Summertime

 === === ==//Can you believe that it is summer? Just in case you get bored, here are some fun ideas and activities that you can do this summer. Have a happy and healthy summer.// == **STRENGTHENING ACTIVITIES** - Wheelbarrow walking on open palms with support at pelvis, then progressing down the legs - Painting or coloring on a vertical surface (easel or tape paper to the wall) - Use the monkey bars at the playground - Climbing a ladder - Zoomball or flying football (can be found in toy stores) - Play some commercial toys that can be played on the vertical surface such as: Magnadoodle, Light Bright - Yoga - While watching TV, reading a book, or playing games, lay on your stomach propped on your elbows. - Wall pushups - Stand facing a wall with arms spread shoulder length apart, bring nose in to touch the wall (Complete 10-15 times) - Wind Mills - touch toes while standing and reaching down to the floor with knees straight - Use a rolling pin to flatten playdoh or make cookies - Pushing or pulling a wagon FINE MOTR ACTIVITIES **  - Hide small objects in side playdoh, theraputty that the child has to pull apart to find the object. (to vary hide objects in rice/beans, sand or popcorn kernel mixture in a bucket) - Place coins in a bank - Wiggle fingers - Can have fingers on one hand “talk” to fingers on the other hand (Use finger puppets) - Use tweezrs or long tongs (salad or toaster tongs) to pick up small objects from the floor or table Some games using tweezers are Operation and Bed Bugs - Use legos/duplos, bristle blocks, Mr. Potato Head to encourage lateral and radial pinch - Play pickup sticks - Break crayons in half or use cone shaped markers or crayons to color on a vertical surface (easel, paper taped to a wall, slant board) to encourage proper pencil grasp - Popping bubble wrap with fingers - Stringing larger beads using pipe cleaners for string - Use puzzles with knobs - Use shape sorters and puzzle pieces to encourage rotating and manipulating objects in your hand - Stack blocks into a tower to knock over (use varying sized blocks and for better control, wrap small one inch blocks with Velcro) - Spin tops - Squirt or water guns - Practice using turkey basters and eye droppers. Provide water colored with food dye and a container to transfer the water between or put dots on a piece of paper - Make a collage using stickers that the child needs to peel apart and place - Using scissors to snip thinker sheets of paper (construction paper, manila folders) and playdoh or theraputty - Swing from a trapeze, monkey bars or climbing a ladder -- Painting or writing on a vertical surface (easel or tape paper to a wall) This will encourage and promote correct pencil grasp - Encourage the child to hold onto the ropes on a swing at the playground for extended periods of time (10 minutes) - Use marbles to roll through piping or razzles
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 -Squishes (Joint Compressions) Squeeze the arms, legs and hands - Pushing a weighted carriage or wagon - Tug of war with another peer or adult, by holding hands - Rolling a therapy ball over your body while he is lying down or squishing under the bean bag chair/ couch cushions -Hard/Crunchy/ Chewy foods to provide input in the oral cavity -Sucking movements to provide input to the oral cavity (i.e. sucking water through a straw) Make smoothies using yogurt and milk! - Animal Walking is a fun way to move about the house or playground! (bear walking, wheelbarrow walking, jump like a bunny, slither like a snake, walk like a crab, hop like a kangaroo) - Pulling me across the floor in a blanket - Swimming - Chasing games, play Red Light, Green Light! - Bouncing a ball - Using the equipment at the playground (sliding on the slide, swinging on the swing, bouncing on the seesaw, climbing the play structures) - Dancing - play the stop and freeze game, when the music is on you dance, when the music stops, you freeze! - Hide objects to find in the sand or bury yourself in the sand. Also hide objects in shaving cream, playdoh, bucket of beans, - Use food colored vanilla pudding to finger paint - Use squirt bottles to make pictures on the driveway, street, or side of the house - Lather on the sunscreen, get a massage while putting it on...then do mommy or daddy! - Color a picture with sand paper placed under the paper - Make cookies or some other gooey food
 * SENSORY ACTIVITIES **