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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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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Feeding Red Flags: Drooling After Teething

May 30, 2018Tri-County Therapy Blog autism distractions feeding difficulties feeding therapy occupational therapy pediatric therapy picky eating problem eater S.O.S sensory sensory processing speech therapy

Drooling After Teething

What if your child is drooling beyond the typical age of teething (around 18 months-2 years)? Many children drool due to oral motor weaknesses or reduced awareness in their mouth. Some common causes of drooling are weak lips or jaw or difficulty keeping good lip closure. Here are some tips to decrease and manage drooling:

Tip #1- Set Your Child Up For Success!

Posture plays an important role by providing stability so that your child can control and ultimately improve his drooling. Make sure that while sitting (to eat, watch TV, play, etc.) your child’s trunk and head are supported and stable.

Tip #2- Increase Sensation

If your child’s lips are constantly open, allowing drool to pool and spill out of his mouth, it may be that he does not even realize it. For some children, calling attention to their open mouth by providing more sensory input can be very helpful. Try tapping/stroking his lips using firm pressure, using vibration (like a z-vibe or vibrating teether), or applying cold (like a frozen teether) to bring awareness of the lips and reduce drooling.

Tip #3: Increase Strength and Control

Increase lip, tongue, and jaw strength so that controlling drool will not feel like such as difficult task for your child. Some good exercises include using a straw to suck up thick liquids (like a milk shake or smoothie), practice licking foods (like peanut butter) off of his lips and squeezing items (like a z-vibe tip) between his lips, making sure to purse the lips without using teeth.

Be sure to talk with your SLP or OT if you are concerned with your child’s drooling, we have many more tools and strategies!

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Feeding Red Flags: Oral Defensiveness

May 22, 2018Tri-County Therapy Blog autism distractions feeding difficulties feeding therapy occupational therapy pediatric therapy picky eating problem eater S.O.S sensory sensory processing speech therapy

Oral Defensiveness

If your child hates having his teeth brushed or gags with strong flavors/new textures, he may be experiencing oral defensiveness. For these children, providing oral input to ‘desensitize’ the mouth is key, and can be done by slowly presenting touch, textures, and flavors at a pace that’s right for your child!

Tip #1: Start With Play!

Start with play and allow your child to control the stimulation. Use toys such as teethers, chewy tubes, spoons, or even pretzel rods. You can choose to dip them in food or leave food out of this part, whatever you feel will be most comfortable for your child! Model oral-motor play such as kissing, licking, and biting items in a fun way. For example, play ‘puppy dog’ by holding a chewy tube in your back teeth and allowing your child to tug the tube while you hold it in your teeth. If the child seems willing, let them try to be the puppy! If something seems to cause anxiety, back up and try something easier.

Tip #2: Wake Up, Mouth!

Providing input such as vibration with a z-vibe, vibrating teether, or vibrating toothbrush can help decrease oral aversion. Before using it in your child’s mouth, you can show him how it feels on his arms or legs. Gently tapping or stroking the cheeks (outside or inside), lips, tongue, and gums can actually calm some children. Be mindful that some children may be very sensitive to strong vibration, and this type of input may not work for all children.

Tip #3: Gradually Introduce Textures

If your child’s oral aversion is more closely related to eating, he may be unwilling to try foods with more texture (such as oatmeal, mashed potatoes, etc.) or strong flavors. Try making small changes to the foods he already likes. Making gradual changes can help your child accept new foods and decrease oral sensitivity. For example, if your child likes plain applesauce, add a small amount of cinnamon or sprinkle on some graham cracker crumbs, very gradually increasing the amount or adding different flavors!

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Feeding Red Flags: Prolonged Mealtimes

May 16, 2018Tri-County Therapy Blog autism distractions feeding difficulties feeding therapy occupational therapy pediatric therapy picky eating problem eater S.O.S sensory sensory processing speech therapy

Prolonged Mealtimes

Just like many adults, children may not want to sit at the dinner table all evening. Limiting meal times to around 30 minutes is considered the ‘gold standard’ for both children and adults. When meals last more than that, children can often become fatigued, bored, and frustrated. Here are some tips to keep your child’s meal times shorter and more enjoyable!

Tip #1: Use a Timer

Use a timer/timer app. There are a lot of great timers out there that are ‘kid friendly!’ Sometimes kids need a visual reminder of the time allotted for meals. It can also help them learn to pace their own eating, rather than being dependent on parents or guardians.

Tip #2: Increase Chewing Skills

Many kids experience jaw fatigue, possibly due to slightly weak jaw muscles. You can adjust meals by presenting more ‘difficult’ or hard to chew foods first (such as meat, raw vegetables, etc.), then moving onto softer foods and purees. Also, you can strengthen jaw muscles by practicing chewing on a chew tube; place the tube on your child’s back teeth and encourage them to make ‘big dinosaur bites.’ We want to see the tube collapse.

Tip #3: Limit Distractions

Reduce distractions. Having toys at the table, tablets/iPads, or watching television can all reduce your child’s attention to eating. If your child has a difficult time sitting at the table without these things, work up gradually to longer times without those distractions at the table. Instead of resorting to these distracting tactics, try to engage your child in conversation and talk about the food on the table (for example, “what flavors does it have?”, “What color is it?”, “Is it soft or crunchy?”, etc.).

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Feeding Red Flags: Moving Towards Textures & Concerns With Gagging

May 9, 2018Tri-County Therapy Blog autism feeding difficulties feeding therapy occupational therapy pediatric therapy picky eating problem eater S.O.S sensory sensory processing speech therapy

Moving Towards Textures and Concerns With Gagging

Starting around 5-6 months until around 18 months, your child’s feeding skills are constantly developing. Moving through the various textures (from baby food cereals, to purees, to meltables, to soft solids, etc.) can be an exciting and sometimes overwhelming time for toddlers and parents. Keep in mind that everyone progresses at different rates and letting your child explore new foods through play can help greatly with these transitions. Don’t worry too much if your child sometimes refuses new foods or textures or even gags on occasion! These tips can help make texture progression fun and worry free:

Tip #1– Have fun!

Let your child explore new textures that he may not be familiar with- this may mean getting messy! Wearing your food is part of the process of learning how to eat. Try ‘painting’ with purees on your child’s tray, ‘mixing’ different foods with a long pretzel rod or playing ‘tug of war’ with licorice.

Tip #2- Explore with your food!

Between 8 and 9 months, introduce hard “munchables” (hard solids such as raw carrots or celery sticks, hard pretzel rods, or hard dried fruit sticks, that your child CANNOT bite a piece from) by letting your child hold onto the item and use the other end to explore his mouth. This helps the tongue learn to move food and move the gag reflex further back into his throat!

Tip #3– It takes practice!

Your child may gag himself during food exploration, especially when introducing a new texture, but don’t panic! You can reassure your child that it’s okay, and gently help him pull the food forward (for hard “munchables” or larger food items).

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