The Noodle Button Tunnel
- Play time:
- 10 to 15 minutes
- Setup:
- 5 minutes
- Where:
- Floor
Why it helps
This activity focuses on using both hands together. It challenges your child to coordinate their movements to get a button through a long tunnel. It also helps with focus and motor planning.
Steps
- Before play, use a serrated knife to cut a piece of pool noodle about as long as your hand. Choose a noodle with a hole through the middle. This is an adult step.
- Check that your buttons fit easily through the hole. Put them in the foil pan, and set three or four baking cups in a row nearby.
- Ask your child to hold the tunnel at a slant with the helper hand, with the low end over one baking cup.
- Ask your child to pick up one button with the thumb and pointer finger and drop it into the high end of the tunnel.
- Watch the button slide through and drop into the cup. If it gets stuck, push it along with a craft stick.
- Move the low end over a different cup to sort the buttons by color or size.
Safety tip: Buttons are a choking risk, so stay close and count them back into the pan after play. Only an adult uses the knife, and put it away before play.
Make it easier
- Use the largest buttons that still slide through the tunnel, since they are easier to pinch.
- Hold the tunnel for your child so they can focus on dropping the buttons in.
- Cut the noodle shorter so the tunnel is only a few inches long.
Make it harder
- Hold the tunnel almost flat, so each button needs a push from the craft stick to get through.
- Send the buttons through in a pattern you make first, like red, blue, red, blue.
- Use small buttons that take a more careful pinch to pick up and drop in.
What to watch for
- Notice how your child lines up the button with the tunnel opening. Do they bring the button to the tunnel, tip the tunnel toward the button, or move both?
- Watch whether the helper hand keeps the tunnel at a steady slant while the other hand drops each button.
- If the rattle of buttons sliding through bothers your child, send pom-poms through instead, which travel quietly.
Where this helps in daily life
Lining up a string with a small hole is the same eye-hand skill kids use to string a necklace, push a straw through the hole in a cup lid, and fit a key into a lock.
Need personalized support?
While these activities are great for home practice, nothing replaces the guidance of a licensed therapist. If you are in Irvine, CA or the Orange County area and have concerns about your child's Bilateral Hand Use, we invite you to connect with us.
Contact Tumble N' Dots Therapy →These activities are for home practice and don't replace the guidance of a licensed therapist.
