Fun Activities to do at Home
Children have a variety of individual strengths and weaknesses. Some children have difficulty holding their pencil or become fatigued when writing. Your child may benefit from some hand exercises to help make writing time easier. Below you will find a variety of activities, pick and choose activities that may be interesting to your child and practice a few each day. Remember to do a little each day, as that is when you will see the best results!
Fine Motor Activities:
Fine motor activities involve the small muscles of the hand and are dependent on the development and control of upper extremity function. Some children have a delay in the development of their fine motor muscles and therefore, have difficulty manipulating small objects, holding a pencil, and performing certain tasks. Many activities are used to help children develop intrinsic control and strengthen such muscles in order to succeed in other activities, which build on fine motor skills.
Activities to Try:
-Paper punch, using a hole puncher. Random holes or follow along a line or design.
-Using salad servers, tongs, tweezers- practice picking up small objects and placing them into containers.
-Using basters, eyedroppers, squirt guns- spray balloons, table, suspended toy, feet, etc.
-All types of art projects, which involve paint, crayons, markers, chalk, glue, scissors, pipe cleaners, etc.
-Manipulative toys using 2 hands- Legos, Duplo, tinker toys, lacing cards, magnetics.
-String beads, cheerios, macaroni, buttons, paper shapes.
-Playdoh/ putty- push, pull, mold, roll
-Pinch clothespins around can or box
-Etch- A- Sketch
-Mazes and Dot-to-Dot Art
-Pop bubble wrapper
-Wring out sponges
-Play with travel sized games- which include smaller pieces rather then full size game.
-Open and close lids, jars, etc.
-Pegboards- place various sized pegs in, follow sequence of peg colors.
-Stamp pad printing, holding handles of stampers
-Use pinto beans to make shapes, letters, designs, glue onto paper.
-Tissue paper pictures- tear small pieces of tissue and roll into tiny circles and glue onto paper.
-Spray squeeze water bottle or hair spray bottle filled with water.
-Seal zip lock bags of goodies, sand, rocks, seashells, and candy.
-Pick up fragile objects with tweezers or fingers without breaking them. (ie: cornflakes, mini marshmallows)
-Lite Bright, Don’t Spill the Beans, Perfection, and other board games with small pieces
-Coin games- place 10 pennies in a row and have child flip over each one as fast as possible. Place into piggy bank.
-Colorforms
Bilateral Hand Activities:
Activities that encourage children to use two hands together in an integrated fashion are important for the development of skills such as cutting and manipulating objects with two hands and eye- hand coordination tasks.
Activities to try:
-String beads or cheerios to make an editable necklace.
-Cutting newspaper, coupons (dotted lines), shapes, lines, playdoh.
-Using rolling pin with both hands.
-Catching ball with 2 hands
-Simon Says game
-Riding tricycle, Hotwheels
-Ball rolling to each other
-Screw and unscrew lids, from jars, nuts & bolts.
Visual Perceptual Activities:
Visual perception involves all visual skills and the way the brain interprets such information in order to perform certain tasks and manipulate self in the environment.
Activities to try:
-Block designs (copy specific design from picture or 3 dimension.)
-Copy pegboard designs
-Complete dot to dot designs
-Puzzles
-Matching games
-Sort objects by size, shape, color, etc.
-Mazes
-Stringing beads following patterns or model.
-Cutting shapes, line, fringe paper.
-Color within lines of picture.
-Flash light fun- Follow with finger and eyes the light around the room.
Fine Motor Activities:
Fine motor activities involve the small muscles of the hand and are dependent on the development and control of upper extremity function. Some children have a delay in the development of their fine motor muscles and therefore, have difficulty manipulating small objects, holding a pencil, and performing certain tasks. Many activities are used to help children develop intrinsic control and strengthen such muscles in order to succeed in other activities, which build on fine motor skills.
Activities to Try:
-Paper punch, using a hole puncher. Random holes or follow along a line or design.
-Using salad servers, tongs, tweezers- practice picking up small objects and placing them into containers.
-Using basters, eyedroppers, squirt guns- spray balloons, table, suspended toy, feet, etc.
-All types of art projects, which involve paint, crayons, markers, chalk, glue, scissors, pipe cleaners, etc.
-Manipulative toys using 2 hands- Legos, Duplo, tinker toys, lacing cards, magnetics.
-String beads, cheerios, macaroni, buttons, paper shapes.
-Playdoh/ putty- push, pull, mold, roll
-Pinch clothespins around can or box
-Etch- A- Sketch
-Mazes and Dot-to-Dot Art
-Pop bubble wrapper
-Wring out sponges
-Play with travel sized games- which include smaller pieces rather then full size game.
-Open and close lids, jars, etc.
-Pegboards- place various sized pegs in, follow sequence of peg colors.
-Stamp pad printing, holding handles of stampers
-Use pinto beans to make shapes, letters, designs, glue onto paper.
-Tissue paper pictures- tear small pieces of tissue and roll into tiny circles and glue onto paper.
-Spray squeeze water bottle or hair spray bottle filled with water.
-Seal zip lock bags of goodies, sand, rocks, seashells, and candy.
-Pick up fragile objects with tweezers or fingers without breaking them. (ie: cornflakes, mini marshmallows)
-Lite Bright, Don’t Spill the Beans, Perfection, and other board games with small pieces
-Coin games- place 10 pennies in a row and have child flip over each one as fast as possible. Place into piggy bank.
-Colorforms
Bilateral Hand Activities:
Activities that encourage children to use two hands together in an integrated fashion are important for the development of skills such as cutting and manipulating objects with two hands and eye- hand coordination tasks.
Activities to try:
-String beads or cheerios to make an editable necklace.
-Cutting newspaper, coupons (dotted lines), shapes, lines, playdoh.
-Using rolling pin with both hands.
-Catching ball with 2 hands
-Simon Says game
-Riding tricycle, Hotwheels
-Ball rolling to each other
-Screw and unscrew lids, from jars, nuts & bolts.
Visual Perceptual Activities:
Visual perception involves all visual skills and the way the brain interprets such information in order to perform certain tasks and manipulate self in the environment.
Activities to try:
-Block designs (copy specific design from picture or 3 dimension.)
-Copy pegboard designs
-Complete dot to dot designs
-Puzzles
-Matching games
-Sort objects by size, shape, color, etc.
-Mazes
-Stringing beads following patterns or model.
-Cutting shapes, line, fringe paper.
-Color within lines of picture.
-Flash light fun- Follow with finger and eyes the light around the room.