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Check out some fun, PT ideas from Miss Lauren!

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Here are some ideas from Miss Sondra (DCIU Physical Therapist Assistant)!

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Fun Things to Do With Children in Delaware County

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Fun Things to Do With Children in Delaware County

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Check out this website for fun (and free) activities to do with your child across Delaware County!

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Fun Things To Do With Kids, Fun Things To Do With Children, Media, Garnet Valley, Concordville, Havertown, Moms Springfield, Haverford, Kids events,

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Write your child's name on a piece of cardboard! Have your child glue cotton balls onto it. After it dries, have them use watercolors or food coloring/water to "paint" the letters of their name!

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Use Playdough to make letters, shapes or numbers! 

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Use Playdough to make letters, shapes or numbers! 

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Sensory activities are a great way to help your child regulate their emotions! Below are some ideas for sensory-bin activities:
- using watercolors to paint snow (if is snows)
- play dough
- making slime
- making fake snow (google to get a recipe)
- cotton balls and spoons/tongs/etc.
- water play

Be sure to monitor your child, especially if they often put things into their mouth!

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As messy as art projects can get, process art is such a great way for your child to develop OT skills, language skills, and express themselves! Allow your child to free paint, draw, markers, etc.. We often use glitter, markers, paint, stickers, crayons, or watercolors to make art in the classroom! You and your child can talk about what colors you're using, what you see, what they are making!

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Here are some ideas for your child to practice their fine motor skills!

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35 Fine Motor Activities: Our Therapists’ Ultimate List - NAPA

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We’ve compiled the ultimate list of fine motor skills activities for toddlers, preschoolers, and kids as chosen by our pediatric therapists.

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You can use this to help keep a structure during the day that is similar to class!

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Sensory and imaginative play!
Ingredients:
-Corn Starch
-Hair conditioner
-Paint
-Optional: white glitter
Directions:
-Add 2 cups of Corn starch to a bowl.
-Then add 1 cup of conditioner and mix well, first with a spoon then by hand to knead it into a soft dough.
-Choose colors you wish to make such as “unicorn” like colors, pale blue, pale pink and pale purple.
-Split the plain dough into separate bowls and add a squirt of paint to each, then simply knead it in to even out the color.
Optional: Add a liberal shaking of white glitter.
Play extras: Unicorn or pony figurine toy
Your child can play and explore with this soft squishy dough. Have fun!

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using some different supplies (i.e. play dough, rubber ducks, cookie cutters, pipe cleaners, different tools, etc.) pretend to play in the duck pond!

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Our class does a monthly STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics) project! This website provides some ideas for doing safe science at home!

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Practice sorting by color with different cereals!

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Write letters on a large piece of paper (in black marker) and have you child use a q-tip to trace the letters! This can also be done with shapes and numbers!

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using letters, numbers, shapes, and/or colors write on cups and your dinosaurs to make a fun matching game!

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practice identifying your colors with this fun challenge! Look for things for each color around your house! Can be done with shapes and letters (find something that stars with A..)

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once you've mastered your 1-step direction following, you can give 2-step direction following a try!

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Practice following 1-step directions

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Using a cookie sheet, you can trap some of your favorite toys into the slots with tape! Have your child work to cut or peel off the tape for some good fine motor practice!

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Hide letters all around your house and have your child get up and collect them all! Make sure they are identifying the letter! For an extra challenge, look for something in your house that starts with each letter or try lowercase letters!

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In the classroom, we use a lot of prompting to engage students in learning! Please let me know if you need more clarification on this topic!

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Some additional prompting information!

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One of the DCIU Early Intervention Teachers put this together to help families better understand some of the terms they hear their child's teachers and therapists use!

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Everyday Activities that are Educational! 

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Everyday Activities that are Educational! 

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More and more, it seems like requirements like homework and summer packets are becoming an unreasonable ask of families. (And maybe they always have been.) But how much do those kinds of assignments really matter? I'd venture to say not that much. I think we'd be better served by encouraging a variety of everyday activities that are 1)more likely to happen and 2)have learning benefits. These kinds of activities have their limits (kids aren't going to learn calculus from cooking dinner), but overall, you can feel good about kids furthering their learning through these at-home activities.

Cooking and baking

There are a variety of subjects to be learned in the kitchen. There's the practical skills of being able to prepare a meal for yourself or your family, but there is plenty of academic content involved as well, like math, science, and vocabulary. Little ones can practice counting, sequencing, measuring, and even build their fine motor skills. Older students can work on fractions, conversions, and chemistry (from boiling points to the yeast's reaction with sugar).

Meal planning

Before heading to the grocery store, kids can plan a menu and create a shopping list. They're learning responsibility, sure, but they're also getting quite a bit of math. For example, they may need to convert a recipe that feeds four to one that feeds their family of six. Integrate nutrition by requiring each meal to have a protein, whole grain, and vegetable. You can also give them a budget and have them place an online grocery order.

Budgeting

Speaking of budgets, it's always a good time to incorporate some financial literacy into at-home learning. Young children can try the "three jars" method: one for saving, one for spending, and one for sharing (have them pick a cause that's important to them). Kids with allowances and teens with income from a job should do some simple budgeting. Apps like Mint are pretty user-friendly.

Checking the weather forecast

For easy early statistics instruction, look no further than the weather app on your phone or your local news station. Talk to kids about predictions based on data and how meteorologists forecast the weather. Have them look up weather phenomena they hear about and words they don't know. Extend the learning by having kids create their own weather journal.

Building with LEGO

LEGO bricks have STEM written all over them. Kids who build with LEGO sets learn to use basic materials to complete a task. And following those directions is no easy feat! They can even come up with their own ideas (a bridge! a skyscraper!) and use engineering concepts to bring it to life. LEGO bricks can also be used to teach all kinds of math concepts.

Playing card games

Card games can help children learn everything from arithmetic and shape recognition to strategy and social skills. Many card games require serious critical thinking. Our favorites for the younger set include memory, old maid, and go fish. Older kids can learn more complicated games, such as rummy or pinochle.

Playing board games

Board games have all kinds of benefits, such as learning the art of losing and winning gracefully, but they're also a great brain booster. Games like Chutes and Ladders and Candyland help our youngest learners with one-to-one correspondence. For kids struggling with language, games like Scrabble and Boggle can provide much-needed practice. Strategy games such as Settlers of Catan, Risk, and (of course) chess, get that frontal cortex working.

Doing puzzles

Puzzles are a fun challenge and an incredible educational tool. Those big, chunky puzzles for little ones build hand-eye coordination, small muscle control, and spatial awareness. Jigsaw puzzles can help older kids with spatial reasoning and problem-solving. Because they require so much attention to detail, they can also promote a longer attention span.

Imaginative play

There's no such thing as "just" playing. All play is learning. Imaginative play, such as dress-up, doll play, and role play, promotes creativity and emotional, social, and language development. And those skills are precursors to academic learning. Big kids can get in on the action (and benefits), too, with highly involved role-play games like Dungeons & Dragons.

Listening to music

Music just makes everyone happier, but it's more than a dose of feel-good medicine (although, frankly, that should be reason enough). Research shows that pleasurable music is able to influence task performance . To get the full benefits of music, go beyond just listening and try singing along, dancing, and/or clapping. In other words, you have full dance party permission.

Reading

There's no such thing as too much reading. Let kids read whatever they want: picture books, magazines, graphic novels, even nutrition labels. Why? Because the amount of free reading done outside of school is positively correlated with growth in vocabulary, reading comprehension, and fluency.

Coloring, drawing, painting

Trending adult coloring books tell us everything we need to know about the healing power of coloring. It's a great de-stressor for kids, too. On top of that, it improves motor skills and spatial awareness. Drawing and painting foster creativity at the same time they teach concepts like line, shapes, colors, perspective, and forms.

Listening to podcasts or audiobooks

Podcasts and audiobooks stimulate kids' imaginations (because there's no visual component) and can even improve their reading skills (listening while reading along can help with decoding). There are tons of entertaining podcasts for kids with an educational bent. Check out our list of best podcasts for kids.

Writing letters or emails

Composing letters or emails is a great way to teach the mechanics of writing. Kids have to be thoughtful, plan out what they want to say, and figure out the best way to communicate that. Spelling and grammar must be correct for the recipient to understand.

Taking a walk

Learning to take care of one's physical self is a critical part of any child's education. Taking a walk keeps kids healthy in both body and mind. If you want to make the experience more educational, make it a nature walk and have kids document their observations.

Cleaning and doing chores

Participating in housework teaches those all-important life skills that will help kids to grow into independent adults. It also builds a strong work ethic and time management skills. When kids have to figure out how to fit the dishes in the dishwasher or sort socks, they engage in problem-solving.

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16 Everyday Activities That Count as Learning

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More and more, it seems like requirements like homework and summer packets are becoming an unreasonable ask of families. (And maybe they always have been.) But how much do those kinds of assignments really matter? I'd venture to say not that much.

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Tips for Incorporating Movement Breaks into your Home Routine

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Tips for Incorporating Movement Breaks into your Home Routine

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I am excited to welcome Sarah Selznick, MS OTR/L from Sarah The O.T. to the blog today. She is an occupational therapist with a background working with children and in the schools. She is sharing with us five tips for incorporating movement into busy school and home routines.

Physical movement is an important part of child development. Children who are proficient with movement have higher cognition and academic achievement (Donnelly & Lambourne, 2011). Children with higher levels of aerobic fitness have higher performance on mathematics and reading scores (Castilli et. al. 2007). Furthermore, more recess activity time is associated with improvements in attention, concentration, and on-task classroom behavior (CDC, 2010). However, fitting movement essential activity into your child's day can be difficult. For teachers with high academic demands and little flex time in their schedules, incorporating movement into a routine can be especially difficult. Even taking a short "movement breaks" throughout the day can feel like an intrusion to the ever expanding to-do list of an elementary school teacher or parent who is trying to keep up with demands from curriculum and school boards.

As an occupational therapist, I've spent over six years helping teachers and parents bring more movement into their child's day. Here are some tips and tricks to help you seamlessly incorporate physical activity into your day and to help change your perspective on the role of movement in your classroom, daycare, or home setting.

Movement is the activity - not a break from the activity!

One of the biggest paradigm shifts you can make is to stop thinking of movement as a "break" from your routine, and instead to make it part of your pre-established routine. This can be done by "sliding in" or infusing your routine with movement. For example, if you are teaching your child to count by twos (or ones, or fives, or tens!) why not jump it out? For each number you count, have your child jump in place as they say the number. You can easily slide in 5-10 minutes of high energy movement this way. Transition times are another natural place to slide in movement - perhaps children have to jump, skip or hop back to their seats instead of quietly walking. Moving from desks to floor time? Pick an animal and move to circle time by walking like that animal. Once your start thinking about infusing your routines with movements, you'll see there are many natural times in your day where you can continue with your planned activity while incorporating movement.

Monitor energy levels throughout your day

Sometimes a break is JUST what you need! With time restraints you want to make sure you're a planning a break in your routine efficiently. A great way to assess your schedule is to keep track of your class energy level for a few days. Mark times of your day where your students or children are "high energy" "low energy" or "ready to learn". After a few days of tracking you may notice some patterns such as children being "high energy" after lunch, or "low energy" at the start of math. You can tailor your breaks to target these times by incorporating an energizing or relaxing activity break before your child's energy levels get "too low" or "too high". It might take some careful observation, charting, and trial-and error, but you can find efficient and meaningful times to take movement breaks so you're students or children maintain a "ready to learn" energy level.

Don't just stand there! YOU are the best model!

The CDC reports that teachers who demonstrate activities are more likely to engage students, and engaged students are more likely to participate in movement! Be sure to talk about your own energy level throughout the day and tell the children you work with when YOU need a to physical activity to adjust your energy level. Once your decide on how you will deliver a movement task, make sure you try out the activities and participate with your child or class. Go slowly so the children can observe your modeling, but most of all - have fun! Children who see you having fun with movement are more likely to have fun themselves. This will help them get the most out of their movement breaks.

Keep it simple - no need to over complicate the movement.

Sometimes children who have difficulty coordinating their movements will decline an activity, or participate in an unsafe way (moving too fast, not staying in their spot). You can address this by keeping your movements simple. If you're working in a classroom with diverse movement learners, you want to make sure the activities you pick are things all of your students are able to do. You can seek the guidance from an OT/PT to help you pick an activity, or choose developmental movements that are slightly below your child's age group. Once all of your students have mastered the movements you can work to achieve more complicated tasks. You can also help students by visually designating the area they are expected to move in by using poly spot markers or tape on the floor. Another great way to ensure a successful and simple movement break, or movement infusion, is to slowly model the exercise yourself first so children understand the expectations.

Clarify when movement time is over

Nothing puts a damper on a classroom movement break then having to take 20 minutes to transition out of the activity back to the academic task. To make the most of your time, make sure your have a way to transition from the activity back to the task. Or, if you have incorporated movement into an academic lesson make it clear when the movement part is over. This can be done by having a secret signal with your class to sit down (three claps? A whistle?), simply stating "movement time is over, have a seat", or redirecting to the next task "Math is over, when you're seated you can choose your area for center time". It's always good to take a moment to refocus with some deep breathing or a song after a fun movement game, especially if the next expectation is to sit and attend.

Whatever the method, incorporating movement into your day is essential to child development. Trial and error is usually the best way to find out what works for you and the children you work with. Be flexible and understanding of yourself and your students as you try to incorporate new habits into your routine - and before you know it you'll be moving the day away!

Resources:
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2010. The association between school-based physical activity, including physical education, and academic performance.
Castelli, D.M., Hillman, C.H., Buck, S.M., Erwin, H.E., 2007. Physical fitness and academic achievement in third- and fifth-grade students. J. Sport Exerc. Psychol. 29, 239-252.
Donnelly, J., & Lambourne, K. (2011). Classroom-based physical activity, cognition, and academic achievement. Preventive Medicine, 52, S36-S42.

About Sarah

Sarah W. Selznick, MS OTR/L is a pediatric occupational therapist who specializes in helping children succeed with activities such as handwriting, play, self-care, academics, and social skills. Sarah's practice has focused on school-based therapy and promoting functional movement, active play, and sensory exploration to children who have developmental and learning disabilities. Sarah is the former head of the OT/PT department at LearningSpring School - a school for children on the Autism Spectrum in New York City - and currently works as an OT in the Shenandoah Valley, VA. Sarah is the creator of the web series "The Sensory Explorer Show" which available to view on YouTube. Sarah also writes about pediatric occupational therapy on her blog Sarah The OT and Instagram @sensoryexplorers

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5 Tips For Incorporating Movement into Busy School and Home Routines

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I am excited to welcome Sarah Selznick, MS OTR/L from Sarah The O.T. to the blog today. She is an occupational therapist with a background working with children and in the schools. She is sharing with us five tips for incorporating movement into busy school and home routines.

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Learn all about prompting strategies and the prompting hierarchy that we use in the classroom and how you can use it at home!

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Flipgrid is where social and emotional learning happens! The leading video discussion platform for millions of PreK to PhD educators, students, and families.

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First-Then PowerPoint of Information for Families!

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First-Then PowerPoint of Information for Families!

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This tool can be used if you are having difficulty switching between activities or transitioning! You can sue pictures of what you need and say (for example) "FIRST, we need to clean up, THEN we can play outside". If you need help finding visuals for this, please let me or Miss Jenna know!