Use play dough as boundaries for cutting {Photo Friday}

Welcome to Photo Friday, a place where I share photos of therapeutic tools and ideas that can help boost your child’s development. Please give me feedback on my ideas — I love hearing how they go over with other kids!

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cutting

For kids who have a hard time cutting anywhere near a line, try using play dough as a “road” for them to cut on. I used this on-the-fly earlier this week for a kiddo who has no concept of paying attention to lines when cutting, but he was able to follow directions to “keep your scissors on the road!”

Have them help you roll out the play dough and press it on the paper with their pointer finger…it sticks really well! (Wikki Stix work also, but not everyone has them just lying around and they don’t stick to paper quite as well.) You can adjust the width of the road to increase or decrease the challenge, and you can of course make any shape you want them to practice cutting. For more concrete guidance, try drawing the boundaries on the paper with marker so they have some guidance as to where to place the play dough in order to make their road. The more angles and curves, the trickier. You can also draw a thick line for them to keep their scissors on in the middle of the road. Try it out!

If you have more financial resources and prep time, you can also use glitter glue, puff paint, or craft foam to give kids physical boundaries for cutting. Find out how by clicking here.

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Develop Fine Motor Skills with Toothpicks {Photo Friday}

Welcome to Photo Friday, a place where I share a photo or two of therapeutic tools and ideas that can help boost your child’s development. Please give me feedback on my ideas — I love hearing how they go over with other kids!

. . . . .

fine motor

If you have a child who struggles with developing an appropriate pencil grasp or fine motor skills in general, try playing with toothpicks. In this photo, the child who struggles with fine motor strength, grasp, and hand dominance had to unscrew the cap of the cinnamon bottle (bilateral skills to hold the bottle with one hand, unscrew with the emerging dominant hand) and then problem solve how to get them out. She then pushed the toothpicks into the play dough to make a porcupine (took a lot of strength). Then later she pulled them out (also took quite a bit of strength) and placed them one by one into the tiny holes of the cinnamon bottle while stabilizing the bottle with her other hand.

This is a simple task packed with therapeutic value and is great for the child who still holds the crayon/pencil with their whole fist or who has not yet established a hand dominance. Find more fun ways to play with toothpicks by checking out this Top 10 list from Embrace Your Chaos.

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Stackable Crayons and Pencils {Photo Friday}

Welcome to the first installment of Photo Friday, a place where I share a photo or two of activities and ideas that can help boost your child’s development. Please give me feedback on my ideas — I love hearing how they go over with other kids!

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Stackable crayons from Dollar Tree encourage kids to pinch with thumb and index finger. This promotes correct, mature grasp for coloring and writing. One dollar for thirty of them.

Stackable pencils from Learning Express also help kids who have trouble with pencil grasp and struggle with pinching their pencil with thumb and index finger. Nooks between pencils serve as a natural groove for fingers to rest. Stack more to make it easier to hold.

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