I have a new activity for my bouncy balls to participate in.
I stuck five golf tees into a piece of rigid Styrofoam, and then had kids balance the bouncy balls onto the tees.
You can increase the challenge by holding multiple balls in one hand, and putting the balls on the tee at the same time. This requires some skill at in-hand manipulation, which gets the two sides of the hand doing different jobs. The pinky side is holding the balls while the thumb side is placing the balls.
When we write, we close the pinky side of our hand to stabilize it while the thumb side of the hand works the pen. Doing in-hand manipulation activities helps differentiate the function of the two sides of the hand and helps with control and writing ability.
Materials:
- Golf tees
- Bouncy balls (or marbles)
- Styrofoam
Skills:
- Fine motor
- Dexterity
- In-hand manipulation
- Finger strength
About Tonya
Great idea!!! If it was too hard for a child to balance the balls on the golf tees, maybe try using small glasses (i.e. shot glasses) to balance the balls on the top of the glasses to focus on the in hand manipulation skills. To make it harder, try balancing marbles on the golf tees.
Great activity! I’ve also had kids use a toy hammer to pound the tees into the styrofoam and they love that too =)
Jen
Jen’s OT For Kids
Hey what a cool idea .. I am an occupational therapy student and little cost effective ideas such as this are getting filed away in my memory bank. I really like the idea of holding multiple marbles or balls to simulate the hand writing position and holding in your pinky finger. Thanks
glad it has been useful. Thanks