When I work on specific skills for students with developmental delays, I always incorporate play therapy. Whether we are working on fine motor, gross motor, or perceptual skills, I make sure that the activities are fun for the child.
Working as a pediatric occupational therapist is a fun and challenging experience. I see children with a variety of diagnoses and I incorporate play therapy into my treatment on a daily basis. Because children learn as they play I carefully assess their areas of challenge as they play and work on those skill areas during play activities. The skills that I address include fine motor, gross motor, social, cognitive, and sometimes speech and language skills (usually working closely with a speech pathologist).
It can be fun, yet challenging to come up with play activities to address each of the skill areas listed above. A child may not have weaknesses in every area, but I typically incorporate all areas into a play therapy session just for skill practice.
Here are some suggestions of play activities to work on each skill area:
Fine Motor Skills:
- Legos
- Play Dough
- Magnadoodle
- Bead Stringing
- Block Stacking
Gross Motor Skills
- Hokey Pokey
- Simon Says
- Hop Scotch
- Rover-Rover
- Obstacle Courses
- Jump Rope
Social Skills
- Social Stories
- Board Games
- Bingo
- Card Games
Cognitive Skills
- Puzzles
- Mazes
- Hidden Pictures
- Concept Games
- Concentration Card Game
Speech/Language
- Which one Doesn’t Belong?
- I Spy Game
- What color is the…?
- Matching Games
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