Toddlers are all sorts of curious, aren’t they? Opening cupboards, pulling books off of shelves, and digging through piles of freshly sorted laundry. Ahhh!
Enter: Scarf in a Box.
It’s not rocket science. And it’s not super original. But it is great for A) keeping busy little hands occupied and B) working on fine motor skills!
Pulling a scarf out of a wipes container is a great introduction to bilateral coordination (coordinating the use of two hands) and working on hand dominance (something that typically develops in the toddler to preschool years). While one hand pulls the scarf out of the opening, the other “helper” hand must push against the container and generate enough force to be able to keep it in place. If the helper hand doesn’t do its job, then it becomes much harder to get the scarf out of the box…of course, my little one figured out how to bypass this rule by using his little monkey feet to keep the box in place!
For this activity, all you need is a thin scarf and an empty container of baby wipes. I like the Huggies container because it has the rubbery opening to provide some resistance on the scarf.
You can teach your toddler to isolate the index finger to press the button and make the top pop open.
Ready. Set. Pull!
Time for a refill. Let’s put it in!
In addition to providing opportunities for practicing fine motor skills, the scarf box has also provided an incredibly natural, easy way for us to work on vocabulary and action words such as open/close, in/out, and pull. Plus, it’s been good practice for following one-step directions (such as, “Put it in!”).
This has become one of my 15-month-old’s favorite go-to activities in the past month. In fact, just the other day I found him sitting in his room — fussing and whining — because he had opened his own wipes container and pulled out at least 30 baby wipes in an attempt to find the “end” of them like he does with the scarf, to no avail. He was left surrounded by two huge piles of wipes and, well, it was hilarious.
Give this a try and see what your little one thinks of it!
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hi just want to say i love reading your blogs. i love reading your ideas to practice OT at home. I am a mom to an almost 1 year old and an aspiring OT.
Thank you so much! Congrats on the birth of your little one and good luck with your future in OT.
My twin toddlers love this! I put ribbon in an old wipes container for them, and they get a kick out of it every time.
This is fantastic. It’s these simple activities teachers and parents can do with materials they already have on hand that make such a difference!