Make-Your-Own: Snap-Lid Board for Developing Hand Skills

Learning how to pull lids off food containers is an important, functional life skills that some of my clients find challenging.

The “Snap Lid Board” enables children or adults with developmental disabilities to practice skills that will help them to open and close food and other pull-lid containers. This is a very functional daily living skill that also works on
1) Visual attention
2) Upper extremity strength
3) Bilateral hand coordination
4) Sorting by a category and/or
5) Eye hand coordination to string onto the pipe cleaners

I showed my clients how to listen for the click sound that indicates that the lids snapped in place. People with learning challenges benefit from the repetitive practice- six times pushing the lid into place!

Pushing or pulling the lids requires force, so stimulates the proprioceptive sensory receptors in the arm/hand muscles and joints. Many children or adults with sensory processing disorders avoid pushing with their palms possibly due to touch sensitivities and decreased strength. Let’s distract them from the fact that this is exactly what they need to do in order to make the cover snap into place. Finally, the “stand up the frame” test will indicate success ( they don't fall off) or need for more pushing…….

Have fun turning the board into a sorting or lacing activity as your children or clients fill the containers according to color, shape, size or another category. Another option is to string beads or shapes with holes onto the pipe cleaners.

The following video demonstrates how I made this activity by

1) cutting around the tops of plastic coffee cans to create the blue threaded piece. You can any coffee brand container,  but be sure to use the identical product so that the covers snap onto any of the threaded pieces.  

2)  punching holes using a heavy duty hole puncher

3) Lace through the frame and punched holes to secure in place

4) I found this frame at work. You can use something similar or punch holes in a large storage cover .

I think that my clients love the smell of coffee lingering in these materials even after a washing!

Source: Make-Your-Own: Snap-Cover Board for Developing Hand Skills by RecyclingOT
Links to products you might use to make this activity......