As parents and teachers, how many times have you said to children, “stop playing with your food”? There is evidence based research indicating an association between food tactile play and food preferences in children. A recent experimental study examining preschool children and their parents, indicated that children in a sensory fruits and vegetable play condition […]
Complete this picture of the hot air balloon while practicing prewriting lines and strokes. This is a free printable that you can download below to practice diagonal and curved lines. It is from the Prewriting Handwriting Activity Pages packet. After the child completes the picture, he/she can color or paint it. DOWNLOAD PREWRITING LINES AND […]
The Handwriting and Keyboarding survey has ended with over 200 responses. The purpose of this survey was to get the opinions of pediatric therapists, parents and teachers on handwriting versus keyboarding. Here are the overall responses with comments at the bottom. Please don’t forget to answer the current survey when you are done reading this […]
Need free, green, festive St. Patrick’s Day handwriting pages? Here are two sample pages from the St. Patrick’s Day Handwriting Packet. On page one, you can laminate and cut apart the words cards for a quick, handwriting warm up. Page two is a handwriting template with 1 inch lines and a green highlighted bottom line. […]
I found this fun, new fine motor building blocks, Plus-Plus, at the Toy Fair 2017 in NYC. Each building block is a small double plus sign that interlocks together. You can use your imagination and creativity to create endless possibilities. Children will have to use fine motor and visual motor skills to connect the blocks […]
Recent research examined atypical sensory and repetitive behaviors in children with autism spectrum disorder through video recording observations to determine the influence of environmental factors. The participants included 32 children with autism spectrum disorder (2–12 years of age) engaging in sensory and repetitive behaviors during home activities. Using the video recording, behavioral coding was used to […]
The Journal of Physiotherapy completed a research review examining whether constraint-induced movement therapy improves upper limb activity and participation in children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy. Only randomized trials (31 papers out of 597 screened abstracts) were included in the review. The randomized trials included children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy with any level of motor […]
The March 2017 issue of the Your Therapy Source digital magazine for pediatric occupational and physical therapy has been published. The table of contents includes: PROPRIOCEPTION AND HANDWRITING LETTER REVERSALS AND ADHD MATH, MOVEMENT AND MOTOR SKILLS MANUAL MOTOR SKILLS, DAILY LIVING SKILLS AND AUTISM MOTOR SKILLS AND EXECUTIVE FUNCTION YOGA AND ADHD BRAIN ACTIVATION […]
It is almost that time of year, when we can start heading outdoors everyday to enjoy the fresh air (although today when woke up it was only 14 degrees out). While we dream of warmer days, try this Fresh Air Fitness routine from the Spring Packet. Practice it indoors until you can bring the kids […]
The American Journal of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation performed a research review to determine whether therapeutic riding and hippotherapy improve balance, motor function, gait, muscle symmetry, pelvic movement, psychosocial parameters, and the patients’ overall quality of life. Following a literature search, 16 articles were included in the review. Assessment revealed: most of the studies showed […]