OLDER POSTS

Fine Motor Alphabet Play Dough

Sometimes, you need play dough in your day. Other times, you need to turn up the play dough fun notch just a bit. (That's a thing, right? The play dough fun scale? I think so.) This Fine Motor Play Dough Alphabet activity combined a couple of our favorite things: Creative Play Dough ideas and Fine Motor Skills. We used a handful of foam alphabet stickers that we had in the house and store bought play dough to make letters that we used in spelling words, letter identification, and alphabetical ordering. And our play dough fun rating was 26 letters long!

Try this fine motor activity with letters to practice so many hands-on learning activities with kids of all ages: spelling words, sight words, and letter identification while working on fine motor skills like intrinsic muscle strength.

Full disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.

So, we received these foam letter stickers from www.craftprojectideas.com and have been using them in a bunch of fun ways. Today, we used them with plain old fashioned Play-Doh.

Fine Motor Skills and Play Dough

Every Occupational Therapist knows the benefits of play dough is so huge that they recommend it as a top-rated tool for fine motor development. We've shared a ton of fine motor activities using play dough and I absolutely love to play with play dough with my kids for it's use in fine motor skill development and hand strengthening. Play dough is perfect for refining skills like intrinsic muscles strength, finger isolation, tripod grasp development, thumb opposition, opening up the web space, bilateral hand coordination, and more. With this activity, we specifically hit developing the intrinsic muscle strength of the hands.

Intrinsic muscle strength and play dough

So, what is intrinsic muscle strength? There are seventeen muscles in the hand that are responsible for fine motor skills and precision grasp, among other things like moving the thumb and fingers. There are different groups of intrinsic muscles and they allow us to grasp items in a functional way. The muscles of the hands work in conjunction with the muscles that originate in the forearm. These extrinsic muscles end in your hand.

For this activity, we used different colors of play dough and created small round balls of dough. I asked my kids (and nephew who was over for the day) to roll small, dime-sized balls using just their thumb and fingers. Rolling small balls of this size uses the intrinsic muscles that are responsible for moving the thumb (thenar mucles) and the muscles that bend the fingers at the knuckle (lumbricals). Also needed for a task like this are the palmer interossi muscles that work to move the fingers in a flexed position toward the thumb.

So, when a child is rolling a small ball of dough, with their thumb and fingers, they are working on strengthening the muscles that a child uses to write and color with a pencil or crayon.

Weakness in Writing and Coloring

Sometimes kids complain of their hand hurting when coloring or you might see them switch crayons very often when coloring. These are signs of a weakness of hand strength. Other signs of intrinsic muscle weakness are a weak grasp on the pencil or writing very lightly with a pencil.

After we rolled all of the play dough balls, we used our foam letter stickers to press letters into the Play-Doh. Pressing the letters with an extended finger (like in the picture) is a great way to work on finger isolation. It is important to note that using the finger in an extended "pointer" uses the extrinsic muscles that originate in the forearm. I shared more about finger isolation here.

We used these letters to practice spelling words with my second grader, identify sight words for my Kindergartner, practice letter identification and letter order with my preschooler, and practice not eating play dough with my toddler ;)

It was a fun day had by all!

How will you use these letters to learn and play?

Scissor Skills Crash Course (with Gift Wrap!)

Teaching kids how to use scissors and exploring scissor skills is one of my favorite things to work on as a school-based Occupational Therapist. There are so many creative ways to address the skills needed for accuracy in cutting with a pair of scissors. Today, I'm sharing everything you need to know about cutting with scissors. I've got all of the skills a child need in order to be successful. I've got great ways to practice teaching your child to cut on lines.

AND, I've got a top secret to share about teaching kids to cut with scissors; Something that will make practicing cutting with scissors frugal and fun. My secret weapon in teaching kids to cut on the lines? It's wrapping paper! Gift wrap makes the best scissor practice tool because you can get a huge roll for an inexpensive price. Hit up dollar stores and grab the after season and get ready to snip, snip, snip your way to cutting shapes on lines. This is your creative Crash Course on teaching kids to cut with scissors!

Scissor skills activities for kids. These are developmental ways to practice scissor skills and teaching kids to cut on the lines. Also, all of the skill areas needed in order for kids to accurately cut lines and shapes.

Teach Kids to Cut with Scissors (A Crash Course)

Full disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.

There are many components that go into cutting with scissors. These are the skill that kids need to master or be developing as they pick up a pair of scissors and can cut a shape. Using scissors to cut is a developmental progression of skill. And by that, I mean that as children progress in their development, they achieve more skill and accuracy. Kids need to gain better control of fine motor and visual perceptual skills as they grow and develop and with that development, comes better use of scissors. A child with deficits in any of the skill areas needed for using scissors will have difficulty with progression of typical scissor use development.

In this crash course, I'm going to share the skill components that a child needs to cut with scissors and various steps of cutting accuracy. Not included in this crash course are the developmental ages and stages of scissor use. That blog post will come at another time!

Skills a child needs to cut with scissors

These are the skill areas that a child needs in order to initiate scissor use and develop their progression toward successfully cutting multiple angled shapes:
Fine Motor Skills Needed for Scissor Use: From dexterity to graded precision, using scissors requires fine motor use skills for scissor use.

Prerequisite skills: Before a child can effectively use scissors in a functional manner, prerequisite skills are essential. These are the functional skills that babies, toddlers, and preschoolers practice and achieve to learn graded muscle movements. Read more about prerequisite skills here.

Open Thumb Web Space: Opening and closing the thumb against the fingers positions the thumb in abduction. Abduction and adduction are required to open and close the scissor's blades. If a child is not able to open and close their thumb due to physical defecits or weakness, they will not be able to cut with typical scissors. There are many modified versions of scissors out there to assist with this area. Read more about open thumb web space here.

Hand Strength: Cutting with scissors requires strength. Children may complain of hand fatigue, not be able to cut thick paper such as construction paper, or may cut paper with short snips of the scissors. Agross hand grasp is needed for endurance in scissor use. Looking for ways to build hand strength? Try these creative activities.

Visual Motor Skills: Also called hand-eye coordination, visual motor skills are our ability to position and use our hands in activities that are guided by our vision. Read more about visual motor skills here.

Visual Tracking: In order to follow a line with scissors, a person must use visual tracking as they move their scissors along the line. Without this skill, a child will show poor line accuracy and may cut through shapes or across lines multiple times. Read more about visual tracking here.

Bilateral Hand Coordination: This is a skill that is required for so many self-care and functional tasks. Using scissors to cut a shape is a functional task that requires both hands working together in a fluid manner. The hands are doing different tasks during the activity of cutting with scissors but both know what the other is doing without the child looking at either hand constantly. This manner of fluid activity is a mechanism of the brain as both hemispheres communicate in an efficient manner. In scissor skill activities, one hand must hold the scissors as the non-dominant hand holds and rotates the paper. Read more about bilateral coordination here.

Hand Dominance: Related to bilateral hand coordination, is hand dominance in scissor use. A child need an established hand dominance in order to develop fine motor skills that are needed for accuracy with scissor use. If a child continues to switch hands, there are scissors that can be used with either hand on the market, however, the child will not develop accuracy and fluid scissor cuts as easily with out an established dominant hand. Read more about hand dominance here.

Try THESE scissors for kids who have a left-right confusion or undefined hand dominance.

NOTE: THESE are my favorite scissor for kids.

Line Accuracy with Scissor Skills: Teaching Kids to cut on the Lines

Line accuracy when cutting with scissors is greatly dependent on position of the hand on the scissors, as well as all of the areas described above. Hand positioning and scissor grasp is a developmental progression and typical tearing of paper happens with certain positions. Typically, a child will developmentally go through certain stages in their scissor skills and as they progress, their accuracy will improve.

Help Kids Cut with Scissors on the Lines

Now is the time to pull out the wrapping paper that I told you about. Grab a roll of gift wrap and work on cutting with graded difficulty.

Try these scissor practice ideas to work on cutting on the lines. These ideas progress (mostly) from easiest to most difficult.

Providing kids with kid-friendly scissors and paper will help with practice. Kids can practice cutting with scissors as early as you feel comfortable. It's important to remember that all children develop differently. Hand over a pair of scissors and show the child how to snip into the edge of the paper, without lines or shapes. At this point, the child is only working on the skill areas described above. This is when wrapping paper makes a great cutting medium. No more will you go through the piles of construction paper that just get snipped and cut all over the floor. Use the wrapping paper and let the kids snip away!

A strip of wrapping paper (or paper) is a great starting point for practicing line awareness with scissors. Make the paper strip tin enough that one snip across will cut the paper.

Next, practice cutting into the paper and along a line. A black dot will provide a visual cue to stop at the end of the line.

Next, provide a strip of paper that is wider and requires several cuts across the page to cut through the line. This activity works on the child's ability to open and shut the scissors without choppy cuts for several snips. (NOTE: Provide a wider strip of paper than is shown in the above picture for more practice of continued cutting!)

Finally, provide a strip of paper with lines without stopping dots. The child must cut along the lines and stop at the end of the line. These lines are drawn very dark to provide a thicker cutting line, to ensure more accuracy.

When moving on to cutting shapes, start with squares. You can draw the square along the edge of the paper to allow the child to cut into the corners from each side. Then practice cutting a square inside the paper. Cutting shapes requires the paper to be rotated and turned accurately. Practice cutting other strait line shapes like triangles and rectangles.

After practicing strait line shapes, introduce cutting curved shapes.

Another way to practice line awareness with scissors is to cut curved and multiple angled lines across a strip of paper. Add in more complex shapes like stars and hearts.

When starting on more anlged or wavier shapes, provide stopping points with black dots. These will act as a visual cue and an indication to turn or rotate the page and move the scissors.

Finally, practice cutting multiple-angular and curved line shapes. To start, try drawing a thick black line around the shape to provide a thicker cutting line. Then, remove the visual cue of the line and cut directly on the lines of the shape.

I hope that these scissor skill tips are helpful for you and your little scissor user!

Looking for more ways to use wrapping paper in crafts and activities?

Find some more awesome ideas on how to recycle and create with gift wrapping paper!

Stick Puzzles by Teach me Mommy

Gift Wrap Flowers by Peakle Pie

Gift Paper Frogs by Nemscok Farms

S cissor Practice and Games with Gift Wrap by Powerful Mothering

Coiled Paper Heart Craft by The Gingerbread House

Paper Beads from Wrapping Paper by Mum in the Madhouse

Scissors Skills Crash Course by Sugar Aunts

DIY Magnetic Bookmarks by Kidz Activities

Recycled Wrapping Paper Card by Our Whimsical Days

Paper Collage with Flower Punch by Words n Needles

Organization and Attention Challenges Related to Sensory Processing Disorders

Kids with sensory needs often times have organization difficulties. They are distracted by their body's need for sensory integration and are challenged to focus on tasks at hand due difficulties with inattention.

While sensory kids might have attention problems, typically developing kids are also learning to work with the distractions of multi-sensorial input to focus on tasks. You might see visual inattention that causes a child to skip words when copying from a book. You might see them forget to put their homework folder in their backpack at the end of the school day. It's kind of like a jumble of beads in where all of the colors are so distracting that it's hard to pull out the ones that are most important. Then the beads spill and you've got a disorganized mess to deal with on top of everything else that needs to happen in your day.

Sensory Processing components and considerations for the disorganized and inattentive child. This site contains lots of attention and organization strategies for kids with sensory processing disorders from an Occupational Therapist.

There are normal everyday distractions that all of us are managing. I for one am currently distracted by kids, schedules, deadlines, and the need to pull frozen chicken out of the fridge so that we can eat dinner later. A child with sensory needs is distracted by the input their body craves and the overwhelming input that they are constantly bombarded with.

When attention is a primary difficulty relating to disorganization in kids, there are ways to work around and help.

Other reasons for being inattentive:

Impulsivity
Overwhelming and confusing sensory input makes navigating sensory information
Trouble staying on a task
Trouble identifying priorities
Focus on anxiety limits ability to stay on task
Rigidity causing difficulty transitioning into new tasks
Motor insecurity (fine motor or gross motor, visual motor, sensori-motor) causes trouble getting started on a task.
Low frustration tolerance to difficult tasks. These kids might not try a task to avoid a frustrated meltdown as a compensatory strategy

How can Parents Help a Child with Sensory Related Attention and Organization Problems?

So, how can a worried parent or involved teacher help kids who are struggling with attention problems and resulting disorganization? We've recently shared tips to help with attention at home and at school. But what if all of the modifications and adaptations to your child's day are just not working?

What if, as a Mom or a Dad, you are at your wit's end with your child's poor attention...the behaviors...your child's seemingly intentional disregard to directions and others around them. Sometimes, there is a reason for these actions. They aren't always intentional. They aren't always ADHD related. They aren't always the actions of a "bad kid".

Sometimes, there is an underlying reason for disorganization issues. There is a sensory component.

A child with sensory processing difficulties might have trouble blocking out lights, noises, and movements of others. They might drop their pencil and not even realize it. They might have difficulty with handwriting. They might bump into others in lines at school or bounce off the walls at home. Do these sound familiar?

There are many indications of children who are overly sensitive to typical daily activities:

Overreact to bright lights and loud noises.
Demonstrate meltdowns when overwhelmed
Complain about itchy tags or clothing seams, including the seam along the toes in socks. Refuse to wear certain textures, and complain that they are too rough or scratchy.
Difficulty with sensing how much force they need to apply in tasks; they might press too hard when writing, rip the paper when erasing, or slam down objects.
Trouble knowing where their body is in relation to other objects or people.
Overly distracted by noises in the classroom.
Appears clumsy.
Avoid hugs and cuddling even with family members.
Overly fearful of movement including swings, slides, and merry-go-rounds.
Bump into other students in school lines, or crashes into objects.
Tendency to bolt or run away when they're overwhelmed to get away from stressors or fears of unfamiliar situations.

There are also indications of children who are under-responsive to sensory stimulation and seek out more sensory input:

Constantly touch people or textures.
Loves active play.
Crave fast, spinning and/or intense movement.
Enjoys heavy deep pressure like tight bear hugs.
Disregard or no understanding of personal space.
Very high tolerance for pain.
Very fidgety and unable to sit still, especially when the child is expected to sit still.
Seeks out jumping, bumping and crashing activities.
Loves jumping on furniture and trampolines.
Loves playground equipment like swings, merry-go-rounds and slides.

It's easy to understand how a child with either a low or a high tolerance to sensory stimulation can show inattention to focused tasks. There is so much information coming at them at once and they are unable to filter out what is unnecessary while attending to a directions like "Get your homework out of your back pack" or "Brush your teeth, your hair, and put on your shoes." How can they possibly keep themselves organized in tasks?

While no two children are alike, there are many sensory processing treatments that can help with attention and organization. Movement activities, core strengthening, and sensory integration therapy can help with attention in kids. In fact, sensory integration treatment interventions "may result in positive outcomes in sensorimotor skills and motor planning; socialization, attention, and behavioral regulation; reading-related skills; participation in active play; and achievement of individualized goals." (From here.)

Some of our favorite ways to engage the sensory systems in sensory integration activities are:

Brain Breaks (get easy-to-use activity cards here)
Visual cues with bold colored paper, index cards, or table surfaces
Visual organization sticker chart
Highlight important information
Attention Movement Exercises
Movement-based learning activities
Weighted Beanbag Toss
Wobble Ice Disc
Sensory Diet
Chewable Jewelry or Oral Motor Tools
Balance Activities
Fidget Toys for On-The-Go
Working on an inclinded surface
Sensory Processing Considerations and Ideas for Handwriting
Dinosaur themed Heavy Work Activites
And many of the sensory activities found HERE.

Try using these techniques to help your child sort out all of the information, and just like those beads that are all over the floor? Create beautiful moments in your day!

How to Help Kids Pay Attention with Sensory Movement Exercises

Do you know a little one who can't focus on school work? Someone who is always distracted or forgets details of a task? A little one who starts a project but easily gives up, never to return to the activity? A student who is always daydreaming or wiggling in their seat and misses key information?
Many children have trouble with paying attention and it can seem like it is only getting worse.

Paying attention is hard for some kids. There are a few different reasons for inattention during school work or homework, or when just participating in listening activities like conversations or reading. Learning disabilities, distratibility, poor core body strength, an overload of visual stimulation, poor working memory, ineffective executive functioning skills, and even temperament can contribute to poor attention (among other reasons).

Numerous diagnoses like ADHD, Autism spectrum, sensory processing disorders, and more also have symptoms aligned with inattention. But sometimes, attention problems can be confused with diagnoses typically associated with poor attention. Sometimes, the reason for trouble paying attention is something else.

Whatever the reason, there are easy ways to help your child pay attention. Today, I've got a simple way to play and work on core muscle strength and proprioceptive input through a sensory movement activity. This super easy movement activity is so much fun that your kids will want to play again every day. And, that's a good thing, because the movement, proprioceptive input, and core strengthening involved will help them work toward improved attention.

Try these sensory movement activites and exercises for helping kids learn to pay attention. Easy ball therapy exercises using proprioception and core muscle strengthening with a frugal and easy alternative to a therapy ball. Occupational Therapy tips for kids.

Full disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.

RELATED READ: Visit our Attention in Kids Pinterest board for more information.

Sensory Ball Activities for Proprioception

One technique that is often recommended by Occupational Therapists for some children is the use of a large therapy ball for sitting and movement. The therapist can guide the child in specific activities and exercises. For our activity, we used a large and partially deflated Playground Ball similar to this one for a simple sensory movement.

Proprioceptive input adds deep pressure to the body's muscles and joints for a calming and organizing input. Using a large ball like this one can help some children with inattention issues by promoting a postural reaction to a moving surface and heavy work input.

Sensory Ball Activity for Core Body Strengthening

Inattention can be a result of core weakness of the body. The core is the child's trunk and midsection and is needed for support and ongoing positioning in functional tasks. With a weak core, a child may slump in their seat, or have trouble maintaining and changing positions. Exercises like these with a ball can help work on the core muscle strength to help the child focus and attend while writing, cutting, and learning.

Super Easy and Fun Movement Exercises

All you need for this activity is a large ball. You could use a Balance Ball or just grab a bouncy playground ball like this one from your child's outdoor play equipment. We partially deflated our ball and drew a heart on one side using a dry erase marker. The heart provided a visual prompt for where to sit or push. It made a fun activity even better as we tried to squish the heart!

Use the ball to sit, bounce, and squash for proprioceptive input and strengthening. A few exercises that you can try:

Sit on the ball and bounce.
Sit on the ball near a wall and have your child pick up their feet. Use the wall to stabilize.
Lay belly down and roll side to side.
Lay belly down and roll the ball front to back.
Lay belly down on the ball and bounce.
Squash the ball against the wall with the child's chest.
Squash the ball against the wall with the child's back.
Stand on the ball against a wall, using the wall for support (use close adult supervision and contact for this one.)

Have fun playing!

Looking for more core strengthening activities that can help kids learn to pay attention? Get your copy of The Core Strengthening Handbook! Get it here.