-
OT Activities to Try at Home:
(Students should always be assisted and/or supervised by their parent, caretaker or guardian when performing the tasks listed below in both home and community settings)
Fine Motor Exercise Suggestions:
- Flip a deck of playing cards one card at a time
- Tear paper into strips and roll the paper into small tight balls
- Use a pair of tweezers and pick up small objects & place them into a container
- Screw and unscrew nuts and bolts
- Make a rubber band ball
- Make small play dough or putty balls
- Use tweezers to pick up cotton balls
- Squeezing water out of sponges
- Opening/closing containers/Ziploc bags
Visual-Motor Exercise Suggestions:
- Alphabet books for letter tracing and/or formation
- Mazes, crossword puzzles, word finds, picture finds
- Puzzles
- Tracing lines and shapes
- Scissor activities (shapes and lines)
ADL/IADL Skill Suggestions:
- Dressing
- Bathing
- Grooming/hygiene tasks
- Eating/drinking and using utensils
- Chores (sweeping, dusting, emptying the dishwasher, sorting laundry etc.)
- Making a phone call
- Personal Information (name, address, phone number, parents names/numbers etc)
- Making a simple meal or snack fro ma recipe
- Making a shopping List
Community/Vocational Skill Suggestions:
- Making a purchase
- Ordering breakfast, lunch or dinner
- Pushing a shopping cart
- Locating items in a store from a list
- Walking safely in community/ Crossing streets
- Filling out job applications
- Working on appropriate behavior when navigating the community or vocational settings when in community/work activities
- Sorting items by color or category
- Typing to make lists or entering data
- Packaging items
- Wrapping silverware
OT Book Recommendations:
- Raising a Sensory Smart Child: A Handbook for Helping your Child with Sensory Integration Issues by Lindsey Biel
- Sensational Kids: Hope and Help for Children with Sensory Processing Disorder by Lucy Jane Miller and Doris A. Fuller
- How Does Your Engine Run: The Alert Program for Self Regulation by Mary Sue Williams and Sherry Shellenberger
- Too Loud, Too Bright, Too Fast, Too Tight by Sharon Heller
Recommended Website Resources:
Autism Speaks: www.autismspeaks.org
Learning Without Tears (Handwiritng, Literacy, Typing): www.lwtears.com
Sensory Processing Disorder Foundation: www.spdfoundation.net
Alert Program for Self Regulation: www.alertprogram.com
Activity Ideas for Kids: www.otplan.com
Westchester Institute for Human Devolopment (Equipment loan closet available and they offer a variety of services for clients/families: www.wihd.org