"Party Animals" = Great fine motor and imaginative toy for fine motor skills

Today I did two home visits and a clinic visit. All deliberately with parents present for education. Teaching basic undressing skills partially through a parent doing most of the work and then “getting distracted” and causing a kid to have to finish, haha. Teaching dealing with tactile defensiveness.

And best of all, my favorite thing when it’s a good fit for a child, is teaching how to boost motor skills through imagination. Today we (with a 4 year old) played with tiny figurines called “Party Animals” – my new fav toy in the world – tiny plastic figurines that come with little rubber costumes you fit them in. Great fine motor. REALLY popular with my kids. I got them at 99 cent store. I need to wipe them out, I already have like 20 and bought some for others. We made them a party house out of a colander and pipe cleaners after we put on their costumes for their party.

Then we picked up “water snakes” (q-tips) with tweezers so they wouldn’t bite us, and then gave them each a “hat” (a rubber eraser pencil cap) so they could have their own costume party. The kid said they couldn’t go to the other party because it was “too awesome” so they had to have their own water party. Then I brought out a clothesline clip attached to a cotton ball with eyeballs and said “Oh look, a water ghost wants to come too.” He said solemnly “No one likes a water ghost”. I said oh okay, what is it? He says “A fun ball poop.” So the water snakes had their party in the water (the carpet), and the little party animals had their party in the party house (colander). I LOVE IMAGINATION. He gets so frustrated with fine motor skills, but was super motivated by these tasks, and it’s this joint flow…IE I don’t go in thinking about water snakes/putting rubber caps on Q-tips or party houses, it just evolves as we go, a collaborative effort. (And yes, I was allowed to share this session)