Developing the natural curve of the palm and learning to use the thumb side of the hand for work while the pinky side provides stability. This makes writing and cutting much easier.
Ask the child to hold the stamp with his/her thumb, index finger, and middle finger.
You may want to set the stamp pad on the opposite side to the hand holding the stamp so that it encourages the child to reach over his/her midline.
To promote the development of visual motor skills have the child stamp between two vertical lines, horizontal lines, or around a circle.
To encourage wrist extension and stabilization place the stamping paper on an inclined surface.
For this activity, you will work on thumb opposition and provide sensory input by using finger paint.
You should use 5 different colors of finger paint.
Pour the different finger paint colors into the paper plate.
Ask the child to dip each finger in each one of the colors. Provide help as needed.
Draw a pattern on the construction paper. For example draw a pattern like a blue dot, a green dot, a red dot, a blue dot, a green dot, a red dot, etc.
Ask the child to follow your pattern using the paint on his/her fingers.
You can also have the child mix the colors and create new colors by touching his/her thumb with any other finger (i.e. thumb to the pointer, thumb to the middle finger, and so on) to work on and promote thumb opposition.
In a small and shallow container mix a few drops of food color with water.
Have the child squeeze the eyedropper to collect some colored water from the shallow container and then squeeze it again into the sections of the ice cube tray.
Once all the ice cube tray sections are filled, place the tray in the freezer.
Hold all the straws or pipe-cleaners together in your palm or have the child hold them this way and let go of all of them at once.
Once they are spread, ask the child to pick up one straw at a time, without moving the other straws.
Take turns picking up the straws.
If you or the child moves other straws when picking up a straw, the game is over. The winner is the one who has the most straws.
Another version of the game could be to ask the child to pick up a certain color of straws:
Start by holding all the straws together and let all of them go at once. Once they are spread, ask the child to first pick up all the blue straws, then all the green straws, and so on (for this version of the game, it’s OK if the other straws are moving).
For young children or those with poor grasp, use wider straws.
Place two containers or buckets on opposite sides of the room or the area you play at.
Fill up one of the containers with water.
You may add food coloring if you wish.
Have the child transfer the water from one container to the other using a squeeze bottle or an eyedropper.
