Tag Archives: Fine motor skill

11 Benefits of Playing with Bubbles

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bubble forming

Bubbles are one of my absolute favorite things to use when playing with kids, especially those virtually indestructible Gymboree bubbles I mentioned yesterday (read post here). And since I recently began a new job in a new city where I have to start up a new relationship with every single kiddo on my caseload, I’ve been using bubbles with almost all of them on the first day because, let me tell you, it is a fantastic way to break the ice!

Not only is bubble play an easy way to have fun with a new little friend, it’s also a fun way to work on a host of developmental skills, such as:

  • Fine motor skills. Kids have the opportunity to practice pinching the skinny wand, coordinating two hands to hold the bottle and dip, holding the blower with a pencil-like grasp, opening and closing the bottle, and using hands in different ways to pop the bubbles (poke with index finger, “squeeze” to grab bubbles with the whole hand, use two hands to clap the bubbles).
  • Visual tracking skills. Follow where the bubbles go. Some are fast and some are slow. And some will even glow!
  • Hand/eye coordination. It takes serious practice to link up what the eyes and hands are doing in order to accurately dip and blow with a wand.
  • Sensory processing skills. Bubbles are wet. and slimy. and sticky. They feel funny. And the physical act of blowing can be a very effective sensory-based way to help children “organize”, calm, and focus their bodies.
  • Oral motor skills. Obviously. Blowing bubbles is good exercise for little mouths, but it can hard work! Bubble blowers (like the tube-shaped ones) are easier than bubble wands, and kids won’t inhale bubble solution if they decide to suck instead of blow out. Skinnier tube blowers are typically easier than fat ones. And blowing at bubbles that have already been blown and are sitting on the end of the wand can also be easier than straight-up blowing through the wand.
  • Social and communication skills. Kids can ask or sign for “more” and establish eye contact when doing so. And if playing in a group, they can practice taking turns and keeping personal space between their bodies so they don’t bump into or knock each other over.
  • Gross motor skills. What an easy way to get kids to reach way up high, stand on their tippie toes, squat, jump, run, stomp, and kick.
  • Following directions. You can give them directions on how to pop the bubbles with each turn (clap them, poke them, squeeze them, jump on them, etc.) either one at a time or by telling them a popping sequence (first poke, then squeeze, then clap). Or they can follow the directions to a turn-taking sequence (first Johnny pops, then Caitlin, then Danny). The possibilities for directions are endless.
  • Identifying body parts. Pop with your finger, your elbow, your knee, or your nose!
  • Speech skills. I’m not a speech therapist, but I know that /b/ and /p/ (those formed in the front of the mouth with the lips) are early speech sounds that are naturally used during bubble play. A few examples include “Bubbles!” “Bye-bye bubbles!” and “Pop!”
  • Language and cognitive skills. You can teach toddlers and preschoolers how to understand and describe where the bubbles are and what they’re doing by pointing things out when they happen. “The bubbles are going up (or down)” “They’re going fast (or slow).” “There’s a bubble in front of (or behind) you.” “I see one next to you.” “There’s one above (or below) your head.” “It’s to your right (or left).” “That’s a really big (or little) bubble.” “Go pop the biggest (or smallest) bubble!”

Babies often love to watch others blow bubbles and think they’re so interesting, and bigger kids love to play with them in all kinds of creative ways. So grab your bubbles and get ready for some beneficial fun, fun, fun!

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[2nd edition] One tip for introducing scissors: Use playdough!

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This post was originally published here on Mama OT on April 28th as an introductory resource for caregivers. Yesterday, however, I had the honor of writing as a guest columnist for PediaStaff’s OT Corner blog, a website serving as a resource for pediatric therapists across the country. Below is the new and improved second edition. It contains even more ideas and resources than the original post, so I wanted to share it here so you all could benefit, too. Enjoy!

Have you ever tried to teach little ones how to use scissors? It’s really hard! They have to figure out how to orient their hand, divide up their fingers, open and close the crazy things, and hold the material they are supposed to cut. Talk about a challenge for fine motor skills and bilateral coordination!

Beginner scissor skills typically involve learning how to perform one short snip at a time (around 2 years old) and how to make several short snips in a row along a line (around 2 1/2 to 3 years old). Then, as children enter preschool, it gets more advanced.

So how can you possibly teach a toddler to use something as complicated as scissors?

Use play dough!

Play dough is an ideal medium for introducing scissors because many toddlers are already familiar and comfortable with it, you can control the size and shape of the piece to be cut, and you can easily make it yourself (click here for traditional recipe and here for gluten-free, which is critical for kiddos with Celiac disease). Using play dough to teach snipping also causes less mess because you don’t have to worry about tiny pieces of paper flying everywhere. Kids can just smash the play dough pellets all together or make a new creation once they’re done! And as an added bonus, play dough does not discriminate between right- or left-handed snippers (unlike paper), so it can be easily used by everyone.

Play dough is also great because it provides a good deal of feedback to children’s hands, telling them how much resistance there is and, subsequently, how much pressure to use as they snip away. This feedback is an important contributor to the development of fine motor strength and overall skilled use of the hands.

Additionally, play dough snipping is a nice introduction to bilateral coordination, teaching kids how to use one hand to perform a skill (snipping with scissors) while the other hand acts as a “helper” (holding the play dough). Can you think of another task like this which kids must perform as they get older? Handwriting, of course!

One way to make play dough snipping fun is if kids pretend they’re making food for their animals or dolls. As you know, two- to three-year-olds are great at pretend play and, for some reason, I find they love to feed their toy animals and dolls. This is especially true if you — the mature adult — join in by snipping along and making outrageous “eating” noises. You know what I’m talking about: Num num num! Mmmmm! Yummm! Chomp! Seriously, kids get a huge kick out of grown-ups making eating sounds.

As far as scissors go, you can spend money on buying “play dough” scissors, or you can head to your store of choice (I like my local dollar store) and pick up some toddler safety scissors. It really depends on the child and your budget, so it’s up to you.

A few additional tips for introducing scissor snipping:

  • Try introducing tongs, tweezers, hole punchers, chip clips, or kid-friendly chopsticks prior to asking kids to use scissors. This is a nice introduction to tool use and requires a similar skill set to scissor snipping. Learn how to make kid-friendly chopsticks by clicking here, and find ideas related to developing pre-scissor skills with tongs, tweezers, and more by clicking here.
  • Some kids respond well to being told to give the scissors a “hand shake” in order to properly orient their snipping hand with the thumb up and pinky down.
  • You can place a sticker on top of the scissor thumb loop to provide a visual cue for which side goes up and/or you can place a sticker on kids’ thumbnails to indicate which way to orient their hand (so they can see the sticker on their nail).
  • Opening scissors is more difficult than closing them. Thus, if you help kids get their scissors into the open position over the play dough, they can then close the scissors independently and gain a sense of accomplishment by cutting the play dough “all by themselves”. How exciting for them!
  • Try starting out with “spring scissors”, which not only makes it easier for kids to open the scissors but also provides increased feedback when closing them. I actually found some great ones at my local Dollar Tree (click here to view and order), but you can also find similar ones on Amazon for a few extra dollars by clicking here. I like these better than other models of adaptive “squeeze” scissors out there because they open wide like regular scissors while providing a little bit of assistance for the child who has weak hands or is simply new to using scissors.

Get creative with your play dough snipping and, before you know it, those little ones will be well on their way to developing scissor skills as they prepare a grand feast for their toy dolls and animals.

Happy snipping!

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One tip for introducing scissors: Use playdough!

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Have you ever tried to teach a little one how to use scissors? It’s really hard! Not only do they have to figure out how to divide up their fingers in order to operate the crazy things, but they also have to learn how to open and close them, as well as how to hold the material they are supposed to cut. Talk about a challenge for fine motor skills and bilateral coordination!

Beginner scissor skills typically involve learning how to perform one short snip at a time (around 2 years old) and how to make several short snips in a row along a line (around 2 1/2 to 3 years old). Then, as children enter preschool, it gets more advanced from there.

So how can you possibly teach a toddler to use something as complicated as scissors?

Use playdough!

Playdough is the perfect medium for introducing scissors because many toddlers are already familiar and comfortable with it, you can easily make it yourself, you can control the size and shape of the piece to be cut (big and flat, long snake, etc.), and you don’t have to throw away the tiny pieces that get snipped off…you can just smash them all together or make a new creation once you’re done!

Playdough is also great because it provides a good deal of “feedback” to a child’s hands, telling their little paws how much resistance there is and, subsequently, how much pressure to use as they snip away. This feedback is an important contributor to the development of fine motor strength and overall skilled use of the hands.

Additionally, snipping playdough is a nice introduction to bilateral coordination, teaching kids how to use one hand to perform a skill (snipping with scissors) while the other hand acts as a “helper” (holding the playdough). Can you think of another task like this which kids must perform as they get older? Fine, I’ll tell you: HANDWRITING.

One way to make playdough snipping fun is if kids pretend they’re making food for their animals or dolls. Two to three year olds are great at pretend play and, for some reason, I find they love to feed their toy animals and dolls. This is especially true if you — the mature adult — join in by snipping along and making outrageous “eating” noises. You know what I’m talking about: num num num! mmmmm! yummm! chomp! Seriously, kids get a huge kick out of grown ups making eating sounds.

As far as scissors go, you can spend money on buying “playdough” scissors (which are fully plastic, no metal blade, and typically come as part of an expensive playdough kit), or you can head to your store of choice (I like my local dollar store) and pick up some toddler safety scissors. It really depends on the child, so it’s up to you.

Get creative with your playdough snipping and, before you know it, those little ones will be on their way to skilled scissor use.

Happy snipping!

 

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Don’t throw out your broken crayons!

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“No! Don’t break that…(crack!)…crayon.”

Sound familiar?

I know, you hate it when kids break stuff. It means toys have been ruined and money wasted.

But, thank goodness, it’s not true when it comes to crayons! They are actually better when they’re broken.

Here’s why.

Kids develop the ability to grasp and use a writing utensil in a fairly predictable progression, as demonstrated in the picture below (though there is some variation in names used for the first three grasps):

Sometimes, however, kids will get “stuck” in one grasp and have a hard time trying out more mature grasps. The solution?

Give them a crayon that’s been broken in half.

This naturally encourages them to “pinch” the crayon between their thumb and index finger, moving them into a more mature and skilled grasp pattern. The reason is simple — it’s hard to use a cylindrical or digital grasp on a short crayon.

Don’t believe me? Try it for yourself.

I actually encourage parents of young kids to break crayons in half in order to promote more mature grasp patterns as they develop their fine motor skills (be sure to remove the paper, though). And, as an added bonus, it gives you twice as many crayons so there are more to go around!

So the next time you feel the urge to go out and buy more crayons because the ones you have at home are broken, think again! Those broken, washed up crayons are just waiting to be used to help your little ones with the development of their fine motor skills.

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Photo credit for image 2.

 

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One simple trick for improving kids’ self-dressing skills

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Much of what I do as an occupational therapist aims to help children improve their independence in what we call Activities of Daily Living (ADL). While this includes a vast array of skills, one common activity I frequently address is the task of self-dressing. Sometimes kids are very set on dressing and undressing themselves, and they have the fine motor and cognitive skills to easily accomplish this. But sometimes kids need a little extra support to develop these skills, especially when it comes to figuring out how to open and close the fasteners that allow them to take off or put on a particular item of clothing (e.g., pants, shoes, jackets, etc.).

While it’s certainly worthwhile to practice the actual act of undressing and dressing, it can be pretty boring. But take heart, becuase there are actually some fun ways to sneak in self-dressing practice into a child’s day without them even realizing it!

Here is one simple trick for improving kids’ self-dressing skills that I have found to be extremely effective:

Consider the container.

I imagine the child you care for likes to play with toys, right? Well, what kind of container are the toys in? Are they easily accessible, requiring little to no fine motor effort to obtain? Or are they stored in bags requiring them to slide, zip, tie, and snap?

Here are some examples of how you can store kids’ toys such as playdough, mechanical animals, Potato Head, and puzzle pieces (click on image for larger view):

I have found that simply by keeping toys in individual bags/containers such as these (most of which you can obtain by saving the packages of commonly purchased items you would normally just throw away, like curtains or baby clothes), it gives kids the chance to practice operating various fasteners relevant to self-dressing. All their experience with zipping, tying, and snapping in order to access the toys has the potential to carry over to being able to open and close fasteners on their own clothes and, what do you know, suddenly their self-dressing skills improve even though they never “officially” worked on them! Funny how that works. Keep in mind that undressing typically comes before dressing. It’s easier to take off than put on (e.g., socks, shoes, shirts, pants) and, similarly, it’s easier to open fasteners than to close them (e.g., unzip, unsnap, untie).

As an added bonus, storing the toys in separate bags/containers makes them much easier to clean and keep track of. My speech therapy colleagues would also add this provides kids with increased opportunities for communication and language development as they ask for help, identify/imitate words and phrases such as “open”, “close”, “in”, “out”, “more”, “please”, “thank you”, ”all done”, “clean up”, and imitate/produce multi-word phrases either verbally or through signs and gestures such as “want more” or “open please”.

So the next time you are going through your child’s toy bin, consider the container. Ask yourself whether your current toy storage situation will encourage your child to practice the skills necessary for self-dressing. If not, then what are you waiting for? Make this one small change and watch to see how it affects their fine motor skills and the development of their ability to tackle the big kid task of putting on and taking off their clothes all by themselves!

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*Photo credit for photos 1 and 6.

 

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