OT Motor Box Challenge by WooTherapy

WooTherapy was excited to create a collaborative challenge and get others thinking of the essential items that we could provide kids to maximize their therapeutic experience via telehealth or live therapy while minimizing the spread and exposure to germs.

WooTherapy is a run by a school-based occupational therapist with 12 years of pediatric experience. Finding fun, child-centered games and activities is the best part of calling OT her job.

Connect with WooTherapy here on the blog or over on Instagram @wootherapy.

WooTherapy Challenge Items

1. Coins

• Flip them (coin toss)
• Turn them (from front to back and vice versa)
• Flick them
• Sort them
• Stack them
• Count them
• Add them
• Hide them under the paper and rub them
• Play a game of “The Bank” – start with coins stacked in the middle and have kids remove coins one at a time then place on the circle that corresponds to the same size AND have them correctly place the coin on HEADS or TAILS. The second way to play is to have them set-up on the coins and pick up one at a time and place them into the “bank” by stacking a tower.

2. Deck of Cards

• Count them
• Flip them (from front to back and vice versa)
• Pair them (can incorporate a mini obstacle course with one pair at one end and doing an animal walk or log rolls to find the match at the other end, then clip them together with a clothespin)
• Sort them by suit
• Sequence them from Ace to King
• Shuffle them
• Deal them
• Play a variety of games (Memory, Old Maid-remove 3 Queens, Go Fish, Crazy 8s, Slap Jack, War, etc.)
• Place the corresponding number of beads on cards
• Form number from card flipped over out of wikki stix, playdoh, or foil

3. Pony Beads

• Practice patterning
• Count them
• Sort them by color
• Hide them in the playdoh
• String on wikki stix (possibly by corresponding color)
• Use as a tactile/physical prompt to facilitate tripod grasp during writing and other activities
• Use as a spacer between words
• Place them on raised nubs of wobble disc

4. Wikki Stix

• Wind around a pencil
• Practice pre-writing shapes, letters, and numbers
• Make pictures (such as people, animals, houses, etc)
• Tangle several in a twisted ball and have child separate them
• Tactile processing tool
• Peel off a surface

5. Clothespins

• Pick up/manipulate pony beads
• Squish playdoh balls
• Use as a spacer during writing tasks
• Use as a pencil grip
• Write letters on them and match them to letters written on paper
• Make a stegosaurus out of foil and add spikes/plates – then write a story about the dinosaur

6. Playdoh

• Hand strengthening
• Pinch it
• Squeeze it
• Pull it
• Roll it
• Dig it
• Cut it
• Create pre-writing shapes, letters, and numbers
• Tactile Processing

7. WooTape

• Accommodate any worksheet (short answer or essays) by providing visual boundaries
• Label crafts/drawings (ex: parts of a flower– 1) stem, 2) roots, 3) leaves, 4) petals)
• Label items around the house
• Provide necessary visual boundaries to write name on all assignments
• Use on any surface; especially a vertical surface!

8. Dice (check out blog post)

• Develop palmar arches by shaking with 2 hands
• Use to decide how many gross motor actions to perform (ex: 5 jumping jacks)
• Stack them to practice visual alignment and grading of force
• Motor plan alternative ways to move/roll them without touching directly with their hands
• Visual perceptual – number correspondence

9. Balloons

• Bop them back and forth – try to improve how many taps before touching the ground
• Write different shapes, letters, numbers on it and child has to call out one object they see as they tap it
• Walk back and forth to retrieve objects with balloon squeezed between knees/thighs
• Fill with beads or playdoh to create a fidget
• Have child try to blow it up
• Have child try to tie it closed

10. Aluminum foil

• Hide objects tightly inside and have child try to unwrap them
• Tear it
• Cut it
• Roll it
• Squeeze it
• Form it into different pre-writing shapes, letters & numbers

11. Scented Bubbles

• Blow them
• Pop them (encourage only using a pointer for finger isolations or clapping them for bilateral coordination)
• Tactile processing of sticky/sliminess
• Olfactory processing

12. Tennis ball

• Bounce and catch with self
• Toss up and catch with self
• Toss back and forth with another person (underhand)
• Toss back and forth with another person (overhand)
• Place target on the wall and have child aim at it from different distances (start close ~2 feet away then take a step backward after 5 consecutive targets)
• Convert into a Hungry Tennis Ball Man and feed it coins, beads, erasers, etc.

13. Wobble disc

• Stand on it and perform “Head, Shoulders, Knees, & Toes”
• Stand on while bouncing tennis ball
• Use as adaptive seating/sensory movement at the desk to optimize arousal (sitting on or placed behind the child’s back)
• Place pony beads on nubs

14. Hole puncher

• Motor planning to properly align paper within the puncher + hold and squeeze simultaneously
• Hand strengthening and bilateral coordination to hold paper and squeeze lots of holes
• Use punched circles/shapes for gluing on prewriting shapes, letters & numbers
• Comes in a variety of shapes so find one that is motivating for the child (ex: a butterfly or train)

15. Paint chips from the hardware store

• Match beads to correct color paint card
• Squeeze the corresponding number of holes using hole punch (hand strength and bilateral coordination)
• Use for a stiff and smaller cutting material for improved success with beginning cutters
• Tear it up for crafts
• Use for many different paint chip crafts

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