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    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