Activity for Following Directions

This is a wonderful activity to work on following directions with a child! It is also a great way for a child to learn their colors and shapes. Because the child has to peel and place the stickers with accuracy, it is also a great nice activity for fine motor skills. 

All you need is a blank sheet of paper, some colored markers, and dot stickers in a variety of colors. Draw a variety of shapes in different colors. Now all you have to do is give the child instructions such as, "Put the pink sticker on the pink circle, or put the purple sticker on the purple square."

 

Let's Go Fishing Game!

This is a fun therapeutic activity that is simple and inexpensive to make.

You will need:

Colorful sponges
Paper clips
Magnet
Sharpie
Scissors
Empty paper towel roll
String or yarn
Tape

-Cut the sponges into various "ocean" shapes and use a Sharpie marker to add eyes, etc. The child may even want to decorate the sponges using sequins, stickers, etc.

-Place a clothespin through each sponge making a "hook"

-Tape a piece of string to one end of the paper towel roll and tie the magnet on the end of the string.

Instruct the child to use the fishing pole to "go fishing" for the various sponges. This activity is great for working on matching and identifying colors and shapes. It's also wonderful for eye-hand coordination. Add a light weight to the child's wrist to work on strengthening.  You can also address multiple step directions. For example, instruct the child to 1) put the fish on the green square 2) the octopus on the yellow square, 3) and the star on the blue square. There are lots of options for adapting this activity!  Have fun :)

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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.

Easy Activity for Following Directions: Therapy on a Shoestring Budget

The University of Tennessee Health Science Center Masters of Occupational Therapy 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 first media project was submitted by Megan. Her common house hold item was a sponge!

Items Needed:
 Scissors

Different Colors of Kitchen Sponges

A Variety of Drinking Cups in Different Colors and Sizes

 

 

 Use a marker to form various shapes on the sponges and cut out each shape.

Tell the child which sponge (blue circle, red square, etc) to pick up and where to place it (under the red cup, next to the green cup, inside the yellow cup, etc.). This activity addresses memory, spatial relations and following directions. 

Posted with permission of the students

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Tong Activity

Here is a fun tong activity that is great for fine motor and visual motor skills that an OT friend shared with me. Start by having the child place a button or coin between each finger, then instruct the child to remove each button with the tongs and place it into a slotted container. You can add to this by working on colors and following directions by telling the child,"get the red button first- then get the yellow button." Have fun!

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Fun Motor Planning and Auditory Processing Activities

Here are some fun games that can be enjoyed indoors or outside. If you prefer outdoors, use sidewalk chalk instead of tape.

Bean Bag Toss- Tape different shapes on the floor and give the child several beanbags. Tell him to toss a bag on the square first, then on the circle, then on the triangle. If you have various colors, say “toss the blue bag inside the blue circle, or toss the blue beanbag inside the red shape." You can then ask him, "which shape is red?" so that he has an opportunity to name it. If you want to keep score, give higher points for the smaller shapes.

 

A slightly more challenging activity is to have the child bounce a ball inside each of the shapes then catch it. Once again, call out the instructions: "Bounce the ball on the triangle, then the square, then the rectangle. You can call out one instruction at a time, or make it more challenging by giving multiple step instructions. You want the child to be challenged, but not frustrated. Have fun!

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Kids Activity for Following Directions

This was a simple activity that I carried out with a group of student to work on following directions. I began with a sheet of red construction paper. I prepped ahead of time by gluing a blue stripe across the center and a green and yellow stripe running up and down. (See photo)

You can use a variety of small items for the rest of the project. I decided on the following: I had the students cut a circle out of purple construction paper, they cut a piece of string in half, a small orange square sticker, a small bead, a small sponge. For the activity, I just gave them simple directions. "Cut out the purple circle and glue it under the blue line." Then I told them, "Cut your string in half." This was a challenging concept for some of them! Then, "Put one piece of string beside the green line," and "Put the other piece of string on top of the yellow line." For fine motor skills, they had to peel the back off of the orange sticker, then I told them, "Put the orange square above the blue line." Finally, "Glue the sponge on top of the purple circle." As you can see, this is a great kids activity for following directions. It also works on a variety of concepts as well as colors, cutting, gluing, and other fine motor skills. Give it a try...it's lots of fun!

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