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Topic “Physical skills”
makes marks
| Activity/strategy name and materials required | How to do the activity | Key principles for doing the activity and comments |
|---|---|---|
| Imitates vertical strokes Writing tools and paper Washing up brush and bucket of water Sand tray Play dough | (1) Start by making big vertical strokes with a washing up brush and a pail of water outside on a fine day. Say "Down ... down" (2) Give the brush to the child (3) Reward any attempts to make a downward stroke for example with clapping, praise etc. (4) Follow this procedure in the sand or in a rolled out piece of play dough etc. (5) Use a chunky crayon (not too long) and a piece of paper. Say 'Down ......down.' (6) Give the crayon to the child (7) Reward success with praise or reward toys. (8) Use a ruler to make two vertical tramlines on the page and then help the child draw between the lines in a downward motion. (9) Draw two or three tramlines on a page well spaced - and see if the child can start at the top and draw down. (10) Draw big dots in a downward line and make the starting off dot big and red. Model for the child drawing a downward line roughly along this line of dots. You may need to start the child off and stop half way down the line for the child to complete. (11) Use different colours and writing tools to make the task more interesting. Reward attending to the task with social praise or a reward toy. |
Smiley face group progress sheet
Neil Thompson
Quick therapy/lesson evaluation sheet - using a rating scale of four smiley faces.
The idea is for the child/person to evaluate themselves in terms of how well they were able to do the activity. This helps the person running the activity to select harder or easier activities as time progresses - keeping them at a level where there is generally a high degree of success.
Created 16 February 2012; updated 16 July 2015.
Fine motor skills to support writing skills
| Activity/strategy name and materials required | How to do the activity | Key principles for doing the activity and comments |
|---|---|---|
| Multi-Link Cubes Linkable cubes | Play games linking these together and pulling them apart. Who can build the biggest tower? | Have fun with the activities in this area. The activities are designed to build up both skill and strength with thumb and forefinger as a precursor to writing. . |
| Tweezers and clothes pegs Puppets Cotton wool Containers Tweezers Small things to pick up | Can the child put pegs on the puppet's hand/nose/arm etc? Can the child rescue the puppet from the clothes peg monster which has covered the puppet in pegs? Can the child be the clothes peg monster and cover the puppet in pegs? Can the child use tweezers to pull off bits of cotton wool and hide them/put them into a container/give them to a hungry puppet? Can the child feed a teddy small bits of paper balls/sponge etc using tweezers held in finger and thumb? | |
| Card Threading Lace and card with holes | Can the child follow a line to thread the lace through the pre-cut holes? Can the child undo the threading to start again? | |
| Necklaces Beads Threading lace | ||
| Toy nuts and bolts on a board. | ||
| Pegboard and pegs | ||
| Silly putty and small objects to hide | ||
| Stress balls | ||
| Bubble wrap | ||
| Shape sorter |
Improve pencil control and use a tripod grip
| Activity/strategy name and materials required | How to do the activity | Key principles for doing the activity and comments |
|---|---|---|
| Developing pencil control Graffiti Wall Large piece of paper Crayon or chalk | Stick a large piece of paper onto an open wall. Allow the child (or works well as a group activity as children will imitate each other) to go up to the wall and freely scribble onto the paper. | A vertical surface to draw on will build the child's arm and shoulder strength. |
| Rubbing Wax crayon Coins Letter stencils | ||
| Hand tracing Paper short piece of crayon or chalk | ||
| Colouring with a short crayon Simple pictures to colour in Short pieces of chalk or crayon | It is important that a short piece of chalk or crayon is used because it requires the child to use the fingertips correctly. |
writes on a screen
| Activity/strategy name and materials required | How to do the activity | Key principles for doing the activity and comments |
|---|---|---|
| Writing on a computer screen Computer Symbol for computer Mouse Attractive programme like 'dazzle' for paint effects. You can make a symbol card using the Commtap Symboliser for PowerPoint. | 1. Show the child a symbol of the computer and lead the child to the computer holding the symbol for the child to see. 2. Model clicking on the mouse to make a change to the computer screen. 3. Comment on the change. E.g., 'Look... its gone red.' 4. Gradually give the child less and less help to click with the mouse. 5. Print out some of the screens that the child has made by using the mouse. 6. Comment on the print outs using one or two words e.g. 'Look......... green'. 7. Help the child take this print out to another adult for comment and praise. 8. Make a scrapbook of the printouts. Write the child's name under the print out. | Gradually fade out any help and allow the child to complete more and more of the task till they are doing all the task themselves. Give lots of praise or offer a reward bag for a task completed. |
form lower case letter shapes
| Activity/strategy name and materials required | How to do the activity | Key principles for doing the activity and comments |
|---|---|---|
| Formation of a letter / linking to it's sound (1) Some or all of the following: Feely letters / magnetic letters & bag (or water tray) - use lower case letters Play dough (or similar) (LDA Rol 'n write alphabet letters and marble, if available - see www.ldalearning.com) Small sand tray with dry sand or salt Finger paints?! (Messy but fun!) Rough surface (e.g. carpet) Smooth surfaces Paints Big white board & pens Small white board & pens Selection of coloured pens / pencils | 1. Child closes eyes - selects feely letter or magnetic letter from a bag (or water tray). 2. Child guesses letter by feeling the shape. (Make sure they holding it the right way round.). 3. Child opens eyes & watches while adult models using forefinger to trace over the shape of the letter saying the sound - child copies. 4. Child makes the shape of the letter using play dough and / or in similar material. 5. Child rolls the marble on the Rol 'n' Write letter (if available) watching the direction the marble rolls, then goes over the letter with forefinger, saying the sound. 6. Child traces the shape of the letter with forefinger (while saying the sound) on different surfaces - rough carpet, smooth table, soft cushion, etc. 7. Child copies the shape of the letter (while saying the sound) using different writing tools - painting, wax crayons, big white board / pens in different colours etc (as available). 8. Go onto the next activity 'Formation of a letter / linking to it's sound (2)', or end with adult tracing a letter shape on child's back / child guesses it. | This activity is best done one to one - especially for children struggling to remember grapheme phoneme correspondences (gpc's). Child should already be able to recognise (read) the letters by sound or name. As a general rule - work on two or three letters at a time but move at child's pace. Child will need the necessary motor skills in order to do this work - although these activities could also link to a child's Occupational Therapy work. Additional activities: Could also - make the lower case letter shapes in collage, in pegs on a peg board, in Lego or in cooking with a letter shaped pastry cutter. Or outside - in soil, in wet sand, 'water' paint on the ground etc / try to link to child's interests. Links with other TAP activities: This activity links to TAP Activity ER P8 recognise half the letters of the alphabet - but can be used for digraphs and trigraphs as well. It also links to "PA Phon listen for beginning and ends of words") on www.commtap.org. |
| Formation of a letter / linking to it's sound (2) (Based on the principle of 'Multisensory Links' from the Dyslexia Institute) Small white board & Pens A4 sheet of paper divided into quarters Pencil Coloured pencils or felt tipped pens | This activity follows on from the previous activity. Remember to Teach: *Correct grip of writing tool *Use of hand rather than whole arm movements *Correct sitting *Correct position of paper. If the child knows the letter names as well, instead of just saying the sound when writing the shape of the letter, encourage the child to say for example: "SSSS" (letter sound) "is Es" (letter name). For letters that are frequently confused or reversed e.g. b / d - it will help to have a picture clue to show from step 1, and focus on the starting point of the letter - so for letter b have a picture of a bat and ball and focus on the top of the handle of the bat as the starting point (unless the school encourages full cursive writing in which case all letters start from the baseline - check the school policy). Further activities Link to ICT - useful letter formation demonstration and activities: Words and Pictures Magic Pencil Handwriting at https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize. |
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