Handwriting Games

Sometimes getting your child to write can be challenging. Here are some fun games to help make sure your child is forming all his or her letters correctly.

Handwriting Game #1

You will need: paper, pen, ruler, cup

Step 1: Draw boxes on a piece of paper. (Your or your child can do this with a ruler)

42 boxes are shown in this picture but there should be 52 boxes when actually playing

Step 2: Write all the letters of the alphabet inside the boxes. Both uppercase and lowercase letters.

Each box should contain a letter of the alphabet.

Step 3: Have your child cut out the boxes. Make sure they hold the scissor correctly.

Your child should hold the scissor with this grasp.

Step 4: Have your child crumble all the pieces into little balls and place them into a cup.

This is called a pincer grasp

Step 5: Take another piece of paper and draw boxes again. In the first box write the words ‘Uppercase Letters’ and in the 4rd box going down write the words ‘Lowercase Letters’.

This is the the last step before starting the game

Step 6: Ask your child if they wanna be on Team Uppercase or Team Lowercase.

Step: 7: Tell your child this is a race to see whose team can fill up their boxes first. Take turns pulling out letters from the cup. If you get an uppercase letter you write it in the uppercase boxes and if you get a lowercase letter you write it in the lowercase boxes. Whichever teams boxes fills up first will win!

This is how the game should look while in progress

Note: If you get a letter that is not on your team you can still write it in the box. For example, if you are on team lowercase and get an uppercase A you still write the uppercase A in the uppercase boxes.

Handwriting Game #2

Materials Needed: Marker, Pencil and Paper

Directions: 

1. Either you or your child will use a marker to make rows of dots on white paper.

192 dots

2.Choose a letter that your child needs practice forming. Then have your child pick the letter that you will be writing.

This is how the game looks while playing it

3. Each player takes a turn connecting 2 adjacent dots. If you form a box during your turn you then write the letter you have chosen in that box.

4. When all the boxes are filled up have your child count to see how many are filled with his or her letter. The person with the most is the winner!

Note: Throughout this activity make sure each player is using the following grasp when using the pencil and marker:

This is how your child should hold his or her marker (tripod grasp)

For more on how to form letters correctly see the Handwriting Without Tears program frequently used by schools and Occupational Therapists.

http://www.hwtears.com/hwt

Visual Perceptual Activities: Depth Perception

 

Visual Perceptual Activities: Depth Perception:

Does your child struggle with following an appropriate gait pattern when walking up or down stairs? Does your child experience difficulty when reaching for the monkey bars or trapeze bar in the playground? Does your child have difficulty when reaching for clothing or other items on closet shelves at height level? Does your child often trip when stepping over the curb while crossing the street? Does your child have difficulty reaching for toys floating in the water when  playing in the bathtub? Does your child overreach at mealtime while reaching for food and when feeding himself?  If your child struggles during any of these daily tasks, there may be an underlying depth perception issue. Here are some activities to which can increase your child’s depth perception:

Depth perception : Ability to determine how far away something is from yourself or another object. Depth perception is used for walking, playing games such as baseball, dressing, eating, grooming,  etc. example: ability to judge how steep a stair is before you take a step.

Activities: 1) Place objects in various locations on a stair case. Ask the child to identify which objects are closer to himself and which items are closer to the adult. Ask the child to identify which objects are positioned within similar distances. Then, allow the child to reposition the objects on the floor with instructions about which objects should be positioned closer and further away from a given reference point. For example, “put the frog above the duck,” or “put the snake next to the rabbit.”

2) Paste pictures of toys onto stickies. Ask the child to place the stickies on various toys in the playroom.

3) For older kids (five and above), use a large shoebox to create a diorama with the child using various objects and materials. Explain to the child where each item should be placed.

For more information or to set up an appointment for your child please call 718-601-7400 or email kidsinmotionot{at}optonline{dot}net.

Visual Perceptual Activities: Position in Space

 

Visual Perceptual Activities: Position in Space

Does your child have difficulty locating a given area on a coloring sheet or homework page? Does your child struggle with reading from left to right? Does your child experience putting age-appropriate puzzles together? Does your child color on one side of a page and leave the other side blank? Does your child forget where to start reading? Does your child experience difficulty with math problems with two or more digit numbers? Here are some activities which can enhance your child’s ability to recognize appropriate position in space and increase proper directionality:

Position in Space: Awareness of the spatial orientation between yourself and objects in the environment,as well as relationship between objects. Position in space is a basis for recognizing directional relationships such as up and down, right and left, behind and in front of.

Activities: 1)  Ask the child to locate animals on the floor or on elevated surfaces or various heights. Tell the child “point to the animal next to the hippo” or “point to the animal behind the dog.”

2)   Create a three-dimensional design with legos, kinex pieces, or building blocks. Ask the child to copy your design in the identical special orientation.

3)  Play a ball activity with the child, such as catch, volleyball, basketball, sketch-it, bowling, kickball, or another other ball game your child prefers.

skipstechtalk.net

For more information or to set up an appointment for your child please call 718-601-7400 or email kidsinmotionot{at}optonline{dot}net.

Visual Perceptual Activities: Figure Ground

Visual Perceptual Activities: Figure Ground

Does your child experience difficulty with hidden pictures? Does your child have trouble finding or tracing shapes in a picture? Does your child struggle when attempting to sort objects into various categories? Does your child struggle when trying to focus on one word on a busy page? Does your child experience difficulty when copying from a busy blackboard? Does your child have trouble finding the arm holes when putting on a dark shirt? Does your child often miss important details in a picture or sentence? Does your child exhibit difficulty finding objects or clothing in cluttered drawers or cabinets? If so, your child may be experiencing difficulty with figure ground. Here are some activities which can help increase visual figure ground:

Visual Figure Ground: Ability to identify an object/figure from a simple or complex background, example: the ability to distinguish a shirt from amongst various pieces of clothing hanging in the closet.

Activities: 1)  Ask your  child to find a list of pictures in a hidden picutre worksheet such as the one shown below. To incorporate writing skills, ask the child to write down each of the pictures as they find them.

Before:

 After:

Before:

After:

2) Ask your child to find a list of item from an “I Spy” book.  Here is a link to a website with free “I Spy” games.

 3) Play the game SET with the child. Spread the cards across the table, and ask the child to scan the cards and locate  a “set” of three cards with one common variable, such as color, shape, or number.

 4) Create an activity out of a grocery shopping trip (or any other shopping outing). Ask the child to locate various items from a given list on crowded grocery shelves. The  level of the activity may be altered depending on if the items on the list are located near each other on the same shelf or spread across various shelves or aisles.

swineline.org

For more information or to set up an appointment for your child please call 718-601-7400 or email kidsinmotionot{at}optonline{dot}net.

Visual Perceptual Activities: Form Constancy

Visual Perceptual Activities: Form Constancy

Does your child experience difficulty recognizing shapes as similar if the size, color, or orientation is changed? Does your child get confused when shapes are presented in different contexts? Does you child confuse numbers and letters when their size is altered? Can your child identify basic shapes when the shapes are part of a larger design? If your child experiences difficulty with any of the above description, here are some activities that can help your child develop visual form constancy:

Form Constancy: Ability to recognize items and shapes as the same, regardless of size, color, or direction, example: the ability to recognize a diamond when it is altered from a blue horizontal diamond to a red vertical diamond.

Activities:  1)  Ask the child to trace numerous shapes of various sizes and cut them out on different colors of construction paper, or use foam shapes. Ask the child to categorize the various shapes on a piece of construction paper or posterboard.

2)  Ask the child to create shapes, letters, or numbers with various materials.

3)  Create or print a page with shape designs composed of various shapes, sizes, and patterns. Ask the child to use a given color to color each  shape, size/ and or pattern in the picture.

For more information or to set up an appointment for your child please call 718-601-7400 or email kidsinmotionot{at}optonline{dot}net.

Kids in Motion Gym

Introducing Kids in Motion:

Now that you’ve heard about Kids in Motion sensory gym, we would like to introduce you to our gym. Here are short descriptions of various sensory issues exhibited in children. Below each description are pictures of swings and equipment utilized to address sensory issues in children.

The sensory system is broken up into three main areas: proprioceptive, tactile, and vestibular.

Proprioceptive sensations originate from receptors in muscles, tendons, and ligaments which surround joints.  Proprioceptive receptors  create body awareness by telling the brain where body parts are and what they are doing without looking. For example, a child who shows poor awareness of their body may have trouble orienting his arms and hands, legs and feet to get dressed, withdraw from movement experiences to avoid touch sensations, and/or purposely bump into objects and seek jumping and crashing opportunities. Below are some activities in our sensory gym which incorporate proprioceptive input:

Tactile sensations originate from receptors in the skin which are activated when we touch or are touched by something. Children who are hyposensitive, or lack adequate tactile sensation, may have trouble perceiving the physical properties of objects, such as texture, or shape. They may be unable to perform fine motor tasks such as using crayons, scissors and forks, and self-help tasks such as zipping and buttoning adequately. Children who are hypersensitive, or exhibit increased tactile awareness, may overreact to light touch sensations, exhibit anxiety, or aggression. Our therapists provide the necessary tactile input and tactile  techniques for such children. Below are some activities in our sensory gym which incorporate tactile input:

Rice activity:

Playdough: Make your own playdough!  Here is a link where you can find various homemade playdough recipes: www.playdoughrecipe.com.

http://www.playdoughrecipe.com/

Chalk board activity:

Dry erase board:

Vestibular sensations originate from the firing of the vestibular apparatus in each inner ear. Vestibular input sends signals to our brain that we are moving, situated on something that is moving, or surrounded by something that is moving. Vestibular is known as the movement sense. The vestibular apparatus also enables our brain to register the pull of gravity on our bodies. Children who experience a decreased tolerance for movement, may lose balance easily and appear clumsy, and/or experience discomfort in elevators and on escalators. Children who experience an increased tolerance for movement, may crave intense movement experiences, have trouble standing still or sitting in a seat, and feel the need to keep moving as much as possible in order to function. A child with gravitational insecurity may become anxious when his feet leave the ground, be fearful of climbing or descending stairs, and feel threatened by head movements, such as when shampooing one’s hair while taking a shower. Below are some activities in our sensory gym which incorporate vestibular input:

For more information or to set up an appointment for your child please call 718-601-7400 or email kidsinmotionot{at}optonline{dot}net.

Handwriting Without Tears

HANDWRITING WITHOUT TEARS (HWT)

http://www.hwtears.com

Does your child experience daily frustrations in the classroom and at home when asked to write letters and numbers? Does your child avoid handwriting activities? Is your child struggling to keep up with classroom curriculum because of sloppy or slow handwriting?  Does your child avoid writing tasks in general? If any of the above descriptions fit your child, then Handwriting Without Tears (HWT) may be the perfect solution to engage your child’s interest through multisensory, easy-learning, and easy-teaching techniques. These techniques are used by experienced OT’s at Kids in Motion OT on a daily basis. These techniques are used to turn mundane tedious activities into child friendly activities to achieve maximum progress.

Jan Olsen created “Handwriting Without Tears” in 1977 to help her son who was overwhelmed by the task of handwriting in first grade. Jan used her occupational therapy training to develop strategies to facilitate proper handwriting development in her child.  Her technique is widely known as easy-to-learn, easy-to-teach, and developmentally appropriate program.

Handwriting Without Tears uses a set of wooden pieces to teach  skills. The set of 26 pieces includes big and little lines and big and little curves which are used to form all of the letters in the alphabet.

The HWT workbook pages are simple and in black and white. The pages are deliberately designed to avoid visual perceptual confusion through distracting backgrounds.

The HWT worksheets are left-hand friendly. Each page has two copies of each word so that both right and left-handed children can view the word without being blocked by the hand which is writing.

HWT uses terminology which is child-friendly. Some terms include “frog jump letters,” “hills and valleys letters,” “kite string letters,”“ magic-c,” “up like a helicopter,” “bump at the top” and “slide down and bump.” The “Starting Corner” capital letters all start in the top left corner.

HWT starts with upper case letters since they are easier to shape, and it works its way through the lower case letters.

Sensory handwriting activities include asking the child to form the capital letters out of playdough. This activity also facilitates strengthening of hand muscles, while encouraging sensory input and proper letter formation.

For  more information or to set up an appointment for your child please call 718-601-7400 or email kidsinmotionot{at}optonline{dot}net.

References: Pre-K Teacher’s Guide by Jan Olsen, OTR, 2004
Handwriting Without Tears Kindergarten Teacher’s Guide by Jan Olsen, OTR, 2003.

Occupational therapy is provided by licensed therapists who design individualized treatment plans for children. The activities on this website may or may not be appropriate for your child. Please consult a professional therapist for a specially designated treatment plan for your child.