4
Oct
2012
Alien hat aka colander and pipe cleaners
I originally saw this idea on Pinterest, putting pipe cleaners into colanders. My OT kids love it because I call them “alien hats” and they get to put it on for a second when they are done. Be wary of the metal sharp pieces poking through if they put it on their head, be careful. But they beg for me to bring alien hat for one of their quick non-academic fine motor breaks.
Category: Occupational Therapy | Comments: none
2
Oct
2012
"Enjoying Halloween with Sensory Challenges"
http://aota.org/Consumers/consumers/Youth/Halloween.aspx?FT=.pdf&emc=lm&m=661492&l=4&v=2724938
Great tip sheet by AOTA that will help teachers/parents etc understand how to best prepare their child for Halloween if the child has any sort of sensory preferences/needs. 🙂
Category: Occupational Therapy | Comments: none
2
Oct
2012
The Blue Ghost or Starfish :)
Me and one of my little OT guys having a “proprioception” break – I was encouraging the starfish look so he could get some resistance into his hands before we started writing. Most of my kids LOVE this thing! 🙂 It’s essentially a Lycra body sock, you climb in (the slit is in the back in this case on this day – for safety it’s ideal if the slit is in the front and that they don’t cover their head, although they can breathe/see pretty well through this one). I prefer my kids be super-covered in their occupational therapy sessions and I monitor them closely but as always, safety comes first so use at your own discretion and with safety awareness. Anyway. Blue ghosts or blue starfishes, awesome. Also, a lot of kids lose some of their inhibitions with this on. Some of my shy, quiet kids get super giggly and extroverted while wearing this thing. The “mask” phenomenon I guess. 🙂 Nice to see.
Category: Occupational Therapy | Comments: none
1
Oct
2012
Centipede shoes
I got these cool giant centipede creepy crawlers from the dollar store, and I potentially want my kids to put on his shoes. But what can be his shoes? I tried “sip stick straws” but they were too wide so they fell off too easily. I need something even smaller. I need to see if I can get my hands on those very tiny stirrer straws. Any other ideas for good small shoes? I guess I should find my beads.
Category: Occupational Therapy | Comments: none
1
Oct
2012
Cat Yoga by Rick Tillotson: Fitness and Flexibility for the Modern Feline – aka OT yoga ;)
I love this cat yoga book, it cracks me up. My kids like it too. If I have a group of say, 6 kids, each kid got about 30 seconds to pick a pose from this book and then we would all copy it. This lead to some hilarious poses, great for OT because they had to copy the pose with the added challenge of understanding a cat’s body pose rather than a human. Great motor planning for my kids in occupational therapy!
Category: Occupational Therapy | Comments: none
1
Oct
2012
Chicken butt!
I posted this status on Facebook the other day and I swear it is unfortunately 100% true….
Of all the things I've done working with my OT children, BY FAR the fact I am proudest of is that whenever a kid says “Guess what?” I don't respond “Chicken butt” the way I desperately want to.
Category: Occupational Therapy | Comments: none