Summer FUN

By Jessica Jordan, MS, OTR/L

As a preschool occupational therapist, I am so excited for summer! I feel like Olaf when I say it! Yes, it’s a time away from the school setting, but so much growth & sensory motor development can happen in your naturalistic outdoor environments over the summer. For this blog post I’d love to share a few of my favorite activities that I encourage my students and their families to try. I will also be trying these out alongside you with my own children.

Some of my favorite that you can do during the summer include: 

• Making pre writing strokes & shapes at the beach in the sand

• Take meals outside and encourage messy food play to practice pre writing strokes outside (I.e pudding, yogurt, whipped cream, etc) 

• Outdoor chalk play

• Water gun games which involve motoric separation of the sides of the hands

• Park time - especially any climbing or hanging involves strengthening the musculature in the hands and upper extremities by working on a child’s grip

• Water tables that involve pouring water and grading our upper extremity force 

• Scooping and digging at the beach for fine motor strength, force modulation, tool manipulation, and more!

• Using bubbles to encourage finger isolation and hand eye coordination to pop all those bubbles

• Swimming which encourages bilateral coordination, upper extremity strength, coordination, and provides so much sensory input!

These are just a few summer activities that work on more than one skill through naturalistic and child direct play. Feel free to drop a few of your favorite summer activities below and take a stab at what skills you think your child will be building by engaging in them. Happy summer break! ☀️