Occupational therapy for children can be a powerful tool for helping kids to gain some independence in their daily lives. Most parents with kids who require occupational therapy for children will work with a qualified therapist, but it also helps to know how to manage it at home as well. There are many activities that you can do with children to help them to develop their motor skills. Here are a few things that you can do to help your child succeed in occupational therapy.
Get materials
The first thing that you are going to have to do in order to do occupational therapy for children is to gather some materials. These materials can include blocks, tweezers, pieces of paper, pencils, erasers and other drawing utensils. There are many activities that can come to the top of your head when you hear about these materials. Many of these things can include common household items that you use on a daily basis without even thinking about it. Some children have difficulty using these objects and with the proper guidance they will be able to do everything that you can do and possibly exceed your skills in using them in the not-so-distant future.
Come up with activities
Once you have your materials gathered, it is time to think of some activities that you can work on with the children. These activities can involve moving small objects with a set of tweezers, drawing, coloring, and a lot more. Playing games with the child is a good way to get them engaged in the activity that you are trying to accomplish. For example, a game of hot potato is a great way to get your kid to be engaged and teach them about fine motor skills.
Art projects are also great things to do in order to increase your fine motor skills and creativity. Making things like macaroni necklaces and learning how to thread the string in the small holes can help engage their fine motor skills and make something out of it. You can also make tape-chain necklaces, where you circle pieces of tape together to create a long chain of tape. Small things like this will engage the child and show them how useful it is to use these fine motor skills and rewards them with a fun toy that they can use after you finish the project.
Having the child help out around the house, say when you are cooking or cleaning, can also help them develop their fine motor skills. Not only is this a great approach when doing occupational therapy for children, but it will also instill good habits that they will be using for the rest of their lives. Cooking especially is something that children should learn from a young age, because if they don’t learn how to cook, then they will have to either rely on others to cook for them or be stuck with mediocre meals when they reach adulthood.
Be compassionate
The most important thing that you need to do is to be passionate and patient with these sorts of things. It takes time, and it will become frustrating at some points. Don’t worry, take your time and remember to not be hard on the kid. They’re learning just as much as you are, and failure is to be expected. It is up to you to learn from the failures and teach the kid how to endure and conquer their issues.