Tactile Play- Dry and Messy

I have posted on this topic before, but I recently received an email from Fun A Day blog (I'm a subscriber), and I thought I'd share. My team recently has had some interesting responses from students with tactile sensory defensiveness in regards to not wanting to touch anything messy. The issues came up while working on daily living skills tasks that included making a simple snack using peanut butter- one student in particular was so distressed about getting peanut butter on his fingers that he refused to pick up the snack to take a bite, but rather brought his mouth to the edge of the plate to take a bite. With a situation like this, I would start with dry tactile input intervention/exposure, progress to tolerance of wet (but not sticky) tactile input, and finally to messy/sticky input. Fun A Day has the following blog posts that have some great tactile activity ideas, and you can find them here-

Dry:

https://fun-a-day.com/dry-messy-play-ideas/?utm_source=ActiveCampaign&utm_medium=email&utm_content=%F0%9F%99%8C%F0%9F%8F%BC+Tons+of+Messy+Play+Ideas&utm_campaign=Tons+of+messy+play&vgo_ee=AEHVg7LvQ%2FsMgUmgQVgRplBNjIl2q6kUcKeCvmCOYDQ%3D

Messy:

https://fun-a-day.com/messy-play-recipes/?utm_source=ActiveCampaign&utm_medium=email&utm_content=%F0%9F%99%8C%F0%9F%8F%BC+Tons+of+Messy+Play+Ideas&utm_campaign=Tons+of+messy+play&vgo_ee=AEHVg7LvQ%2FsMgUmgQVgRplBNjIl2q6kUcKeCvmCOYDQ%3D

Mother's Day Art Activity

Here's a cute, quick Mother's Day activity to try- You need:

• paper
• black marker
• tempera paint

Draw a line for a stem with lines extending from the top. I had my students imitate me drawing. Have the students dip their finger in tempera paint and make small dots along the lines. Simple! Simple and yet, some of my students had difficulty with grading the amount of pressure to use to make the dots, some of them did not like to get their hands messy, and some of them had a hard time motor planning where and how to place the dots along the lines. We had fun making them!

My example is on the right

Earth Day Activities

I love Earth Day Activities because I can re use or recycle things to use in my projects with kids- here are 30 Earth Day activity ideas from Crafts on Sea that you can use for your Earth Day lesson planning:

https://www.craftsonsea.co.uk/recycling-activities-for-kids/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=recycling_crafts_kids_can_make&utm_term=2022-04-20

Get your kids and students on board by having an Earth Day Scavenger Hunt- check out this free printable from Life Over C's:

 https://lifeovercs.com/earth-day-scavenger-hunt-for-kids-free-printable/?vgo_ee=AEHVg7LvQ%2FsMgUmgQVgRplBNjIl2q6kUcKeCvmCOYDQ%3D

Pepsico Recycling Recycling Resources for Classrooms and Families- this is an awesome website that I just became aware of. You can search by role, grade, subject and resources and there is a ton of information here!

And as an adult in general, I have been trying to do more things myself to reduce the amount of plastic waste that I am contributing to...here are a few of my favorite things that I have recently started using at my own home: 

Blueland Zero waste cleaning tablets in reusable, refillable packaging- I have replaced almost all of my cleaning products with this brand.

Earth Breeze Eco friendly zero waste laundry detergent sheets- zero plastic packaging, and it is free of all kinds of stuff we don't want in our products. Check it out!

Some fun sustainable products that I love:

Rothy's  Shoes made from made from recycled single-use plastic water bottles and marine plastic- and they are washable! 

RAREFORM Bags made from recycled billboard signs- ever wonder what they do with those things?? No 2 are the same, and they come in a variety of sizes.

Letter Reversals

I came across this extensive post from the OT Toolbox regarding letter reversals- lots of good information along with additional links and interventions related to the topic. You can check it out here:  

https://www.theottoolbox.com//letter-reversals/

"Ugly" Christmas Sweater

This is super late, I forgot to post this before the Christmas holiday- but I had to post it, bc the kids had so much fun decorating their "ugly" Christmas sweaters! Download the free template and put it in your file for next year!

Items needed for this activity:

sweater template (free) from Crafts on Sea:  XmasSweater

Glue, pom poms, markers, crayons, felt, craft beads, stickers, or any other random embellishments

Tis the Season- Seasonal Scented Play dough

I love the scents of the holiday season! Here are some ways to incorporate those scents into some tactile sensory play: 

Gingerbread Playdough:

 https://www.learning4kids.net/2015/11/15/scented-gingerbread-play-dough-recipe/

Candy Cane Playdough

https://kidsactivitiesblog.com/79418/candy-cane-play-dough/

Hot Chocolate Playdough:

https://thesimpleparent.com/chocolate-playdough/

Sugar Cookie Playdough:

https://www.frugalmomeh.com/homemade-playdough.html

4 types of Christmas Playdough: egg nog, cranberry, mint and gingerbread

https://www.inthekidskitchen.com/christmas-play-dough/

Heavenly Scented Christmas Playdough: Cranberry Sauce,  Peppermint Candy Cane, Christmas Tree, Gingerbread Cookie 

https://onetimethrough.com/heavenly-scented-christmas-playdough-recipes/ 

Structured Work Environment

I often come across instances where the curriculum needs to be adapted to the unique needs of my students. While it is not necessarily my role to adapt the curriculum, as an OT I can provide suggestions to team members and staff as far as types of activities or in which type of format activities could be presented that would be beneficial to our shared student.

In our special services unit, we often use portions of the TEACCH model to set up a structured work environment for students with ASD. You can learn more about the TEACCH method here:

https://teacch.com/

Structuring the work space that our students work in is important to limit distractions and provide predictability- what is being expected of them now and next. It is also important that activities be presented in a clear sequence so that there is a definite plan of how to complete them, with a clear beginning and ending to the tasks. An example of a structured work space that I recently help set up for a preschooler is below:

On the wall is the visual schedule of that task boxes to be completed. The student chooses the top visual card, and matches it to a bin on the shelf to find that task that is to be completed. Bins/boxes that contain the work tasks are located to the left of the student's work space so that the tasks can proceed in a left to right progression. The student completes the task at his/her desk/work space. When finished with the task, the student places the visual activity card in the "done" container (in this case it's a small orange bin on the table) to indicate that that task is finished, and sets the finished work task bin on the shelf to the right of the work space. He/she then checks the visual schedule of tasks for the second task to be completed, and so on. The number of tasks to be completed depends on the individual student. Sometimes even completing one task at a time is the goal- some kids can complete several in a row. Task boxes provide organized activities that have a clear beginning and end.

To make things easier, I went to Teachers Pay Teachers and found some visual supports for task boxes that I paid a small fee for and downloaded- much easier and faster than making my own. They are available from Melissa Finch at Autism Adventures. Check them out here: 

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Task-Box-Labels-832997

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Task-Box-Visual-Directions-Templates-For-Autism-Programs-2003038

There are many ways to set up a work space that works for your student, a variety of visual supports that can be used for the visual schedule and many many types of work tasks that can be incorporated into a work format such as this. This particular work station and the visuals provided suited the preschooler that it was set up for. Use your knowledge of the student's individual strengths and needs and your own creativity to come up with a work environment that will allow your student to be successful.