Fine Motor Fun

On the days that Nikolas doesn't have therapy I try to throw some structured playtime into our routine.  We include activies that help with his speech, gross motor skills and fine motor skills.  He just sees it as playtime and doesn't realize that we're actually working.  For this post I'll focus on some of the fine motor activities that we've done over the past couple of weeks.

 

One problem that is causing Nikolas to have both fine and gross motor delays is his low muscle tone.  Having him prop himself up with his arms while he colors helps to increase his upper body strength.  We also work on our colors during this time, both recognizing them and pronouncing them.  He does fairly well with this task.

We are also working on improving his hand and finger strength.  As he gets stronger, it will be easier for him to do things like snap his fingers and button his shirt.  He understands a lot of concepts, but his lack of strength holds him back.  For hand strength he uses his claw toy to pick up little rubber balls.  Right now he has to use both hands to work the toy, but eventually he'll be strong enough to do it with one hand at a time.

We also use therapy putty to work on his hand strength.  The putty is great because we can use it in different ways.  Right now we make "spaghetti" by pulling it apart.  We have one container of putty that has 10 buttons hidden in it.  He has to pull it apart to find the buttons and then use his fingers to pull them out.  He loves using the therapy putty and often requests to "play" with it.  The only downside to the putty is that it's really hard to get out of clothes, carpet and furniture!

Another thing we use to work on his finger strength is a set of magnetic fridge clips.  I bought a set of six of them at the dollar store.  He clips them onto cardboard and then takes them off again.  Clothespins also work well for this activity. 

Most of the things we use for therapy are very cheap.  The dollar section at Target always has great finds, and the Dollar Tree is full of fun things.  I also picked up a few things in the Easter Basket area at Meijer the other day.  His OT has taught me how to keep my eyes open for inexpensive things that we can use for our therapy playtime sessions.