Tri-County Therapy: Bilateral Coordination Activities

Camping Thematic Unit: Bear Walks & Tunnel Crawls

June 26, 2018Tri-County Therapy Blog bear theme bear walks camping theme fathers day occupational therapy pediatric therapy physical therapy S.O.S sensory sensory processing speech therapy therapy tunnel

Activity One: Bear Walks

Having your child walk like a bear works on so many important skills! It helps improve her balance and trunk strength (to keep her tummy off the floor), improves her gross motor coordination and motor planning (to efficiently coordinate her arms and legs), and provides a lot of weight bearing into her arms and legs (which can be very calming). Make it a bit more challenging by having her walk fast, slow, sideways, or backwards for more variety and fun!

Language Concepts:

Following Directions

Vocabulary: Body Parts

Spatial/Directional Concepts: Forward, Backward, Sideway

Qualitative Concepts: Fast, Slow

Motor Concepts:

Balance

Bilateral Coordination

Motor Planning

Sensory Regulation

Strength

Activity Two: Tunnel Crawls

Crawling through a tunnel (if you don’t have one, you can make one by throwing a sheet over your kitchen table!) Having your child crawl through, under, and around obstacles is a fun way to help build his upper body and trunk/core strength. It also will help improve his ability to cross midline and develop his bilateral coordination (which is using both hands together efficiently). Have your child crawl through a tunnel to pick up a requested item and bring it back through. This helps improve his ability to follow directions and sequence steps! The possibilities are endless for some indoor summer fun when it heats up outside ?!!

Motor Concepts:

Core & Trunk Strength

Upper Body Strength

Crossing Midline

Bilateral Coordination

Sequencing

Language Concepts:

Multiple-Step Directions

Vocabulary: Food, food groups, shapes, colors

Spatial/Directional Concepts: through, on top, together, apart, beside/next to, under, between, inside

Qualitative Concepts: fast, slow, hot, cold, bumpy, round, square, long, striped

Written by: Amy Elgin, MSOL, OTR/L, BCP

Occupational Therapist

Board Certified in Pediatrics

Clinical Director – Tri-County Therapy

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Bathing & Water Sensitivity: My Child Doesn’t Like Getting Wet

June 19, 2018Tri-County Therapy Blog autism bathing occupational therapy pediatric therapy sensory sensory processing washing hair water aversions

My Child Doesn’t Like Getting a Bath or Having His Hair Washed:

Bath time can be a daily struggle. Your child may not want to get into the water with the faucet running due to the loud sound it makes or she may show discomfort having his hair washed or getting his face wet, due to fear of getting water in his eyes. Below are a few pointers to make bath time a fun experience for your child.

Tip #1: Play in an Empty Tub

Playing in an empty tub can show your child that there is nothing to fear and that the tub can be fun! This can help decrease his overall stress and anxiety, making the transition to a tub filled with water a little more comfortable for all those involved.

Tip #2: Give Toys a Bath

Have your child give toys such as cars a carwash or a doll a bath in the tub. Start with very little water in the tub. If your child does not want to get in the tub, have him sit on the edge to wash the toys, slowing progressing to sitting in the tub (with or without water). This shows your child that it can be fun to bathe and that everything needs to get clean!

Tip #3: Avoid The Face

Avoid pouring water over your child’s face, as this can be uncomfortable and frightening to children that are sensitive to having things around their eyes as well as an overall scary sensation. Water provides extra pressure and sometimes this pressure can be unsettling for children.

To avoid getting water into your child’s face, try using a washcloth or towel to protect your child’s eyes, while being mindful to tip his head slightly backwards. You can also utilize a bath time visor with will fit around your child’s head and protects his face from becoming wet.

Extra Tips:

Have child enter bathtub after it has been filled and the faucet is no longer running if the noise or sight of running water causes anxiety. You can also decrease faucet pressure if this an option.

Prior to bath time, have your child get ready for the activity with use of various deep pressure activities to provide calming sensory input. Activities such as animal walks, wall push-ups and deep squeezes/hugs can provide needed pressure to help them better self-regulate during this stressful time.

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How To Make A Book Interactive & Adaptive for AAC

June 12, 2018Tri-County Therapy Blog AAC adaptive book Alternative Communication bear theme camping theme Communication Device interactive book occupational therapy pediatric therapy speech therapy

How To Make An Adaptive Book: Going On A Bear Hunt

For our Camping Thematic Unit, our book of the month is: Going On A Bear Hunt. We work with children on many different levels, as some children use Augmentative & Alternative Communication (AAC) devices, while others are working on higher language concepts. Some children have difficulty focusing and attending to a book. Adapting a book to be successful across all levels can be challenging, but it can allow you to expand receptive and expressive language gradually across your thematic unit while slowly fading the adaptations.

Here is how we adapted Going On A Bear Hunt for our Camping Thematic Unit!

Step 1: Gather Your Materials

You will need the following: A paperback version of your book, glue stick, laminator, Laminating Pouches, scissors, 3-hole punch, Ring Clips, Velcro Dots, color printer, AAC picture software (i.e. Symbolstix, Boardmaker, Lessonpix), cardstock, GoTalk AAC Device (9, 20)

Step 2: Create Picture Symbols

Go through the book and choose target vocabulary and core words. We used Symbolstix to make the picture targets for this adaptive book. Symbolstix allows you to format your board to fit the AAC Voice Output Device. We created a picture board for the GoTalk 20+ AAC Voice Output Device using target words (see picture below). After you’ve created your board, print 3 copies on cardstock. Cut two of the pages of symbols out, while keeping one for your GoTalk 20+ AAC Device.

Step 3: Take apart the book

You’re going to want a paperback book because they are easier to separate, cut, or tear apart. Using scissors will help keep the lines clean. Take the book apart and stack it in order.

Step 4: Put in the symbols

Glue the 20 picture symbols you selected onto the corresponding page in the book. For example, glue the ‘grass’ picture on the page where they are walking through the grass, and glue the picture of the bear onto the page with the bear in the book.

Step 5: Laminate the Book

Once all of the symbols are glued in the book, place each page in a 5 mil laminating pouch and run it through your laminating machine. This thickness will allow you to keep this adaptive book long term! While 3 mil pouches are ok, 5 mil will get the most bang for your buck! Be sure to leave a sufficient border of the laminating sheet around each edge, otherwise the page may peel apart. If there is an excessive amount of laminate remaining around the edge once laminated, trim it and be sure you keep the edges rounded.

Step 6: Velcro dots

Using the soft Velcro dots (soft loop side), place a dot on each picture symbol in the book. The Velcro dots (rough hook side) can be placed on the back of the other picture symbols. Next, match the pictures together in the book. Now you have an interactive picture with many pages within the book! Adding these removable pictures increases overall attention and participation and allows you to use the pictures following reading the book for carryover.

Step 7: Put it Together!

Using the 3-hole punch (you may need to adjust the width so it fits the specific book), punch holes in each page. Then bind them together using a ring clip in each hole.

Step 8: GoTalk AAC Device

Laminate the sheet with the 20 pictures for your GoTalk 20 Device (be sure to cut it to fit the device). Do not cut these out individually. Once you’ve put the sheet into your device, follow the instructions to program each symbol with the corresponding voice output (name for the picture).

Now you have an adaptive book with a paired communication device, and the majority of your kids can participate! You have the adaptions for those that struggle to imitate, attend, and those that are non-verbal! Have fun, the possibilities are endless!

Some other functional activities you can do with the laminated picture symbols include:

Receptive Vocabulary: Making a mock bear scavenger hunt in the hall (find the pictures and/or name them).
Expressive Language: Have the child match the picture from the book to the GoTalk 20+ AAC Device and push the voice output button that matches and then imitate the word.
Spatial Concepts and Following Directions: Find a named picture and put it in a named place (i.e. find the ‘grass’ and put it under the table; find the ‘bear’ and put it behind the chair).
Sensory: Hide the pieces in a sensory bin (rice, beans, kinetic sand, etc.).
Gross motor: Place Velcro pieces onto a large Velcro board and have the child reach for the named pictures. You can also have the child put pictures under, over, next to, etc. to work on spatial concepts.
Bilateral Coordination & Sensory Input: Do bear crawls to find the pictures down the hall.
Sequencing & Retelling: Make a picture sequence using the pictures to recreate the store and retell.

Written by:

Allison Kane, MCD, CCC-SLP, CAS & Stephanie Pecht, MA, CCC-SLP

Speech Language Pathologist Speech Language Pathologist

Certified Autism Specialist AAC Specialist

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Camping Thematic Unit: Father’s Day Bear Craft

June 5, 2018Tri-County Therapy Blog bear craft bear theme camping theme craft fathers day occupational therapy pediatric therapy S.O.S sensory sensory processing speech therapy

Father’s Day Bear Card

We are doing a thematic unit this month on camping! Our book of the month is Going On A Bear Hunt, and we have a lot of fun crafts, bear hunts, and other thematic activities going on in our offices! Since Father’s Day is June 17th, we’re sharing this fun craft with you now!

A video tutorial is at the bottom of this post.

Here’s a step by step on how to make this fun craft!

Step 1: Gather Your Materials

You’ll need the following: three sheets of construction paper (one lighter in color than the other two), marker, medium size bowl, small can, glue stick, liquid glue, glitter, pom pom, large googly eyes, and scissors.

Step 2: Fold, Trace, and Cut!

Fold one sheet of paper in half and trace the bowl, with one end overlapping the folded portion. Using the same color paper, trace two circles with the can. Using the lighter color, trace another circle with the can, and draw a bow tie. Cut them all out!

Step 3: Write a Note!

Open the large circle and write a note for dad for Father’s Day!

Step 4: Put it Together!

Using the glue stick, glue the two small circles on top near the folded portion for the ears. Glue the lighter circle on the middle of the larger circle for the nose.

Step 5: Decorate!

Use bottled glue to put glitter on the ears, draw a mouth on the center circle, glue on a pom pom for the nose, glue on the tie, and glue on the eyes! You can modify the bear by using construction paper for the inner ear, using glitter for a nose, or just drawing on a nose! You can decorate or make a fancy tie too!

Written by: Allison Kane, MCD, CCC-SLP, CAS

Speech Language Pathologist

Certified Autism Specialist

Tri-County Therapy

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