Occupational Therapy
Shoe Tying
50 Fine Motor Occupational Therapy Activities at Home
https://www.yourtherapysource.com/blog1/2020/03/18/occupational-therapy-activities-at-home/
School Moves
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Fine Motor Skills Challanges
Clip Pinch Minute to Win It
Gather your supplies:
- clips
- a bowl
- paint chips
- timer
How many clips can you pinch on the paint chips?
Just grab some clips and some paint chips. Set your timer for 1 minute and see how many clips they can pinch onto the paint chips.
Alternative items: any type of clips you have (clothesline clips, chip clips, anything that they can pinch). Instead of paint chips you can use card stock or index cards. Something a littler studier than regular paper works better.
Modifications: Use smaller clips to challenge the grasping skills and larger ones if your child seems to be struggling with this activity. You can also use a larger piece of stock paper or hold the paper for them if bilateral coordination skills are a struggle. Gradually increase the amount of time they hold both the paper and the clips to work on this skill. You can also allow the child to use both hands to pinch open the clip if it is larger and their hands lack the strength needed to open the clip.
This activity works on pincer grasp, visual motor skills, and bilateral coordination.
Bead Drop Minute to Win It
Gather your supplies:
- beads
- a bowl
- container with a small opening
- timer
How many beads can you drop into the container in one minute?
All you need is a container with a small opening in it and some beads. We used star beads, which are a little easier to grasp.
Set your timer for 1 minute and see how many beads they can put into the container with their fingers. I had the kids pick up one at a time.
After one minute, have them count how many beads they dropped into the container.
Alternative items: You could use an empty water bottle or something similar with a small opening. Different sized beads can also be used to either challenge your child's grasp (smaller beads) or make the task manageable for others (larger beads).
Modifications: For children who are dropping beads a lot or missing the hole, use a larger opening for them to drop beads into. You could also use a colored marker to outline the hole or a circle sticker with a hole cut out for the bead to drop through into the bottle.
For something a little harder, the kids could pick up a handful of beads and then move the beads forward in their hand to put one at a time into the container.
If you have different colored beads, have the children pick only one color out of the multiple colors to drop into the container in one minute. This will work on visual discrimination skills.
This activity works on pincer grasp, bilateral coordination, and visual-motor skills.
Cotton Ball Transfer Minute to Win It
Gather your supplies:
- a big handful of cotton balls
- two container
- tongs or tweezers
- timer
Set your timer for one minute and have your child use the tongs to pick up a cotton ball (one at a time) and move it to the other container.
Alternative items: You can use pom-poms instead of cotton balls. We used two take-home containers that we had left over from eating out. You can literally use any type of container for this activity, whatever you have in your house.
Modification: Set the container with the cotton balls on the opposite side of their dominant hand. This will encourage some crossing midline as they reach across to grab a cotton ball.
You are working on pinch and grasp strength, visual-motor and the added crossing midline skills with this activity.
Here are some additional activity ideas:
- Spring Sensory Scavenger Hunt
- Heavy Work Activities for Home
- 10 Hands-On Ways to Practice Pre-Writing Lines
- Activities for Practicing Handwriting Skills at Home
Home-Based Development Activities Download
Here is today's download!
Balloon Volleyball
