Occupational Therapy Activities for Visual Perceptual Skills and Following Directions

Occupational therapy activities are fun activities that help children with visual perceptual skills, motor skills, sensory processing, and many more areas of need!   Here is a simple and wonderful activity for working on a variety of skills, including visual perception, motor planning skills, and following directions.

Materials needed:

1 foam board or thin piece of plywood
Chalk Paint
Colored Chalk
Scrap pieces of felt
Popsicle sticks
Matchbox car

Paint the board and let it dry for 3 days. Use the colored chalk to draw any arrangements of roads. Decorate the board with signs and other fun ideas using felt pieces and Popsicle sticks.

This activity addresses multiple skills. Have the student maneuver the car to a destination that you give either verbally or written. You can also give specific directions (verbally or written), For example, "take the first left, then the second right, go straight at the stop sign and park beside the tree." The board can be made more elaborate to include tunnels (made from 1/2 of of a toilet paper roll), houses, and bridges. As you see, the activity can be graded up or down, based on the child's abilities!

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The project above was completed by one of our Master's of Occupational Therapy students at The University of Tennessee Health Science Center and posted with permission.

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Here's a Tip: Have Fun with Qtips during therapy!

The UTHSC Masters of OT students recently completed a number of awesome media projects! For the assignment, each student was given the name of a common household item.  They were instructed to design a creative, appropriate therapy activity for a patient with a specific diagnosis. They did an amazing job! This media project was submitted by Emma.

Common household object - Qtip.    

Children typically enjoy doing an arts and crafts project.  Here are some examples of fun pictures that she can make with the Qtips for different times throughout the year.  Examples included a skeleton for Halloween, snowflakes for winter, and a heart for Valentine’s Day.   

Supplies that are needed are construction paper, Q tips, and glue. 

Skills Used:

In order to pick up the Q tips, a child will need to use a pincer grasp. This activity will help improve manipulative skills and eye-hand coordination. This activity can be made more challenging by having the child cut the Qtips independently.  Generally, I would have them already cut for her before therapy started. 

The project above was completed by one of our Master's of Occupational Therapy students at
 The University of Tennessee Health Science Center and posted with permission.

Browse my blog for more craft activities for kids! 

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