Playing With Words 365

Educating, inspiring, and empowering parents & professionals in supporting young children's overall development

  • Home
  • About
    • About Katie
      • Credentials, Training and Philosophy
      • How I Got Here
    • About This Blog
  • Blog
  • Child Development
    • Speech & Language Development from Birth to Five
    • Speech and Language 101
    • Toy Recommendations for Speech & Language Development
    • Sign Language 101
  • Speech Therapy
    • How to Help Your Child Talk
    • What You Can Expect From Speech Therapy {A Guide for Parents}
    • How to find an SLP
    • Speech Therapy Tips & Activities
    • Materials & Product Recommendations
    • SLP Forms, Charts, and Data Sheets
    • How To Elicit {Teach} Speech Sounds Series
    • Freebies!
  • Resources
    • for Parents & Caregivers
    • for SLPs
  • About My Life (Blog)

Fine Motor Monday

December 12, 2011 by Katie Filed Under: Crafts for Kids, Family Life, Fine Motor Activities, Juvenile Arthritis 12 Comments

As I have mentioned, my daughter is currently getting occupational therapy. She has Juvenile Arthritis, which has attacked several of her fingers causing swelling and pain, which has resulted in some weaknesses, particularly in her right hand.

So anyway, we are supposed to be doing homework for OT…so I have been keeping my eyes out on the blogs I visit for some FUN fine motor activities, and we did a few of them this weekend!

First, we did this simple, yet FUN activity that The Vegetarian Mom linked up at my Thrifty Thursday Linky Party #2. E really enjoyed sticking the pipe cleaners through the small holes, and she was using her pincer grasp nicely!

Next, I was inspired by some “pins” from Tonya over at Therapy Fun Zone. She is a Pediatric Occupational Therapist and has some great ideas on her site and on her Pinterest boards! Anyway, I saw a couple of her pins involving marshmallows and toothpicks and was inspired to make marshmallow snowmen!

Next we did this awesome clothespin activity that we downloaded free at Your Therapy Source. It was a little difficult for E but once I helped her a little she started to get the hang of it. You simply write the letters of the words from the paper on clothespins and your child must match the letters and place the corresponding clothespin on the letter on the paper. This activity is so fantastic because it not only targets fine motor skills, but also letter recognition and letter matching. To make it double challenging for E’s fine motor, I set up the clothes pins on the edge of a basket so that she had to pinch to take them OFF and then pinch to put them ON the paper. (This one says Happy Holidays and also has a fun maze too).

And finally, we played with Play Dough in many different ways to help work on strengthen E’s muscles in her hands. She cut through the dough with her scissors, rolled it out flat, and used several different cookie cutters to cut out different shapes. Her favorite was the teddy bear today 😉 Also, do you that awesome Play Dough caddy? My parents got that for her for her birthday. It’s amazing!

Overall we had a great time doing our fine motor activities this weekend! 🙂 Always a positive when “homework” is FUN!

Cheers!

About Katie

Katie is a licensed, credentialed and certified pediatric speech-language pathologist and mom to four (8, 6, 3 and 6 months). Her passion for educating, inspiring and empowering parents of children with all abilities led her to start her blog playing with words 365 where she shares information about speech & language development & intervention strategies, parenting, photography and a little about her family life too. Katie has been working in the field of speech pathology for 12 years and is certified in The Hanen Centre’s It Takes Two to Talk ® and Target Word ® programs and holds a certificate in Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA). In addition to blogging and being a mommy, Katie works part time in her small private practice in the San Francisco Bay Area. You can follow her on Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter.

Comments

  1. Sarah says

    December 12, 2011 at 8:55 am

    Excellent! I love all of these ideas! Thanks for sharing!

    Reply
    • Katie says

      December 12, 2011 at 8:56 am

      😀 You are welcome!

      Reply
  2. Carolyn Wilhelm says

    December 12, 2011 at 4:37 pm

    I, too, have a child (now grown up) with arthritis, and my thoughts are with you. You are doing wonderful things for your child! Thanks for sharing, Carolyn

    Reply
    • Katie says

      December 12, 2011 at 5:04 pm

      Thanks so much Carolyn! I hope your {grown up} child is doing well. Thanks so much for stopping by!

      Reply
  3. Trina says

    December 12, 2011 at 7:48 pm

    Awesome ideas!! Gotta love it when “play” is really homework. You are one awesome mama and SLP!

    Reply
    • Katie says

      December 12, 2011 at 8:06 pm

      Awe thanks Trina! 😀 That made my day!

      Reply
  4. Sari says

    December 12, 2011 at 9:05 pm

    Love these ideas, thanks for sharing! I am an OT and have recently posted blogs on activities to promote proper pencil grasp and hand strengthening. Would love your feedback!
    http://www.kidzoccupationaltherapy.com/category/blog/

    Reply
    • Katie says

      December 12, 2011 at 9:30 pm

      Sari I’ll be sure to check out your blog! Thanks so much for stopping by!

      Reply
  5. barbara smith OTR/L says

    December 13, 2011 at 5:41 am

    Thanks for these great activity ideas. I love to share them on facebook:-)
    Barbara

    FromRattlestoWriting.com

    Reply
    • Katie says

      December 13, 2011 at 9:27 am

      Barbara please share! 😀

      Reply
  6. Deb@ Living Montessori Now says

    December 19, 2011 at 4:07 am

    Wonderful activities! I added your post to my Montessori-Inspired Christmas Activities at http://livingmontessorinow.com/2011/11/28/montessori-monday-montessori-inspired-christmas-activities/.

    Reply
    • Katie says

      December 19, 2011 at 2:33 pm

      Thanks so much Deb!!! 😀

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

CommentLuv badgeShow more posts

Looking for something?

Popular Posts

  • Top 10 Summer Top 10 Summer Activities to Encourage Your Toddler’s Speech Development {A Summer Challenge}
  • Feed Clover Collage Freebie Friday: FEED The Old Lady Who Swallowed the Clover
  • How to Elicit the k&g sounds How to Elicit (Teach) the K & G Sounds {Part One: Elicitation Techniques}
  • My Tricks to Teaching the R Sound My Tricks to Teaching the /r/ Sound
  • 15+ Great Games for Speech, Language & Social Skills Development {ages 3-6}
  • Five Playful Ways to Work on Listening and Following Directions
  • Home
  • About
  • Blog
  • Child Development
  • Speech Therapy
  • Resources
  • About My Life (Blog)

Copyright © 2023 · Swank WordPress Theme By, PDCD