Snow Day!

With the anticipation of the impending snow this weekend, I thought I would focus today's post on both outdoor and indoor activities you can do with your little ones.  We know that kids love being outside playing with the snow...making snow angels, going sledding, building snowmen and snowball fights are the obvious ones.  But we all know that as soon as your kid has to use the bathroom or they get cold, they want to be inside STAT!  Once they are inside, us parents are all worried about what we will do to keep everyone sane the rest of the day.

Below, I have shared some of my favorite winter activities that you can do with your kids.  All are fun and have a therapeutic value to them.  Whether it be building overall body strength, working on improving fine motor skills or encouraging cooperative play and social skills, they are all fun and don't require much more than things you will find at home or outdoors.

1.  Wanna Build a Snowman?-if the forecast is correct, many of us will have enough snow to make a snowman!  Snowman building is a great activity for so many reasons.  It's perfect for encouraging working as a group with your friends or siblings.  Also great for working on improving upper body strength, body awareness and encouraging creativity.  If building with little kids, use this as an opportunity to talk to them and teach them about all the different body and face parts.

2.  Snowball Games-kids love making snowballs!  Who am I kidding....everyone loves snowballs!  Sometimes snowball fights can get out of control so you have to think of solutions for that not to happen.  How about setting up targets for your kids to throw snowballs at instead of at each other?  Or how about a snowball catch where you see how many times you can toss it back and forth to each other before it falls apart?  There are lots of fun things you can do with snowballs that doesn't have to be throwing it at another person.

3.  Make Hot Chocolate-nothing tastes better after spending hours outside playing in the snow than a cup of hot chocolate.  Let your kids help you make the hot chocolate.  Whether you have them scoop the chocolate powder into the mug and let them stir or make hot chocolate from scratch.  Check out these great recipes from this PopSugar post a couple of winters ago.

4. Blow Bubbles in the Cold-when the temperature drops below 32 degrees, really cool things happen with bubbles.  Try and dig out some of your bubbles that you have hidden somewhere waiting for summer weather and bring them out into the cold.  See what happens when you blow them and catch them with the wand!  You and your kids will all be amazed by what happens.

5.  Tic-Tac-Snow-use a stick to make a giant tic-tac-toe board in the snow.  Collect some branches to make Xs and pinecones or rocks for Os.

6.  Snow Ice Cream-this may be harder for us city dwellers, but snow ice cream is an easy and fun activity to do with your kids.  You will need:
1/2 cup half & half or whole milk
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
4 cups clean snow
Blend the milk, sugar and vanilla together until the sugar dissolves.  Mix the 4 cups of snow and stir until the mixture is the consistency of ice cream.  Eat plain or add your favorite toppings!

7.  Paper Snowflakes-if your kids need to warm up and you aren't quite ready to plop them in front of the television quite yet, how about having them make their own snowflakes.  I remember spending hours and hours as a kid making paper snowflakes.  I loved how you could do it again and again and like a real snowflake, no two snowflakes were ever the same.  As I have been on the hunt for fun winter themed activities for my  kids at work, I stumbled upon these name snowflakes on Childhood 101.  It takes a little bit of practice and definitely better for older kids but once you get the hang of it, you will be obsessed and want to make one for every single person you know!

8.  Craft It Up-there are a lot of fun and simple crafts that you can do on these snowy days.  I don't know about you all, but I happen to have a little girl who could craft all day long and doesn't need snow days as an excuse.  Some of our favorites are:
Make Homemade Playdough
Valentine's Day Crafts
Homemade Snow Globes
Washi Tape Crafts
Coloring and Activity Books (click on the link to check out my post from the holidays for ideas)

9.  Send out Postcards/Write a Letter-one of my sisters has a job that takes her all over the USA.  One of the things that she has started with all the kids in her life is to send postcards from wherever she ends up.  My daughter looks forward to this mail and learning about new places in our country.  One thing you can do with your kids is have them pick out a friend, cousin or other family member to write a letter to and tell them all about their snowy day adventures.  It's not only a great way to work on handwriting but also a great way for kids to recall and talk about what they did with people who may not have been home to enjoy it with them.

10.  Get Physical-if your kids start to get a bit stir crazy and need to get some energy out, think of all the great games that you can play inside to get them up and moving.  I tend to suggest to parents that they have a secret stash of games that they take out on cold or rainy days.  I especially like ones that encourage movement in kids.  Here are some board games/activities that are you can save for these kinds of days:
Twister
5 Little Monkeys On The Bed
Kids on Stage
Zoom Ball
Simon Says
Charades
Hide and Seek

While I know that I will be outside as much as I can, I do know that I will need to have backup plans to keep my own daughter busy and not attached to an iPad or television once we are inside.  I can't wait to begin some new snowy day traditions with her now that she is older and doing so much more.  Do you have any favorite snowy/cold day activities, crafts or cooking/baking activities that you do with your kids?  Would love to hear what kinds of fun and creative things you all do!  I'm always a click away and love hearing from you all!

Genius...Super Genius!

My daughter is in the process of learning how to read.  She's on the verge but for whatever reason, is resisting and has hit a bit of a wall which can get frustrating for this mom!  Part of me thinks that she is afraid that once she learns how to read that we will stop reading to her.  Even though we have promised her that we will always have our nighttime reading routine, she doesn't seem to want to take the final leap and read herself.
In the process of her learning, I have also tried to find fun word games that will help us work together to get her over this hump.  As you all know, there are a ton of options out there and many of them are just too educational which is just not going to be what works with my daughter.

The other day, I spent some time at one of my local Park Slope toy stores at their game choices.  My eyes quickly spotted the Blue Orange logo on a learning game and I was sold.  For those of you who aren't familiar with Blue Orange, they are the masterminds behind some of my favorite games:  Thumbs Up, Doodle Quest and all of the Spot It games.  Not only are their products fun, they are educational.  But they are more fun than educational making kids want to play them over and over again.

I picked up Super Genius First Words and Super Genius Reading 1 to use with my daughter who is still focusing on learning simple sight words (at this point, we are trying to master 3 letter words) and so far, so good.  There are other versions of the game for those who are already reading and can handle the challenge of larger words.  There is also a math version of the game that works on addition and multiplication.  I've used this a bit with my daughter and can't wait to bring it to work to test out with some of my other kids there.

If you are familiar with and love the the Spot It games, you will be a big fan of the Super Genius games.  The concept of the game is pretty similar:  you have to find the matches between two cards.  The biggest difference is that instead of finding the matching pictures, you are trying to match the word to the corresponding picture or in the case of the math ones, you are looking for the matching number and math problem.  There are many ways to play the game which keeps it fresh and exciting for you and your kids:
Face Off-Score the most cards at the end of the game by being the first to find the match between the two faceup cards
Flip Flap-get rid of your cards as fast as possible
Sardines-have the most cards at the end of the game
Click Clack-find the pair between two cards
Cooperative-remove all the cards from the table by matching them to their neighboring cards

Super Genius works on the following skills:
Visual Perceptual Skills-great way to work on improving eye-hand coordination, visual tracking and visual attention.  As you scan your cards for matching pictures and words, you are building crucial visual skills necessary for reading and writing.
Executive Functioning Skills-fun game to work on improving focus, attention and organizational skills.  These are critical skills for school aged children as the academic expectations increase and they are required to focus for longer periods of time.
Speech/Language and Reading Skills-clearly this game was meant for working on improving reading skills.  But it is also great for improving speech and language skills.  This can be used by parents and speech therapists to also work on building a child's language and conversational skills.
Graphomotor Skills-If you are working on a 1:1 basis with a child and they are also working on handwriting skills, you can adapt this game so that they have to write the words as they find the match.  Encourage them to work on spacing, sizing and/or upper and lowercase letters.  If you have a child who needs to develop drawing skills, you can have them draw a picture for every word they write as well.  When possible and appropriate, encourage kids to work on holding their writing instrument with an appropriate grasp.
Social Skills-what I love about almost every single one of the Blue Orange games is that they all have a social focus.  Whether it be working as a team to find the matches or encouraging kids to be a good sport when they win or lose, Super Genius can be used to work on many social skills that are vital for kids growing up to work well with others.

For any of you who are dealing with a kindergartener (or any student) and all the unrealistic learning expectations, I completely sympathize and understand how important it is to try and keep learning fun. Due to the nature of my job, my own kid ends up not getting as much of my focus and attention at the end of the day when it comes to her school work.  Because of that, I have made it a point to find fun games that will motivate both of us at the end of our busy work and school days.  I was so happy that my daughter was excited to play Super Genius.  I was even more excited that she didn't feel stressed out and ended up feeling proud of herself as she sounded out the words and then found the matches between the two cards.  Keeping learning fun is my goal with not only my daughter but every single child I work with.

What are your favorite educational games?  Specifically, what educational games focused on reading and literacy are your favorites?  I'm more personally interested these days...I know the power of reading and how magical it is and can't wait for that for my daughter.  Please feel free to share your ideas with me.  I am always a click away and love hearing from you all!

Let's Play(dough)!

Did you know that today is National Playdough Day?  Either did I but know that I do, I am going to do some really fun activities with my kids at work today using playdough!  In discovering this fact, I stumbled upon this fun list of facts about playdough.  Here are the most interesting ones:

*Did you know that Play-doh was first sold as a way to clean wallpaper?  People could remove soot and dirt from wallpaper by rolling it along the surface!

*It wasn't until 1955 that Play-doh was sold in stores as a toy?  Up until then, it was only offered in an off white color.  Once it hit the shelves as a toy they added red, blue and yellow!

*Over 2 billion cans of Play-doh have been sold since it's introduction!

Kids love playdough...and oftentimes, so do their parents.  It's a great activity that can be done at home to work on all kinds of occupational therapy and developmental goals.  Most importantly, it seems more like play than work for the kids so they are not as resistant to it.  There are so many benefits to playing with playdough.  In addition to being a great way to improve fine motor skills, it can be used to work on the following skills:

*increase upper body (shoulder and arm) strength-all that heavy work of pushing, rolling, smashing, etc. is great for building strength.  Remember, fine motor skill development is dependent on good upper body strength
*improve bilateral coordination-use different kinds of tools when playing with playdough to work on using two hands together.  For example, get an old rolling pin and have them roll the playdough into a flat surface before using cookie cutters to make shapes and other pictures.  They need to be able to use two hands in order to pick up the cookie cutters and push the playdough out of it.  All of those fun playdough kids by Play-Doh often require the use of two hands as well.
*improve manipulation skills-playdough is a perfect tool for working on improving manipulation skills such as grasping skills and finger isolation.  Have kids pinch little balls of dough using their "pinchers" or work on pointing by using their pointer finger to squish a hole into each ball.
*improve social skills-i've run many social skills groups before, and playdough is always used.  I love having it as a warm-up activity when kids are trickling in.  Sometimes I let the kids make their own creations or can have them work on something together as a group.  For example, give each kid in a group a different color of the rainbow and have them work as a group to put the rainbow together.

Here is a simple, 4-ingredient playdough recipe you can do with your kids today.
You will need:
1/2 cup of iodized salt (do not use sea salt)
1/2 cup of water
1 cup of flour (for mixing in the dough) plus an additional 1/2 cup for sprinkling/kneading
Food Coloring (this is optional but kids love color!)

1.  Measure your ingredients (except the food coloring) and put them all into a large mixing bowl.
2.  Mix ingredients together with a spoon or spatula until it starts to stick together.
3.  Once the ingredients start to come together, put your food coloring in and mix it just until it has a swirly, marble-like experience.
4.  Sprinkle flour onto a dry surface and dump the dough out and use your hands to knead the dough together.  Once the color is evenly distributed, you can begin to play!

**to store dough, place in a zip-loc bag or an airtight container***

Playing with playdough is not only fun, but therapeutic.  It can be used in therapy sessions to work on a variety of goals.  The best part is that kids are having so much fun squishing, squeezing and creating, that they don't even realize that they are doing work.  Here are some of my favorite playdough activities that you can do with your children today to celebrate National Playdough Day!

*grab a rolling pin and a bunch of cookie cutters and begin playing.  This is great for working on improving bilateral coordination, eye-hand coordination and increasing upper body and hand strength.  If you have a child who is struggling with learning shapes, numbers or letters, find some cookie cutters and work on it this way.

*roll playdough into ropes and have your kids cut the rope into little pieces with a pair of scissors.  Take a shape cookie cutter and gently press into a piece of flattened out playdough (do not push all the way through) and then have them cut the shapes out.  Great for working on improving scissor skills, bilateral coordination and strength.  

*check out this link here by a fellow OT blogger, MamaOT.  You will find 40 different playdough mats to use with your kids.  For those of you who are wondering what a playdough mat is:  they are pictures or drawing that have been laminated and encourage children to interact with the pictures using playdough.  For example, a child may need to "dress" a person, decorate butterfly wings or practice making the letters of the alphabet.  They can encourage kids to be creative and use their imagination while working on increasing hand strength and fine motor skills.  

*roll little pieces of playdough into balls and then have them pick them up and place them in a container using tongs.  This works on improving grasp strength, bilateral coordination and eye-hand coordination skills.  

*hide small beads, buttons or other manipulatives (I like to use these little animals from an old Mancala game of mine) and have the kids find them as fast as they can.  I remind my kids to pull the pieces out with their pinchers.  Once they have found all of the hidden pieces, have them hide them again for the next kid.  Great for working on improving grasp strength and manipulation skills, bilateral coordination and focus/attention.  

I have to admit, I love to play with playdough.  I love the way it feels in my hands, the way it smells and the way it can be used for a million different things (I will have to try the cleaning of wallpaper sometime).  My 5 1/2 year old daughter could play with it for hours on end.  However, my OCD definitely kicks in when people try and mix colors together!  In honor of National Playdough Day, I am going to challenge myself to pick up some fresh bottles of it for my daughter and play with her tonight and not worry for a second about mixing them up!

Do you have a wonderful activity to share using playdough?  A tried and true recipe you use with your kids that you would like to share.  I am just a click away and love hearing from you all!

If We Could Turn Back Time...and Just Play

In the last few months, I have been reading up a lot on play and how research is finding how important it is to social emotional development for children.  We have become so focused on teaching our children the ABCs and 123s, that we have ended up decreasing the amount of time they get to just play.  I know that there is lots of time during the school day for kids to "play" but it is often directed by the adults because kids are given a choice to play in one station or another.  There is often an adult guiding their play.  I can't tell you how many times I have walked into a classroom observation and seen kids on the outside of the group having to be brought in and directed how to "play" by one of the classroom team members.  Play, unfortunately, is something that has taken a backseat these days as we as a society place a greater importance on teaching our kids and making sure they have all the academic skills.  You don't hear parents bragging about that awesome block castle their kid build all by themselves, do you?  What you hear are things like "My 3 year old already knows how to write all their letters!" or "My 4 year old learned how to read!"  While these are both critical skills for every child to learn, they don't need to be taught at such a young age.  Leave that to their teachers and begin playing with your kids!

Why is play important?  There are endless reasons, but here are just a few:
*children are given the opportunity to practice both verbal and nonverbal communications skills by negotiating roles and gaining an understanding of other peoples feelings.
*they learn important social skills that they will need for the rest of their lives such as turn taking, sharing materials and waiting for their turn.
*play and physical activity has been linked to helping kids be more creative thinkers and have a better ability to connect with others.  They are better able to negotiate, share and resolve conflicts when given ample opportunity to play independent from their caregivers.
*play helps to improve fine motor skills.  Children who have been given lots of playground play opportunities are given the chance to hone their body strength and coordination skills which leads to improved fine motor skills.  It also helps them to build gross motor skills, improve self-control and modulation skills.
*play has been proven to relieve stress in children, especially as the academic demands begin to increase.  I always tell the parents I work with that what we expect from kids today is abnormal.  We are asking way more from them than is developmentally appropriate.  According to a poll of parents by Let's Play, 46% of the parents said that the focus on academics was one of their kids' biggest barriers to play.

The countless articles I have read have gotten me thinking a lot, especially as I watch my daughter grow and mature.  I have always been impressed how she has always been able to interact with her environment.  Not just the people in her environment, but the toys and objects as well.  Now, don't get me wrong.  I am not preaching, judging or trying to tell anyone what is right or wrong when it comes to play and the kinds of activities and toys we expose our children to.  My daughter is an expert when it comes to playing with and exploring an iPad.  Maybe it is a bad thing at times but it has helped motivate her to learn how to write letters, begin learning how to read and kept her from freaking out during some long car and plane rides.  I'm definitely guilty of buying those battery operated toys that she has seen on television (she's an commercial addict and MUST have everything she sees) because she "has to have them".  But what I love the most is that as much as she loves those things she sees on tv, she can play for hours with her little Maileg bunnies and mice I've been collecting for me...I mean her...since she was born.  She can play in her kitchen and cook for her daddy and me coming up with some of the most delicious meals.  When I would pick her up from school, she would run around with her friends without a care in the world playing tag and other kid games.  I know that even if she is exposed to too much television and screen time on the iPad, she has a vivid imagination, can sit and color and draw for long periods of time and socialize with her peers without me having to step in more than what any parent of a kindergartener expects to.

These articles have also gotten me thinking about my childhood and what I did outside of school.  I am one of four girls, my younger twin sisters being less than 2 years younger than me.  We would come home from school and not have to do homework and were forced to go out and play.  Even in the most awful of weather, we were outside.  My mom would pull the car out of the garage and we would ride our bikes, play games and just play.  In the fall, we were given rakes and made leaf mazes and homes.  In the winter, we were given shovels and made snowmen, threw ourselves in the snow and made snow angels and have snowball fights.  It didn't matter what season it was, my sisters and I were encouraged to just play and have fun.  In those moments, we learned how to fight, how to resolve our conflicts and how to compromise with each other.  It wasn't always clean and there were several times that our parents had to intervene, but I know that these opportunities to just play shaped us and our relationship as grownups.

These articles and focus on play has also gotten me to think about the toys we used to play with growing up.  They were so simple yet kept us focused and engaged for such a long time.  Most of them didn't require batteries, didn't make a lot of noise and could be shared with a sibling or friend and encourage social interactions, such as turn taking, compromise and being flexible.  These toys encouraged you to be creative and think outside of your comfort zone.

Here are some of the toys from when I was growing up that are still around today. They may have been modernized to some degree, but not too much.  They are still great toys and in my opinion, ones that we should be getting our kids:
Hula Hoop-do you know the Hula Hoop we know today was invented in 1958?  They are great for working on improving trunk control, motor coordination, focus and attention and increasing frustration tolerance.  Hoop Mamas, an Etsy based store, custom makes hula hoops in different sizes and colors!  A great gift for your those kids you know who love to hula hoop!
Sit N' Spin-the Sit N' Spin is still as awesome today as it was nearly 40 years ago.  They have upgraded the original one several times since its debut in the early 70s, but I am happy to see that they have a non-singing, non-lightup version available now.  The Sit N' Spin is great for working on bilateral coordination, modulation/regulation skills, building upper body strength and motor coordination skills.
Colorforms-Colorforms have been around for over 60 years and one of the oldest and best known toy brands.  These vinyl re-stickable playsets started off as basic shapes (you would put the shapes together to make pictures) and has evolved to popular characters from tv shows and movies.  I'm pretty sure I had a Strawberry Shortcake set way back in the day.  I use Colorforms in my therapy sessions and the kids love them.  Every time you play with them, it can be a little different.  They are great for working on fine motor skills such as grasping, visual motor and perceptual skills and improving language skills.
Wacky Wally-recently, my daughter and I were in a toy store and she found this sticky starfish that can "walk" down the wall.  She got the biggest kick out of it and would fall to the floor laughing as it clumsily made its way to the floor.  It totally brought me back to my childhood and how much fun I would have with my sisters and friends having Wacky Wally races.  It was the simplest of toys yet it provided endless entertainment.  I've actually used other kinds of sticky toys during my therapy sessions.  Sometimes I have them throw them at targets on the wall or mirrors which they love to do.  This simple and inexpensive toy is great for working on decreasing tactile defensiveness (because of it's sticky texture), upper body strength and motor coordination skills.
Snoopy Sno-Cone Maker-first introduced in 1979, the Snoopy Sno-Cone Maker was on every kids wish list growing up.  While things have evolved and we have the ability to make much more sophisticated cool treats, there is something about this sno-cone maker that just takes ice, juice and/or flavoring to make them yourself.  Great for working on bilateral coordination, increasing upper body strength, focus/attention and many other OT skills.  Also great to use with a small group of kids to work on improving social skills such as turn-taking, compromise and improving pragmatic language skills.
Connect 4-even though there are several versions out there now, the original game came out in 1974.  The 2 player game was easy to put together and was simple to play.  Choose a color and start putting the pieces into the board.  The first person to get four in a row, is the winner.  Great game for working on focus/attentional skills, improving executive functioning skills, eye-hand coordination, visual motor and perceptual skills.  Also a great game to play in a small social skills group.
Spirograph-this arts and crafts set has been around for over 50 years and kids today are still enjoying it.  Spirograph was originally designed by a mechanical engineer for use as a drafting tool.  The gears and wheels work together to create cool and colorful swirling designs.  There are now several versions to choose from, including a My Little Pony one that I think my daughter would lose her mind over!  For you traditionalists, no need to worry.  The original set is still available.
Great for working on bilateral coordination skills, improves eye-hand coordination, visual motor and visual perceptual skills and focus and attentional skills.  Also great for encouraging kids to be creative and think outside of the box.
Cats Cradle-I remember spending countless hours playing Cats Cradle with my friends and don't know why I haven't done this at work with my kids!  Using a long circular string, you can create a series of string figures.  This two-person game is great for working on improving fine motor skills, visual motor and perceptual skills, eye-hand coordination, executive functioning skills and many other occupational therapy skills.  I'm definitely going to get myself the book and re-learn how to play this game and start using it at home with my daughter and at work!
Card Games-a simple pack of cards can go a long way in entertaining kids.  I feel like each family has "their" card game.  My sisters and I used to play the game Spit all the time and my now 7 and 10 year old nieces are following in that tradition.  I've used cards to help reinforce number learning with some of the kids I work with.  I love this article by Today's Parent that has the directions to 10 family friendly card games.   
Jenga-did you know that Jenga was released in other countries before coming to North America in 1986?  I remember playing this game with my friends and family as a kid and as stressful as it was, it always ended up with everyone laughing!  After you stack the 54 blocks into a tower, you take blocks out and place them back on the top of the tower. The game continues until the tower falls.  This game is great for working on fine motor skills, eye-hand coordination, modulation and regulation skills, focus and attentional skills, motor planning and social skills.  I've actually taken a Jenga game and written questions on each block so each time the block is pulled, a player has to ask the other players social questions.  This can be a great ice breaker game for any social skills group!

These are just a very small handful of games and toys.....I could have gone on and on and on!  As it is, I have a wish list on Amazon.com a mile long on old toys and games I MUST have.  I would love to hear from you about your favorite toys or games growing up.  For you parents reading this post, is there any toy/game from your childhood that you play with your kids?  What about you therapists? do you have anything form your childhood that you use in your therapy sessions that the kids just can't get enough of?  I am only a click away and love hearing from you all!

The Big Stuff!

Here's another sneak peak to this year's holiday gift guide.  Yesterday, I focused on the small toys that you could get for kids.  Today, I am sharing some of the kid tested and occupational and physical therapy toys that I've put on this years list.  

Gross motor toys are ones that make children use the bigger muscles in their body and encourage them to walk, run or jump around their environment. I've chosen a handful of toys that will work on building trunk control/strength, upper body strength, motor coordination and endurance.  Trunk control and strength are important for developing good gross motor skills which lead to the development of good fine motor skills.   Take a look at some of my favorite big body toys.  More importantly, these are loved by the kids who play with them so they don't realize that they are actually working and exercising!  

Balance Board-there are a lot of different balance boards out there but I find that many of them are too challenging for my younger kids.  This one is great because it can be flipped over and can be made more or less challenging for children.  I find this is a great therapy tool that parents can use at home to carry over some of the things I work on at the gym such as balance, coordination and focus/attention.  I love to pair it with a fine motor activity such as a puzzle or a gross motor activity such as playing catch or something.  Kids love it and it is small enough to slip under a bed and not take up a lot of space.
OgoSport Super Sports Disk-there are several different sized disks to choose from so they can be used with children (and grownups too) of all ages.  Each set comes with two hand-trampoline disks and a koosh-like ball to bounce back and forth to your partner.  If you have more than one set, you can add more people!  The disks are super light weight because they are made of foam which makes it easy for kids to hold onto.  Can be played with indoors and outdoors.  Great for working on eye-hand coordination, social interaction, focus and attention and regulation skills.
Kick Scooter-many of my NYC families use a stroller for their older children to get to and from places faster but are wondering what they can get that will get their kids more physical.  One of the first things I recommend for them to get is the Mini Kick (for children 2-5 years of age) or the Maxi Kick scooter (5 years and older).  This light-weight scooter is easy for kids to use because of the two wheels in front and the one in back.  By leaning to one side or another, a child is able to easily steer (mostly to avoid hitting other human beings!).  Great for working on motor planning and coordination, bilateral coordination, body strength and focus and attentional skills.  For those kids who have a hard time warming up in the morning and are close enough to school, I suggest having them scoot to school to wake up the body to make the morning transitions easier.  
Zoom Ball-I remember using a Zoom Ball as a kid and loving it back then.  As a therapist, I love it even more because there is a tremendous amount of therapeutic value.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with what this is, let me describe:  there is a light-weight ball attached to two ropes with hands.  Each person grabs one side/two handles and let the play begin.  By opening and closing your arms, the ball can slide back and forth.  Go as fast or as slow as you want but see how long you can keep it going without having to take a break.  Great for working on building upper body strength, motor planning/coordination, modulation and regulation and cooperative play.  

Stomp Rocket-kids LOVE playing with stomp rockets.  After the kids place the foam rocket on a tube they jump on the launch pad and it shoots off.  This is a great toy for working on jumping, balancing on one foot and building body strength.  I love this toy because it is non-battery operated and doesn't make a ton of noise.  Kids love it because they can make something fly across a room without getting in trouble.  This is a great toy to work on with another friend...one friend can make the rocket fly and the other one can go run and try and catch the rocket and bring it back.  
Hop & Squeak Pogo Jumper-this kid-friendly pogo jumper is made out of durable foam and has a built in squeaker that squeaks every time a child jumps up and down.  The bungee cord handle has a comfortable grip for the kids to hold onto.  Great for working on improving trunk control/strength and motor planning.  Also great for providing proprioceptive input to kids which helps with improving focus and attentional skills.  Can be used indoors and outdoors and ideal for kids 3 and older. 

Do you have any wonderful toys that you think should be added to my list?  I'm always on the lookout for new toys not only for this list but also to have on hand at work.  Please feel free to email me with any questions or suggestions.  I am always a click away and love hearing from you all!

Sum, Sum, Summertime!

After what seemed like the longest winter in the history of winters, Summer has finally arrived.  School's over and everyone is looking forward to some time off from the craziness of the school year.  With warmer weather here, I know people are looking for fun things to do outside to keep their kids cool and occupied.  If you are like me, you want to be able to  Many families go away for the summer or take the summer off from therapy so their kids can get a break and regroup after a long school year.  However, they are always asking me for activities that can be done that will work towards their occupational therapy goals.  I am always quick to tell parents to go to the park and play sports or run around in the sprinklers at the different playgrounds, especially after a long day of camp.  However, there are SO many activities out there that will work on a variety of occupational therapy skills.  The best part is that they can be done with inexpensive toys/supplies and can be done as a whole family.

One of my daughter's favorite things to do is play in the water.  Whether it be in the water table, running through the sprinkler or watering our plants, it elicits pure happiness.  I look forward to the evenings where we hang out outside after a long day of work, watching her play.  What are some of your family favorite summer activities?

If you are looking for things to do with your children this summer, here are a handful of summertime activities that you can do that will work on fine motor, visual motor and organizational skills.  It's amazing how easy it is to work on goals/skills but still have fun.  To me, it is most important that kids have fun over the summer.  There are so many pressures on kids during the school year and I am a huge believer in allowing summer to be about having fun.  If you must work on academic stuff, make sure you make it fun and don't put too much pressure on them.  I always find that not only does my own child do better, but the children I work with do as well when the work is hidden from them and it only looks like fun.

Here are a few of my favorite summer time activities.  I have also included ways to adapt each of them for older/younger children and talk about what kind of occupational therapy skills can be worked on for each of the activities.

Water Table-water tables are great for keeping kids cool when you don't have access to a pool.  Living in Brooklyn, we don't have a large enough space for a little pool.  However, we have enough space for a water table and it has brought Quinn and many other children in the hood tons of joy!  And if you have your kid put on a bathing suit, they can get just as wet and cooled off as if they were in a pool!


Depending on what kind of toys you throw into your water table, a variety of occupational therapy skills can be worked on.  For example, throw a bunch of measuring cups in there and you can work on bilateral coordination by filling up one cup from another.  You can take a turkey baster or a water dropper and work on increasing grasp strength by filling up buckets, cups, etc.  You can do the same by putting a bunch of bath toys in there as well.

There are a variety of water tables out there for purchase.  I prefer the simple one that is pictured above.  If you have a big backyard though, you can get some pretty awesome ones with lots of fancy features.  If you don't feel like spending any money at all, you can create your own water table by taking a large tupperware and filling that with water.  Fill it with some fun toys and let the fun begin!



Water Balloons-there is nothing more exciting to a kid than throwing a water balloon and watching it explode.  Even better is when that balloon explodes at a target or a person!  A couple of summers ago, I discovered the Pumponator; a balloon pumping station that makes filling water balloons easier for kids!  The best part is that it is perfect for working on improving bilateral coordination skills, increasing upper extremity strength and motor planning/organizational skills!
The Pumponator is simple for even toddlers to use but still fun for older children.  You fill the container up, pump air into the container, attach the balloon to the nozzle and push the button to fill the balloon with water.

If you want to make this activity a little more therapeutic, you can work on having kids work on visual motor skills by having them throw the water balloons at targets or have them try to throw them into different buckets.  If you are playing with other kids, have them try throwing it back and forth to each other as many times as they can before dropping it.


**Side Note:  the Pumponator was invented a couple of years ago by fourth grader, Lexi Glenn.  She became frustrated by how difficult it could be to fill a water balloon using a hose and after finding an old garden sprayer and using it to fill her balloons, invented the Pumponator!





Make Homemade Ice Pops-nothing says summer (at least in NYC) more than hearing the music from all the ice cream trucks.  We love going up to the ice cream truck and having an occasional treat from them.  Last summer, I blogged about the Zoku Quick Pop Maker.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Zoku, it is an ice pop maker that makes yummy and simple ice pops.  It comes with a bunch of recipes and ideas for you and your child to make together.   You can go traditional or you can be really creative and adventurous.  My daughter likes traditional recipes but I am hoping that we can branch out a bit more this summer!

While I purchased my ice pop maker, there are a ton of ways to make ice pops without a fancy kit. Some people use ice cube trays and I have seen ice pops made out of small paper cups and a popsicle stick stuck in the middle of it.

If you have a child who is weary about trying new foods, this could be a fun way to get them involved in the process of trying new foods.  Some people can take advantage of a picky eater by mixing desirable juices with some questionable fruits and making a tasty treat.  Try dropping some fresh fruit into the ice pops as they are freezing to get them to try

I am a huge fan of cooking, baking, etc. and how many occupational therapy skills can be worked on during this activity.  You can work on executive functioning skills such as sequencing and organizational skills.  While you are measuring ingredients out or cutting fruits up, you can work on bilateral coordination skills.  These are just a couple of skills that can be focused on when making ice pops.

If you are a fan of Pinterest, be sure to check out some of the millions of different ice pop recipe ideas that are on there.  There are so many fun and interesting ideas out there and many of them are great for your child to do with minimal help from you.

Chalk Drawing-sometimes kids just want to take a break over the summer.  They don't want to be hassled by working on things like reading, writing and math.  However, there is a way to make practicing writing fun for your kids using sidewalks (driveways if you aren't a city girl like me) and lots of chalk.  For younger kids, you can work on color recognition, matching and drawing simple shapes.  If you have a child who needs to work on coloring, draw a bunch of fun shapes all over the sidewalk or driveway and have them color them in.  Be sure to have the kids color the shapes using the correct colored chalk for an increased challenge.

For older kids who may need to work on handwriting and letter/number recognition, use chalk and make a game out of it.  You can have children label the pictures they draw or make a hopscotch board to work on writing numbers (added bonus, you can work on improving motor planning and coordination skills).  While you can totally make the traditional hopscotch board pictured here, you can also get really creative and use letters, try drawing different shapes, etc..  If you want to work on improving grasping skills, use smaller pieces of thin chalk instead of the fat chalk.

If you want to try something new and totally refreshing for the summer, check out this recipe for ice chalk.  Using every day ingredients like water, cornstarch and food dye, you and your child can have loads of fun making chalk that will cool you off at the same time.  This could be a really fun way to work on color recognition for your younger children.  And for those of you who are reading and thinking how messy this will be, you can easily clean up the chalk mess with a hose when you are finished.  I can't wait to try this with Quinn this summer!

The great thing about each of the activities I have talked about above are that they can be done individually or with friends.  Each of these activities can be equally fun either way!  Sometimes, children can motivate each other to do more challenging things if they have a partner in crime.  Let your children figure out different ways they can play with each of the things mentioned.  I know that some of the best activities for me have come out of listening to ideas from the kids and taking them and making them appropriate for each child.

Now that you have read about some of my favorite summertime activities, I'd love to hear from you about yours.  Do you have any great activities that you recommend to the families you work with or that you do with your own children that make summer unforgettable?  Please share your ideas with me and my readers.  I am only a click away and love hearing from all of you!  I am sure we would all welcome the chance to introduce new things to our children this summer!

It's All About Teamwork

As a therapist, I wear many hats.  I do all the 1:1 private practice stuff at two sensory gyms in NYC (Heads Up and SAGE).  I am a co-founder of the most amazing after school program, The Meeting House, for school age children with social special needs.  And I run smaller social skills groups with a speech therapist I have had the joy of working alongside for years now.  Professionally, I can't think of a luckier therapist than me.

With all of those different hats I wear, the toys, supplies and equipment I need varies from setting to setting so my eyes are ALWAYS open for new and fun things that would be appropriate for each place.  Yesterday, while walking around the UWS trying to kill some time between clients, I found myself in Stoopher and Boots, a super cute kids store that carries not only adorable clothes but also a great selection of toys.  I'm super excited for the new game I picked up and think that many of you will love it as well, especially you parents of multiple children or therapists/educators who tend to see groups of kids.  Stack Up by Peaceable Kingdom is a perfect game for preschoolers.  It is great across the pediatric disciplines as it covers goals for occupational therapy, speech and language therapy, physical therapy and educational goals!  I can't think of many other games in my very large and overstuffed closet that do that.

Stack Up is a cooperative game that focuses on having all the players work towards the same goal as opposed to being first or the winner.  The object of cooperative games is that you focus on working together and not as individuals.  Nobody is made to feel left out or made to feel as though they didn't do a good job.  The point of the game is that in order for you to win, you need to be part of a group and play with your friends, not against them.  Cooperative games have becoming increasingly popular since I began working in schools about 10 years ago.  I love them because I find that for some of the kids on my caseload, they spend so much time working 1:1 with grownups that they lose out on opportunities to play with their peers outside of the classroom and may present with difficulties playing games appropriately.  I am lucky enough to work in an office with other occupational therapists and speech therapists.  If the kids are appropriate for one another, we will put aside some time to play a game together; this is great for all those involved.  For parents who want to encourage their children to play together more peacefully, this game is perfect!  Sometimes parents tell me they have a hard time letting their kids play games together because it leads to so much fighting and upset when somebody loses.  This could be a good solution to the sibling game-playing blues.

In addition to what I already talked about, here are a few more goals that can be worked on while playing Stack Up:

Improve Eye-Hand Coordination-this is a fun way to work on eye-hand coordination without the kids even realizing they are working on it!  My favorite kind of activity...one that can be super fun but help reach some of those occupational goals.  A child requires eye-hand coordination to put the stick in the hole of the block and then they need to carefully look at where the block goes and how to stack it on top of the other without it toppling over.  Sounds easy but when you have kids do it at the same time, it can be quite tricky for them.
Improve Frustration Tolerance-cooperative games are a good way for kids to work on improving their frustration tolerance.  Not just towards an activity, but in regards to working with another child. This is such an important skill for kids to develop but not always an easy one to work on.  Children who have good frustration tolerance will most likely play better with their friends.  

Improve Color Recognition/Matching Skills-another great aspect about this game is that you can use it for younger children who are still in the early stages of learning their colors.  As you spin the spinner, you land on 1 of 4 colors; you can use this as an opportunity to not only learn colors but to work on matching and sorting colors.  For younger children who aren't quite ready to play the game, you can use the opposite side of the board and have them sort colors onto the right colored square.
Improve Social Skills-I find it is very difficult to teach a child the importance of team work and not always having to be the winner.  So many of the children I work with think that if they win, they are the best.  I love that the concept behind this game, and all cooperative games, is that the way to win is by working together and making decisions as a group, not just on your own.  There are a lot of collaborative games out there but many are geared towards older children and, oftentimes, don't always hold the interest of the kids.  I love that this is easy to understand and even easier to adapt for whatever the group of children are able to handle.  This game is also good for encouraging conversation amongst friends which many of my kids need to work on.
Improve Motor Planning-depending on how you play the game, you can add a physical component to the game.  If you land on a challenge when you spin, you pick up a card with some kind of physical challenge (the whole group should perform this).  For example, my favorite challenge is to do a jumping jack and freeze in a legs open position.  The kids found this to be really funny and we were able to work on a skill that is sometimes hard for them.  Other challenges include standing on one foot, giving a friend a high five and holding it for 5 seconds or making silly faces.  All of these things may sound easy to you but for children with motor planning difficulties, it can be quite challenging and they may avoid trying it.  This game motivates the kids to try it in a really fun way.

I am really excited about trying this game out with the kids signed up for my social skills group in the fall.  I am also anxious to check out a few more of the games that Peaceable Kingdom has created.  The other cooperative games they have on their website look like they will be a lot of fun as well. In addition to more cooperative games, they have regular board games, card games and sticker sets.  I'm impressed not only with the quality of the product but with the thought that has been put into creating the game.  I am sure their other games and products will prove to be equally as wonderful.

Do any of you have cooperative games that you can recommend to me and my readers?  I would love to start the fall with a few new games to use during my sessions at the gym and also for my social skills groups.  Please share your ideas with us all!  While this game is targeted towards the younger kids, I also work with older children both in my private practice and at The Meeting House and would love a few more games for that population.

As always, I love hearing from my readers and am just a click away.  Looking forward to hearing your ideas and suggestions for other fun and motivating cooperative games.

So Many Obstacles, So Much Fun

Several weeks ago, I blogged about a toy from one of my favorite toy companies, eeBoo.  I have loved this company for years, but have fallen more madly and deeply in love with them after that post.  I was fortunate enough to go spend some time at the eeBoo studios in New York City a few weeks ago.  Oddly enough, my sister and I had been to a sample sale there many years ago and it wasn't until I was walking in the doors that I remembered that.  I blame me not remembering on being pregnant.  Yes, that explains it all!

Right before I went to the eeBoo studio, I was talking to my speech therapist colleague Jacki Barredo who was telling me all about this great game she purchased over the weekend, Obstacles.  It sounded great.  Actually, it sounded amazing and asked her to bring it in so I could see it and possibly get it for The Meeting House.  Fast forward 20 minutes; I am standing in the eeBoo studio taking a look at all their toys, dreaming a bit about how cool it would be to have my OT office in their space!  As I look around, my eyes fall on the game Obstacles that Jacki was talking about!  I love coincidences like that!  In addition to a handful of other games and products, I walked out with the game Obstacles and have been playing it nonstop ever since.  

Obstacles is a game of imagination, problem solving and collaboration.  There are 25 obstacle cards that have scenes and you have to figure out how to get through each one using one of the 100 tool cards.  Check out a few examples in the image to the right.  The goal of the game is pretty easy: get home using the best tool card to overcome the obstacles.  My favorite way to play the game with a small group of kids is to have them each put down a tool on each obstacle and explain how they would use it.  After each of them has finished explaining how they would use their tool, the group has to decide which tool would be most effective for that given card.  It might take time to negotiate and come to a decision but I think it is a tool that will help our kids in so many life situations.  Learning how to negotiate can be a difficult thing to teach kids, especially the ones that I work with.  Doing it in a fun and lighthearted way may be a good non-stressful way to practice the skill before generalizing it to other life situations.  

There are so many things to love about this game, but one of the things I like best is that there is no right or wrong answer.  It's not about winning or losing.  It's all about being creative and using your imagination in order to get through each obstacle.  It's about encouraging a child to compromise and recognize that sometimes others may have good ideas too.  One of the most interesting things I have seen when watching this game is how stubborn a child can be about thinking that the other players tool might be more effective.  Children are competitive beings and are so used to winning and losing that it can be quite difficult to realize that they need to work together to get home.  

Here are a few more skills that can be worked on when playing the game Obstacles    

Improve Social Skills-I have used this game at The Meeting House and in my smaller social skills groups.  I love watching the kids come up with reasons why their tool will be the the best to get through the obstacle successfully.  There are many ways to play it but the way I mentioned above seems to be the best way to encourage team work and collaboration.  

Improve Imagination Skills-what I love most about this game is that you can never be wrong and that you are required to really think outside of the box.  So many of the children I work with, both individually and in groups, struggle with this.  It's really fun to watch the excitement that comes out of a creative explanation of how they might use a peanut butter and jelly sandwich to overcome a herd of sheep or how they might use a vacuum to get through a street filled with tacks.  

Improve Problem Solving-so many of the children I work with struggle with solving problems (whether it be with their school work or dealing with a social situation).  This can cause a child to get frustrated and often give up too easily on things.  This game is a really fun way to get children, especially those who are concrete thinkers (or rock brains as we tend to call them in our group) to become more flexible and really think things through.  

Improve Organizational Skills-you can work on improving organizational skills by really thinking about what tool you will use for each obstacle.  I tend to lay out a certain number of obstacle cards in front of the players and give each player a number of tool cards at the beginning of the game.  I then allow them a little time to look through their tools and organize them and figure out what tool would be best with each obstacle.   

I am sure my love for this company is obvious.  But let me tell you one more thing that makes me want each and every one of my readers to support this company.  If you want to, you can go onto their online store and purchase any product they create.  However, that is not what they want or encourage.  They are a true small business supporter and encourage you to find a small business in your neighborhood to purchase their products from.  How cool is that?  If you live in Park Slope, I can tell you that you can find a tremendous selection of eeBoo products at Little Things and Lulu Toys and Cuts.  I realize that sometimes it is more convenient to order online, but let's all do what we can to support these awesome small businesses.

While I think this game is great for social groups and individual therapy sessions, I think it is an also a great family game.  I think this game will turn into a family favorite as it is fun for children of all ages and grownups.  It's pretty awesome that the game can be different every time you play it because each person will have different ideas for the different tools.  You may not always use the same cards.  I know that I have as much fun playing and strategizing with the kids when they are struggling to come up with solutions.

I look forward to hearing from you all about this game and how you use it during therapy, groups and at home.  I am sure that there are many other ways to play this game and am always looking for ways to adapt and modify the games and toys that I blog about.  I am only a click away so please feel free to reach out if you have any questions or comments.