What are fine motor skills?

Fine motor skills are the execution of small, precise movements of the hand and fingers. These skills develop in infancy as babies begin to use refined  pincer grasps to pick up small items of food. As babies start to crawl, they strengthen the small muscles of the hand building intrinsic hand strength. Each step of development through infancy, toddler hood and into childhood is important in building fine motor strength and coordination. Tasks that require fine motor skills include:

Buttoning buttons

Zipping and unzipping

Lacing and tying shoes

Using eating utensils

Building with Lego's

Coloring/painting/drawing

Pre-writing and handwriting

Cutting

Lacing/stringing beads

Playing with play-doh or putty

Putting puzzles together

Using isolated finger movements to point

Children who have delayed fine motor skills, often exhibit challenges in a few or all of the tasks listed above. Children with sensory processing challenges, often times, also have difficulties with fine motor coordination. This is not to say that all children with fine motor challenges have sensory processing issues. However, there is typically an underlying cause to these challenges. If you feel that your child is having difficulties or getting frustrated  in any of these areas,  please post a comment or contact Michelle via email, FB, or phone. 

Here are some activities that can assist in improving a child's fine motor strength and coordination important for many life tasks. When performing these tasks, it is extremely important to find the "just right challenge." The activity should not be too easy that the child is not gaining any strength in their hands. It should also not be too difficult where they give up because it is just too hard. The just right challenge makes kids work and build skills, while also having fun!

When teaching handwriting to children, don't be afraid to initially leave the pencil and paper behind!

Multi-sensory approaches to learning shapes, letters and numbers work best to help the brain remember the letter, and also, how to form it properly. Multi-sensory approaches also build fine motor strength, coordination and control. Some examples are as follows:

• Roll play-doh or putty into letters
• Using an isolated pointer finger, draw letters in rice, shaving cream,  on a cutting board or on a carpet
• Build letters with blocks
• Outline a drawn letter with stickers
• Making pretzels is a great activity as well, which works on fine motor strength kneading the dough. Then, instead of making pretzel shapes, make letters!
• Finger paint letters working on an easel or a large piece of paper taped to the wall. Working on a vertical surface helps build up shoulder strength and improve proximal stability. Therefore, increasing fine motor skills.

Encourage a top to bottom approach when teaching letter formation. I have used the Handwriting without Tears program for years with great success! This program can be initiated in pre-k and continue beyond 6th grade, depending on the student's needs.

More Fine Motor Activities:

Using putty, play-doh, dough

• Squeeze, pull and roll into balls, pinch using just a pincer grasp (thumb and pointer finger), push with fingers stretching out the putty and your hands! Hide small objects such as pennies in the putty and have your child find them.

Clothes pins

• Place clothes pins on the rim of a bowl.
• Make clothes pin towers.
• Design your clothes pins (paint, color with markers, place small stickers on them) then use them to hang great kid artwork around the house! 

Use zoosticks, tongs, chopsticks, tweezers

• Pick up small items such as cotton balls, small pop-beads, cheerios.
• Transfer items with one of the above from one side of the body to the other placing them in a target. This is a nice activity that also works on crossing midline.

Penny Activity

• Place penny in child's hand and have him work it to his fingertips then back to his palm working up to 10x's. Switch hands.

Pop-beads (large for infants, small for toddlers and older)

• Push beads together making a train then pull them apart and use zoosticks to pick them up.
•  Work on patterns with children while using pop-beads.
• Using small Lego's are also a great alternative to pop-beads and they build intrinsic hand strength.

Cutting Games:

• Cutting straight lines.
• Cut circles, zig-zags, curves.
• Cut out complex shapes.
• Change the paper width to increase resistance to reach a "just right challenge!" 

Games:

• Trouble - Push down middle roller with one hand.
• Jenga
• Pick-Up Stix.
• Shuffle Cards then play Go Fish!

Self-Help:

• Lacing and learning to tie
• Zipping and unzipping
• Doing buttons - You can also have your child button and unbutton large, easier buttons on a jacket or old sweater

Homemade Binoculars & Bear Hunt // Fine Motor, Visual Motor, Bilateral & Play Skills

This morning, my boys were obsessed with going on a bear hunt around the house. I'm not sure why, but bears have been a hot topic around the house this winter! So, to make this activity more interesting, we decided that we needed binoculars before going on our hunt. I rounded up some toilet paper and paper towel rolls out of the recycling bin (happy environment :), and our activity began! I did the cutting of the paper towel roll for this one, but if your kids are older than mine, I would let them cut the paper towel roll in half with adult scissors (works on fine motor, visual motor & bilateral skills). The rolls are a nice resistance to help increase hand strength as well. Next, and the rest of the steps the boys did mostly on their own (they are almost 4 and almost 2), we glued 2 rolls together and let them dry (fine motor skills/strengthening & bilateral skills). I also had the boys blow on the glue, incorporating oral motor skills, to help it dry faster, as patience is limited with my youngsters, but something we work on improving. 

**Now, this is a complete side note from the activity, but looking at the picture above, there is a lot going on, to say the least. When I took the photo, I honestly didn't pay enough attention to the snowsuit drying on the chair in the background, the empty fruit bowl, and the different placemats on the table. Although you can get the gist of the activity from the photo above, a child with any visual challenges may have a hard time deciphering what this photo is showing, as it is visually overstimulating. They may get lost in the chaos of the picture, and making this point is exactly why I kept the picture on this blogpost. This is important to remember when working with kids, especially kids that are showing challenges related to visual perception or visual motor integration. A note teachers and parents, keep worksheets "easy on the eyes," and when setting up activities, have workspaces clean and organized. In other words, simply limit visual chaos when you can, allowing kids to be more successful and be able to focus better on the task at hand!** 

Once we were done blowing on the glue, we got our paint ready. The only colors that we had left in the house this morning were the primaries, which ended up working out great to teach Henry about mixing colors. Right now, his favorite color is purple so we took some blue and red, blended, and Voila, purple! To Lukey, everything is blue right now, so he just had fun painting!

After mixing, the painting followed. First, painting hands (tactile system targeted), then, painting the binoculars in the making. In the photo below, you can see Henry holding the rolls with one hand and painting with the other (bilateral skills), he is also working on his fine motor and pre-writing skills, along with incorporating visual motor integration deciding where to paint while remaining on the rolls. His proprioceptive system is also playing a role here, letting Henry know how much force to use during   the activity!

 Binoculars painted and drying. Again, working on patience, and teaching the boys that satisfaction is not always immediate. Developmentally, they don't have the capacity to comprehend waiting forever for things. However, I feel that children nowadays get immediate gratification with everything, mainly due to technology. Teaching them to wait from time to time, is a great life lesson starting young, and will help hopefully help my boys as they get older because gratification shouldn't be immediate, if it's worth it at all!

 Now that the binoculars were dry, it was time to poke holes in the side and make our holder. I used the sharp part of the scissors to poke a hole through simply because I didn't have a one hole punch available. If you do, allowing the kids to use the hold punch is great for working on fine motor skills, improving intrinsic hand strength along with bilateral skills. I let the boys string the string through the holes (fine motor, visual motor, bilateral skills) putting on the finishing touch, and then it was time to hunt (play skills).

Henry was a bear himself getting mad at me for the final photos, so this is the happiest face that I could get! But once we started playing and pretending, it was all smiles from that point on!

I hope that this helps give you an activity idea to do with your kiddos at home or with your clients in OT! Something so fun for the kids, is again, developmentally so beneficial on numerous accounts. It's also an activity that can be graded for different ages, I briefly discuss grading activities in a previous post Saturday Morning OT..In the Comfort of your own Home?!

Happy Hunting!

SATURDAY MORNING OT....IN THE COMFORT OF YOUR OWN HOME?!

A few weeks ago, my girlfriends came over as the boys were playing with play-doh at the kitchen table and Livvy was in the ergo baby, the place where she is pretty much glued these days. Babywearing, however, is a whole other blogpost meant for another day! Back to the subject, my friend said to me, "do you do this stuff [play-doh] with them often?" My answer, "yes." Since that day, I have realized that as much as I usually leave my OT hat at the door and do not overanalyze my children, I do engage in many activities with my kids that I recommend to my clients to do with their children. We paint, fingerpaint, draw on the easel, play with play-doh and putty, play with zoo sticks and chopsticks, are always cooking, and incorporate multi-sensory experiences into a lot of our play both indoors and out. What I began to realize is that; maybe I do play with my kids a little differently. Is this because, somewhere in my brain, there is a little OT that is always making sure we are engaging the senses, enhancing fine motor skills, working on balance, or engaging in bilateral activities, to name a few. This winter has given us some weekend days that have been too cold to bear the outdoors, and with a newborn in the mix, play in the snow has been tricky. Creating games indoors that can entertain all day can sometimes be a challenge, but we have made it work with some of the activities listed below.

Gluten Free Spinach Brownies and Coconut Milk Whip Cream, YUM! 

I rely on tappstips.com for a lot, meaning 99% of my baking needs! It is an amazing website filled with awesome, healthy, gluten free recipes that my kids (and I) love! I have tried other websites, and I'm never as happy when I just follow Tapp. My son Henry is gluten free, which has pretty much changed our lifestyle as a family. This particular day we had my niece's birthday party on the agenda. That means that I have to be prepared and have a dessert on hand that Henry can enjoy too! Now, including kids in on the baking is not always easy, but it is such a great family activity, which also incorporates an array of skills for all ages! Before we get into the OT areas of focus, here are some tips when deciding to cook or bake with your kids.

1. Be prepared! Have everything, I mean everything, out that you are going to need. If you don't, I guarantee a mix up somewhere! In the picture to the left, I have all of our ingredients, measuring tools and bowls ready to go. I also pre-blended the cooked spinach and cacao powder to make things go smoothly. The boys are so excited to cook when I am ready that they are happy to play in the living room until I call them to have fun in the kitchen together! Being prepared can also go beyond one cooking activity. Prepping and having things ready for the week makes time in the kitchen more enjoyable during cranky hours and keeps the family eating healthy!

   2. Relax and be ready for a mess! My husband thinks that I am crazy     when I let the kids stir, mix, and in essence, sometimes destroy the kitchen! However, healthy eating is a huge part of our lives (not that I am saying brownies are but these aren't so bad ;), and I think that learning to be in the kitchen and enjoy cooking is a wonderful tool for my kids. If I am not including my kids in the actual food that I am cooking, they are often times at the counter or table mixing up old spices, flour, water, playing with a rice and bean bin, or making pretend food with play-doh. I know they are engaging their tactile senses while making a mess, and not to mention allowing me to cook so that we can eat at a decent time, so I don't mind the extra clean-up!

    3. Teach Safety. Let your kids know what the safe kitchen tools are for them to touch and what the dangerous ones are, tell them about oven safety and that they cannot get near an open oven. You will be surprised how much they can understand and will respect when told to them in a respectful, loving manner! The "freak out" when a child grabs a knife or comes to close to the stove does not benefit anyone, so pre-teach when your kids are going to be in the kitchen.

Happy Coconut Faces!

4. Have Fun! Just enjoy this time with your kiddos. Cooking from scratch is not easy and we spend A LOT of time in the kitchen in my house! There are plenty of times that I wish I was in there alone, but then I think, I will never ever have this time with my kids again, they are learning great life skills, lets all just enjoy it! Believe me, my house is usually insane between 5 and 6 pm and I am ready to pull my hair out, but when I remind myself to have fun with the kids and that everything will be clean and calm in a few hours, it does help, I promise!

What Are We Working On?

In speaking about cooking/baking, the benefits from an OT perspective are endless. This is also an activity that OT's use in pre-schools, hospitals, nursing homes, etc. showing it is an ageless task! It incorporates fine motor skills, fine motor strengthening (stirring, kneading, pinching) visual motor skills, bilateral skills, math skills, reading skills, it engages the senses (to name a few: tactile, visual, oral, proprioceptive; how much pressure to use, auditory; following directions or jamming to music in the background while cooking :), organization, motor planning, and life skills! You can grade the activity to the level of your children, meaning, they could be as involved as making the grocery list to just the pouring, mixing and licking of the tasty mixers!  The benefits truly are endless so families, get cookin'!

Docks, Boats and Sharks, oh my, 

All with the use of couch cushions

When I was an OT providing homecare in Manhattan apartments, creativity was a must! Making a small space into a therapeutic, sensory haven for an hour, couch cushions became a staple. On this cold, winter Saturday morning, while the brownies were in the oven, our living room became the ocean. The boys think that this is one of the greatest activities ever, little do they know they are working on essential developmental skills each time the couch cushions hit the floor!

On this particular day, the couch cushions were docks to get to the boats, which were now the empty couches and chairs. They were also sharks in the ocean, unsteady rocks and huge clumps of seaweed! This activity has also brought us to the moon, on a safari and the couch cushions have also just been on the floor as a landing pit for jumping or incorporated into an obstacle course. Let your imaginations fly and this can entertain for hours!

What are we working on?
In the photo directly above, Lukey, who is 20 months old, is challenging his balance by walking across the soft, unsteady couch cushions while also engaging his vestibular and proprioceptive systems. Looking at the middle photo, Henry is in the background dragging the cushions off of the couch and placing them on the floor. This is a great 'Heavy Work' activity that can organize and calm a child. The sky is the limit and pretend play is the cornerstone to our couch cushion game. Often times, children have a difficult time expanding on their play skills. Using a concrete item such as couch cushions and pretending they are sharks, for example, works to expand play and creativity. Adult facilitation may be needed to enhance these skills, but that depends on the age, level of pretend play and the goal. This game also works on gross motor skills (again, walking on the cushions and jumping from the cushionless couches, aka boats to the docks!). Turn taking is also involved and a great deal of social interaction is going on! All in all, our Saturday morning is not lacking in skill building while having a blast!

WOODEN BLOCK BUILDING 

Due to Lukey's age, Henry and I saved this activity for nap time. Henry is into building right now and Lukey is into demolition. This makes for some sibling battles, which on this day, I was not willing to referee! These old school blocks that I picked up at a yard sale are heavy duty and sturdy and can make virtually anything under the sun. Again, imagination and creativity can take you anywhere!

What are we working on?
Visual-motor skills are the focus of this activity allowing the hands and eyes to work together in a coordinated manner to construct a final product. We also work on naming shapes, that proprioceptive system again, and the tactile sense. Of course, pretend play leads and carries us through because without the motivation to continue, you really can't focus on other areas of development.

FINGER PAINTING ON THE EASEL

Working on a vertical surface is a great way to help kiddos strengthen their shoulder girdle, which in turn aids in fine motor development and intrinsic hand control. If you don't have an easel at home, simply tape a large piece of paper to a door or a wall you don't mind getting dirty. OT areas of focus include: fine motor skills, fine motor strengthening, intrinsic hand strengthening, finger isolation, visual motor skills, visual perceptual skills, bilateral skills. Working on an easel is also a tactile activity (finger painting, touching crayons, markers, textured paint brushes, chalk), it incorporates proprioceptive functioning, enhances ocular motor skills, works on colors, shapes, and turn taking. You can have your kids stand, sit in a chair or sit on a small therapy ball to include core work and trunk strengthening while playing at the easel. Finished products can be placed on the fridge, hung on a string in your children's rooms with decorated clothes pins, or framed for some wall art. Therefore, building self-confidence in your artists as they see their work displayed!

FLIP-FLOPS, BEACH BLANKETS AND SNOW FILLED POOL

Not being able to go outside as much this winter makes for 2 stir crazy outdoors kiddos! So, what to do? Bring outside in? Yup, and as with cooking, the mess can be cleaned up later! In the picture above, the boys put on their flip flops, got out their beach blankets and we pretended to bathe in the sun! I also let them play in a small tub of sand (this bin is usually filled with rice and beans for kitchen play), we had some extra left in the basement from an OT group that I did one summer. 

What are we working on?

Well, there is, of course, the pretend play again! Play is truly the way to engage kiddos in so many activities and even makes learning letters, numbers, pre-writing and writing fun, as children get older. This is actually where I came up with the name Pediatric Play! Kids always loved coming to OT, even when I made them work hard, because I tackled the challenges with play!

This activity also works on self-help skills (we just put on flip flops but you can also have your kiddos get on their swimsuits, put on lotion as pretend sunscreen [also a great deep pressure touch/calming activity], wear their life vests, etc), fine motor skills playing in the sand, and stereognosis (finding hidden objects in the sand and naming them by feel). You can also hide puzzle pieces in the sand and incorporate visual-motor skills into the activity or have your kids pull out the hidden objects with zoosticks or chopticks really focusing on fine motor skills and strengthening. Since we had the blankets out, we also did some yoga, engaging the whole body, especially the core, and working in a nice calming activity great before nap time.

Another fun way to entertain kids while stuck indoors (on this particular day, I'm pretty sure that the temperature never reached beyond -2 degrees, that's cold!), is to bring the snow in. The great part about snow is that it melts and needs a quick towel swipe to mop it off of the floor. I have to give credit to a teacher that I work with for this idea, she posted pictures of her kids playing with snow and food coloring indoors, and I was so grateful for the idea to entertain my own kids! Now, we also used food coloring to decorate the snow and small cups to make snow castles! An important note; the only reason that we have food coloring in our cabinets is for making play-doh and now, for decorating snow. Follow the link here http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/02/24/are-you-or-your-family-eating-toxic-food-dyes.aspx for a great article on the dangers of food dyes. I highly recommend you always read ingredients when buying food, and anything with food dyes, please return the item to the shelf. Your children do not need them in their developing systems. 

What are we working on?
There is a level of heavy work involved in this activity, as I allowed my older son to help me carry the pool and also shovel some of the snow into the pool. Again, we're engaging the tactile senses (touching the snow, feeling varying temperatures), self-help skills (donning and doffing mittens), a small amount of fine motor skills are involved (squeezing the snow, crushing the castles and finger isolation, drawing in the snow), bilateral skills, visual-motor skills (building castles, making various size castles with the stacking cups helping to understand small, medium, large), visual perceptual skills (guessing what Mom drew in the snow), and oral motor skills (chewing on the snow and awakening the mouth with a cold, cold temperature)! This honestly entertained the boys for 2 hours in the kitchen, and I felt good that we brought a piece a nature in for the day!

I hope that you have enjoyed reading about some of the activities that we like to engage in on weekends at home. Upping the ante or adding in variables can also make an activity fun or increase the amount of developmental skills you are focusing on, without even meaning to! If you think that your child is demonstrating challenges with any of the skills areas discussed, these activities are not meant to take the place of consulting with an occupational therapist. I think that it is important for families to know how much you can incorporare the sensory systems and enhance development with activities in the comfort of your own home!

What's in my boys Easter baskets?

With Easter around the corner, I figured that I would share what an OT puts in her kids Easter baskets. Henry will be three and Luke will be one, both at the end of April. I am not against sugar every once in a blue moon, but a basket filled with sugar is a disaster for any kid. Here is what is on the Easter Bunnies agenda in our house this Sunday.

Henry's Basket:

• ZOOSTICKS - Great for building fine motor strength and coordination.

• VELCRO CATCH BALL SET - Works on eye/hand coordination, bilateral skills, strength pulling the ball off of the velcro, turn taking.

• BUBBLES - Strengthens oral motor skills and is a great visual tracking activity. Also works on bilateral coordination (one hand holds bubbles while the other hand holds the wand) and fine motor skills (holding the wand) along with eye hand coordination. Have your child chase the bubbles, jump, squat and clap them and you have just added gross motor skills to this simple, wonderful activity of BUBBLES!

• SOCKS - He just needs them! However, beginning by age 2, your children can be independent in putting on their own socks. This activity that needs to be done daily is such an amazing therapy task. It takes postural control, balance, bilateral coordination (using 2 sides of the body together in a coordinated manner), eye hand coordination, fine motor strength and control of how much force to use. So, you don't have to go buy socks for your kids Easter basket, but make them independent in putting them on!

• EASTER GRASS - That we made by cutting small strips of construction paper. Cutting works on fine motor, visual motor and bilateral skills. 

• Annie's fruit snack mix

• Organic gummy bears

• One small chocolate carrot & Reece's peanut butter bunny (I couldn't resist!)

Lukey's Basket: *Remember, he's not even 1!

• A Small Ball - A great activity for infants. Works on bilateral skills, visual motor integration, visual tracking and turn taking

• Bubbles - It's never too young to start and I love watching the boys interact when Henry blows bubbles to Luke as he chases them, visually tracks them and laughs!

That's it for Lukey! 

Happy Easter!

Happy Holidays and 10-Last Minute Gift Ideas from a Holistic OT

HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM MY FAMILY TO YOURS!

May peace and love surround you throughout the year!

For multiple reasons, I made the decision to skip Christmas cards this year. Although I love sending and receiving, it felt good to let go of a task this holiday season and share through technology! 

A smile starts on the lips, a grin spread to the eyes, a chuckle
comes from the belly; but a good laugh bursts forth from the soul,
overflows, and bubbles all around. - Carolyn Birminghan

Just in case you are out and about holiday shopping this weekend or want to do some last minute shopping online, here are some of my favorite gift ideas. They support overall development, skill development, social/emotional and play skills, and a healthy lifestyle. Please note, these are in no particular order. 

1. Zoo Sticks or Fish Sticks - These are probably one of my all time favorite OT tools! This activity promotes a proper grasp, helps to separate the 2-sides of the hand strengthening the muscles necessary for pinching and grasping, which transfer over to an appropriate pencil grip, improved distal motor control and refined skills. These make a great clean-up tool too! Whether you have concerns regarding your child's fine motor skill or not, you can have fun working on these skills with your kiddos - it just takes 5 minutes a day! Remember quality over quantity with this task. 

2. Melissa and Doug Easel - I love working on a vertical surface with kids, especially pre-schoolers and Kindergarteners. It encourages proximal stability and improvements in extensor tone necessary for fine motor skill development. From an ocular motor perspective, it allows children to keep their head upright, brings their vision closer to the task and improves visual stability and eye-hand coordination. Vertical surfaces also support bilateral coordination and midline crossing, to name a few. A great gift that will be used for years and expands a developmental age range. Paint, write, draw, this easel has it all. 

3. Hoot Owl Hoot  (for some reason we call this game Hoot Hoot Owl in my house!) - Board Game by Peaceable Kingdom. This company is passionate about making games that are good for the planet too - read more here. This game is awesome! It's a cooperative game so you win together or lose together, which is a nice change, especially for the extra competitive or emotionally fragile kiddo. This game works on colors, a pincer grasp picking up the cards and owls, visual motor skills, problem solving, turn taking and social engagement. Tip: You can use your newly purchased zoo sticks to clean up the owls and cards. 

4. Wildcraft! An Herbal Adventure Game. Another cooperative game that is great for the whole family. Teach your kids about herbs and edible and medicinal plants starting young. You will learn a lot yourself too! This game also focuses on turn taking, social engagement, and fine motor control picking up and managing the cards. Another planet family game made with eco-friendly materials. 

5. Children's Yoga Songs and Meditations - Teaching children mindfulness at a young age has become imperative in our faced paced, technology hungry society. If you are a parent, educator or anyone working with children, I also highly recommend all of the training and certification programs through Radiant Child Yoga. These trainings have enhanced my occupational therapy practice immensely. You will love engaging with your kids through this CD while teaching them life long skills to access independently. Namaste!

6. Journey to Inner Space - A Children's Yoga Book. This is a wonderful journey incorporating different yoga poses, awareness of breath and imagination, and insightfulness that you do have the ability to slip into Inner Space, which was very close all along! Read some more about the author here.

7. Hammock Pod Swing for your home! This is an affordable way to allow your child with sensory processing challenges get the vestibular input needed on a daily basis. My clients love this swing and it is very reasonably priced. Remember to provide organizing, proprioceptive input following intense swinging or spinning (i.e. joint compressions, squishing, squeezing, steamroller with a therapy ball). 

8. Organic Weighted Blankets - Do you have a child that seems like they are "crawling in their skin", has difficulties settling down and sleeping soundly? Then these may be perfect for you. By combining sensory strategies, a healthy diet and lifestyle changes (that's a conversation for another blogpost) and these blankets into your child's life, their nervous systems will be able to calm showing improvements in other areas of function as well. This company is amazing, all proceeds are donated to help people with disabilities. Their blankets are non-fumigated and non-toxic, so you can rest assure that your child will rest soundly snuggled with these weighted blankets avoiding toxins in almost all other weighted blankets on the market today. Thanks L-oma, we love what you do! **TODAY is the last day to order your blankets to receive them by Christmas, so get out that computer now if you think your child will benefit. Feel free to contact me via phone or email for any questions as well! 

9. Homemade, Organic Deodorant - I get a text or an email monthly asking about my deodorant recipe. Although I can't claim it as my own, this is where I always send the questioner. So, Mama's out there, today is the day to STOP putting conventional, store bought deodorant under your armpits, next to your breasts surrounded by lymph nodes. Aluminum and cancer causing toxins are in each and every deodorant on the shelves. This is a simple recipe that takes about 5 minutes to make and lasts for months. I use all organic ingredients, and you should too! Decrease your risks of cancer, especially breast cancer making this one change today. I use a small mason jar, which fits nicely in our medicine cabinet. You can get affordable, organic coconut oil here and Shea Butter here. Lavender essential oil is my favorite blend for a wonderfully scented deodorant. If you are attending my retreat tomorrow, this may happen to fall into your gift bag as your walk out the door ;)

10. Essential Oil Diffuser - Essential oils have been used for centuries and are essential, no pun intended ;) in your families life, so why not start incorporting EO's this holiday season. EO's are extremely beneficial for children with Autism, Sensory Processing Disorders and Developmental Delays, as they contain healing properties that stimulate, activate, and calm vital neurological signals. When ordering a diffuser, you want to make sure that you do not order one that is made of harmful plastic or other toxic ingredients. The one linked above is a favorite of mine. Dr. Mercola also sells a safe, non-toxic diffuser, which can be found on his website, drmercola.com and on amazon as well. Drericz.com is a great resource if you are just beginning to implement essential oils into your daily life. Happy diffusing!

Well, there you have it, my top 10 list of items for you to give as gifts this holiday season. Although I'm not Oprah, I love this list, as it encompasses my beliefs as a mom, OT, and children's yoga instructor bringing holistic techniques into my practice and our daily life. 

I hope that you have an amazing holiday season with you and yours and you also find peace and calm during a time of year that can also bring stress and anxiety. I will see you in the new year!  

As always, if you have questions or concerns about your child's development, contact me via phone or email.

If you liked this blogpost, don't forget to subscribe to my mailing list here, and I look forward to working with some of you and your children in the future. Services are available in person and via Skype. 

Pre-writing is FUN! Week #5

Hello Everyone and welcome back to week #5 of Pre-writing is FUN! I apologize for the delay on this post, but I have been under the weather since last Friday. This past week in the Apple Room, we started with our routine pass the putty activity talking about our weekends! A lot of skiing, snowboarding and sledding with hot chocolate going on! We then moved into some calming, self-regulating yoga poses and engaged in some deep breathing as well. Next, I explained all of the stations to the kids, split them up and they began on their fine motor adventure!








The first station was building Mat Man™ . The Apple kids are amazing with Mat Man™ now, and for the most part, are independent in building him appropriately! This group was having fun making him into a monster with a million eyes after they had built him correctly. A lot of the kids still need help with where to place his arms, as noted to the left. However, they quickly move the big lines when I ask them if their arms come out of their waist or shoulders?! In cleaning up Mat Man™ I heard the students putting the lines and curves together using the vocabulary from HWT®, which is awesome (big lines, little lines, big curves, little curves)!

The next station was pulling beads out of putty. (I've described the benefits of putty in previous posts and also a link to buy it on Amazon, so check those out!)

To the right, the children are working hard to squeeze and pinch the putty using their tactile sense to find the beads. Then, they have to use their "pinchers" and intrinsic hand muscles to pull the beads out! The kids then had fun making their putty into pancakes, as shown below, and then placing the beads back in for their friends.

Zoo sticks are the best! They promote children to use their "pinchers", open up their web space, which is the space between the thumb and pointer finger that should make a circle during writing, and strengthen intrinsic hand muscles required for pre-writing and writing. In the picture to the right, Henry is using the zoo sticks to place beads in the flowers center, and his partner is counting how many he has done so far, incorporating some early math skills into this station. It is important to note that if you do get these for home, please ensure the children are using them correctly. Using their whole hand or all of their fingers does not strengthen the same muscles as when just using their "pinchers" mimicking a tripod pencil grasp. I also let children add their middle finger for added support, if needed, mimicking a functional quadripod pencil grasp. You can also place a small bead in the palm of the child's hand that the ring finger and pinky need to hold, separating the two sides of the hand and again, focus on improving the strength and coordination needed during pre-writing and writing tasks!

Legos, Legos, Legos! Need I say more? Kids love Legos and the Apple kids were so creative in their designs! Legos work on sharing, socialization and working together all while improving fine motor and visual motor skills!

Now, that everyone's hands were warmed up, it was time for some pre-writing! The worksheets that we completed were out of the Get Set For School™workbook from HWT. To the right, Josie Kai is using a beautiful tripod grasp on her pencil and helping to draw lines at the bottom of the birdcage in a left to right manner. The kids had so much fun doing these worksheets, and the photos below speak for themselves! The 4 activities that the students completed, which went home with them last Friday, worked on drawing lines in a left to right and top to bottom manner. *Please note, we have a few lefties in the class. Left handed students can make lines from right to left, such as in crossing a T, t. However, when making circles, please encourage a counter-clockwise direction, as this is helpful in building good habits needed to form some of their letters (c, a, o, g, d). One worksheet also had kids find certain items in a picture of a house, working on visual discrimination and figure ground abilities. The kids then had to color in the items increasing distal motor control (small refined movements of the hands). All of these pre-writing skills are fun and so important for kids to learn before diving into writing. These foundational skills improve children's fine motor and visual motor abilities, increase spatial awareness, provide them with the correct vocabulary to help them begin forming their letters appropriately,  and allow for fun and sensory exploration, all while building self-confidence!

No Tears! Pre-writing is FUN!

Shorter Crayons for Early Fine Motor Success

Short crayons are so beneficial to help children use a more mature grasp during fine motor activities. Check out Livvy, who is 2-years-old, coloring in the pictures below. Without any prompts, she is already displaying an emerging tripod grasp! On longer crayons, Livvy tends to use a 5-finger hold (still age appropriate), but with shorter crayons, she is building up fine motor strength required for increasing distal motor control (small, refined movements of the finger and hand muscles) necessary for many skills.

Often times, when providing private services, I will have parents break chalk and crayons that their kids use and not allow them to color/draw with any other writing utensils. This ensures a proper grasp and also limits frustration on both the parents and child's part. The parents are not trying to push the children to use an appropriate tripod grasp, as they would have to on typical sized writing implements, it occurs more naturally! I once worked with a child with autism who became so accustomed to using broken crayons that whenever her family went out and coloring was an option, she wanted to break all of the crayons! If this becomes a habit, you may have to pack your own crayons for restaurants and public settings, especially if you have a child who likes routine and is rigid in nature!

As always, if you have concerns regarding your child's development, it is important to discuss these issues with your pediatrician, naturopathic doctor and/or contact an occupational therapist to discuss your concerns. Please do not hesitate to contact Pediatric Play Occupational Therapy with any questions/concerns as well. Distance consultation is always welcome!