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.

Thumb Opposition with Finger Paint

Paint

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.

Can You Feel It

Fill up a large container or a bucket with beans, rice, macaroni, sand, or birdseeds (you can mix a few media together if you wish to).

Let the child put his/her hands in the container and pour, sift or move the media from side to side.

When using bird seeds it is recommended to powder the child’s hands with some baby powder to keep the birdseeds from sticking to the palms of the hands.

Mixing small plastic shapes, plastic letters and numbers, small plastic animals and any other educationally related items in the media can be a fun way for the child to develop his/her stereognosis sense.

Tactile Paint

For this activity, use a gallon size Ziplock bag.

Place approximately 1/2 cup of tempera paint in the ziplock bag, remove air and seal. Work the paint around until it filled the bag.

Have child make lines, shapes or letters by moving his finger along outside of the bag.

As an alternative, you can use shaving cream mixed with food coloring instead of the tempera paint.

Fish Bowl

Download and print the fish bowl and fish templates.

For this activity use green yarn or tissue paper.

Ask the child to color the images.

Instruct the child to cut out the fish bowl and fish images.

If child has difficulties cutting, provide thicker lines/boundaries. For the fish image, you can outline the picture/draw a circle or a square around to grade down.

Glue the fish bowl on a piece of construction paper.

Use the sand and instruct the child to glue it at the bottom of the bowl.

Have the child glue the fish into the bowl. Using the string of yarn of pieces of tissue paper, create the seaweed and glue into bowl.

Feel the Turkey

On brown contraction paper, draw the turkey’s body.

On different colors construction paper draw 6-7 turkey feathers.

Place a variety of materials with different textures on the table. I used cotton balls, Velcro, buttons, felt, dry beans, googly eyes, and feathers.

Ask the child to cut the turkey’s body and feathers. Then, have him glue the feathers to the back of the body. You can also let the child draw the turkey’s face on.

Present the child with different materials. Talk about the different textures (soft, smooth, rough, ticklish, etc.). Ask the child to glue a few pieces from each material on each of the turkey’s feathers.

You can use this turkey as a seasonal tactile board. Gobble, Gobble!