Looking for a new activity to engage your little ones during this extra time at home? Look no further because we have great ideas for you and your kiddos to keep them building on their current skills while having fun participating. Does your child need some new ways to help strengthen the muscles in his or her hand to prevent fatigue during hand writing or buttoning? Hand strength in the intricate muscles of their hands is so important especially as children enter the school age and need the hand strength to keep up with handwriting, opening their own snacks independently, and completing self-help tasks to successfully perform their daily routines (i.e. zipping/buttoning pants and/or jackets).
What we recommend
The “super sorting pie” game is a great activity to improve both visual processing skills and fine motor skills while facilitating the use of bilateral coordination. This game can be found on amazon for under $20 and works on multiple skills while the child has a blast “playing” this game. The child has to manipulate tweezers to pick up small pieces of fruit to place into the appropriate place in the “pie” container. Additionally, this activity will enhance color recognition skills, counting, and sorting skills, and can be used for number identification as well. This activity is recommended for toddlers, however it could be graded to a more challenging level for older kiddos. You can have them roll a dice to determine the number of fruit pieces they have to pick up, or by having them write out the number and/or color before separating the items.
How we can help
Engaging children through therapeutic play and fun interactions is where we thrive. We use creativity and exploration of various media to engage children in further developing their skills while they are having fun “playing”. If you have concerns with your child’s fine/visual motor, gross motor, speech/language, or social/emotional needs we are happy to help. Beyond Speech offers teletherapy, in-home therapy as well as clinic-based therapy. Additionally Beyond Speech offers free speech and language and motor screenings. If you are looking for top quality pediatric therapy near you, click here.