning difficulties can look like several things:
Difficult ability to complete physical tasks
Small steps
Slow speed
Pausing to think through actions
Clumsiness
Poor coordination
Weakness
These challenges with motor function can exist with either new motor tasks or familiar actions. Deficits are apparent when speed is reduced so that the functional task isn’t efficient, when the motor task is unsafe, or poor completion of the task at hand.
There are diagnoses that have poor motor planning as a component of the diagnosis. Some of these disorders can include:
When motor planning difficulties exist, this can be a cause for other considerations related to movements, and demonstration of difficulties when participating in movement-based activities:
challenges in social interactions
anxiety
behaviors
social skills issues
Today, I’ve got a quick and easy fine motor activity to work on motor planning with kids. This activity is part of our 31 Days of Occupational Therapy series where we’re sharing fun and frugal ideas for treatment of many OT skill areas with items you might already have in your house.
Motor Planning Activity
Affiliate links are included in this post.
To make this motor planning activity, you’ll need just a few items:
one red pom pom. These are items we had in our crafting supplies, but you could modify this activity to use items you have. Other ideas might be beads, pin pong balls, ice cubes, or any small item.
Fill the baggie with the pom poms and squeeze out the air.
Seal the baggie.
Use a permanent marker to draw on a maze from one side of the baggie to the other. You can make this as complex as you like.
Add additional mazes, or two different pom pom colors for the maze. Work the red pom pom from one end of the maze to the other.
Squeezing the pom pom is a fine motor work out for the hands. You’ll need to open up the thumb web space (the part of your hand between the thumb and fingers, and use those intrinsic small muscles of the hand. Both of these areas are important for fine motor tasks like coloring and writing.
Use this motor planning exercise as a warm-up activity before writing, coloring, and scissor activities. This is a great activity to have on hand in your therapy treatment bag or to pull out while waiting at the doctor’s office.
Motor Planning Activities
Looking for more ways to work on dyspraxia with your kids? These are some fun fine and gross motor activities that are fun and creative.
The best thing about all of them is that they are open-ended. Use them in obstacle courses or in movement tasks to incorporate many skill areas. These are some fun ideas to save for gift ideas. Now which to get first…
Work on fine motor dexterity and bilateral coordination while encouraging motor planning as the child matches colors of the nuts and bolts in this Jumbo Nuts and Bolts Set with Backpack set. The large size is perfect for preschoolers or children with a weak hand grasp.
Practice motor planning and eye-hand coordination. This Button Mosaic Transperent Pegboard is a powerhouse of motor planning play. Kids can copy and match big and bright cards to the pegs in this large pegboard. I love that the toy is propped up on an incline plane, allowing for an extended wrist and a tripod grasp. Matching the colors and placing the pegs into the appropriate holes of the pegboard allow for motor planning practice.
Develop refined precision of fine motor skills with eye-hand coordination. A big and bright puzzle like this Puzzle-shaped Block Set allows kids to work on hand-eye coordination and motor planning as they scan for pieces, match the appropriate parts of the puzzle pieces, and attempt to work the pieces into place. Building a puzzle such as this one can be a workout for kids with hand and upper extremity weakness.
Strengthen small motor skills. Kids of all ages can work on motor planning and fine motor skills with this Grimm’s Rainbow Bowls Shape & Color Sorting Activity. Use the colored fish to place into the matching cups, as children work on eye-hand coordination. Using the tongs requires a greater level of motor planning.
You can modify this activity by placing the cups around a room for a gross motor visual scanning and motor planning activity. Children can then follow multi-level instructions as they climb over, around, under, and through obstacles to return the fish to their matching bowls.
Encourage more gross motor planning with hopping, jumping, and skipping, or other gross motor tasks. This Crocodile Hop A Floor Mat Game does just that. It is a great way to encourage whole body motor planning and multiple-step direction following.
Address balance and coordination. These Gonge Riverstones Gross Motor Course challenge balance skills as children step from stone to stone. These would make a great part of many imagination play activities as children plan out motor sequences to step, cross, hop, and jump…without even realizing they are working on motor planning tasks.
Introduce multiple-step direction following and motor planning. These colored footprints like these Gonge Feet Markers support direction following skills. Plan out a combination of fine and gross motor obstacle courses for kids to work on motor planning skills.
Make hand-eye coordination fun with challenges. For more fine motor coordination and motor planning, kids will love this Chickyboom Balance Game as they practice fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, and about balance and mathematics.
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.
