Skill: Grasp

How the hand holds an object. A mature grasp allows a child to hold a pencil efficiently for writing, while a strong grasp helps them hold onto monkey bars.

Hang Up a Pattern

Hang Up a Pattern

On an index card or a piece of paper, draw a pattern of colors, letters, or numbers (you can also mix the symbols).

Draw the matching symbols on the bottom part of the clothespins.

Place the index card and the clothespins in front of the child. Ask the child to hold the top part of the hanger with his non-dominant hand.

Review the pattern with the child first, then ask the child to use the dominant hand to find the clothespin that has the first symbol in the raw.

Instruct the child to place the clothespin he found on the hanger, reinforcing him to use pincer grasp to open the clothespin, and crossing his mid-line by placing the clothespin on the opposite side of the hanger (i.e. if the child is right hand dominant, he will start placing the clothespins on the left side of the hanger).

Have the child continue following the pattern, placing all the matching clothespins on the hanger.

Paper Bag Fish

Have the child crumple the newspapers into small paper balls.

Stuff the paper bag with the crumpled newspapers.

Use the yarn or a ribbon to tie a knot close to the edge of the open end to close the paper bag.

Ask the child to paint the filled paper bag using either a brush or cotton balls.

Glue large googly eyes.

For grading, you can ask the child to draw eyes on construction paper and cut/glue it onto the paper bag.

Lay a piece of yarn on the fish (below the eyes) to make a mouth. Use some glue to hold it in place.

To promote tactile perception, you can let the child finger paint the paper bag instead of using other media.

TP Roll Snake

Pull open the TP roll all the way.

Provide the child with paint and a brush and instruct him to paint it. You can also choose markers or crayons to color the snake.

Once dry, you can have the child use Q-tips to paint the snake, or crumble little pieces of tissue paper, and/or use stickers.

Depending on the child developmental skills, either cut a snake’s tongue out of red construction paper or have him cut it himself.

Finally, the child can glue the tongue and the wiggly eyes on one end of the TP roll. If you don’t have wiggly eyes in hand, you can use small buttons.

Pom pom Bird

For this activity, you will need 3 pom-poms in different sizes. You can use almost any pom-pom color.

Start by instructing the child to cut an oval shape out of the cardboard (length should be about 2″ – 3″).

Glue the large pom-pom (red) to the oval-shaped cardboard. This will be the bird’s body.

Glue the medium pom-pom (red) on top of the large pom-pom. This will be the bird’s head.

Glue the smallest pom-pom (yellow) to the medium pom-pom forming a bird’s beak.

Glue the wiggle eyes above the beak.

Motor Spider

For this activity you will need to use black paint and black pipe cleaners.

To make the spider’s body, help the child use the scissors and cut out two cup sections from an egg carton. Trim to create even edges.

Using the paint brush, let the child paint the bottom of the cups with the black paint. Let the paint dry.

To make the spider’s legs, take four black color pipe cleaners and align them together. Find the middle point by slightly bending the pipe cleaners in half. Straighten the pipe cleaners and attach all pipe cleaners together, by wrapping a piece of tape around the middle of the pipe cleaners.

Once the egg carton cups are dry, stick the middle section of pipe cleaners in the slit between the two cups. If needed, put another small piece of tape to secure the pipe cleaners from falling out.

Instruct the child to slightly spread the spider’s legs and then bend each leg in half, so the spider can stand. Use red or white paint to draw the spider’s eyes, or use googly eyes if available.