🖍️ Coloring Occupation: Learning Occupational Therapy by Doing

 By: Emily J. Balog, PhD, OTR/L, FAOTA, FNAP

I have never experienced art and occupational therapy as entirely separate parts of my life. I am an occupational therapist, scientist, professor, artist, and U.S. Air Force veteran. Over the years, art has become one of the ways I explore experiences, communicate ideas, and make complex concepts more accessible to others. In 2022, that intersection was featured in the Open Journal of Occupational Therapy’s Occupation and the Artist series through The Anatomy of Human Occupation. My watercolor, The Knitting Brain, was also selected as cover art for the journal. Read “The Anatomy of Human Occupation” in the Open Journal of Occupational Therapy'

 

That collection explored connections among the human body, occupation, identity, trauma, and healing. It also reinforced something that has become increasingly important across my work: there are many ways to communicate knowledge.

 

Several years later, I found myself thinking about that idea again, this time from my perspective as a professor. How could I make learning the foundations of occupational therapy more engaging and fun? The answer seemed particularly appropriate for OT: learn by doing.

From Teaching Occupation to Doing Occupation 

As occupational therapists, we do not simply tell our clients what to do and expect meaningful change to follow. We engage people in the process. We use activity, experience, interests, creativity, and the occupations that matter to them. Why shouldn't learning occupational therapy be engaging in the same way?

 

I initially envisioned The Occupational Therapy Coloring Book for OT and OTA students learning the foundations of the profession. The areas of occupation are fundamental to how we understand human participation, but memorizing a list of definitions is very different from learning to recognize occupation in the world around us. I wanted students to interact with the concepts. And coloring gave me a way to do that.

 

The book begins with my original hand-drawn illustrations, which were digitally refined and adapted for publication. Companion educational pages extend the artwork into an interactive learning experience.

Readers explore the nine areas of occupation:

 

🚽 Activities of Daily Living (ADLs)  
💵 Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADLs)   
💊 Health Management
💤   Rest and Sleep
📚   Education
💼   Work
🛝   Play
 🧶   Leisure
   🏘️ Social Participation

Each section introduces an area of occupation using approachable explanations, examples, and imagery, followed by a corresponding coloring page based on my original artwork. But coloring is only part of the experience.

🔎 Look Closely 

Occupation-specific images are incorporated throughout the coloring pages, creating a search-and-find experience. Readers aren't simply given a definition. They have to look at the artwork, find examples of occupation, recognize what they are seeing, and make connections to what they just learned. 
     For students, that can lead to much richer questions. What makes an activity play rather than leisure? How is taking medication an occupation? Where does caring for another person fit? How can the same activity serve different purposes or have completely different meanings for two people? Those are the questions I want my students asking because they move us beyond memorizing terminology and toward thinking occupationally. There is also another layer that I particularly enjoy: coloring itself is an occupation. The learner is exploring occupation by participating in occupation.

 

Play demonstrates this idea particularly well. We can teach students the definition of play. We can discuss its characteristics and place within the Occupational Therapy Practice Framework. But we can also invite someone to look at images of movement, games, imagination, social interaction, performance, outdoor activity, and play across the lifespan and ask: Where is the play? What makes this play? What does play look like for you?

 

For pediatric occupational therapy, these questions are especially familiar. Play is not simply something children do when the “real work” is finished. It is a meaningful occupation and an important context through which children explore, interact, develop skills, build relationships, and participate in their worlds. And, of course, play is not limited to childhood. Approaching the concept visually gives learners another way to think about what play can look like across people, contexts, and stages of life.

Beyond the Classroom

As I developed the book, I realized the same features that could engage my students might also have applications in practice. A practitioner could open a page with a client and ask:
Which of these activities are part of your life?
Which matter most to you?
Which have become difficult?
What would you like to do again?

 

The images can become conversation starters for discussing routines, interests, roles, challenges, goals, and occupational identity. For practitioners working with children and families, pages exploring 🛝 play, 📚 education, 🏘️ social participation, 🚽 ADLs, and 💤 rest and sleep may offer particularly familiar ways to begin those conversations. The book is not an assessment or prescribed intervention. It is a flexible resource that educators and practitioners can use creatively when it fits the person, purpose, and context.

Making Occupational Therapy Easier to See 

There is another audience I had not fully appreciated when I started drawing: people who simply want to understand occupational therapy. Within our profession, we know that occupation means much more than employment. Outside OT, that is not always obvious.

 

Sometimes seeing occupation makes the concept easier to understand. A shower. A grocery cart. A textbook. A swing. A medication bottle. A ball of yarn. A bed. People spending time together. These are ordinary parts of life. That is precisely the point. Occupation is all around us. Occupational therapy asks us to look more closely at what people need and want to do, what those activities mean to them, what supports their participation, and what may be getting in the way.

🎨 Continuing My Own Occupational Story 

In many ways, The Occupational Therapy Coloring Book continues the ideas I explored through The Anatomy of Human Occupation, but with an important difference. This time, I don't finish the artwork. The reader does.

 

My original drawings provide the creative foundation, but someone else chooses the colors. They search the images, make connections, and consider the occupations represented through the lens of their own experiences. There is something very OT about that, too. The creator can provide the structure and possibilities, but ultimately the experience belongs to the person engaging in it.

 

The book is created through em's fine art, my woman- and veteran-owned sole proprietorship. It brings together parts of my occupational identity as an occupational therapist, scientist, professor, veteran, and artist. Across those roles, I keep returning to the same question: once we have knowledge, what do we do with it?

 

For me, knowledge dissemination does not have to occur only through journal articles, lectures, or presentations. It can also happen through experiences that make people curious enough to look more closely, ask questions, and apply what they are learning. That idea is reflected in the phrase I use across my work:

 

Turning knowledge into action, and action into impact. 

The Occupational Therapy Coloring Book is one creative way of putting that philosophy into practice. Color. Learn. Reflect. Discover occupation.

🎁 Try It Yourself: A Free Play Sampler 

Because Anne's blog focuses on pediatric occupational therapy, I wanted readers here to have an opportunity to experience the book rather than simply read about it. I've created a free sampler from The Occupational Therapy Coloring Book that includes the book cover, an About the Author page, a Meet the “Artist” in the Making activity, the educational companion page for 🛝 Play, and the corresponding Play coloring and search-and-find page. Use it with students. Explore it with a client. Color it yourself. See what you find and what conversations it creates. And if you see the value, consider purchasing the full coloring book for just $4.99 by clicking HERE. After all, learning by doing is something occupational therapy understands particularly well.

Emily J. Balog, PhD, OTR/L, FAOTA, FNAP
, Author & Illustrator, The Occupational Therapy Coloring Book
, em's fine art
#emsfineart #occupationaltherapy #veteranart
 

 

 

What Toddlers May Be Communicating Through Their Behavior

By Anissa C. Weimer, MS, CCC-SLP

Toddlers have a lot to say—often much more than they have the words to express.
 

They have opinions about which cup they want, ideas about what they want you to do, excitement they want to share, and very definite thoughts about what should happen next. The problem is that their ability to communicate those thoughts and others is still developing.
 

Sometimes, that gap between what a toddler wants to communicate and what they are able to express shows up through behavior. 

A toddler who pulls you across the room may be saying, “Come see!” A child who pushes something away may mean, “I don't want that.” Repeating the same word louder and louder may be less about refusing to cooperate and more about, “You're not understanding me.” Crying when you offer what you thought they requested may simply mean, “That's not what I meant.”
 

Of course, not every challenging toddler behavior is about communication. Toddlers become tired, hungry, overwhelmed, frustrated by limits, and upset by transitions just like the rest of us. But behavior gives us information. Sometimes asking “What might my child be trying to communicate?” can help us see a situation differently. 

When You Don't Understand, Try “Show Me”

 

I learned this lesson with my own daughter.
In the second book in my Little Voices Big Futures series, The Toddler Transition, I share the story of her running to me at about 30 months old, excitedly repeating what sounded like “turdee.” I couldn't figure out what she was saying. The more I asked, the more frustrated she became.
 

Finally, instead of asking her to repeat herself again, I said, “Show me.”
 

She grabbed my hand and led me to the garage—where she proudly showed me a turtle.
 

Her growing frustration hadn't been the message. It was the result of having a message she desperately wanted to share and not being understood. 
 

“Show me” is a simple strategy parents can try when words aren't working. Let your toddler point, gesture, bring you an object, or lead you somewhere. Once you understand, give them the language that goes with the message: “Turtle! You found a turtle!” or “You want me to open it. Okay!”
 

You're showing your child that communication is bigger than perfectly spoken words.
 

Create a Little Communication Opportunity
 

Play gives us another way to help toddlers discover that their communication matters.
 

Try creating a small, playful problem. Give your child a favorite toy in a container they need help opening. Put a desired toy slightly out of reach. Build a block tower and let it tumble down.
Then pause.
 

Instead of immediately solving the problem, watch what your toddler does. Do they look at you? Point? 

Make a sound? Hand you the container? Reach toward the toy? Say a word?
 

Respond to that attempt, then add simple language: “Help?” “Open!” “You want the car.”
 

As I discuss in The Toddler Transition, toddlers begin learning that communication has power when they make a sound and someone responds, gesture and someone reacts, or use a word and something happens. 
 

Look for the Message
 

The goal isn't to analyze every tantrum or eliminate normal toddler behavior. It's simply to become curious about what may be underneath it.
 

Sometimes a behavior is just a behavior, but often, there's a little voice behind it saying:
 

“I don't want that.” 
 

“Help me.”
 

“I'm overwhelmed.” 
 

“I need a break.” 
 

“I don't understand.”
 

When we look for the message behind the behavior, respond to what our toddlers are trying to tell us, and model the words they need to express it, we do more than help them feel understood in the moment. We give them the language to communicate more clearly—and show them that their voice matters.

 

Order your copy of "The Toddler Transition" book by clicking HERE! 
 

About the Author: 
Anissa C. Weimer, MS, CCC-SLP, is a speech-language pathologist, former educator, and author of the Little Voices Big Futures series. Her work focuses on helping parents and caregivers understand early communication development and use practical, everyday strategies to support their children’s growing communication skills. The Toddler Transition, the second book in the series, focuses on communication development from 18 to 36 months, including milestones, communication concerns, and play-based strategies families can use at home. Learn more about Anissa, the series, and additional resources at https://www.LittleVoicesBigFutures.com
 

Activities to Improve Postural Stability

Postural control is the ability to keep oneself in and upright and stable position. It is necessary for a child’s ability to sit upright, pull up, stand, walk, maintain balance, and even perform fine motor tasks. Postural control provides a foundation for future participation in academics, daily routines, and sports. Postal control provide stability for the hands and fingers and supports other actions, such as looking, touching, grasping, and dynamic motor skills. When the hips, trunk, neck and shoulders are strong and stable, this provides a foundation for head control and upper extremity movement. In a previous post, I described how tummy time plays an important role in the development of postural control.

How to Improve Postural Stability
 
Below you will find a variety of activities in which a child can engage to improve postural control.

*  Animal walks
*  Crawling
*  Wheelbarrow walks
*  Holding a “superman position”
*  Playing games while in a tall or half kneeling position
*  Jumping, swinging, and hopscotch play
*  Play “waste basket” basketball with light wrist weights (1/4-pound) while lying on the stomach over a large exercise ball or ottoman 

 

Edible Finger Paint Activity!

Finger painting is a wonderful sensory activity, and it is also a great way to work on drawing, pre-writing, and writing skills. It's so simple to make and it's a great activity for a rainy day or a screened free afternoon. 

You will just need some food coloring and vanilla yogurt! Put 2 to 3 drops of food coloring into the yogurt, and stir well! Have fun finger painting. You can even show your child how to mix colors such as blue and yellow to make green. So much fun!!!
 

Worry Monster Craft for Kids

This "Worry Monster" craft for kids is a an effective therapeutic activity to help children deal with their anxiety and worries. A child can simply write down or draw a picture of what worrying them on a piece of paper. Then encourage the child to tell you about the worry, which will help them process their feelings and work through them. Next, instruct the child to crumple the paper into a small ball and "feed it" to the Worry Monster! Ensure the child that the monster will now deal with the worry so that they won't have to any longer.

Supplies Needed:

• Empty tissue box
• 2 pipe cleaners
• Construction paper in a variety of colors
• Googly eyes
• Scissors
• Scotch tape

Cover the tissue box with construction paper and secure the paper in place with tape. Decorate the box with shapes cut out of the construction paper or use colorful stickers. Be sure to make the monster some teeth! Twist each pipe cleaner around your finger to make a spiral. Tape a circular piece of construction paper to one end of each of the pipe cleaners then stick a googly eye sticker onto each circles. Poke 2 holes in the top of the tissue box, insert each "pipe cleaner eye," and secure them in place with tape inside the tissue box. Now feed those worries to your "Worry Monster."

4th of July Craft

This is a cute 4th of July craft for kids that is easy to create and fun to play with. Making it is also a good way for a child to work on their fine motor skills. 

Materials Needed:

• Card stock paper in a variety of colors
• An empty clean ice cream "Push-up" 
• Red, white, and blue curling ribbon
• Scotch tape 

Directions:

Cut a piece of card stock paper to the size of the "Push-up" cylinder/container, cover it, and tape it in place. Decorate the card stock cylinder with stripes, dots, or decorations of your choosing. Cut a handful of ribbons to 5-inches in length and curl the ends. Tape the ribbon onto the "pusher" component of the "Push-up" container. Remove the original "Push-up" cylinder. Insert the "pusher" component into the card stock cylinder. Push-up to launch the firework!!! 

 

Visual Perceptual Popsicle Stick Activity

Visual perceptual skills involve the brain organizing and making sense of visual information. Design copy activities like the one described below are a good way for a child to improve visual perceptual skills.

This DIY visual perceptual popsicle activity is easy to put together and carry out. All you need are several different colors of large popsicle sticks, Velcro dots, paper, and a copy machine. Place three of the Velcro hook dots each popsicle stick at each end as well as on the middle of the stick (as seen in the photo above) and three of the velcro loop dots on the other side of each stick. Arrange the popsicle sticks into different shapes or designs and make a photo copy of the designs. Now your child can have fun copying each design!