Vertical Drawing

OT Activity of the Day!

Vertical Drawing

Target Age Range: 18 months and up!

Ask any OT and they will tell you that a great way to build those early foundational writing skills is to draw on a vertical surface. This is a great way to build overall stability (especially if kneeling-core strength!), shoulder stability, crossing the midline (an important skill in hand dominance), and so much more.

If you have a chalk board, or easel, at your house, great, you can use that.

Don’t have a chalkboard? You can always get a giant roll of paper and, using painter’s tape, tape the paper to the wall and have your child color with crayons or markers.

You can also color on easy to reach windows with window crayons or use a paint brush and water on the outside of your house (tell your kids you’re painting the house, or cleaning it, or whatever would motivate them), or take the paint brush and use it with shaving cream in the tub.

Tub crayons are also a great way to work on coloring on a vertical surface-and so easy to clean!

Addition benefits to drawing on a vertical surface:

1. better wrist extension

2. practicing using a functional grip on the writing tool

3. better visual attention

Enjoy!

Balancing Snowflake

OT Activity of the Day

Balancing Snowflake

Target Age Range: 4 and up

This is a super fun way to work on letter identification and letter matching. If that is too much for your child you can always just work on the letters of their name. This activity can be geared/customized however it works best for your child.

The idea of the game is to balance as you walk on the snowflake to the letters that have been called out. You can add in “letter snowballs” like I did and have the child match the letters adding another layer of motor planning and balance as they have to walk over the snowballs to get to where they’re going.

This activity targets:

*balance

*letter identification/letter matching

*motor planning (figuring out the best way to get to the designated letter)

This is the perfect activity for your Preschooler or even your Kindergartner. For the older kiddos, they can always write the letters they had to find, or even come up with a winter word that starts with the letter that they found. Like I said, there are so many ways to play this game!

Enjoy!

Snowflake!

OT Activity of the Day

Snowflake

Target Age Range: 5 and up

Not only did we use scissors to cut shapes and lines out for our snowflakes, but we also used a hole puncher for some added flair!

Making a snowflake is a great way to work on visual motor skills and scissor skills. First you have to fold the paper into fourths and this is a great way to practice lining up the edges (fine motor manipulation and visual motor skills). Once the paper is folded then you get to cut and hole punch! These two skills focus on hand strength and bilateral coordination. Two skills necessary for writing!

So make a snowflake and support those writing skills!

Enjoy!

Glitter Play Dough

OT Activity of the Day:

Glitter Play Dough

Target Age Range: 2 and up

This was a fun activity that I did today with a variety of different age ranges while targeting a variety of different skills!

This is a great activity to work on:

1. following a recipe

2. fine motor control/stability (when holding the measuring cups/spoons still)

3. bilateral coordination (holding the cup/spoon while pouring ingredients)

4. wrist forearm rotation (when scooping and dumping)

5. letter/number formation (manipulating the dough to make letter lines)

6. sensory play

The recipe:

1 cup of flour

1/4 cup of salt

1/4 cup oil

1/3 cup water (add more if the dough is too dry!)

1 tablespoon of cream of tartar

glitter! (use however much you would like, just add slowly to see if you need to adjust water or flour)

Mix everything together and you have glitter play dough!

Enjoy!

Muffin Tin Fun!

OT Activity of the Day!

Muffin Tin Fun!

Target Age Range: 4 and up

This is a great way to work on spelling your child’s name, visual scanning, letter/shape recognition in general, and hand strength.

All you need is a muffin tin, rubber bands, and letters. I used magnet letters, but if you wanted to write them on paper and tape them on that works too. Next, have your child either put the rubber bands over the bumps with the letters of their name, or call out letters that they have to find and cover (you can easily do this with any magnets/shapes if letters are not what you’re into for this activity)! This is a great skill for your Preschoolers and Kindergartners and a great activity to get those kids school ready!

Enjoy!

Snowstorm!

Activity of the Day!

Snowstorm!

Target Age Range: 2 and up

This is a super fun, seasonal, activity that you can do with just about any child 2 and up. For example, I did this activity with an almost 3 year old and a Kindergartner today. With the 3 year old, it was simply following basic directions and gluing the cotton balls on the paper, with the Kindergartener, we were making the letters of his name with dots, glue and cotton balls.

To play all you need is construction paper, cotton balls, glue and a marker. First you take the cotton balls and rip them up into smaller pieces, this is a great fine motor activity that really promotes the pincer grasp, an important grasp when it comes to holding a pencil and writing. After the cotton balls are ripped you can glue them on however you would like! I used squeeze glue to continue to work on hand strength, however stick glue works here too.

If you want to just work on visual scanning you can make the dots (or letters for letter ID) all over the paper and the child has to cover them all.

Overall, this is a great activity that works on so many great skills! Enjoy!

Elf of the Shelf with an OT Twist!

Elf on the Shelf with an OT Twist!

Elf on the shelf ideas

Looking for some motivation to engage your child into doing more challenging things?  Why not tell them your house Elf invited them to try? (Wink, wink). Most of this stuff you should already have in your home, except maybe painter’s tape.  Don’t worry, that you can get off Amazon!

Preschool

1.     Use painter’s tape and have the children play hopscotch to get to the kitchen table-great for working on balance and gross motor coordination

2.     Print off a few holiday pictures, in pairs, and play memory-great on working on short term recall

3.     Coloring page! Coloring inside the lines is a great way to work on fine motor control, important for when we write!

4.     Invite them to write their name as they sit down for breakfast

5.     Invite your children to bowl, if you have a set, this is a great way to work on hand-eye coordination.

6.     If you have stickers, you can always draw a tree on a piece of paper and have the child use stickers to decorate.  This is a great way to work on fine motor manipulation.

7.     Invite your child to play with play dough!  They can make letters or shapes that the Elf provided.  A great way to work on early letter formation and prewriting strokes.

8.     Invite your child to write some letters in salt using their fingers.  All you need is a cookie tray and salt.  You could even use shaving cream or holiday sprinkles if you’d like!

9.     Grab some paper and scissors and make a snowflake.  This can work on imitation through paper folding (especially if you want to fold in into a square first) and scissor skills!

10.  You can use painter’s tape to make a line on the floor and have the child practice their balance (much like the holiday tree balancing activity I posted on my Activities blog!)

11.  Paint a snowy scene using white paint and cotton balls.  Using cotton balls to paint helps promote the pincer grasp, a necessary grip for holding the pencil appropriately.

12.  Beading!  A great activity for fine motor manipulation and visual motor skills (both necessary for writing).

13.  Use cardboard cut outs, a hole puncher, some yarn, and markers (or glitter, or stickers, or crayons, you get the idea) and make an ornament for the tree.  A fun fine motor activity!

14.  Dress a favorite stuffed animal with articles of clothing with zippers and buttons, a great way to work on dressing skills.

15.  Likewise, put the Elf partially in a backpack so your child can practice unzipping the bag!

16.  Invite your child to play a game, preferably one with tongs or some sort of fine motor component, like Avalanche, Pie Making Game, Feeding Frogs, Stack Up, or even harder games like Operation.  A fun way to work on fine motor strength and endurance, necessary for age appropriate writing!

Kindergarten and Beyond! 

1.     Make a tic tac toe board and practice writing different upper-case letters (or holiday words) while you play!

2.     Invite your children to bowl, only print off some holiday words and tape them on the bowling pins.  If they knock a pin down, they get to write the word, or write the word in a sentence!

3.     Invite your children to do holiday mazes, dot to dots, or picture finds as they have breakfast.  This is a great way to work on fine motor control and visual scanning.  Important skills for reading and writing.  Pinterest or Google are great options for where to look for these!

4.     Cut out a candy cane shape from paper and have the child decorate it with paper clips.  This is a great way to work on fine motor manipulation!

5.     Do you have rubber bands and cookie cutters? Bonus if the cookie cutters are holiday themed.  Have the child wrap the cookie cutters with rubber bands.  This is a great way to work on fine motor manipulation and hand strength, skills necessary for writing.

6.     Invite your children to do word searches or picture finds as they have breakfast.  This is a great way to work on visual scanning, an important skill for reading and writing. Pinterest or Google are great options for where to look for these!

7.     Invite your child to write one or two sentences about what they are grateful for.  

8.     Use painter’s tape to tape some targets on the ground and have your child practice throwing weighted items (like a bean bag or a sealed bag full of beans or rice) on the target.  This is great for hand-eye coordination.  If you add point values to the targets then they can practice writing numbers, or even adding!  If you want to work on subtracting, you can make some targets a negative amount.

9.     Leave directions for pancakes or an omelet or cookies!  Following a recipe and making food is a great way to work on fine motor skills and sequencing!

10.  Place the Elf in a shoe and have your child practice tying the shoe.  The two-bunny method or the tree/bunny method are highly recommended!  This is a skill that most Kindergartners should be ready to do.

11.  Do some morning yoga for focus, flexibility, and overall gross motor coordination.  Print off some pictures of poses from the internet or make some up on your own!

12.  Invite your child to play writing games or fine motor games like Scattergories, Operation, Traffic Jam, Sink or Swim, or Pictionary.  A fun way to work on fine motor and problem-solving skills.

13.  Offer up gum drops and toothpicks and build a Christmas tree, a great fine motor and STEM activity.

Balancing Holiday Tree

OT Activity of the Day

Balancing Holiday Tree

Target Age Range: 3 and up

Do you have green painter’s tape (I didn’t until I ordered it off Amazon), a sharpie, and some small objects? Great, you too can make this holiday tree and decorate it! This activity is very versatile and while I’m using it to work on balance, motor planning, and letter identification. You can easily just work on balance and have the child decorate the tree.

For this particular activity, I’m working on identifying letters of the alphabet. To start the child collects their jingle bell/pom pom/cotton ball/squished up piece of paper/whatever it is you’re using to decorate the tree. Then I hold up a letter for them to first identify and then locate. This is going to work on visual scanning (where is the letter?), motor planning (how do I get to the letter), and balance by trying to stay on the tree as they walk to the letter.

**You could easily substitute letters, shapes, or colors in this activity, whatever it is that your child is working on.

**You can also make the balance “beam” aspect thicker for your younger kids by doubling up the tape.

**Don’t celebrate Christmas? Use blue painter’s tape and make a menorah!

Enjoy!

Hanging Stockings

OT Activity of the Day

Hanging Stockings!

Target Age Range: 4 and up

This activity can be done in several ways. I’ve decided to work on letter recognition, letter matching and name writing. However if you just wanted to work on the fine motor of just opening and closing the clothes pins, by all means do! If you’re looking to adjust to other holidays, you can always make candles and flames out of construction paper instead of stockings and ornaments.

This activity targets two areas: 1. fine motor strength and endurance through opening and closing the clothespins. 2. this particular activity was designed for a few friends who are working on identifying and writing the letters of their name! If you’d like to add a third and have your child then write their name, definitely go that extra mile!

To play you just need yarn, construction paper, markers, and scissors! I tied the ends of the yarn to two stable objects in the room, if you would like to tape them to the wall don’t forget to use painter’s tape, much easier to get off afterwards!

Gift Box Feel and Find!

OT Activity of the Day

Gift Box Feel and Find!

Target Age Range: 4 and up

The technical term for this is tactile perception and this skill is necessary when putting your hand in your book bag and looking for a pencil, looking for your keys in your purse/pocket using touch only, and holding a pencil and writing with speed and legibility.

But for all the kids know, we’re just looking for stuff in the gift box haha! Fun and educational all at once:). So I have duplicates of all these items and I will ask the child to locate the item I hand to them. Before they stick their hands in to feel around, we can talk about how the item feels in their hands so they know how to properly identify what they’re feeling for.

To do this at home, grab a used tissue box, decorate it so that it looks like a present and find a few items around the house (preferably with a matching item). Then toss them in the gift box and get to feeling and finding!

Enjoy!

Thankful Turkey

OT Activity of the Day:

Thankful Turkey

Target Age Range: 2 and up

We can’t let this holiday sneak by without making a “thankful” turkey. You can do this in a variety of different ways. I used squished up paper to decorate my feathers, but if you would like to continue to focus on cutting, you can cut out individual feathers from construction paper. You can then write your gratitude items on the actual feathers if you also want to focus more on writing. If you have glitter or sequins, feel free to use that to decorate the feathers as well!

For my particular variation, I wanted to make a turkey puppet, so I used a paper bag for the body, but feel free to continue to use an empty toilet paper roll if that’s what you have! This version is also geared towards my younger preschoolers so squishing paper and gluing it down is right up their alley!

Either way you decide to make your thankful turkey, the best part about it is that you are working on building and supporting your child’s fine motor skills. If you’re opting to squish up the paper like I did, try to have your child use the tips of their fingers versus the palm of their hand. This will promote more fine motor manipulation and finger isolation which is going to help when it comes time for your child to hold the pencil and write!

Enjoy!

Name/Number Turkey

OT Activity of the Day:

Name/Number Turkey

Target Age Range: 4 and up

This activity was designed to work on name writing, hand strength, bilateral coordination, and visual motor skills. This is what we did!

First we cut out the turkey’s body (I drew a circle on a piece of paper and the child cut it out). Then we went to work on cutting out the feathers. Cutting is a great way to work on visual motor skills and bilateral coordination! After everything was cut, the child wrote his/her name on their feather of choice. This is a great way to practice name writing and writing within a given space, both good skills to have! Once the name was written, we rolled the dice three times and wrote a number rolled on each feather (for some kids I wrote the number and for others they wrote the number, the focus was more on the name and hole punching than number writing, however you can always adjust that for your version!). We then used the hole puncher (great tool for building hand strength) to punch the corresponding holes in the feathers. The last step was to glue the feathers to the turkey’s body.

If you have a Preschooler, Pre-K child in your household, then this is the perfect activity for you! Bonus is you have a fancier hole puncher that punches shapes other than a circle:).

Enjoy!

Thanksgiving Table!

OT Activity of the Day:

Thanksgiving Table

Target Age Range: 6 and up

This was a fun executive functioning activity for my First Graders today! This game had a few steps:

1. First, we rolled two dice to see how many pom poms (Thanksgiving food) we needed to have fit on a table.

2. Then, we gathered the pom poms.

3. Next, we planned out what a table would look like (flat top and four legs in this case).

4. Last, we looked around the room for four equal sized items to be the four legs of the table and something to be a flat top.

I did this with my individual clients and with my small group to work on collaborative play. All in all, this was a hit!

Enjoy!

Thanksgiving Meal Prep

OT Activity of the Day:

Thanksgiving Meal Prep

Target Age Range: 2 and up

Looking for a way to engage your child in setting up for Thanksgiving? Have them help decorate the table! Today we’re highlighting three things that can be made, and used, during the Thanksgiving meal.

1. Napkin ring- I’ve stolen this idea from a friend who did this with her girls and I thought this was so clever! It’s also a great way to work on those early grasp patterns through marker use and fine motor manipulation if you’re using stickers for some flare. Flare can also include glue, feathers, sequins, pom poms, just about anything at all. All you need is an empty paper towel roll and cut it into however many rings you’ll need this year. Then you can get those markers out, flatten the ring a bit and then color and decorate! Either way your child is really working on their fine motor skills!

2. Placemats- Grab some construction paper, scissors, glue and markers and decorate some paper! No matter what your child decides to do, whether it’s just using markers, or taking it up a level and cutting out leaves or other Thanksgiving items (feathers, stickers, etc.) to glue on, your child is using and building their fine motor skills. For the older kids, feel free to have them write what they’re thankful for to practice some handwriting.

3. Hats- while I do not have hats pictured, there are several fun turkey headbands to be made if you search for some ideas on Pinterest. Again, any type of coloring or cutting is working on your child’s fine motor skills. When the activity is meaningful like this, you often find that even the most avoidant of fine motor participants joins in.

I hope you enjoy making these as much as I did! Enjoy!

Feed the Turkey

OT Activity of the Day:

Feed the Turkey

Target Age Range: 2 and up

This is a super fun way to work on hand strength in your young children. Early hand strength is important because it sets the stage for how your child will hold on to their pencil/marker and be able to participate in fine motor activities in general.

For set up, all you need to do is turn an empty tissue box into a turkey. This took all of 5 minutes and all I did was take two pieces of brown construction paper and wrap up an empty tissue box and then cut out the mouth. From there I made the feathers, I used craft scissors for some flare, and glued them on along with the googly eyes. Next I took an eye dropper, pom poms, and dice and turned it into a fun game.

The object is to use the eye dropper to get the pom poms into the mouth of the turkey. If squeezing the eye dropper becomes too challenging, you can always work on the pincer grasp or manipulation of multiple items in one hand. When your child is shaking the dice, don’t forget to have them use two hands for bilateral coordination practice!

Variations:

1. If your child is older and would find this activity appealing, you can always have them cut out the feathers! Craft scissors are motivating, so pull those out if you have them!

2. You don’t have to use number dice, you can use colored dice to work on color identification instead.

Enjoy!

Yarn Wrapping Turkey!

OT Activity of the Day:

Yarn Wrapping Turkey

Target Age Range: 4 and up

Yarn wrapping is such a great bilateral coordination, body awareness, and motor planning activity for children. Each year at camp we always make sure to have a few yarn wrapping activities simply because it is so beneficial in terms of using both sides of the body in a coordinated fashion (body awareness and bilateral coordination-important for writing skills!) and figuring out a problem and sequencing through a task (motor planning).

Today I took an empty toilet paper roll and I cut a little slit in the top. I then secured the yarn in the slit and started to wrap. It’s OK if you need to do hand over hand a few times to help your child get started. Once I wrapped the empty toilet paper roll, I then cut another slit in the bottom of the roll and secured the yarn again. Then, I got to cutting out my feathers. I then stapled the feathers together at the bottom and glued them onto the yarn turkey. A few feather variations:

1. You could use regular feathers.

2. You could use pipe cleaners and beads as feathers (see previous post)

3. You could add some writing by writing things you are thankful on the feathers

4. You could work on name writing and have your child write their name on the feathers

I used goggly eyes, however feel free to continue to use construction paper and cut out eyes and glue them on.

Enjoy!

All things Thanksgiving!

OT Activity of the Day:

All things Thanksgiving!

Target Age Range: 6 and up

This was a fun problem solving/motor planning game I played with some of my First, Second, and Third Graders this week. I gave them three items; pom poms, pipe cleaners, and blocks and ask them to make something “Thanksgiving” with them. In the picture I made a pumpkin pie (one of my favorite things about this holiday. I chose to use pom poms only.

For some kids they were able to come up with an idea but had a hard time with organizing and executing the thought process. For them I pulled out my dry erase board and we worked on making a plan. For others, they did better when they got to pull from my “idea jar” of Thanksgiving things.

Once we made the “Thanksgiving Thing” we then wrote a little about the idea. All in all, this was a great OT activity for those older kiddos!

Enjoy!

Beaded Turkey

OT Activity of the Day:

Beaded Turkey

Age Range: 3 and up

This is a great activity for all those Preschoolers out there. For the young ones, there may be the need for a bit of set up, for the older Preschoolers and even the Kindergartners, they can be more independent.

To make the turkey: Grab an empty toilet paper roll and hole punch a hole in the back (I did two holes on top of each other to make one big hole so I could fit all the pipe cleaners in). Then take your pipe cleaners, I used four and cut them in half, however you can use however many you would like and you can choose to cut them or not! I then gathered the pipe cleaners at one end and twisted them so they were twisted together and then I put the twisted part through the hole and pinched them to the side so they were secure.

To decorate: you can use markers to make the face of the turkey, you can use construction paper/scissors/glue, or you can use a combination! For the feathers, all you need are some beads!

This is a great fine motor activity. The hole punching is a great way to work on hand strength and the beading is a great way to work on visual motor and fine motor manipulation. This is also a great way to keep those kids busy as you’re making the Thanksgiving meal!

Fall Leaves

OT Activity of the Day

Fall Leaf

Target Age Range: 2 and up

Today we worked on paper ripping and squishing and gluing! This is a great fine motor activity. It not only works on the bilateral coordination of ripping paper, but then you have to use the finger tips of your fingers to squish the paper into a small ball. As with any activity modifications can be made. While some children were able to rip the paper independently, some kids needed the rip to be started for them. While some kids were able to use their finger tips to squish the paper up, some kids worked on simply gluing the ripped paper to the leaf as is.

No matter what the modification, this is a great fine motor/fall activity for you to do with your little ones!

Enjoy!

2020 Holiday Gift Guide

 FUNdamentals 2020 Holiday Gift Guide

Happy Holidays!  I hope this list helps cut through some of the confusion and head scratching that sometimes goes into buying toys for your kids (or family and friends).  These are some of our favorite toys or brands that promote fine motor, visual motor, or problem-solving skills in children across all ages.  We’ve also added a few of my favorite sensory strategies/toys.  While many of these can be stretched across several age groups, we’ve grouped them where we think they would be the best utilized!

Birth-12 months

For this age, I’m a big fan of the Lamaze, Taggies (for babies who love tags), Fisher Price, Melissa and Doug, The First Years, Rainbow Toyfrog Store, Fat Brain Toys, Sassy Store and Baby Einstein

Here are a few of my favorite items.  These work on early fine motor and visual motor skills in addition to engaging your little one.

1.     Rattles (Fisher Price makes some good ones!)

2.     Manhattan Toy Winkel Rattle and Sensory Teether Toy 

3.     Sassy Whimsical Wheel Suction Cup STEM Learning Toy (6 months and up)

4.     Sassy Fishy Fascination (my son had this one!)

5.     Black and white books (Usborne Children’s books is a great starter)

6.     Anything with a mirror (Baby Einstein has a fun one!)

7.     Anything they can put in their mouth (Lamaze toys-Capt. Calamari is a personal favorite)

8.     Battat Activity Box

9.     Stacking cups (The First Years has a great set)

10.  Fisher-Price Rock a Stack and Baby’s First Blocks bundle

11.  Tummy Time Water Mat (my son loved! -by YiCutte)

1-2 years old

 For this age, it depends on the budding interests of your child, but here are some of my favorites!  These will continue to build your child’s fine motor, visual motor, and gross motor development

 Brands I love: Melissa and Doug, B. Toys, Fat Brain Toys, Learning Resources, Rainbow Toyfrog, Fisher-Price

 Toys I love:

1.     A good shape sorter (Melissa and Doug and B. Toys have some good ones)

2.     Latch Board (Melissa and Doug have a fun one)

3.     Scarves (for music and movement)

4.     Large legos (Mega Bloks)

5.     Pop up tunnels (like the one from Hide and Side)

6.     Books that have flaps or things to feel (the “Never Touch” series is a personal favorite)

7.     Cars 

8.     Trains

**when it comes to trains and cars, find something that is either a “pullback” toy or one they can push on their own to allow for their own creativity

9.     Dolls

10.  Animals (farm, zoo, dinosaurs)

11.  Finn the Fine Motor Fish (Learning Resources)

12.  Max the Fine Motor Moose (Learning Resources)

13.  Pedro the Fine Motor Peacock (Learning Resources)

14.  Rainbow ToyFrog Spinning Toy (a personal favorite)

15.  Montessori Baby Rainbow stacking toys (Rainbow ToyFrog) 

16.  Musical Instruments (Fisher Price Classic Xylophone)

17.  Squigz (Fat Brain Store)

18.  Skoolzy Peg Board Set (great for hand-eye coordination)

19.  Botton Art (Alex Discover, a game often in rotation in the clinic-18+)

Bath Toys (because I know good ones can be hard to find!):

1.     Boon Building Bath Pipes (Boon Store, something I will be buying for my son!)

2.     Nuby Floating Purple Octopus (Nuby Store, bath toy)

3.     Lovely Monkey Caterpillar (G-Wack, another toy I will be getting for my son)

Craft/Sensory ideas:

1.     Foam stickers

2.     Dot markers

3.     Kinetic sand (as long as the child has stopped putting things in their mouth, also a great sensory activity!) 

4.     Water Beads (again, make sure to watch the mouth!)

2-4 years old

 Again, a lot of it depends on the budding interests of your child, but here are a few of my favorites!  These are great for continued fine motor, visual motor, and sensory motor development.  These are also great for that budding imagination and free play!

 Brands I love: Learning Resources, Skoolzy, Mega Bloks, Melissa and Doug, Discover with Dr. Cool, LeapFrog, Top Bright, Fat Brain Toys, Peaceable Kingdom (a personal favorite brand for cooperative play)

 Toys I love:

1.     Spike the Fine Motor Hedgehog (Learning Resources)

2.     Magfire Matching Eggs

3.     J-Hong Matching Eggs

4.     Froggy Feeding Fun (Learning Resources)

5.     Skoolzy Rainbow Counting Bears

6.     Mega Bloks building sets/tables

7.     Melissa and Doug Wood Blocks

8.     Blockaroo Magnetic Foam Builders

9.     Cars and trains (Top Bright Car Ramp Toy is a favorite! Also, Battat Mini Monster Trucks)

10.  Dolls and tea sets (Leapfrog Musical Rainbow Tea Party is a personal favorite as is Melissa and Doug Lucy and Luke Twins)

11.  Animals (farm, zoo, dinosaurs-great for imaginative play)

12.  Find and Seek Scavenger Hunt Card Game, Hapinest Store (great for 3 and up- and great during this time of social distancing!)

13.  Stack Up (Peaceable Kingdom- a game I absolutely love!)

14.  Feed The Woozle (Peaceable Kingdom-another game frequently in the rotation for me)

15.  Thinkfun Roll and Play Game (Award winning and a game we often play at our summer camp!)

16.  Squigz (Fat Brain Store)

17.  Skoolzy Peg Board Set (great for hand-eye coordination)

18.  Botton Art (Alex Discover, a game often in rotation in the clinic)

19.  Magnatiles (a favorite of just about every therapist)

20.  I can Do That, A Cat in the Hat Game (a great gross motor, direction following game!)

Sensory Toys:

1.     Water Beads (careful not to have a child eat one!)

2.     Liquid Motion Bubbler (Super Z Outlet)

3.     Monkey Noodles (Impresa Products)

Craft ideas:

1.     Handy scoopers

2.     Jumbo tweezers

3.     Pom Poms

4.     Stickers (sticker books)

5.     Markers, crayons and age appropriate activity books (OT Tip: preferred markers would be Pipsqeaks and if you get regular crayons break them in half, both options will promote a tripod grasp!)

6.     Finger paint/paint/paintbrushes (an easel would be a great idea as well, STEAM Life has a good one!) 

5-7 years old

 This is when I really love to start getting into the problem solving, sequencing, and the fine motor. 

 Brands I love: Rainbow Toyfrog, Discover with Dr. Cool, Peaceable Kingdom (a personal favorite brand for cooperative play), Blue Orange

 Toys I love:

1.     Straw Constructor STEM Building (Rainbow Toyfrog)

2.     Viaheart Brain Flakes (STEM activity)

3.     Emido Building blocks

4.     Mine for Fossils Dig Kit (for the Dinosaur lovers)

5.     Jasonwell Aqua Magic Doodle Mat (can be for children older than 7)

6.     Hi Ho Cherrio (Hasbro)

7.     Operation (great for 6 years and up and a great fine motor game!)

8.     Jenga

9.     Glow in the Dark rock painting set (Creativity for Kids Store-great for spreading joy in your neighborhood.

10.  DIY Slime Kit (we like the one from Zen Laboratory Store, but there are a ton out there)

11.  Dinosaur Escape Game (Peaceable Kingdom, great for cooperative play)

12.  Go Go Gelato (Blue Orange Brand)

13.  Ring It (Blue Orange-a great game for 6 and up!)

14.  Thinkfun Balance Beam Math Game (award winning, pre-algebra game)

15.  Thinkfun Zingo (a game in my OT room!)

16.  Skillmatics Dots and Mazes (reusable activity mats-great for developing fine motor control!)

17.  Marble Run (Marble Genius Store)

18.  Lego sets (whatever your recipient would prefer)

19.  ALEX Little Hands Paper Bag Monster Kit (a great fine motor activity)

20.  Twister (a favorite from our therapist, Hilary)

21.  Outfoxed (a great cooperative game, another favorite from Hilary)

22.  Parachute Toys for Kids (search this on Amazon, a great outside toy that promotes hand-eye coordination)

23.  Fat Brain Toys Joinks (a lot like squigz but for older kids!)

Sensory Toys:

1.     Sensory Water Beads Toy for kids (by LESONG and come in several shapes!)

2.     Water Beads

3.     Liquid Motion Bubbler (Super Z Outlet)

4.     Textured Stretchy Strings (BunMo Store)

5.     Monkey Noodles (Impresa Products)

6.     Sensory Fidget Toy Set (Small Fish Store-this is one I like!)

7.     Silent Sensory Toys (Born2calm-I use these in each and every session, my favorite!)

8.     Unicorn Stretchy String Toys (Small Fish Store-almost exactly like monkey noodles, only Unicorns)

Craft Ideas

1.     Play doh and any play doh kit

2.     Markers

3.     Colored pencils

4.     Crafty scissors (like the ones from UCEC)

7-10 years old

 This is an age that I like to play a lot of problem-solving and sequencing games/activities.  

 Brands I love: Thinkfun, Hasbro, Skillmatics, Blue Orange 

 Toys I love:

1.     Laser Maze Brain Game (Thinkfun)

2.     Thinkfun Swish (Toy of the Year Nominee)

3.     Rush Hour (Thinkfun-a personal favorite)

4.     Thinkfun Code Master (teaches programming skills!)

5.     Mind Challenge (Skillmatics-reusable activity mats!)

6.     DIY Slime Kit (we like the one from Zen Laboratory Store, but there are a ton out there)

7.     KIngdomino (Blue Orange-Game of the year!)

8.     Dr. Eureka Speed Logic Game (Blue Orange)

9.     Connect 4 (Hasbro)

10.  Don’t Say It (Pressman-a game I often play with this age range)

11.  Lego sets (whatever your recipient would prefer)

12.  Marble Run (Marble Genius Store)

Sensory Toys:

1.     Sensory Fidget Toy Set (Small Fish Store-this is one I like!)

2.     Monkey Noodles (Impresa Products)

3.     Silent Sensory Toys (Born2calm-I use these in each and every session, my favorite!)

4.     Unicorn Stretchy String Toys (Small Fish Store-almost exactly like monkey noodles, only Unicorns)