Vacation

Your Therapy Source Iinc is on vacation for the week. See you next week.

Pediatric Yoga Research

A review of the research on clinical applications of yoga for the pediatric population was published in the latest issue of Academic Pediatrics. Thirty four controlled studies were reviewed. A large majority of the studies yielded positive results from yoga although many of the studies were of low methodological quality. The researchers concluded that further research with higher standards of methodology is needed on the use of yoga for the pediatric population.

Reference: Gurjeet S. Birdee MD, MPH, Gloria Y. Yeh MD, Peter M. Wayne PhDa, Russell S. Phillips MDa, Roger B. Davis ScDa and Paula Gardiner MD, MPHa. (2009) Clinical Applications of Yoga for the Pediatric Population: A Systematic Review Academic Pediatrics Volume 9, Issue 4, July-August 2009, Pages 212-220.e9

Independent Exercising

The Journal of Intellectual Disabilities reports on a small research study involving 4 adults with intellectual disabilities. The adults had a face to face meeting to go over the exercise regimen and follow up phone calls. The participants used a DVD at home to exercise. Seventy five percent of the participants increased their exercise frequency threefold.

Although this study has an extremely small sample size, it offers some nice ideas for prescribing home exercise programs for people with intellectual disabilities.

Reference: Michelle D. Lynnes, Doug Nichols, and Viviene A. Temple Fostering independence in health-promoting exercise Journal of Intellectual Disabilities, Vol. 13, No. 2, 143-159 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/1744629509340815

Scissor Skills - Not so "cut and dry".

Learning to cut with scissors is a very complex task. Think of all the control required to actually open and close scissors. You many think just the wrist, hand and fingers does the job but in reality it is almost your entire body working to cut the paper. You need to have appropriate posture (back stable, feet on floor and hips in neutral). Shoulders and arms need to be stable to allow the hands to work. The muscles in the fingers need to work in isolation. The eyes need to look at what the hands are doing. The brain has to process what the hands are doing on both sides of the body (one cutting and one holding the paper). Have I left any body parts out? Alright, maybe a few but in general it is a full body task just to get the hands and fingers to work with precision.

Here are 10 activities to help develop pre-scissor skills to get the body ready for cutting:
1. Activities that require upper extremity weight bearing - crawling over and under objects, animal walks and walking on hands.
2. Activities the encourage upper extremity muscle strengthening - monkey bars, rock climbing walls and tug of war.
3. Paper activities: Tear paper into small pieces and scrunch tissue paper into small balls.
4. Lacing activities (Try our Lacing Cards download).
5. Playing with clay - creating small balls, pull clay apart and use rolling pins. (Try Creative Clay Activities or Play Clay Mats.)
6. Use a hole punch or paper punches (Try Make Your Own Mobiles).
7. Use tweezers or tongs from the bathroom and kitchen to pick up small objects like cotton balls or dried macaroni.
8. String beads or macaroni.
9. Complete puzzles.
10. Use clothes pins to help strengthen the small muscles of the hands (Try Clothes Pin Collection).

Once the child is ready to cut start out with card stock or light cardboard and progress to paper. This is a collection of free downloads to practice scissors skills.
Cut and Paste Free Sample
Cutting Cards Free Sample
Step By Step Shape Projects Puppy Free Sample

Visit www.YourTherapySource.com for more fine motor activity books.

Tying Shoe Laces

Heard about this website from @otadvantage on Twitter - Ian's Shoelace site. This man has created an entire website dedicated to tying shoes. He provides an extensive amount of information on shoe tying. He compares knots, rates knots and demonstrates knots. He writes about shoe lacing tips for children, people with disabilities, adults and everyone. In addition, he has quite a few products listed to assist with learning shoe tying. This is a comprehensive website on shoe tying that is for sure. All occupational therapists will love this website.

5 Indoor Fitness Ideas For Kids

The days of running around neighborhoods freely and walking to school seem to be a thing of the past. Instead, children sit in front of a television or computer screen for hours a day. When the weather outside is bad, the television hours increase even more. Because of this, children lead more sedentary lifestyles than ever. Parents must make an effort to provide daily physical activity opportunities for their young children. Here are five fun indoor fitness activity ideas for young children using basic items from around the house. Remember, have fun and be safe!

1. Paper Towel Path: Place 10 paper towel squares in a line on a carpeted floor. The child can practice jumping from square to square. Separate the squares further. Jump again from square to square. Continue separating the squares to encourage the child to jump further distances. Try playing the game hopping on one foot.

2. Paper Cup Conditioning : Gather at least 12 small paper cups. On a carpeted surface, place 4 paper cups next to each other upside down. Several feet away, place 4 more paper cups in a line. Repeat. You have set up a small hurdle course. The child can practice jumping over the paper cups. Place the paper cups in a line with each cup about 2 feet apart. Try weaving in and out of the cups. Stack the cups in a pyramid shape and throw a soft ball at them. Use the cups as bowling pins. When done, try smashing all of the cups with your feet or hands.

3. Time It: Using a stop watch or kitchen timer, time how long it takes your child to complete various tasks. For example, ask your child to walk upstairs to your bedroom, come back down touch the couch and skip back into the kitchen. Go for the best time over three trials. Try different movements such as hopping, jumping, crab walk and crawling.

4. Dance Party: Crank up the music and dance. Here are some variations on just dancing: play freeze dance, invent a new dance and teach it to a friend and put on a dance show.

5. Shoe Box Trail: Gather up old shoe boxes. Scatter them around a carpeted floor. See if the child can step from one side of the room to the other only stepping in the boxes. Try pretending to skate or ski around the room wearing the shoe boxes as skates or skis. Use the boxes as targets and throw wadded up pieces of paper into the boxes.

Allow your children to be creative with the activities. See what games they can create with the materials as well.

Need more ideas? Check out $ensory Motor Fun on a Budget

Encouraging Tummy Time Handout

Came across this great hand out for parents to encourage tummy time for babies. It is 6 pages with great visual pictures to go along with the written material. It has been created by Orthomerica. Download Tummy Time Tools.

A reader comment below and wanted to include the following resources on tummy time as well. Here are the links for her suggestions from Pathways Awareness:

1) Tummy Time Video (avail. in English and Spanish)


2) Tummy Time PDF


3) Tummy Time Central page

Thanks Erika. Anyone else want to add to the list?