I thought that I would try this out with the pencil adventures, and it works perfectly. The ones I am using have been laminated
so they are a little stiff.

It takes some thought and motor planning to move your hand in the right direction when your hand is hidden under the paper.

Materials:

• Paper path (laminated) Here is the free pdf one.
• Magnet
• Metal piece

Skills:

• Fine motor
• Motor planning
• Visual motor

The app was created by an Occupational Therapist, and it focuses on pre-writing skills, with nine activity types.  The different activities are Touch, Ordered Touch, Matching, Path Following, Shape Tracing, Connect the Dots, Pinching, Letters, and Free Draw.  Each activity type has different levels of the activity inside of it, there is a lot to do.  Below are the descriptions of each section from the app site.

I love the pinching activity, and the fact that you can have different profiles to keep track of different people using the app.  The app also measures speed and accuracy in all of the activities so you can have percentages and document progress.

Go check out the apps’ website and find out more about it.

They are for sale in the shop, or you can make your own.

I cut the stretchy string into 4 or 5 segments, and poked a hole in one end.  Then I took the stretchy toy and poked a hole in the center of it.  Finally, I pushed the piece of stretchy string through the little hole in the toy.

This is a great solution, and the squishiness of the toy makes you want to close your fingers around it.  It can take practice to get a student to hold it while writing, but once they get used to it and it becomes a habit, it can really help the student’s pencil control.

Materials:

• writing charms
• or stretchy string
• and Squishy toy

Skills:

• handwriting
• fine motor
• hand dexterity

I ran across these angry birds dog toys at walmart, and they are the perfect size for throwing at a target. I made a base out of a cardboard box, printed out some angry birds shapes from the internet (I did have to enlarge them first though), and glued the shapes in prime places to make an angry birds game.

What better target practice than throwing angry birds.

I have attached the enlarged version of the angry birds blocks and birds.  Just click on the picture and it will take you to a printable pdf. 

Materials:

• angry birds stuffed toys
• Box
• Angry birds structure shapes
• Glue
• Scissors

Skills:

• Visual motor coordination
• Arm strength
• Range of motion
• Reach and grasp

The first winner is Pennie for the Take Ten Book.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The next winner is Natalie Abkarian for the Kbeu Dad

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Shannon Galindo won the Kbeu mom pillow.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

And Kelly Poje won the Just Take a Bite book

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Congratulations, and I will be shipping them out as soon as I can.

I used a cardboard box and some large “Smoothie Straws”. I glued the straws in place using a warm melt glue gun.

It is not a difficult maze to get through, but works on visual tracking and visual motor coordination, which is difficult for some kids.

Materials:

• Cardboard box
• Straws
• Hot glue

Skills:

• Visual perception
• Visual tracking
• Visual motor control
• motor planning

I then printed the pattern out onto parchment paper which I cut to the size of regular paper so it would print on my printer, placed the parchment paper pattern onto my double layer of fleece material, and sewed right over the lines on the parchment paper.  My stitch width was fairly narrow so that when I was done, the parchment paper just tore off from the perforated lines of the stitching.  It worked perfectly, and made for a beautiful maze. I did not finish the edges because I was using fleece, and it doesn’t unravel.  If you use a different type of material, you will need to make a finished edge. 

I used this with a student this week who has autism, and visual perceptual problems.  He had a really hard time figuring out which direction to move the marble to get through the maze.  I may use a permanent marker or fabric paint marker to draw lines where the stitching is so that it will make it easier to see where the maze is going.

I am going to make more of these, and maybe some with simpler designs for the kids that have more trouble with it.  This pattern has an opening to go in, and then a large square at one end to collect marbles.  It was a challenge in itself for the student to get the marble into the starting hole.  You could insert the marble and then stitch up the opening if you don’t want the marbles to come back out again.

Materials:

• Marble maze pattern
• fabric (I used fleece)
• sewing machine

Skills:

• fine motor
• visual perceptual

I think that the creativity in these ones are  great, and make them very fun.  I hate to say it, but they are probably better than mine (although I wish I could digitize them and add color because I am a bit obsessed with that).

The obstacle courses include:

Pencil Control

• Amusement Park:  Stay in paths, loops, x’s, copy words, visual scanning
• Explore the ancient cave ruins:  Stay in paths, color in a space, write words in
  abc order
• Circus:  Stay in paths, lots of loops
• Mars:  Stay in path, plan out a path, write initials
• Day at the un-races:  Slow down while tracing
• Time Warp:  Stay in paths, X’s inside circles
• Jungle:  Slow down, speed up: compare which was more accurate. Draw clock hands
• Pirates:  Stay in path, retrace, count & make X’s
• Playground:  “Lazy 8’s” – good bilateral/diagonal practice, Stay in paths
• Skateboard:  Stay in paths, controlled circles, in-hand rotation, drawing

Scissors

• Berserk Robot:  Fairly easy cutting across a page, with curves
• Fabulous Art:  Much more difficulty cutting spiraling in from edge to center of
  page

Erasing

• Dragon’s Maze:  Stay in paths, erase completely

These obstacle courses are very creative and fun to use.  You can order them as a digital download, or as a cd with the files on it.

Materials:

• Pencil Obstacle Course

Skills:

• Fine Motor
• handwriting,
• visual perception
• fine motor precision
• scissor cutting

When playing the game, I hand out four shape cards to each player. Then we pick up all 12 of the dice and drop them on the table. It could help to use Wikki Stix on the table to make a circle to roll the dice in so that the dice stay a little bit contained. Once the dice are rolled, the kids have to scan the dice and grab the ones that match their shape cards.

The kids can get quite competitive to try to get their shapes first. When you match your shapes and no more can be matched, you set aside the matched cards into your keep pile, and replace them so that each person still has four cards in front of them. Then you take all of the dice back, and roll again.

The winner of the game is the person who has the most cards in their keep pile after all of the cards have been played.

By using a large number of dice, you can really make a visual scanning challenge.  I originally made the game by printing out the shapes and mod podging them onto 1 inch foam cubes.  Once I played with them that way for a while, I had them printed and put onto plastic dice from a game making service.  You can get them either way, a digital download and make them yourself, or your can get the physical game.

Materials:

• shape drawings
• cubes or dice
• shape cards

Skills:

• visual perceptual
• visual scanning
• visual memory
• bimanual (lots of dice)

Well this month, the planets have aligned correctly, and I have and am doing something. (Do you hear the singing?)

My daughter’s high school careers class asked me to come and speak about my career.  How thoughtful of them to request this during OT month so that it can all tie in so perfectly.

I gave a little talk about OT in general, and then got more specific about pediatrics since that is what I do. I set up different activities around the room for the kids to try out.  I brought my scooterboard, chopsticks, clothespin games, bouncy balls, pom poms with tongs, KBEU dad, mom, and baby, and theraputty.

The kids had a lot of fun, and I think that maybe they might have learned something about OT too.

Now for some even more amazing participation on my part (really, my husband would be shocked). In celebration of OT month, I am going to have four different give-aways. 

I will be giving away:

• The KBEU mom pillow and baby that I reviewed
• a K-BEU Dad
• a book titled “Take Ten, advice, games and activities to develop fine motor skills”
• the book “Just Take a Bite: Easy, Effective Answers to Food Aversions and Eating Challenges! ”

I am posting all four of the give-aways in one post, but you have to sign up for each one of them separately. It could theoretically be possible for one person to win all four of these give-aways (especially if only one person signs up).

To enter, just post a comment stating what you are hoping to win. If you want to enter all four, then you need to enter 4 comments. That’s it. Make sure that you add yourself to the rafflecopter entry of the give-away that you are interested in below. This helps me to pick a random winner.

These give-aways will last for 2 weeks, because I have noticed that as busy therapists and parents, we don’t always have time to check on blogs every week, so I want everyone to have a chance to enter if they want. The give-away will close on 4/24/12.

Entries are only open to those in the United States due to shipping costs.

The K-BEU Mom pillow and baby are items sent to me from the manufacturer to review. They have been used for review purposes and in my OT month presentation at my daughter’s high school. That is the only use that they have seen. The K-BEU Dad and the two books were purchased by me, are new, and I decided to use them as a give-away. The “Just Take a Bite” book was an accidental duplicate purchase (I now have two of them) so I decided to do a give-away rather than return it. Some lucky person will benefit from my error.

Let the games begin. And may the odds be ever in your favor.

a Rafflecopter giveaway a Rafflecopter giveaway a Rafflecopter giveaway a Rafflecopter giveaway