Developmental Baby Toys: Easy Grip Ball Activity...Another Favorite!

 

I'm excited to tell you about a fun activity to carry out with your baby using an Grasp Classic Ball and some cloth or organza tissue squares. All you have to do is stuff the cloth squares inside of the ball, and show your baby how to pull them out. This activity will help teach your little one about the concepts of "in" and "out." It is also a great activity to help them use both hands together and to work on their pincer grasp. You can also name the colors of the cloth squares as they pull each one out of the ball. Eventually, your baby will gain the skills to stuff the squares back inside the ball, but that may take a little while. If you don't have any cloth or organza tissue squares, you can just purchase some colorful cocktail napkins, and they will serve the same purpose. Your child will love this activity and it will fully entertain them!

Developmental Baby Toys: Another of My Favorite Things!

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.

I also love that it lights up and plays music! Playing with this pop-up toy is a great way to teach your baby the concepts of "open" and "close." You can talk about colors with you little one by pointing and telling them to push the "red" button.

This particular pop-up toy include a variety of animals, so parents can teach their babies about those animals and the sounds they make. This musical baby pop-up toy is available on Amazon, so go check it out now! It would make a wonderful gift for any baby.

 

 

 

Developmental Baby Toys: A Few of My Favorite Things!

In this post and several future posts, I'm going to share a few of my favorite baby toys that are great for promoting your child's development! The toys that I will be featuring are wonderful for the development of a variety of skills, including cognitive, and fine and gross motor skills.

 This Country Critters Wooden Activity Play Cube will keep your baby busy! Each side includes a different activity center with wooden balls, a shape sorter, and much, much, more. My favorite thing about it is that is is sturdy enough for a baby to pull up on and cruise around the edges.

 The activity cube is recommended for ages 12 months to 6 years and will entertain your baby for hours. It is available here on Amazon. 

Fun with a Variety of Sensory Activities!

 

Check out these easy recipes for a variety of fun sensory activities. The dough or sand can be used to create a sensory bin. Just add additional items for tactile exploration such as pom poms, marbles, different types of pasta noodles, and a scoop!

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.

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.

 

 

Create a Kinetic Sand Sensory Bin!!!

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.

Free Match the Shapes Worksheets!

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.

Activities to Encourage the use of Pressure When Writing

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.

• Squeezing a stress ball is good for strengthening the muscles in the fingers and hands.
• Carbon tracing paper can be purchased at a dollar store or on Amazon. Having your child use carbon paper when writing will help them become more aware of how much pressure they are putting on the pencil or crayon.
• Squeezing and manipulating Play Dough is a good hand strengthening activity. You can also hide small plastic beads in the Play Dough and challenge your child to find them.
• Try having adding some weight to the pencil or crayon. This will provide additional sensory feedback and may result in the use of increased pressure.
• Have your child practice writing using dry erase markers on a dry erase board.
• Place a piece of paper over a piece of sandpaper or a mesh sheet that is used for needlepoint. This will provide sensory feedback when your child writes or colors and help them use more pressure when writing.
• Vibrating pens also provide sensory feedback when writing and drawing
• Using a hole punch to make different designs on paper is great for strengthening the hands.

Feed the Car: A fun In-Hand Manipulation Activity!

"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:

• Toilet paper rolls
• Pompoms, beads
• Tweezers/Clothes pin
• Construction paper
• Printed/laminated cars
  

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!!!

How to Play:

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.

Please Vote for the Tummy Time Trainer!!!

Click HERE to vote for the Tummy Time Trainer!!!

Does your baby struggle with tummy time! Unfortunately, many infants dislike being positioned on the stomach for play, but it is critical that they are exposed to tummy time starting from the first days of life. Why? Because tummy time promotes head control, and strengthens the trunk, shoulder, arm, and hand muscles, and all of these are important for the development of important milestones such as rolling over, crawling, and pulling up.

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

The angle of the wedge positions baby so that the weight is shifted toward the hips which makes holding the head upright easier.  

The Tummy Time Trainer is not on the market yet, but it has been entered a contest called “What’s the Big Idea?” Please take a minute to vote for it by clicking HERE, entering your email address, clicking on the circle next to Tummy Time, and then clicking submit. Please vote once a day from today through this Saturday, February 18th…and please share. :)

To watch a brief video about the Tummy Time Trainer, click HERE.

Creative Ideas for Tummy Time Fun!!!

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.

 

Make your own Dino Rescue game!

 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!

UTHSC MOT student, Allison Hyatt

Class of 2025

This project was completed by a Master of Occupational Therapy student at The University of Tennessee Health Science Center and posted with permission.