Busy Bags

Keeping a child occupied doesn't need to be time consuming or stressful. There are plenty of easy ways to quickly put together activities where you will be able to keep your child occupied, while they are learning at the same time!

We quite often use ‘busy bag’ activities to work on various skills such as fine and gross motor, speech (talking about colors, shapes, animals, etc.), attention to detail, and concentration.  The wonderful thing about busy bags is that depending on how many you have, it is easy to swap them out so that you always have a variety of activities to do. Another great thing about busy bags is that they can vary in difficulty and length of time, so if your child needs easier activities that don’t require a long attention span you can alter the busy bag to fit their needs. You can also create themed busy bags to match seasons or various holidays, providing further learning opportunities.

Here are links to some of our favorite Busy Bags!

Pom Pom Stuff It In 

Roll a Monster Game 

Felt Caterpillar 

Dry Erase Busy Bags 

Shapes, Counting and Colors

You can also find more Busy Bags over on our Pinterest page. 

Featured App: Heads Up! By Warner Bros.

Heads Up! is an interactive app that is fun for kids and adults. This app is available for both Android (free) and Apple ($0.99) devices. Heads Up! comes with seven card decks including: Happy Holidays, Act It Out, Superstars, Animals, Accents & Impressions, Just for Kids, and Famous Families. Additional decks are available for purchase at $0.99 each.

Once a deck is selected, a player places the phone or tablet up to his or her head. A second player describes each word or phrase so that the first player can guess what it is. The tablet or phone is flipped forward when the item is guessed correctly and flipped backward to pass to the next item. The player or team who can guess the most words within the one minute time limit wins! 

Heads Up! is a great app to target turn-taking and teamwork. It is a fun way to practice language skills such as using clues to identify an item and using expressive language to describe people, objects, actions, or animals. In addition, a video is recorded during each round and may be played back for review. The video feature can allow the child visual feedback on facial expressions, body language, and can help with understanding different perspective taking techniques. 

Requires iOS 6.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. This app is optimized for iPhone 5.

Requires Android 2.3 and up.

If you have any questions about this app, or would like to see other featured apps, please visit the resources page on our website at www.pediatrictherapypartners.com.

It’s Turkey Time!

The holidays present many wonderful opportunities for learning. In the spirit of Thanksgiving we’re busy incorporating turkeys into our sessions giving the children ways to work on their speech and fine motor, along with other skills in their time with us.

We have different variations turkeys hanging out with us this month. We’re talking about colors that we want our turkeys to be, how long their legs should be, what shapes we are using, how we should attach the various pieces of the turkeys together, and so on.

For our first turkey we used half of a paper plate, tissue paper squares, a construction paper circle, and construction paper for the beak and giblet. Depending on the age of the kiddo and the skill set that they have, we’ll let them cut out the different pieces needed; such as cutting the plate in half, the tissue paper into squares, and the construction paper into the shapes needed for the head, beak and giblet.

  

For our second turkey we used half a paper plate, construction paper for the body, head, eyes, beak, giblet and legs. We colored the feathers onto the edges of the plate, and glued the various body parts of the turkey to the plate. We worked on our folding skills with giving the legs a little dimension, and cut the ends for feet.

Both of these activities are really easy to do with the kiddos with only a minimal mess to clean up at the end, and covers speech, gross motor skills, fine motor skills, decision making, and creativity.

Skills Addressed with Carving a Pumpkin

Carving a pumpkin creates a great way for children to work on their occupational, physical, and speech-language skills through the use of a fun task right at home. Skills including gross motor, fine motor, visual motor, speech, social skills, decision making, bilateral coordination, imagination and creativity are all skills that are used while carving a pumpkin.

Choosing a pumpkin creates an opportunity for a child to use their decision making skills and their social skills. If they are given the opportunity to choose a pumpkin on their own it creates an environment where they not only will have to weigh the options of which pumpkin to pick, but they will also be using their independence to pick out their pumpkin, and to be confident in their selection. Picking out a pumpkin also allows you (or others) to have a conversation with your child to get them speaking. Language such as “shall we get the big pumpkin or the little pumpkin?” and, “Which one do you want?” gives children the opportunity to interact and describe which size and look of pumpkin they would like.  They are also given the chance to use their gross motor skills through this process by picking up pumpkins, pushing them around, and carrying them to the car.

After a child has made the decision on which pumpkin they would like to carve, they need to clean out the inside of the pumpkin. Tactile input can be incorporated by using their hands to clean out the pumpkin, as the guts are cold and squishy. Then bilateral skills and upper body strength can be incorporated by holding the pumpkin with one hand and using a spoon to scrape with the other hand. You can incorporate speech by asking them to describe how the insides of the pumpkin feel to them. Do they feel slimy or squishy? Are they cold or warm?

Fine motor skills are incorporated when drawing on the pumpkin to decide where to cut out for the eyes, nose and mouth. This also is another opportunity for the child to use their imagination and creativity, along with decision making. Depending on the age of a child you might want to do the cutting yourself and let them watch, but overall the end result will be that your child put to use many of their skills to get to the end point of carving a pumpkin, and they can be proud of the results too! 

The Importance of Timers

A timer can be an important tool for success with daily activities and routines for children of all ages. A visual timer helps children understand the concept of time by allowing them to see the movement of time. This can be a good motivator as it allows a child to visually see an end to an activity or how long they must wait for a preferred activity. It can also assist with smooth transitions so the child knows when to expect a change in routine.

There are a variety of visual timer apps available for both apple and android products, which have an option for alarm sounds and the ability to choose the time duration. Some of these include: 

	Android Or Apple	App Title	Developer	Price	Description
	Android	Flip's Timer	Spark Developer	Free	Time elapses visually on  a circular picture.
	Android	Time Timer	Time Timer LLC	$1.99	Shows elapsed time on analog clock.
	Android	EasyKidTimer	Goodbehaviortools.com	$1.00	Shows elapsed time on  analog clock. Customizable  with ability to import  pictures and descriptions.
	Android	Kids Timer	Skywise	Free	Time elapses visually on a circular picture. Option for visual to move  faster/slower.
	Apple	Children's Countdown -  Visual countdown timer for preschoolers	Fehners Software LLP	Free	Timer uncovers a picture as it counts down. Optional  sound. Up to 60  minutes of time
	Apple	Kids Countdown -  Visual timer for preschool  children	Idea4e	Free	Timer uncovers picture as  it counts down.  Optional Sound
	Apple	ASD Tools	Chestnut Apps	Free	Timer shows digital and visual countdown.  Able to select  from  picture library or  import your own picture.
	Apple	Time Timer	Time Timer LLC	$2.99 iPhone,  $4.99 iPad	Shows elapsed time on  analog clock.
	Apple	Timer+ Touch HD	Six Axis LLC	$1.99	Time elapses visually on a circular  clock-like picture

If you have any questions about these apps, or any other ways that the therapists at Pediatric Therapy Partners can help your child, please visit our website at www.pediatrictherapypartners.com