Skill: Sensory Processing

How the brain organizes information from the senses, like touch, sound, and movement. Good processing helps a child feel calm, focus in a busy room, and react appropriately to their environment.

Roll, Crawl, and Jump

Rolling cropped

Place the apples (or any other objects) on one end of the room.

Instruct the child to pick up one apple and lay flat on the ground or on a blanket.

Ask the child to roll 5 times, crawl through the tunnel, and jump 10 times on the trampoline, then put the apple in the basket.

Support your child by monitoring his arousal level, as vestibular input can be alerting. Start slow, take breaks as needed, ask the child if he wants to continue or stop and if needed add proprioception input.

Modifications

If you don’t have a tunnel, you can have your child crawl under the table or just on the ground.

If you don’t have a trampoline, ask the child to jump over a pillow or just jump in place.

Paper Chain

Setup: On several different colors of construction paper, use a thick marker to draw straight lines spaced about 1 to 1.5 inches apart across the width of the paper.

Steps:

  1. Practice Scissor Grasp: Hand your child child-safe scissors. Encourage them to hold the scissors with their “thumb up” toward the ceiling.

  2. Cut the Strips: Ask your child to cut along the thick marker lines you drew. Remind them to hold the paper steady with their “helper hand” while their cutting hand moves the scissors.

  3. Make the First Loop: Take one cut strip. Show your child how to place a small dot or swipe of glue on one end of the strip. Curl the strip around to meet the glued end, pressing firmly to create your first circle.

  4. Connect the Chain: Take a new strip of a different color. Thread this new strip through the center of your first completed circle loop.

  5. Glue and Repeat: Once the new strip is threaded through, glue its ends together to lock it into the chain. Continue this process—thread, then glue—until all the strips are used!

Playdough Therapy Treasure

OTPlanDough Unicorn kit

For this activity, you can use pegs, beans, beads, coins, and small toys.

Hide the small objects in the play-dough and ask the child to dig his fingers in and search for the hidden treasure.

Encourage the child to stretch the play-dough and work his fingers in.

When the child finds the treasure, ask him to take the object out using his thumb and pointer to promote pincer grasp.

If using pegs, you can use the pegboard and have the child design a picture on the board or you can ask him to draw lines, shapes, or letters.

If you choose to use beads you can have the child lace them on a string and make a necklace.

Acorn Stamper

Acorn Stamp

Draw an acorn on the construction paper (see images for example) or you can let the child trace an acorn stencil to promote fine motor control and visual-motor skills.

Let the child cut the acorn shape using scissors.

Using a piece of small sponge instruct the child to pinch it and dip it into the paint then stamp and paint the bottom part of the acorn cut out. You can also use q-tips or cotton balls to paint.

Encourage the child to fill in the entire bottom part of the acorn.

Have the child spread glue on the top part of the acorn.

Provide the child with a few dry leaves. Instruct the child to crumble the leaves inside the palm of his hand and then spread them on the glue. This will promote finger strength and finger translation.

You may also use beans to cover the top area of the acorn.

Ice Painting

Put a small amount of paint on a sheet of construction paper.

Let the child hold an ice cube using the thumb, index finger, and middle finger only.

Have the child move the ice cube over the paint and spread it on the paper.

You may also use powder paint for this activity.

You can use the Colored Ice Cubes activity to make the ice cubes for this activity.