Monday, March 26, 2012

More Therapy Putty Hand Exercises...Videos Included!

Here are more therapy putty exercises! As I said in my previous post, there are different strengths of therapy putty, so just click on the following links for more information and prices at Amazon.  For a child (or adult) who is quite weak, I would recommend the soft resistance putty. If there is some strength present, go with the medium-soft resistance. For older children, or an adult who has just a bit of weakness, try the medium-firm resistance putty. Most of the students that I work with use the medium-soft resistance.

The following exercise strengthens more tiny muscles that are important for grasp and coordination, and the motion that I'm making as I squeeze the putty with my fingers is called finger adduction.

Here is another great exercise. Shape the putty into a round flat disc and place it on a flat surface. Then place your fingers down on the putty and spread them out and apart slowly. This is very challenging!

And another great exercise is to make a small loop out of the putty and place it around your fingers then spread them apart, slowly stretching the loop and making it larger.


To strengthen the wrist extensor muscles, try the following:


And finally, this is my favorite therapy putty activity for children as well as adults! Hide 5 or 6 small beads in the putty and have them locate the beads using a pincer grasp. Once they locate a bead, they should pull it out of the putty. This is always a big hit!


Have fun strengthening those hands! :)

Dear Readers, If you have found my blog to be helpful, please "like" my Facebook page and follow my blog...I'm trying to get my book published and this would be a great help! Thanks :) 


2 comments:

  1. Hi there I'm a 2yr occupational therapy student in Hamilton,NZ. I was wanting to know if patty and exercises you have shown would be suitable to use with a person who has high tone in their hand causing their hand to form a tight fist. Do you think any of these exercises could help?? If so which ones and with which strength of patty?

    ReplyDelete
  2. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete