Show me you’re an OT without showing me your an OT!
Cleaning day for all the toys, tools, and games!
Don’t leave home without the following items…or maybe do, but proceed with caution! ;) Here are some of my favorite occupational therapy must haves for quality and FUN intervention. Pair the below items with the Pediatric Comprehensive Collection from our OTblueprints’ Shop and as a practitioner you’ll have all the basic necessities!
Below are some of my favorite toys, tools, and games that have been a hit over the years. Most of the items can be adapted and used with any age (five and above) or population. I’ve identified my top three items for a variety of categories and will update them periodically as new favorites evolve. If I had to pick my top three top three, they would be the snowball tongs, rush hour, and putty with pony beads. So many possibilities with these items! Click each name or image of interest to follow an Amazon affiliate link for purchase. Many of the items make great gifts, too!
OTblueprints Current Top Three!
Why I Use It: Seriously my all time favorite - definitely my number one tool! This one catches a student’s eye every time I open my therapy bag of goodies! I love bilateral coordination (having to use both hands together in a coordinated manner) tasks because they are so good for our brains. I use these with the fuzz balls or pom poms or anything the student wants to use. They really enjoy picking up items that are too big but I always let them try - makes for some good entertainment. :) I use the snowball tongs standing or sitting and incorporate movement as much as possible - so working left to right and across midline with trunk rotation or walking as part of a motor sequence.
Why I Use It: This activity is a hit! So many of my students will pick this game to play out of all my goodies to pick from. I’m not sure who loves it more - them or me? I know I love it because so many skills can be addressed with rush hour - visual perception (setting up the pieces correctly), fine motor coordination (manipulating the pieces), executive functioning (problem solving how to free the red car from the traffic jam), sequencing (which piece moves first, last, etc.)! There are multiple levels of difficulty making this activity wonderful for any age. This one is a MUST HAVE. :)
Why I Use It: Putty is very versatile. I often use this as a preparatory activity for a student to find the “hidden pony beads” and then place the bead onto a pipe cleaner while I’m determining what we’re doing next. Putty is also great to practice cutting skills for students who have difficulty grading their proprioception or are uncoordinated.
Bilateral Coordination
Why I Use It: Seriously my all time favorite - definitely my number one tool! This one catches a student’s eye every time I open my therapy bag of goodies! I love bilateral coordination (having to use both hands together in a coordinated manner) tasks because they are so good for our brains. I use these with the fuzz balls or pom poms or anything the student wants to use. They really enjoy picking up items that are too big but I always let them try - makes for some good entertainment. :) I use the snowball tongs standing or sitting and incorporate movement as much as possible - so working left to right and across midline with trunk rotation or walking as part of a motor sequence.
Why I Use It: I call these little beauties “pull tubes.” They make a nice popping sound when pulled, so I’ll leave it up to you what you name it! :) As long as a student doesn’t have auditory sensitivities, then you’ll certainly gain a smile from your students with this tool. I use this as a preparatory activity - pulling and collapsing the tubes. You can connect the ends of a tube to make a circle or chain link the tubes together as well. Be careful not to smash or over pull the tube (if you do, it will be permanently damage and won’t collapse correctly).
Why I Use It: Bilateral coordination all day, every day - and beads and string are a great purposeful activity to address this skill. This bead and string set provides great dual purpose with stringing by shape or color. Sometimes I will set out a pattern or sequence of colors for the student to copy and sometimes I will let them do as they please. Often I use this activity with a tunnel, slide, or swing.
Cognition & Executive Functioning
Why I Use It: This activity is a hit! So many of my students will pick this game to play out of all my goodies to pick from. I’m not sure who loves it more - them or me? I know I love it because so many skills can be addressed with rush hour - visual perception (setting up the pieces correctly), fine motor coordination (manipulating the pieces), executive functioning (problem solving how to free the red car from the traffic jam), sequencing (which piece moves first, last, etc.)! There are multiple levels of difficulty making this activity wonderful for any age. This one is a MUST HAVE. :)
Why I Use It: I love the multi-matrix brain game! This is great for all ages and can be graded easily (OT lingo for making a task easier or harder depending on the skill level of the individual). I’ve used it across multiple settings including, outpatient neuro, pediatrics, school-based practice, and skilled nursing. The main goal is focused on sequencing letters, numbers, shapes in the correct order, but the beauty is in how I can set-up the task to be more challenging or easier to meet the needs of the person. There is a guide included that explains how you can maximize its use.
Why I Use It: I stumbled across this game at a consignment store and what a win! Often my students utilize both hands to manipulate the shapes (bilateral coordination) and need assistance with the motor planning and visual perceptual skills needed to place the pieces correctly, so again many skills can be addressed with IQ Fit! There are four different levels of difficulty and in the back of the booklet is an answer key incase you become stuck! ;)
Construction
Why I Use It: This game is called Tumble Trax and it is a magnetic marble run. Be warned that not all dry erase board are magnetic boards in schools - some of my favorite memories this past year were with a student trying to find a magnetic board strong enough to hold the pieces! It comes with cards that show various tracks to build, but I also love watching my student’s creativity in building their own tracks. A great motor planning, sequencing, and problem solving activity!
Why I Use It: My students love building things and this toy is no exception! The hit here is the use of the “tool” to help assemble and dissemble the airplane. This construction activity is excellent for sequencing, motor planning, problem solving, bilateral coordination, and fine motor coordination. Once dissembled incorporate the scooter-board to collect the pieces to assemble.
Why I Use It: The construction of marble runs require a student to use both hands (bilateral coordination) while problem solving which pieces go where to make the run work. Much like the majority of the construction items identified, many skills are addressed with a marble run which is why I enjoy incorporating it into my sessions (plus the students love it too!).
Fine Motor Coordination
Why I Use It: Everyone should own these magical little tools! My favorite one to use (and the one that is often picked by my students) are the scissor tongs (the purple/green/blue ones) because it allows a student to work on scissor skills safely. Use them to pick up anything! Typically I use these fuzz balls or pom poms and incorporate container play or a relay game depending on the skill level of the child. The hardest tool for my students to use is the yellow squeeze tongs. The motor pattern is the opposite of what a person thinks it should be, so there is a lot of mental processing with this one!
Why I Use It: Putty is very versatile. I often use this as a preparatory activity for a student to find the “hidden pony beads” and then place the bead onto a pipe cleaner while I’m determining what we’re doing next. Putty is also great to practice cutting skills for students who have difficulty grading their proprioception or are uncoordinated.
Why I Use It: Who doesn’t love a dancing caterpillar?! This is a fun fine motor activity that works on hand coordination and strength by using tongs to place tiny colored marbles onto the caterpillar’s hands. There are four different colors and seven marbles for each, allowing for good repetition with this task (and we as OTs know repetition is key!). Typically, my students and I work on placing all the tiny colored marbles first and then once all the pieces are set, the student turns on the caterpillar and we watch it dance.
Gross Motor Coordination
Why I Use It: Tunnels are a must for every child! A tunnel helps facilitate crawling and crawling is a foundational developmental skill that helps build bilateral coordination, gross motor coordination, core strength, right/left awareness, hand and shoulder strength/stability, and can integrate primitive reflexes. All that just for crawling?! Yup! Tunnels are great and I use them as much as possible. I recommend using them in a motor sequence with pieces of a puzzle or game placed at one end and the puzzle board or game placed at the other end.
Why I Use It: Most of my students have a lot of missing motor skills, so I incorporate a lot of ball skills to develop better motor coordination. For the younger ones, we work on rolling the ball and then tossing as they are able. For my older students, we play catch and then when able I add in additional motor tasks like moving the ball behind and around their back or doing a figure 8 around their legs before tossing it back to me.
Why I Use It: Well, body socks are just fun! Climb inside and practice “snow angels” lying on the floor. My students who need more proprioception throughout their day are a perfect match for a body sock and would hangout inside it for hours if I’d let them. Because I typically work on tile floors, I don’t let my students stand/walk in the body sock for safety, but I will have my students sit or crawl in them during a game or activity after they’ve stretched and moved around inside the body sock.
Movement Games
Why I Use It: I love incorporating movement as much as possible in my occupational therapy practice. Depending on where or how you place the “targets” in hyperdash, you can achieve a lot or a little bit of movement depending on the needs of the individual. Most of the time, I have my students sit in tailors sit (criss-cross apple sauce) and let them place the targets around them. Once the handle piece is turned on, you listen for which targets are called. It ranges from simple - colors or numbers - to complex with reversals or mathematical equations utilized.
Why I Use It: This game is hilarious (and honestly can be used by all ages). If you have a pair, making this game a relay is super fun! Cards are provided that have many different pancake options and the student’s goal is to correctly build their pancake pile for you! The fastest person wins. Complete the game seated if a relay is too complex or sometimes I have the students work on trunk rotation and picking the pancakes up from the floor and placing them onto the plate on the table.
Why I Use It: Okay, a scooter-board - yes please! Seriously the kids LOVE them and you can use them with almost any activity. Climb on a scooter-board (e.g. sit or lay - no standing for safety!) and move across the room to collect the pieces for IQ Fit, Perfection, Rush Hour, etc.! Students can sit or lay on a scooter-board depending on whether you want to work on upper body strength and coordination or lower body strength and coordination. If you have a ramp, lucky you! Use it - kids love using a scooter-board on a ramp.
Visual Perception and Motor
Why I Use It: Another favorite! Although not a top three top three, shape by shape is used daily in my occupational therapy practice! I love the complexity of this visual perceptual activity. Typically, I let my students use the back of the cards (which show you how to place the yellow pieces and the orange/red pieces) to create the designs as many are unable to create the designs from the front of the card (which shows the finished design). Although rather challenging for many of my students, they are always up for the challenge and select this one to play frequently.
Why I Use It: I have my students play perfection who have difficulty with visual perception skills and I adapt the rules of the game for them. Similar to the caterpillar game, I have my students place all the pieces and then we watch them “explode” once all the pieces are set. Place the game on a carpeted surface if your students/kids have auditory sensitivities, and I always point to the timer so they know when the “pop” is coming.
Why I Use It: Card games are wonderful for manual dexterity, so Blink is wonderful for combining visual perception with dexterity and speed! Do your best to match by shape, color, or number! Whoever finishes their deck of cards first is the winner and man do my students love “beating” me. :)
Writing
Why I Use It: Any magnetic sorting activity such as the one above is wonderful to work on handwriting. Most of my students are highly motivated by this and find it fun. I love that it combines handwriting with a cognitive tasks such as sorting by color (the one above) or number. Depending on the age and skill of a child, this one can go pretty quickly so I often use it as a preparatory activity. If a student is too fast, try having them complete it prone (lying on their stomach) or in quadruped (hands and knees crawling position).
Why I Use It: I’m not a big fan of pencil grips. More often than not, if a student holds a pencil atypically, there is an underlying skill deficit (i.e. a pencil grip won’t actually “fix” the root cause). I would be really fascinated to see a research study on the effectiveness of pencil grips. If you know of an article, share it with me! Anyway, these wishbone pencils are my compromise to pencil grips! :) They can help facilitate a tripod grasp and one tool I’ve found to be fairly successful. Also, they look cool and most students want to use them which is great because many of my students do not want to use pencil grips.
Why I Use It: This is my “newest” toy. I prefer to use no technology (e.g. ipads/screens) in my treatment sessions but my students love screens (they just don’t know how bad it is for development). Sooooo this writing tablet is a compromise for me! :) It’s a modern day etch-a-sketch and the “coolness” of it makes students forget that they’re also working on some handwriting development too (yay!).