Upper Body Strength - Page 5 of 5

Holiday Gifts

For this activity, all the materials should be green colored and spread across the room.

Hang the stockings at different corners of the room at a child reach level.

If using a scooter board, have the child lay prone and propel the scooter board around the room to collect the different items and place them in the stockings.

If you do not have a scooter board available, ask the child the perform different animal walks to collect the items and to receive the sensory input (i.e. bear walk, crab walk, frog jumps, etc.)

Visit our shop to explore our themed playdough kits

Big Tac Toe

Help the child cut 4 equal pieces of masking tape. Each piece should be about 3 feet long.

Use the masking tape pieces to make a large tic tac toe board on the floor.

Use the construction paper to cut shapes (each player should have his own shape). You will need 5 pieces of each shape. Let the child help you with a cutting of the shapes.

If working on writing skills, each player can write his name on his shapes.

Instruct the child to lay prone next to the tic tac toe board.

Using the pieces you cut, play the tic tac toe game by placing the pieces while keeping your body prone and reaching with your arms out to place the pieces on the board (i.e. crossing midline).

For grading: instead of writing your name on each shape, you can write your initials or any other word as appropriate.

Ball Bopp

Have the child lie on the floor in prone.

Give the child a ball.

Begin by rolling the big therapy ball across the floor in front of the child.

The object of the game is for the child to roll her ball and hit the moving therapy ball.

As the child becomes successful, decrease the size of both balls.

Grading Option

varying the size of either the therapist or student rolled the ball, varying the speed of the therapist rolled ball or changing the distance between the child and the ball. The position can be varied as well.

Ping Pong Plates

This activity is divided into 2 parts: creating the rackets and playing ping pong with the rackets and the balloon.

First, glue the wooden stick to the paper plate with the wooden stick sticking out of the plate. The wooden stick is going to be where you hold the racket so the length of the stick that comes out of the paper plate should be at least 4 inches.

Once the sticks are glued, use the crayons to color or write on the paper plates.

Inflate the balloon.

Hold the paper plate racket and bounce the ball around.

If done in a group setting, you can instruct the kids to use the paper plate to bounce the balloon from one to another while playing a ping-pong game.

Airplane Catch

Have the child lie prone 5 feet away from you (distance varies depending on the child’s abilities and age).

Ask the child to extend his neck, shoulders, and arms about 5-10 inches above the ground. In addition, ask the child to place his feet together and raise his legs (below the knees) in a similar fashion.

The therapist/parent should lie in front of the child in a similar position. With your elbows flexed, push the ball toward the child and ask him to catch it and throw it back towards you.

This activity can be done as a group activity with more than 2 kids.