Crafts For Occupational Therapy
Here at Cutting Edge, you might have noticed that sometimes we send your kids home with craft projects, especially around the holidays. Have you ever wondered why we work on crafts in therapy? Here are just a few reasons:
1. Fine motor skills.
Crafts are a great opportunity for us to work on fine motor skill development. Using materials like stickers or foam boards requires lots of fine motor skills. Anytime the kids have to punch a foam shape through the backing or remove the backing from a sticker, it facilitates that tripod or pincer grasp. The smaller the sticker, the more difficult it is. These crafts also give us a great opportunity to work on scissor skills, including precision and posture.
2. Visual processing.
Crafts also allow us to do a great deal of visual processing work. We give the kids a specific guide or an example and have them replicate it. This helps us to understand what their level of visual processing is, and whether they can understand the sequence of what comes first, what goes next.
Lately, we’ve been doing a lot of origami which is a great opportunity for us to see if the child can follow directions. On top of that, origami has a great visual processing component because it involves folding, following directions and fine-motor precision.
3. Tactile issues.
Crafts also give us a great opportunity to work on some tactile issues. For example, we have some crafts that require a lot of glue to get them to stay together. Our kids with tactile sensitivities might have to get a little more comfortable with manipulating those different types of materials, and this is a great way to do that in a way that’s a little less intimidating for some of our kids who are a little more nervous about these things.
In the end, doing a craft gives the kids a fun thing to take home to share with their parents, so you can see what they’re working on here! The kids are so proud of their crafts and proud to share them with you!
