This Kitchen Busy Board is a fun interactive toy that will definitely entertain your little one! It plays music, lights up, and has lots for opportunities for your baby to improve their fine motor skills. You can also teach your child the concepts of open, close, in, and out while the two of you play with the busy board.
Here is another developmental baby toy that I highly recommend. This musical baby pop-up toy is fairly inexpensive, and it promotes a variety of skills, including problem solving, understanding cause-and-effect, and eye-hand coordination.
Sensory Bottle: Use an empty water bottle with the label removed. Add water, vegetable oil, glitter, and food coloring. You can also drop an Alka-Seltzer tablet in to create bubbles!
Cloud Dough: Mix together 1/3 cup of lotion, 2/3 cup of cornstarch, and a couple of drops of food coloring.
Salt Dough: Mix together1 cup of all-purpose flour, ½ cup salt, ½ cup of cold water, and a drop or two of food coloring.
Moon Sand: Mix 1 cup of flour, 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil, and several drops of food coloring.
This project was completed by a Master of Occupational Therapy student at The University of Tennessee Health Science Center and posted with permission.
A kinetic sand sensory bin is great for sensory exploration and learning. It is a wonderful way to stimulate multiple senses at once, and children can also learn how to tolerate new and different textures when playing and exploring in the sensory bin.
Supplies Needed:
A medium to large plastic bin
Kinetic sand
Large buttons
Pom-poms
Large marbles
Blocks
LEGO pieces
Plastic animals or insects
Plastic letters, shapes, and/or numbers
Tools such as tongs, large tweezers, a plastic spoon, or a small plastic shovel can be used to dig, stir, scoop, and pull pieces out. or the child can just explore with their hands. If the child resists touching the kinetic sand, start by having them explore using one of the tools listed above.
Sensory bin play is also a great way to work one naming colors, shapes, animals, letters, numbers and concepts such as up, down, inside, beside, soft, and hard.
So please consider putting together a sensory bin that is age appropriate for your child!
Note: Provide direct supervision for children who might put the sand or objects in their mouth.
This project was completed by a Master of Occupational Therapy student at The University of Tennessee Health Science Center and posted with permission.
Here are a couple of shape matching worksheets that can be used to learn the properties of different shapes. This activity is fun for children who are working on recognizing, naming, and remembering shapes! Your child can color the matching shapes the same color. This is a great way to practice coloring within the lines. They can also simply draw a line to connect the matching shapes.
Sometimes children don’t use enough pressure when coloring or writing. This may be because of weakness in the hand muscles or because they don’t have a good “feel” for. The writing utensil in their hand. Here are some suggestions to help a child use more pressure when writing.
"Feed the Car" is a fun and easy DIY in-hand manipulation activity and game for children. Playing this game is a great way to work on counting, pincer grasp, in-hand manipulation skills, bilateral skills, and crossing midline
Materials Needed:
Wrap the toilet paper rolls in construction paper and glue or tape in place. Print some fun animated car images, cut them out, and laminate them. Cut out an area that will serve as the "mouth" on each car, and and glue the image to each toilet paper roll. Be sure that the "mouth" lines up with the top hole of the toilet paper roll so that the beads or pom poms will drop into the roll when they are place in the "mouth" of the car. Have fun!!!
Have the child roll the dice and pick up the number of small items (pom poms & beads) that the dice lands on. Next have the child hold the small objects in one hand & bring them out to the fingertips and place a small objects in the cars mouth one at a time. This activity could be adapted by having the child use the tweezers to pick up the items & "feed" the car.
This project was completed by a Master of Occupational Therapy student at The University of Tennessee Health Science Center and posted with permission.
Click HERE to vote for the Tummy Time Trainer!!!
Because I see so many babies who resist tummy time, I created the Tummy Time Trainer, which has recently been patented. The Tummy Time Trainer transforms tummy time into an enjoyable experience for both infants and parents. Here are the benefits of the Tummy Time Trainer:
· Created by a pediatric occupational therapist (me!)
· Customized design
· Tailored support
· Provides a nice lift to the chest
· Strengthens infant’s neck, back, shoulder, and hand muscles
· Helps develop head control
· Special contours allow baby to bear weight on elbows and hands
To watch a brief video about the Tummy Time Trainer, click HERE.
When implementing tummy time with your baby, it's a good idea to get creative! Creativity can be helpful because many infants resist being positioned on the stomach for play. That is because they often aren't familiar with the position, so it is difficult for them. Yet, tummy time is extremely important because it promotes head control, and strengthens the trunk, shoulder, arm, and hand muscles.
Here are some tips for helping your infant better tolerate tummy time!
1. Start early! You can initiate tummy time during the first days of your infant's life. When you are in a reclined position, place your baby on your chest so that the two of you can see eye to eye! Yes, this counts as tummy time.
2. Take it slow. You may have to start with sessions that are only 15 to 30 seconds long. That's okay! Your infant's tolerance will gradually improve and as that happens, you can stretch time of each session.
3. Mix it up. Tummy time does not have to take place on the floor. You can position your baby on the tummy across your lap when you are seated, when you are holding them, or even on a therapy ball.
4. Always provide direct supervision during tummy time. If your infant starts to fuss or cry, don't hesitate to change their position. It's not a good idea to force tummy time, as this might cause your baby to resist the position even more.
5. Get creative! As you can see in the photo above, you can incorporate entertaining activities, siblings, and even pets into your infant's tummy time sessions! Do you have any creative suggestions for tummy time? I would love to hear them. Feel free to share your ideas below.
You can create a dinosaur board game just like this!
Materials:
Cardboard
Construction paper
Clothespins
Large die
Small plastic dinosaurs
Images were downloaded from free online resources
Glue
Create the game cards by including different activities. Examples are: “Stretch tall like a brachiosaurus; Bad weather ahead! Go back 3 spaces; Add a piece to the puzzle; Stretch like a stegosaurus. Do 5 cat/cow poses.”
The object of the game is to make it all the way around the board before the volcano puzzle is complete. This is a wonderful activity that works on taking turns, visual perceptual skills (completing the puzzle), fine motor skills (squeezing and placing the clothespins), learning colors, counting, and much more!
The game’s directions are as follows:
1. The youngest player goes first.
2. All dinosaurs begin at the starting square.
3. Roll the dice to see how many spots to move.
4. Draw a card corresponding to the color you land on.
5. Follow the card’s instructions.
6. Reach the island of safety by making it all the way around the board.
7. Reach the island of safety before the volcano puzzle is complete!
This project was completed by a Master of Occupational Therapy student at The University of Tennessee Health Science Center and posted with permission.
