Cut and paste picture puzzles

These are easy but a bit time consuming to make-however, a great activity to develop fine motor and visual perceptual skills. I first printed out a large photo to fit the size of a sheet of printing paper. Next I cut the picture into 6 squares and numbered them. I glued them to paper and photocopied so that I can use this activity repeatedly.  I made the corresponding graph with the 6 numbers. the student needs to match the numbers in order to create the finished picture shown below. then paste in place for the finished prodcut. See if they can guess what the picture is before completing the puzzle.

Summer Occupational Therapy Activity Ideas

Active Imagination: Book Review

http://specialchildren.about.com/u/reviews/goodbooks/writeareview/Active-Imagination-Activity-Book.htm?r=un2

Having fun with clothespins

Squeezing clothespins is a great activity to strengthen fingers and develop coordination between the index and middle fingers and thumb. Pulling the pins off the mane is a fun way to engage in squeezing pins and it doesn't hurt the horse! Notice all the postural control my almost six year old client is demosntrating as he reaches for the pins.

Lots of arena designing this week at DivinityFarm as I attached my home made (knit out of trash bags) basket for tossing activities. I have a bag of weirdly textured balls (i.e. koosh, squishy etc)  all ready to use.

I made this stop sign out of a red manilla folder. I figure the octagon red shape with the word STOP is pretty basic in terms of learning to read, learn about danger and follow directions to pull/reins and stop. It will be interesting to see if our work during hippotherapy helps one of my clients learn to recognize and respond to the word STOP.

Simulated Envelopes to Label

Its easy to make simulated envelopes using cardboard or plastic. I prefer using cardboard with its natural color that is similar to the color of some envelopes. 

Placing the wider length piece of Velcro simulates placing stickers and placing the smaller piece on the top right hand corner simulates attaching a stamp.

If you need to simplify start off by using an "envelope"  with only one of the velcro shapes attached (either the label or stamp shapes).

Provide several of these to give students lots of practice on a skill that may be useful in a pre-vocational setting.

Recycled Crib turned into Vertical Surface

I love this recycling project
http://blog.craftzine.com/archive/2011/03/discarded_crib_turned_chalkboa.html

Cone Holder for Placement Activities

I always thought that those orange holders at the Trader's Joe store designed to clip onto the card and hold flowers would be useful for hippotherapy. So I asked and the store manager gave me one.

The cones fit in perfectly and I was able to attach the holder onto the side of the basketball stand. This freed up my hands and positioned the holder in a nice location for reaching while inserting cones. I like teaching the kids to turn them over in order to make them fit-a good concept to work on with 2-3 year old cutie pies.

One child was able to do this while standing on top of the horse and then squatting to insert each cone/standing to receive another. This worked on motor planning, sequencing, postural control  and balance as he reached toward the cone holder from the squat position.   

Source: Occupational Therapy Cone Activities by RecyclingOT