Goody Goody Gumdrops! Drawing Made Easy and Fun!

For those of you who are regular readers, you will know that I am always on the lookout for new activity and drawing books.  Yesterday, while walking through one of my favorite Park Slope stores, Annie's Blue Ribbon General Store, I found a great new drawing book:  Goody Gumdrops.  Some kids are naturals when it comes to drawing.  They think about what they want to draw and just go with it.  But for many of the kids I work with, this is not the case.  Not only is not easy for them, it is something that causes them to get frustrated and makes them want to avoid the task all together.

I was eager to test out Goody Gumdrops by Ed Emberley after I saw it the other day. My almost 6 year old daughter was also very eager to test it out and then played with it for about an hour. It is one of the cutest and easy to follow drawing books out there.  If you are unfamiliar with Ed Emberley, he has books filled with easy and creative ways to teach children (although I have learned as well) how to draw by breaking it down into simple steps.  I loved the fingerprint books that were (and still are today) around when I was growing up.  Each page of the Goody Gumdrops book contains two different colored gumdrops with two sets of directions to follow in order to learn how to make a variety of animals. On the back side of the page, there are two other gumdrops that you can try and make the animals without the visual cues.  Kids will learn how to make almost any animal you can imagine.  My daughter loved learning how to draw a hedgehog!  By adding simple shapes and lines to the gumdrops, they have a higher chance of success learning how to draw.  At the end of the book, there are a bunch of other pages with frames for kids to make larger creations that they can then share with people.

Learning how to draw is an important part of growing up.  Not only is it a great way to work on improving graphomotor skills, but it is also great for increasing a child's confidence and self-esteem.  It's also the way kids begin to learn how to tell stories.  Before they learn how to write, they need to rely on drawing pictures to tell us stories.  Often times, kids avoid drawing because it is hard for them and they don't think they are good at it.  Forcing them to draw won't make them learn any better or faster.  Actually, forcing a child to do something that is hard for them may make them hate it and avoid it even more. It's critical that when working on a more challenging skill, that you make it fun and motivating for them to work on.

I am excited to begin using Goody Gumdrops with my kids at work.  It's definitely going to be one of the books that I recommend to families to use at home with their kids.  Do you have any great learn to draw books that you use or recommend to others?  If you have anything wonderful to suggest, I would love to hear about them.  I am only a click away and love hearing from you all!

One Bead at a Time

When my daughter was coming up with her list for Santa Claus last year, she kept this arts and crafts kit she had seen at Toys R Us.  She couldn't tell me much about it but said they had all kinds of beads that you could spray together to make animals and other things.  She was so excited but I had no idea what she was talking about.  When she unwrapped her Beados machine from her babysitter, I though she might explode with happiness.  I, on the other hand, was scared at first and just imaged these little beads spilling and going all over the place.  I also didn't see how Quinn would be able to complete this particular art activity without me helping her for almost the whole thing.  There were some tears (by both of us at one point), but once we successfully finished our first Beado project, we felt really good and excited to make more.  As an occupational therapist, I couldn't help but thinking about how great this particular product would be for some of the kids I work with.

For those of you who haven't heard of them, Beados and Aquabeads are small, colorful beads that stick together when sprayed with water.  They are two different brands of a pretty similar product but do exactly the same thing.  Each kit comes with several templates, a work palette, hundreds of different colored beads and a pen/wand that you use to put the beads into place.  My daughter has this work station kind of thing that comes with a base, a storage spot on the top for all the beads and a special pen that helps put the colored beads into the correct place.  There are tons of different sets out there including magical creatures, foods and sea creatures.  I am a big fan of the Alpha Set by Aquabeads which I have used at work with a bunch of my kids already.  My goal is to have my kids help me make the whole alphabet and then attach magnets or velcro to them and have kids work on letter recognition and practicing spelling words and other kinds of fun alphabet games.  

Total disclosure because it wouldn't be cool of me to not share some important facts about this product.   First of all, there are a lot of tiny pieces...lots and lots of little water beads that you need in order to complete all the patterns.  If they spill, you will be stepping on them for days to come. I highly recommend that you do this at a table with good lighting.  If you have younger children, it might be best to do this with your older kids while they are doing something else because your help will likely be needed.  Secondly, you (as a parent) need to have a lot of patience as your child is completing them.  Your kid will end up getting frustrated or annoyed because it is highly likely that they will end up messing up their design before it's completed.  It may take several attempts before you figure out the best way to complete this activity.  

With all those warnings above, there are a lot more benefits to using Aquabeads or Beados and I have been using them a ton with the older kids on my caseload.  I have found that motivating my older kids to work on things that challenge them becomes increasingly more difficult and they become very good at avoiding them.  Another thing that I have found is that if there is some kind of really cool thing to take home with them and the end of a session, it makes them more excited to work harder and work through those challenges.

Here are a few occupational therapy skills that can be worked on when using Aquabeads or Beados:

Improve Fine Motor Skills-as soon as I started playing with Aquabeads and Beados with my daughter, I thought about how great it would be for those kids who need to work on improving their hand skills.  While they are definitely tricky, they are great for working on developing fine motor skills such as grasping skills.  You can use the special pen that it comes with (it's about the size of a regular pen or pencil) and encourage the children to hold it in a tripod grasp.  If you want to really challenge a kid, you can have them use their pincer grasp to pick up the small beads and place them into the palette.  For an even bigger challenge, have them pick up a few at a time and make them hold them in their palm and translate them to their fingertips as they place them in the palette.  

Improve Visual Skills-there are so many different visual skills that can be worked on while playing with Aquabeads and Beados.  First of all, you have to be able to visually track between the beads and the palette with the template under it.  You need to be able to recognize what color bead you need (some of the colors are similar) and place it where it goes.  This is also a great way to work on improving visual motor integration/eye-hand coordination.  

Improve Executive Functioning Skills-finding fun and motivating activities for my older kids can be challenging, especially for those who present with difficulties with executive functioning skills.  Aquabeads and Beados are great for working on so many of the key executive functioning skills.  For example, if you have a child who has a difficult time with planning and prioritizing, you can talk to them about how they want to complete their picture.  Do they want to place the beads into the palette row by row or complete one color at a time?  Do they want to place the beads in from top to bottom or from left to right?  Make the child come up with a game plan and then have them evaluate how they did once they complete it.  Another great executive functioning skill that can be worked on is practicing how to control impulses.  So many of the kids I work with move quickly, not thinking about how those actions will effect his/her work.  Kids will learn quickly that if they move too fast, they will mess up their work and have to start over again.  When I do this with kids, I talk to them about how important it is to keep their bodies calm and in check.  These are also great for working on improving a child's attention and focus.  Depending on a child's attention span, I give them different templates to choose from.  I want them to be able to complete the project in one sitting and if it is too big, some kids won't have the attention or ability to sit still long enough for them to be successful.  I always want to set my kids up to be successful, especially with new activities, so making sure we set reasonable goals makes it more likely they will be successful.  

Improve Confidence and Self Esteem-while it is likely that your child may become frustrated during this activity, it is also highly likely that they will be so proud of their completed project that it will make them forget about how frustrated they got.  I actually just did this the other day with a little girl who had tried doing it a few days before.  Her mother said that she got so frustrated when she messed up that she ended up in tears and threw away the project.  We ended up talking about what had happened the other day and she decided she really wanted to try it and wouldn't get upset.  We came up with a plan, talked about how she needed to keep her body calm and not move too quickly and that if anything got messed up, we would fix it and move on.  We worked for a long time and when she finished it, she literally squealed with joy over her completed Shopkin Beado.  She also couldn't stop talking about how she didn't get frustrated and that she kept her body calm so it didn't get messed up while she was working on it.  

Improve Social Skills-this is one of those activities that can be done independently or with a group.  If you have a couple of super-crafty kids that you work with, you can easily have them complete a project together.  With my daughter and her friends, they take turns placing the beads into place.  They have to compromise who will go first, how many beads they get to put in, etc..  I love the language it encourages, especially if you make one of the sets with characters (we are a big fan of the Shopkins, Frozen and Hello Kitty sets).   Once they are completed, they can act out scenes and make up stories together.

Like I have mentioned, Aquabeads and Beados are not for everyone and I am very careful about who I would give them as a gift to.  If you are a crafty and patient person and love spending time with your kids doing these kinds of activities, then I highly recommend them.  If you have a child who has fine motor difficulties and resists working with you at home, then this could be a fun way to get them to do work without them realizing that they are working!  I'll admit, I find myself totally wrapped up in an Aquabeads or Beados project with my daughter and love seeing the beads come together to make something fun.

Ready, Set, Let's Do Art!

As a pediatric occupational therapist, much of my "free" time is spent looking for new things for work.  Whether it be games, apps, activity books, etc., this is something that takes up a lot of my time.  When I find myself getting bored with the activities I am presenting to the kids I work with, I have to wonder what is going through their heads as I offer them the same sorting game or puzzle every other session.

I've written about coloring and activity books several times on my blog.  One of the reasons for that is that almost all of the kids I work with have handwriting and graphomotor goals that need to be worked on during every session.  Since this is typically something that isn't easy for them, they can find a million excuses to get out of doing them.  That right there is one of the main reasons I am constantly on the search for motivating activity books...if you find a good one, you can easily work on so many of those handwriting, coloring or drawing goals.

A couple of weeks ago, I was researching new and fun apps.  I have actually used much of this summer to take a break from using the iPad.  Maybe the reason for that was that I couldn't watch or hear the same things one more time since the kids often pick the same apps every time.  When I discovered the Lazoo Art Box app by PBS Kids, I wasted no time downloading it.  The Lazoo activity books may be my favorite ones out there.  They are totally unique and incredibly motivating for the little ones I work with.  The pictures often have a simple direction for them to follow which not only works on improving their coloring/drawing skills, but also works on expanding their creative skills.  It also works on executive functioning skills such as organization, planning and following directions.

Lazoo Art Box is one of those apps that you get a lot for what you pay.  The app has four different modes that you can choose from in the beginning:  Let's Squiggle, Let's Color, Let's Draw and Draw from Scratch.  In each of the modes, kids can complete a series of unfinished drawings by following the directions/suggestions provided.  For example, you can add squiggly wool to a family of sheep, color in balloons or draw teeth on an alligator or make hair on people.  Once you have finished your pictures using a variety of colors and stamps, you can bring your picture to life.  The kids just love watching their work come to life!  If kids would like to create a picture from scratch (or from a picture stored on your iPad), they can do that as well.  Just like the other modes, once they are done with their picture, they can bring it to life.

What I love the most about the Lazoo Art Box app is that it combines three of my favorite activity books (sadly, they are not easily available these days) into one great app. Because I am one of those crazy people who likes to collect things she likes, I happen to be lucky enough to have a couple of each of these activity books in my possession.  I only wish I had thought to photocopy the pages before it became impossible to find.  One of the things I have been doing is looking through the books and finding pictures that match with some of the pictures offered on the iPad app.  This allows the kids to practice and learn what is expected from them before using something more permanent.  It depends on each child, their age and their skill set, but sometimes I will "erase" what they have done on the iPad if I find that they aren't doing their best work.  Let me be clear about one thing:  best work doesn't mean a child has to do things perfectly.  It means that they are focusing, paying attention and following the directions that were given to them.  I am all for fostering creativity, but for some of my kids if not encouraged to remain on task, they will not complete it properly.

I am going to do something a little different with the end of my post this time.  Instead of talking about all the therapeutic benefits, I am going to introduce you to one of my little friends.  Meet Mack.  He is a super star.  We have been working together for about 13 months now.  When I first started working with him, he had such significant sensory processing difficulties that I couldn't even begin to work on figuring out his fine motor delays.  We could easily spend a full 45-minute session in the cuddle swing and it still wouldn't be enough.  I'm still recovering from our first session when I put him on a therapy ball and he screamed so loudly and jumped off the ball so quickly that I wasn't quite sure where he had gone.  He initially refused to participate in all table top activities, especially any that involved coloring, drawing or handwriting.  Within two sessions, Mack was calmer and more relaxed.  He is a sensory seeker, craving a tremendous amount of proprioceptive and vestibular input in order to organize his body for most tasks.  A year later, the amount of  input he requires varies but is definitely not what he needed last year.  He is more independent in all tasks presented to him and will actually ask for us to do graphomotor activities that he used avoid at all costs.

Last week, I decided to pull out the Lazoo Art Box app and one of my old Let's Color activity books.  I searched through the book to find an image that was also available on the iPad so we could start with coloring on the iPad and bring it to life first and then have Mack color in the same picture using crayons.  Since Mack is such a smart guy, I decided to make it a little more tricky for him and make him color the balloons in the same color on both the iPad and his coloring page.  It's a great way to generalize the skills that we are working on in a fun and motivating way.  Mack LOVED it and for the first time, actually asked if he could take his work home and show it off to everyone.  His mother later reported that he showed it to EVERYONE he met....his doorman, his dad, his sister and his baby sitter to name a few!  This is a really big deal and proved to me that Mack is beginning to not only enjoy these kinds of activities but has the confidence in himself to know that he can be successful with them.


A couple of things I did with Mack that you can do with your kids to work towards his/her occupational therapy goals are:
Start with a Strengthening Activity-before beginning most graphomotor activities, I like to warm up those small muscles of the hand by doing some kind of strengthening activity.  Some of my favorites are Discovery Putty, poptubes or Lego activities.  Always have a couple of options and let the kids choose which one they want to do.  
Use a Stylus-when appropriate, I always have my kids use a stylus when using the iPad.  This allows us to work on improving grasping skills when using writing instruments.  I typically use one of these three stylus':  Paper Mate's 2 in 1 Stylus pen, the crayon stylus by iCreate or the Retro Mini Stylus Pen by Kikkerland.  Choose whichever one your child feels most comfortable with.
Work on an Incline-for many of the kids I work with, working on an inclined surface helps with success with graphomotor tasks.  It puts their wrist in an optimal position and also can work on increasing upper body strength.
Use Broken Crayons or Short Markers- especially for the younger kids on my caseload, I recommend using small crayons or short markers.  The smaller writing instruments encourage a more appropriate grasp.  Crayola makes a box of triangular crayons that I find to be particularly good.  They also make PipSqueak markers (both think and thick) which my kids really love too.  For kids who have significantly decreased grasp strength, starting with markers because they don't require as much pressure and they can have more success without getting as frustrated.  As their grasp strength improves, start introducing crayons or colored pencils.

As we approach a new school year, I know many of the families I work with are asking what they can do to get their children prepared for the upcoming school year.  If you want to start off slowly and in a fun way, I highly recommend the Lazoo Art Box app by PBS Kids.  This is a great app to have on your iPad as you head off to your final summer vacations.  It can keep your kids occupied on long car rides or when you are going out to dinner.

What are some of your favorite activities to give to families or use with your kids to get them thinking about school and doing work?  I would love to hear from you all and I am sure all us parents would be grateful for some new ideas to try with our own kids.  I am always a click away and love hearing from you all!

Coloring...Not Just For Kids!

I wrote a long time about about coloring books and often refer to my favorites in some of my posts.  I

love having a good selection of coloring and activity books in my office and at home.  One thing that I have discovered is that coloring isn't just for kids these days.  I will often join the kids I work with or my own daughter when she is coloring.  I do this for several reasons:

*if I am engaged in a coloring activity, I find that the kids will color for longer which ends up building up their grasp strength and endurance.  It also helps on increasing a child's attention span

*I will often mess up or ask a child for their suggestions on what colors I should use to help them understand that their pictures don't have to be perfect or that they shouldn't get too frustrated when coloring

*I find coloring to be one of the most calming and organizing activities.  Not just for kids, but for anyone.  

In this post, I am not going to focus just on kids coloring/activity books, but also ones that are good for older kids and for adults who may love to color.  Coloring with your kids is a great way to stimulate conversation and imagination skills.  It is a wonderful way to build confidence and self-esteem...when a child completes a picture that they have worked really hard on, they feel really good about themselves and want to show it off to their people.  There is no greater source of pride for my own daughter when someone compliments her on her work and then hangs it up.

Some of my favorite coloring and activity books right now are the following:
Secret Garden and Enchanted Forest-these two books by Johanna Basford are more than just coloring books.  They are also coloring adventures that take you on a journey through a beautiful garden and an enchanted forest to discover what is in the magical castle.  The pictures are all in black and white and have so many little details to color in.  In addition to coloring some of the most magnificently drawn pictures, you have to find objects hidden within each picture.  I also like that some of the pages have mazes to go through and pictures to complete.
While these books are most definitely for older children, they are definitely something that could be done together with your child.  Having them look at the pictures and tell a story based on what they see is great for building up their language and imagination skills.  You can play a game of I Spy while looking at the pictures to find some of those hidden objects.  I first discovered these beautiful books when shopping at my local toy store, Norman and Jules, but you can also find them at the bigger bookstores and other speciality toy/bookstores.

Color Me Calm-this is a book that was designed for busy and crazed adults.  At a time where life gets busier and more complicated each day, we find ourselves to become more stressed and overstimulated by work and family obligations.  Created by art therapist Lacy Mucklow and artist Angela Porter, Color Me Calm has about 100 different coloring templates that were created specifically to get a person to color themselves to a calmer and more relaxed state of being.  The book is broken down into seven therapeutically-themed chapters including Mandalas, Water Scenes, Wooded Scenes, Geometric Patterns, Flora and Fauna, Natural Patterns and Spirituality. The intention of the book is for adults to put pencil to paper and get themselves into a state of creativity and relaxation.  Some of the pictures could be appropriate for younger children, but this is definitely intended for older children and adults.


Daydream Doodles-I've been looking through the shelves at Barnes and Noble and other bookstores non-stop lately trying to find new coloring and activity books for not only the kids I work with, but for my own daughter who has officially turned into one of those kids who can't stop drawing and coloring.  While I love to see her imagination come to life on paper, it isn't always so easy for her and she needs some jumping off ideas.  Throughout this book, there are several different kinds of activities.  You can color in pictures, complete different kinds of pictures or draw your own patterns on objects.  This coloring book is definitely more appropriate for older children (they suggest 6 and older).  In addition to working on improving visual motor and visual perceptual skills, it is great for working on creative thinking and imagination skills.  I like that you can also work on language skills while the kids are completing their pictures.  You can also work on improving executive functioning skills be encouraging them to talk about what they are going to draw, how they are going to do it, etc..

Usborne Big Book of Drawing, Doodling and Colouring-I am a huge fan of all the Usborne activity books.  They have a wide range of coloring and drawing books that will spark the imagination of children.  This book is especially awesome because it has a wide range of activities in one book.  There are pictures and patterns to color in and complete, various scenes for children to color in and add their own details and pages that will teach your child how to draw things step-by-step.  The book is filled with a ton of modern and stylish pictures ranging from monsters, animals and food.  I have found that many of my kids, even those who typically resist any kid of drawing/coloring activities, love looking through this book and finding the "right" picture for them.   My favorite pages are those that teach kids how to draw different animals, people and objects step-by-step.  The directions are easy to follow but also leave plenty of room for kids to use their imagination and add their own details to pictures.  This book promises to be fun not only for your children, but for the adults who want to color and draw with them!

Here are a few handwriting/coloring tips to keep in mind when coloring with your children:
*always encourage a child to hold a writing instrument properly.  Broken crayons or short colored pencils are an easy way to get a child to hold a writing instrument with a tripod-like grasp. Some of my favorites are the Faber-Castell Jumbo Triangular Colored Pencils, Flip Crayons by Handwriting Without Tears and the Staedtler Triplus Fineliner Markers.
*if you are working on increasing upper body strength, have children color on an elevated surface like an easel or tape the paper to a wall.
*let kids do what they want with colors....let them choose whatever color they want for what they are doing without telling them what they should do.  Coloring should be an activity that allows kids to express themselves and expand their imagination skills.  They want to color an elephant pink...go for it!
*try and encourage a child to stay in the lines when coloring, but don't make a big deal about it if they don't.
*work on building language skills by having children tell you a story about their picture.  Encourage them to elaborate and talk about the details by asking them meaningful questions.

With summer just a few days away, I'm finding that parents are asking me more about what they can do for their children to keep working on their fine motor and visual skills while they are taking a break from therapy.  Coloring, drawing and activity books are a great and fun way for kids to keep working on skills that have been addressed in therapy during the school year.  So many parents want to be more involved in their child's therapy but complain that the kids won't "work" for them.  Coloring is a great way to hide the therapy piece.

The books I suggested in this post are definitely geared more towards older kids, but there are many other books out there for younger kids.  If you want to read about books that are better suited for younger/pre-school aged children, check out this post here.

Do you have any great coloring or activity books that I should add to my library?  I'm looking forward to nights of coloring with my little girl this summer and would love to test out some new ones.  I am always a click away and love hearing from you all.

So Much To Color...So Little Time!

I know we live in a technological world.  I am part of that techno world and love using my iPad in my work world because it is motivating and exciting and can do a whole lot in helping many of my kids meet some of their occupational therapy goals.  With that said, there is little that makes me as happy as finding an awesome coloring/activity book.  While there are a ton of wonderful coloring apps available for the iPad, nothing will ever take the place of using crayons or markers to make a beautiful picture.  I have a work closet full of them and a shelf at home dedicated to coloring books that I do with my own daughter.  When I find a good coloring/activity book, I buy many of them and encourage friends, family and colleagues to do the same.

When I find a good coloring book, I get giddy.  I wish I could say it was because I am only thinking about how much the kids at work (or my kid at home) will love it.  In reality, I am thinking about me and how much fun I will have watching the kids interact with the coloring books.  And maybe I am thinking about how much fun I will have looking through the book and doing some coloring of my own in some of my free time (hah...what is that?!!??).

I am fortunate to live in a city that is overflowing with awesome stores.  More fortunate that so many of those stores are targeted towards my love of children, toys and having fun.  Recently, I have found myself obsessed with two coloring/activity books and feel like anyone who works or has children should have them.  Not only are they super fun, they both have educational and therapeutic value that will make them a perfect addition to your work/home collection of toys.

Lots of Things to Find and Color by Usborne Activities

I can't get enough of this book.  More importantly, my kids at work seem to be enjoying it as much as me!  When I first saw this book at West Side Kids, I thought my daughter Quinn and I would have fun with it.  When I opened it up and saw looked through each and every page, I realized that not only was it great for my kid, it would be great for so many of my kids at work.  This is not your ordinary coloring book.  While there are plenty of opportunities to work on improving your coloring skills, there is so much more here.  Each page has a different picture or theme and are perfect for boys or girls.  Maybe it is a spread of fairies or cars, maybe it is a bunch of yummy looking food or an under the sea scene.  Whatever it is, they are adorable!  Each page has specific instructions for a child to follow such as finding all the fairies holding wands and coloring them a certain color or look at a picture of a food item, find its match and color it the same color.   If you look at the picture below, you will see that not only does it give you specific instructions on what to look for and color, it also leaves a part of the page free for you to fill in with your own pictures.  So not only is this good for working on improving coloring skills, it is also great for improving a child's drawing and creativity skills.  I love that once the kids are done following the directions, they can then be free to do what they want with the rest of the images that are not colored.  I have noticed that my kids are excited to do what they need to so then they can be free to use whatever colors they want to!

This particular coloring book is great for working on visual perceptual skills and improving focus and attention.  I love that a child has to look for specific items; they are required to scan the pages to find what they need to.  For some of my kids, this is a tremendous challenge and I have to give them specific instructions on how to look for the picture by starting at the top and using their finger to help guide them.  This also requires a child to look at details; many of my kids will rush through and begin to just color anything that looks like what they are supposed to be looking for just to be finished.


This book is great for preschoolers and younger school age children.  With that said, some of the older kids on my caseload love it as well.  Okay, let me honest here.  I LOVE it and love doing it alongside my kids at work.  I find that coloring can help my children slow down and become more focused and attentive to other tabletop activities.  For many of my children who struggle with handwriting, I will start off with a coloring activity as a warm up.  It's great to do something fun and something they can be successful with prior to something that is more challenging.

The Colouring Book by Herve Tullet

My friends at Norman & Jules have a great selection of books and when they stock a coloring book, I rush up to pick it up.  They don't mess around with their toys and the same can be said about their coloring book choices.  They tend to have coloring books that you don't see at a lot of other toy stores.  I love how they think outside of the box when they pick something out for their customers.

This is a great coloring book for the older children on my caseload.  Like the book mentioned above, it's more than just a coloring book.  Many of the pages have special instructions for you to follow.  For example, there is a page with a bunch of numbers on it and it asks you to color in only the even or odd numbers (which is why this is more appropriate for older children).  There are pages that ask you to follow particular patterns or others that ask you to look for a certain shape/picture and color them all in the same color.  

All of the activity books by Herve Tullet are great.  I especially like to use them for my kids who have more difficulty with being creative or have a hard time thinking outside of the box.  His books are funky and sophisticated and make my kids really think about what they want to do and how they want their picture to look.  I like to look through the books before working with a child and figuring out what page(s) would be best for each child based on the goals I have with them.  The variety in pictures and activities makes it great for finding something that will motivate a child you are working with and allow them to be successful.  To me, it is most important to push my kids to do things outside of their comfort zone but also make sure that they will be successful so their self-esteem and confidence is not compromised.

In general, all coloring books are a great tool for occupational therapy and meeting fine-motor and visual motor/perceptual goals.  The books mentioned above are just 2 of the many that are out there. They can work on so much including:

Improve Grasping Skills-many of the kids on my caseload need to work on improving their grasping skills when holding a writing instrument.  Sometimes they need to be really motivated to work on this.  I find when I get the right coloring or activity books, the kids I work with are more likely to want to spend time working on something that is challenging for them.  I like to make sure that I have plenty of options available when it comes to writing instruments.  I like to use broken crayons that are only a few inches to try and encourage the kids to use a tripod-like grasp.  Sometimes I will use rock crayons; they are the perfect size for our little ones who are using more immature grasping patterns on writing instruments.
For my daughter's fourth birthday party (with a unicorn theme), I discovered this great Etsy shop.  Scribblers Crayons is the brain child of Randi, a mom who makes a bunch of fantastic shaped crayons. If you are looking for ways to motivate your child to color, take a look at her page and see if there any of her designs would make your child more excited about coloring.  I like the star and the heart shaped ones the best!
Improve Visual Motor Skills-coloring/activity books are obviously great for working on visual skills.  Whether it be improving eye-hand coordination when coloring in the lines or using visual scanning to find the hidden things on the page, these books can be a fun way to work on a skill that may cause a child frustration.
Improve Modulation/Regulation-coloring is a great activity to do when you want to work on modulation/regulation.  Many of my kids will scribble furiously only have paying attention to the boundaries of what they are coloring.  I like to challenge my kids to try and slowly color and remain in the lines as much as possible. This sounds easy, but for many of the kids I work with, it takes a lot to slow down and do this with accuracy.
Improve Executive Functioning/Organizational Skills-some of the pages in both books are tricky and require a child to be organized in their work.  It may require them to read through all the instructions before doing their work.  For my older children who might be working on improving homework organization, I will have them read through all the instructions and gather all the supplies that they need before beginning.  This can be critical for some children to be independent and successful with the task at hand.  
Improve Focus/Attentional Skills-I love a coloring book that doubles as an activity book.  For many of the kids I work with, it's a struggle to get them to just color and they do better when there are things to do.  I like being able to tell the kids that they have to do a certain number of things before they can switch tasks.  This keeps them focused and helps them to understand what is expected of them.

I know that there are hundreds of great coloring and activity books out there.  I haven't blogged about these kind of books in a while but if you check out this blog post here, you will see that these books are still amazing.  As a matter of fact, I still use and recommend them to my clients. Honestly, once a good activity book, always a good activity book (this is mostly relevant to books that are not created for a particular movie or character).  Do you have have any great books that you can share with me and my readers?  I am always on the lookout for good books to have both at home for my daughter and for work purposes.   Please share your favorites with all of us!  I am always a click away and love hearing from you all with your ideas!