Free Apps

Have you heard of FreeAppAlert ? It is a website that lists all of the paid apps that have recently become free. Worth checking out frequently. For example for today Grace, a picture exchange system, normally sells for $38 is free! Check out Bubble Harp - totally cool musical app. Tap the sides of the screen to get started making mesmerizing, relaxing music with your fingertips.

Minute to Win It for OT Month

Here is a fun idea to celebrate occupational therapy month this April. Have you heard of the hit television show Minute to Win It on NBC? Basically, the contestants are given challenges that they must complete in 60 seconds. The challenges usually involve sensory motor skills of varying degrees of difficulties. The materials for the challenges are common household items. Why not have your very own Occupational Therapy Minute to Win It challenges? You can vary the challenges to reflect different areas of occupational therapy. Have some prizes on hand for your contestants. Our local school is doing a fund raiser with Minute to Win It and charging admission to the show. Why not try and raise some money for occupational therapy supplies or your favorite charity. You can view all the "blue prints" (basically the directions for the challenges) at the Minute to Win It website.

Here are some ideas specific to occupational therapy:
1. Fine Motor Challenges

How high can you build a tower of marshmallows and toothpicks in one one minute?
How many paper clips can you chain together in one minute?
How many coins can you flip over from heads to tails in one minute?
How many stacks of 10 pennies can you build in one minute?

2. Sensory Challenges

From the show - unroll two rolls of toilet paper and wrap it around yourself in under one minute
How many times can you push a therapy ball through a tunnel in one minute?

3. Activities of Daily Living Challenges

How many times can you tie and untie your shoe in one minute?
How many times can you put on and take off your coat completely in one minute?

You get the idea. Vary the challenges as necessary based on the motor skills of the children at your school. And, if you still don't get it, visit the Minute to Win It website for loads of ideas! Have fun.

Here is an old blog post entitled 10 Things to Do to Celebrate Occupational Therapy Month

Sew the Alphabet Activity

Here is a video tutorial on how to create a set of tactile alphabet cards. If the children are able, they can help make this beautiful set of letters cards using materials from around the house such as index cards, needle and thread. Create the whole alphabet, a child's name or a monogram. Download Alphabet, Number and Shape Cards to get started or create your own templates.

Benefits of Gardening and Children

With Spring upon us, why not get children started with some gardening. Gardening offers children excellent sensory motor exploration. Think of all the senses that are involved in gardening:

1. Tactile - touching the rough seeds, feeling the dry dirt, experiencing cold, wet mud, handling the soft fuzz of a green bean or the smooth skin of a melon
2. Proprioceptive - digging in the dirt, pushing a seed into the ground, carrying watering cans, hauling watermelons and pulling weeds
3. Olfactory - smelling the flowers, herbs and vegetables
4. Taste - enjoying a crisp bite of a carrot or a warm tomato from the sun

Now think of all the motor experiences:

1. Fine motor - handling the small seeds or picking a berry or bean
2. Gross motor - kneeling in the garden, quadruped searching for cucumbers, squatting and standing
3. Coordination - using garden tools with both hands or maneuvering a wheelbarrow
   
4. Balance - avoiding stepping on plants or walking on the uneven ground

Why not start a garden this Spring. Here are some tips to creating a successful garden experience with children.

• Make sure you get the children involved. Ask what types of food or flowers they would like to grow.
  
• Look for seeds with short germination periods to keep the children interested.
• Give each child a small area that they can plant their seeds. Mark each child's with a self decorate garden marker (i.e. large paint stirrer stick) in the ground.
• Use good soil to ensure growth of the plants
• Remember to water and weed (fertilize if necessary).
• If you do not have the space to garden, how about creating a large container garden for the children to nurture and watch grown.
• If necessary, adapt the garden tools with bigger handles or velcro straps. If a child can not get to the ground to garden, bring the garden to them by starting a container garden.
  

Happy Gardening!

For more Spring activities check out: Sensory Motor Activities for Spring, Spring Handwriting Activities and Print and Create Fine Motor Projects - Spring.

Jackpot! SPD Information

I previously posted on an article that was written by David Brown, from the California Deaf Blind Services, on The Forgotten Sense - Proprioception. Well, David Brown recently commented on that post to let us know that he has just posted all of the 6 articles he had written on The Forgotten Senses:

* The Forgotten Sense - Proprioception
* The Vestibular Sense
* The Sense of Smell - the Olfactory Sense
* The importance of having 'Good Taste'
* The sensory integration perspective and what it offers us in the field of
deafblindness, Part 1
* The sensory integration perspective and what it offers us in the field of
deafblindness, Part 2

They are just as excellent and informative as the previous one on proprioception. You can find all six articles at the California Deaf Blind Services website. Thanks Mr Brown for letting us know and for sharing your articles. Great work!

Effects of Kinesio® Taping

Recent research compared two groups of children with cerebral palsy with and without Kinesio® taping. Fifteen children with cerebral palsy (Levels III, IV and V) received Kinesio® taping and physical therapy for 12 weeks. The control group of 15 children, again Levels III, IV and V, only received physical therapy for 12 weeks. Initially and after the 12 weeks of treatment, the Gross Motor Function Measure (GMFM), Functional Independence Measure for Children (WeeFIM) and Sitting Assessment Scale (SAS) were performed. The results showed significant differences in the GMFCS sitting subscale,GMFCS total score and SAS scores in both groups. The SAS scores were significantly higher than the control group. The WeeFIM scores were significantly higher post 12 weeks in the Kinesio® taping group whereas the control group scores on the WeeFIM did not change from initial assessment to post 12 weeks of treatment. Overall, no direct changes were seen in gross motor skills and functional independence with the use of the Kinesio® taping but sitting posture showed improvements.

Reference: Simşek TT, Türkücüoğlu B, Cokal N, Ustünbaş G, Simşek IE.The effects of Kinesio® taping on sitting posture, functional independence and gross motor function in children with cerebral palsy. Disabil Rehabil. 2011 Mar 14. [Epub ahead of print]

Using Kinect to Help The Visually Impaired

Two graduate students from Germany hacked into a Kinect game controller to create a auditory and vibrational device to help guide the visually impaired. It may look bulky but it is super cool! View it in action below.