You may know the basics of what an Occupational Therapist (OT) works on, but are there things that you wonder if you should ask about because you don't know if it's in their realm or not? Here's a quick information list on many areas that OT's work on. Some areas may take more training or specialization than the therapist may have, but knowing it's in their practice, they may be able to lead you down the correct path.

Dressing: Taking clothes off and putting them back on, completing clothing fasteners, such as buttons, zippers, hooks, snaps, Velcro, etc.

Grooming: Brushing hair, brushing teeth, bathing.

Toileting: Strategies to learn or adapt toileting, motor planning needed for the task.

Fine motor: Hand strength and dexterity, coordination, grasping, etc.

Handwriting: Breaking down and working on different aspects of handwriting: size, placement, sequencing, and overall control.

Visual Motor: Tracking objects and moving eyes correctly in order to navigate environments safely, convergence of our eyes, needed to play catch and to increase endurance in closer up activities.

Upper extremities: Arm strength and coordination.

Motor Planning: Working on learning to sequence activities correctly and carry them out independently.

Spatial awareness: Decreasing clumsiness and increasing safety when navigating environments and playing with peers by improving awareness of where their body is and their surroundings.

Oral Motor: Oral motor strength and motor planning needed for feeding. Chewing patterns and feeding work with sensory concerns and utensils is also done.

Sensory Integration: Either for those kids that avoid or seek out. OT's work with tactile (touch), vestibular, auditory, smell, and visual. Sensory is different for each child and may go into many directions. Your therapist can help come up with a plan and strategies that meets your child's needs.

This is just a quick list, in which each of these categories can branch into many small ones. If your not sure what your OT has to offer, don't be afraid to ask.

Wait don't throw that away! Our junk drawers can hold some quick and easy fine motor and visual activities for our kids. Let's get creative with what we unknowingly have in our possession already. Here are some great ideas and activities to do with 3 things that may be in a junk drawer:

Rubber band:

-       Place the rubber band on the index finger and thumb and have them open their fingers against the resistance of the rubber band. They can also put the band on their thumb, index and middle finger to work on strengthening the tripod grasp as well.

-       Stretch the rubber bands over blocks and paint the bands for a fun stamp.

-       Stretch the rubber bands around a small white board and hang the board up or leave flat on the table in front of child. They can place anything under the bands to make their own picture. Animals, crayons, or any small item that's available. Picking up the bands works on pincer grasp and they have to use two hands to both hold the band and place the item under. Hanging the board up would also work on reaching with bilateral hand use.  

Paperclips:

-       Make a chain of paperclips or undo a chain of clips. This works on motor planning, bilateral hand use and finger dexterity skills. You can pretend its fun jewelry after putting it together as well.

-       Hang a paperclip from a string and add a balloon to the paperclip. You can adjust the height to play different visual and gross motor games with this. Up high you can try hitting the balloon with your hand. Or use a bat or stick to make it trickier for those that have more visual difficulties. You can also have the kids jump and try and hit the bottom of the balloon with their heads. Bringing the balloon low they can work on kicking. They also can lay on their stomachs or backs and try and hit the balloon with their hands or feet together to work on flexion and extension strengthening.

Washers:

-       Sorting games: you can sort the different kinds (rubber, metal), as well as the different sizes. Painting them different colors, can give them another way to sort them as well.

-       Place the washers in different spots and make a game out of collecting the washers. Give them an unsharpened pencil to walk with in one hand and they have to go around and collect the washers to place on the pencil. Increase the difficulty by having them collect in a certain pattern. This is great for eye-hand coordination, bilateral hand use and visual tracking skills.

-       Play a toss game. Taking a paper cup and placing it a small distance from your child you can play a tossing game in standing, sitting, on their belly, etc.

Next time you empty out that junk drawer, get creative and explore the different uses of everyday items that are found in your home. Your kids will love it!