Make Your Own "Interactive" Book

Here's an easy little project for you to make for your child/students that will address more than one skill. I bought some inexpensive board books in the Target dollar section that had some basic concepts in them (I chose colors and numbers).  I then made some PECS cards that matched each page in the book, and laminated them.

Then, I added a small piece of self stick velcro to the back of each card, and one to each corresponding page in the book.

Your child/student can then match the cards to each color or number page. They can work on their matching skills, color/number recognition and sequencing (of numbers) skills.  You can, of course, use a variety of types of books.  You could purchase a short children's story board book, and work on the sequencing of events in the story (what happened first, next, last).  Another possibility would be to make up a book to work on sight words.

Pulling the cards off of the velcro also adds a sensory component to the activity book. Another way to add a sensory component would be to add various types of textures to a book that has texture concepts in it (a card with fleece on it for "soft", sandpaper for "rough", etc).

Kids tend to love these, and they are super easy to make!

Deep Pressure for Pets!

Not terribly impressed that "mom" put her Thundershirt on!

This is Cinch.  She is our 11 month old standard Australian Shepherd.  She is a busy dog (if you know anything about this breed, they need a lot of stimulation), and she gets scared easily.  You could say she gets anxious, especially during a thunderstorm or if the environment is too loud.  Now the animal community is picking up on the use of sensory based techniques to decrease anxiety- hence the "Thundershirt".  It gives your dog (or cat) a nice little proprioceptive hug to decrease anxiety and calm them down.  It's a pressure vest or compression garment for your pet!  How cool is that?!  Made by Thunderworks, there are all kinds of weighted things that you can get.  We bought ours from PetSmart, but they are available from lots of places, too, including the Thunderworks website:

http://www.thundershirt.com/?gclid=CMzzspi7_roCFasRMwod4UIAQg

Have you heard of Bal-A-Vis-Ics?

I went to a workshop quite a while ago, and while I was there the speaker briefly introduced a program called Bal-A-Vis-Ics.  The program teaches children to focus using their mind and body together. The program begins by having kids toss a bean bag from one hand to the other. As they get older, they start using racquetballs.  They progress to using more than one at a time, and then also while standing on a balancing board.  The speaker liked it because she felt that racquetballs were a great fit for the natural contour of the hand.  We did a few of the exercises from it, and it was excellent eye hand coordination training.  It focused on natural rhythm, crossing midline, tracking, coordination, and it was FUN.  Of course I am not a certified trainer in the use of this program, but I did take some of the basic concepts from what I did learn and I use it in my OT sessions with kids.

There have actually been studies done on how participating in this program has improved academics and concentration for kids, and you can find these studies on the Bal-A-Vis-Ics web site. The training to be certified for this is in some parts of the US and in other countries...but, you can find recommended reading, books, dvds, videos, activities, materials, etc. on their web site here:  http://www.bal-a-vis-x.com/  I did find some videos on you tube as well.  You can use the basic principles and activities and practice them with your child and students. When you consider all of the skills this program addresses, you can't go wrong using it to enhance these skills in a fun way.

Thanks, Fabulous OT Friends!

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Printable Paper!

I wanted to share a website that I recently found called Printable Paper~  this site allows you to print out various kinds of paper to address your individual student's/child's needs.  There is various lined paper, highlighted paper, low vision paper, graph paper, music paper, note taking paper, and a whole lot of other kinds, too.  You can download and print them from the site, or you can purchase a cd with all of them on it.  Check it out here:  http://www.printablepaper.net/