DIY Froggy Puppet: A Fun Craft!!!

Here is a fun activity to work on fine motor and visual motor skills! It can be graded to be a developmentally appropriate activity for children of different ages and skill levels.

Supplies Needed:
Red & green construction paper
Red & green small paper plates
Google eyes
Glue gun
Scissors

Fold the red paper plate.

Cut the green paper plate in half as pictured below.

 

Using a glue gun, glue the edges of the white sides of the green and red paper plates together. Do not put any glue on the center of the plates. This area needs to be open because that is where the fingers will be placed to manipulating the puppet.

Nest, cut out a long red strip for the frog's tongue. Then cut out the eyes using the green construction paper as pictured below. Glue the googly eyes on the green paper pieces. I usually put X's on the spot where the child is supposed to put the glue.

Roll the the red strip of construction paper on a pencil to make it curl. Have the child hold either end of the pencil and twist it for a nice bilateral task. See the photo below.

Glue the eyes and tongue to the proper location on the paper plates. Once the glue dries, the puppet is ready!

Evidence-Based Practice: Pediatric Feeding via Teletherapy Intervention

Photo by: Providence Doucet- Unsplash

PURPOSE: The authors of this study wanted to learn if sensory play delivered through a telehealth intervention would help children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder better tolerate wet food items. Two children completed a 6-week treatment using a modified (23 step) Sequential Oral Sensory (SOS) approach that was developed by Dr. Kay Toomey.

DESIGN: Mixed-methods research design.

METHOD: There were 3 fifteen-minute treatment sessions that including play with a wet food that the child did not tolerate (mixed fruit), then the use of the SOS approach to trial the

mixed fruit cup, followed by a play-based reward portion. The child’s caregiver tracked the child’s food acceptance.

RESULTS: Both children accepted the fruit cup more at the end of the study than at the beginning.

CONCLUSION: This study’s finding provide preliminary evidence that by using caregiver education and teletherapy, children’s acceptance of non-preferred wet food may increase through tactile play and tracking of progress using the SOS hierarchy.

Reference:

Hawkins, J., Bileck, A.,  Brown, A., Eckert, H. Smith, D. (2022). Pediatric feeding via teletherapy intervention. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 76(Supplement 1), doi: 10.5014/ajot.2022.76S1-PO45

 

Children learn through play!

 

 Image courtesy of nenetus at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Children learn about the world around them through exploration and play. The role of play in child development is important for the development gross motor, fine motor and social skills. Play can be as simple as imitating the sounds that your infant makes, or it can be more involved, such as putting puzzles together, stacking blocks and imitating complex block patterns. Play activities such as these are great for motor and perceptual development, and they are also wonderful for social skill development.

Parents and caregivers need to have a basic understanding of developmental milestones in childhood. This knowledge will be helpful when encouraging your child come up with ideas for play.

Here is a brief early developmental milestone chart of skills that influence play. Please keep in mind that all children develop at their own individual rates, so the ages for acquiring these milestones may vary from child to child.

Begins to show interest in and curiosity about the environment – 4 to 6 months
Object permanence emerging/pointing to pictures and objects- 10 months to 1 year
Imitation and solitary play skills- 1 year to 15 months
Parallel play and symbolic play- 2 years
Interactive play and taking turns- 2 ½ to 3 years

Feed the Gator: Prescissor Skills Activity!

 Feed the Gator!

  

This is an easy activity to make that requires just a few objects (tongs, pom pom balls, construction paper, glue, and a small disposable tin container. The activity promotes separation between the two sides of the hand, and it builds the muscles and coordination needed to develop scissor skills and fine motor skills.

The first step is to decorate the pan using glue and construction paper. You can make the pan into a gator, frog, or even a bear! Be sure to add the eyes, tongue, and teeth. 

To have the child complete the task, just place the pan on it's side and instruct them to "feed the gator" the pom poms! Click on this link to watch "feeding the gator!"

Suggestions for grading the activity
• Using different tongs (more or less resistance)
• Different size pom poms (smaller = more difficult; larger = easier)
• Smaller target/container (smaller target = requires more precision, more difficult)

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

Using Wikki Stix for Pre-writing Skills!

I love Wikki Stix! What are they? Wikki Stix are pieces of yarn dipped in different colors of non-toxic wax that can be used to form shapes, design, numbers, and letters! They are great because they are reusable and can be cut into different lengths. They will also stick to different surfaces such as paper or a table and be easily removed.

For prewriting skills, you can form a circle (as seen above) and instruct the child to make one just like the one you made. You may need to provide some assistance with forming the circle at first.

You can do the same with a cross (as seen above)!

And you can also have the child copy letters or numbers!

There are many other uses for Wikki Stix. You can use them to make mazes for tracing through,  and you can even use them to outline the edges of a coloring deign to help teach a child how to color within the lines!

Fun Activity for Visual Perceptual Skills!

Making and copying designs with foam shapes is a great way to have a child work on their visual perceptual skills. Start by having the child create a simple design using 3 to 5 shapes. You can then copy the design that they created.

Next swap it up. You create another design, and ask the child to make one just like yours. If the first one you create is too challenging, simplify it by using fewer shapes.

When your child is able to copy the designs independently, gradually make them more complicated so that the child has a "just right challenge!"

The foam shapes are available on Amazon.

Pincer Grasp Activities

 

When a child holds a small object between the tips of the index finger and thumbs, this is called a superior or refined pincer grasp. The superior pincer grasp typically develops by 12 months of age, but it may develop a few months earlier in some babies.

 

Pincer Grasp Activities

 

Incorporating activates into an infant’s regular routine is a great was to help develop the pincer grasp. At snack time, provide small food items such as Cheerios and put each piece into a different section of a plastic ice tray. This will encourage baby to use a pincer grasp when reaching in to grasp the pieces. I would recommend taping the ice tray to the table or highchair tray so it doesn’t slide around. Here are a few more activities to help develop a pincer grasp.

 

1.     Peel off stickers small “kids” stickers and place them on a piece of paper.

2.     Tape a piece of contact paper to the wall with the sticky side facing outward. Have your child pick up small pom poms or cotton ball pieces and stick them to the contact paper.

3.     Cut several colorful straws into small pieces. Have the child pick up one piece at a time and drop it into a water bottle.

4.     Take a kitchen whisk and stuff it full of small pom poms and have your child remove them.

5.     Playing with toys that require a pincer grasp provides opportunities for practicing the skill, which is how motor learning occurs. Practices improves muscle strength and coordination, and it will also improve your little one’s confidence!