Progress always makes me SMILE!

 

Valentine's Day: Before and After

 

Tiffany's Tips: The Impact of Technology

 

Tiffany's Tips: Dressing Milestones

 

Tiffany's Tips: Gymnastics bars and rings

Discover the numerous benefits of Gymnastics bars and rings activities, which are great for improving strength, flexibility, endurance, balance, coordination, and overall physical fitness. 

Benefits of Monkey Bars and Rings:

➤ Improve upper body strength 

➤ Increase grip strength 

➤ Enhance coordination and balance

➤ Helps hand-eye coordination and finger strength

➤ Develop problem-solving and decision-making skills

Tiffany's Tips: Computer Use

 

Tiffany's Tips: Tactile Play

 Engaging in tactile play has been found to have significant benefits in enhancing attention and promoting effective learning. This is because tactile play involves physical interaction with objects and materials, allowing for a multi-sensory experience that can stimulate various parts of the brain and enhance cognitive processes such as memory, problem-solving, and creativity.

Additionally, tactile play can help to reduce stress and anxiety, thereby creating a positive and conducive learning environment. Overall, the incorporation of tactile play in educational settings has proven to be a valuable tool in promoting holistic learning and development.

Tiffany's Tips: Bilateral Coordination is a crucial skill

 

Bilateral coordination is a crucial skill that involves the ability to simultaneously coordinate both sides of the body in a controlled and organized manner. It is an essential aspect of human motor development and is seen in many daily activities. This skill is particularly important for school-related tasks such as stabilizing paper with one hand while writing or cutting with the other.

 Individuals who struggle with bilateral coordination may find it difficult to complete self-help activities, such as dressing and tying shoes. They may also face challenges with fine motor activities, such as stringing beads and stacking blocks, and gross motor activities, such as climbing stairs, riding a bike, and playing sports. 

Children who experience difficulties with bilateral coordination may exhibit symptoms such as clumsiness, lack of coordination, and difficulty with tasks that require the use of both hands, such as buttoning clothes or tying shoelaces. These difficulties can be addressed through various occupational therapy interventions, which aim to develop and improve the individual's ability to effectively coordinate both sides of their body.

Therapeutic use of playing the Piano

Playing the piano can offer numerous therapeutic benefits for individuals of all ages. Research has shown that playing the piano can reduce stress and anxiety levels, improve hand-eye coordination, enhance memory and cognitive abilities, and even boost self-confidence and self-esteem. Additionally, playing the piano can provide a creative outlet for individuals to express themselves and their emotions. Overall, the therapeutic benefits of playing the piano make it a worthwhile activity for anyone looking to improve their mental and physical health.

Tiffany's Tips: Writing With Chalk

Chalk can be a precious tool for parents and educators looking to improve children's fine motor skills. Using chalk, children can develop appropriate pencil grasp patterns, improve hand-eye coordination, fine motor control, manipulation, and increase hand strength. This can ultimately lead to improved handwriting, better overall motor skills, and greater success in academic and recreational activities. Additionally, chalk is a low-cost and easily accessible option for those looking to incorporate fine motor skill development into their child's routine.

Tiffany's Tips: The Power of Dress-Up

 Dressing in their parents' clothes can be an enjoyable and educational activity for children. It is an excellent way for them to practice essential self-help skills such as putting on oversized shirts, zippers, and large buttons on sweaters. These skills help children develop fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, and independence. Additionally, playing dress-up allows children to explore their creativity and imagination, as they can pretend to be anyone or anything they want. It can also be a bonding experience for parents and children, as they can share memories and have fun while playing dress-up. Overall, playing dress-up is a great activity that benefits children's development and enjoyment.

Tiffany's Tips: Functional Pencil Grip

Does your child hold their pencil when weird pencil grip? They may benefit from using the tripod trainer grip. To...

• Reduce hand fatigue

• Help give more control 

• Encourage tripod pencil grip, the most functional grip for legible handwriting. 

When using pencil grips, have your child start coloring by connecting the dots or mazes activities to get them used to using the grip before handwriting. These will improve your child’s visual motor skills and fine motor skills. When utilizing the pencil grip, you will see your child developing more control of their writing utensil.

 

2024 OT GOALS

 

Tiffany's Tips: Proprioceptive Classroom Strategies

Proprioceptive Classroom Strategies

Proprioceptive (body awareness) is how the body senses itself. Some kids do not adequately receive or process information from their muscles, joints, tendons, ligaments, or connective tissue. This results in inadequate feedback about movement and body position.

Classroom Strategies

• Carry and pass out milk cartons

• Weight blanket/vest / stuffed animals

• Climb on playground equipment/monkey bars

• Weighted pillow on the lap while sitting

• Carry heavy books and supplies and pass them  out to the class/ bring them to the  office or another classroom

• Pressure garments

• Seat cushions 

• Chair  push up while sitting & wall push-ups while standing

 

Tiffany's Tips: Therapeutic use of Play dough

Playing with playdough is an excellent way to improve a child’s fine motor skills... 

⇨ rolling, flattening, squeezing, and pinching help strengthen their fingers
⇨ using hands to flatten playdough and then use a pencil to write letters and numbers in it or scissors to cut it
⇨ molding play dough into different shapes also builds up strength in their hands

Tiffany's Tips: Playing while Squatting

Core strengthening does not only happen in therapy or at the gym. Playing while squatting is an excellent way to strengthen those muscles. Try having your child assemble puzzles, create a Lego masterpiece, or play with cars and small toys on a table. If your child cannot maintain this position, try kneeling.

Tiffany's Tips: My favorite Virtual activity

This is my new favorite online story starter activity. My students love it and I enjoy the fun creative stories they come up with. 

http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/story-starters/adventure-writing-prompts/index.html

My Teachers Pay Teachers store

 For all visual perceptual/fine motor/ visual motor things!!! 

Please check it out and follow me:

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Writenow-Ot

Always a Place for FUN in Therapy

 

Dominoes and Fine Motor Precision

Lining dominos up requires fine motor precision. It also takes eye-hand coordination and visual perceptual skills to properly get the dominos lined up. The fun part is knocking them over.

Playing with dominos is an excellent way to improve a child’s…

 

⇨ Eye-hand coordination

⇨ Fine motor 

⇨ Visual perceptual 

⇨ Crossing midline 

⇨ Upper extremity coordination 

⇨ Fine motor precision