If you’ve ever worked with little ones who just don’t love paper and pencil tasks or pre-writing activities, you’re not alone. As a pediatric occupational therapist, I’ve spent years searching for ways to make handwriting prep more engaging, more meaningful — and most of all, more fun. That’s exactly why I created Fun Friends Pre-Writing Buddies, the newest addition to the Fun Strokes Pre-writing Program lineup.
Category Archives: ADHD
It’s Here! The Ultimate Pre-Writing Resource Just Got Even Better!
I’m beyond excited to officially announce the launch of Fun Strokes Second Edition, a powerful upgrade to the original pre-writing resource that’s already helped countless kids build the fine motor foundations they need to succeed.
Whether you’re a pediatric OT, a teacher, or a parent supporting your child’s early learning journey, this new edition was made with you (and your little learners!) in mind.
The Science Behind Brain Gym’s Cross Crawls: How They Support Executive Functioning, Motor Skills, and Learning
As a pediatric occupational therapist, I’m always looking for movement-based strategies to support my students’ motor skills, focus, and overall learning. One activity that often comes up in conversations about movement and brain development is Brain Gym’s Cross Crawls. While Brain Gym as a whole is not evidence-based, cross crawls themselves are well-supported by research and can be a fantastic tool for improving coordination, attention, executive functioning, and motor skills.
What Are Heavy Work Activities and Who Should Do Them?
What is heavy work? Heavy work is any type of activity that provides resistance to the body by way of pulling or pushing. Resistance could be created by something pushing against the body like water in the swimming pool, or the body pushing against the floor such as doing push-ups. Pulling on resistance bands, andContinue reading “What Are Heavy Work Activities and Who Should Do Them?”
ADHD and Handwriting: Part Two
What you need to know about ADHD and handwriting difficulties.
ADHD and Handwriting: Part One
What you need to know about ADHD and handwriting skills.
How To Teach Grade-Schoolers Organizational Skills…Starting With the Disorganized Desk
Having a disorganized desk can make school hard to manage. When the teacher asks his or her students to take out their science books and turn to page 57, the child who is lost in their desk trying to find the book often can not remember the page number once it is found. Many times this student will remain lost in the lesson because of their fraught start. Tasks that should be simple become overwhelming and time- consuming often leading to stress and frustration. Organization can be an elusive skill that many kids struggle to acquire. The fact of the matter is there’s a lot that goes into being organized. Organization is part of a set of skills called executive functions. Keeping a desk organized requires more than just putting things away. Managing school materials requires planning, prioritizing, decision making, sequencing, task initiation, and following through with those tasks to completion. Some kids need extra help to set up and maintain an organized desk space at school. This post will focus on how to provide grade-schoolers with the support they need to establish and sustain a functional workspace at school.
9 Strategies to Increase Attention and On-Task Behavior
Above all, the most important thing needed for a child to progress with anything is focus. When presenting a child with a task, particularly a novel task, you must establish meaningful engagement with the child, in other words, where the child can focus on the task. What exactly does focus mean? The ability to sustain selective attention or concentration on the task at hand while ignoring or filtering out the non-relevant or distracting information in one’s environment. Sustained selective attention yields steady results on a task over time. For some children, often, this is very challenging.