My family had fun putting together the sensory components of this beloved children's book. Sensory items can be anything you have in the house or outside. If you can't go outside for the entire activity, bring in some outdoor items for your child to experience. Pull some grass or leaves for grass, sticks and leaves for the forest, ect. The idea is to expose your child do different sensory elements. Even if they seem uninterested, just touching and experiencing different tactile items is progress. Creating an obstacle course inside to act out the "over and "under" parts of the story also provide sensory input and work on gross motor skills that are a foundation for movement and learning. For example, try putting a blanket over the backs of chairs and have them crawl under and then step up over a chair to act out that part and/or the children can tip toe to "sneak" past a stuffed animal bear. Have fun and let me know if you have any questions!
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The above videos are meant to be watched in order to show a progression of the task. Mat man may get old for adults but it doesn't seem to for the kids. The 3 year old and 4 year old preschool classes are very familiar with Mat Man. Thankfully at this point in the year, they are all use to drawing Mat Man because I left my pieces to make him at school. Please see the video for the song and demonstration. We are not techy over here, so video quality is the best I can do with my phone at the moment. Mat Man is from the Handwriting Without Tears curriculum. It's designed to teach the fundamental pre writing shapes, body awareness, and visual motor and perceptual skills. It's a 4 -5 minute activity that can touch on all of those points, and you don't have to print anything out! I don't know about you but I've learned so much this week about technology but I know there is still more to learn! All of the 4 year old preschoolers, kindergarteners, and many students in first and second grade are familiar with animal walks from their OT sessions with me. We typically do these at the beginning of our session for the following reasons; 1) it's movement and the students were likely just sitting (blood pools in the hips when sitting and movement helps the blood get back to the brain for learning) 2) it gives the students sensory input to the joints for a calming sensation 3) it's strengthens the core, shoulders, and hands which is necessary for functional tasks especially handwriting 4) the movements work on eye/hand coordination and motor planning which is essential for smaller motor tasks such as handwriting. Please watch the You Tube videos for instructions on how to help your children do these animal walks. You will see the seal walk is typically the most difficult. Also, many preschoolers will not yet be able to do the crab walk, so don't worry if your child is greatly struggling with that one. I have been doing these at home with my kids before they are sitting at the table or sitting to listen to me read. It gives them some of that input so that they last for a 10 minute academic activity.
As you're stuck in the house you may notice the kids need to get out some energy. Here's an activity you can do with items you have at home and without going outside. If you can go outside for a bit, that's the best. But I know that not everyone has a yard, parks are closed, and/or some parents have babies and it's just hard to get out. First, please forgive me, I am not the best at taking videos! I can imagine that I will get better over the next couple of weeks! This is an example of a preschool crossing midline and strengthening activity. I promise he started on top of the table! He has a wet paper towel and I asked him to "clean" the table. Of course I didn't actually expect him to clean it, but the activity involves so many physical actions and sensory and is simple.
Pretend there is an imaginary line that goes down the middle of your body, anytime you reach across your body you are crossing midline. This is good for your brain and body. As he is "cleaning" he's reaching across his midline. Then since he is on his stomach, he's strengthening his core as he has to lift his head up to look around. And finally, he's strengthening his shoulders as he's reaching up while on his stomach. When thinking about strengthening, it starts at the middle of your body (core) and moves out. A strong core allows the rest of the body to gain strength. A child needs core strength, shoulder strength, and then hand strength to participate in fine motor activities once they get to preschool and kindergarten. The sensory aspect is the wet towel! Some children will love that it's wet and some many not want to touch it. Start with it slightly damp and see how your child reacts. If they're ok with it, then you can get it more wet. If they're not ok with it maybe have part of the towel damp and the other dry and tell them they can hold the dry side. You never know, they may be curious and touch the wet part. Oh and I did sweep...you know you can never get all the cheerios! Thanks for watching! LeAnn Hi there!
The first topic I'd like to address is motor planning. Many of the preschoolers I see have some kind of difficulty with motor planning. Motor planning is the body's ability to plan movements in a coordinated manner. For example, riding a bike requires motor planning. Once the body practices the movements of pedaling, balancing, steering, and braking over and over again, it becomes automatic. That's why people say "it's just like riding a bike..." typically once a movement becomes automatic it no longer takes the cognitive effort for your body to perform the task. One of the simplest forms of motor planning we work on in preschool OT is imitation of actions. This can be as simple as a demand such as "do this" and then I put my body in a position that they have to imitate. Many of our 3 year olds are working on jumping. It would be amazing if you could continue to work with them on jumping at home. This is just a two foot take off and landing. They do not need to jump over anything but just practice bending their knees and then pushing up and landing back on their two feet. Another example would be saying "do this" and then putting both arms in the air, or out to the side, or stand on one foot. Try very simple positions and then if your child masters it, you can move to something more complicated. For four year old preschoolers, most have mastered jumping with two feet. Now they can work on hopping. Hopping is a 2-3 year old skill, but most of our students have gross motor delays. If you're child seems to have mastered jumping with two feet, try asking them to hop - give them an example by doing it yourself. Also they may need hand held assistance at first to get the motor planning aspect of it down before they can concentrate on the balancing piece. If your child struggles, think about breaking down the task to the very first step. For example, balance on one foot, then bend the knee, then jump, etc. Motor planning is involved in gross motor activities but also speech, social, and following any type of direction. It's one category that can be worked on at home without any supplies, yay! Look for future posts and/or videos with more ideas. Thanks for reading! LeAnn |
AuthorLeAnn Wald Archives
May 2020
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