Occupational Therapy Exercises For Kids

30 March 2021

Occupational therapy can be very beneficial for children as well as adults. There are a number of different exercises that can be done at therapy, and ones you can do at home as well. These exercises can help with disorders such as autism, cerebral palsy, down syndrome, ADD, or for learning disabilities. If you have a child at home with any of these disorders, read below for some therapy exercises that can benefit your child. You may want to talk to your child's pediatrician before implementing these exercises.

Balance Exercises

Balance exercises can be good for all children and the exercises can be fun as well. Some exercises include:

• Tape Balance Beam. Use tape on your floor as a balance beam. Tell your child to walk along the different colors and to stay on just one color at a time. Vary the lines so one is a wavy line, one has loops in it, and one is a straight line. It doesn't have to be very long, but long enough that your child has to take at least 10 steps to complete it and get to the end. This helps with balance and also teaches colors.
• Bean Bag Balance. Give your child a bean bag and have them balance it on one foot and get it into a bowl or bucket. Have your child do this with one foot and then have them switch feet and repeat the process. It's a fun game that also helps with balance.

Fine Motor Skills

Help with your child's fine motor skills by giving your child crayons to color with, paintbrushes to paint with (using just water or paint), and child scissors to cut with. A pencil to trace their name can also be a great way to improve handwriting skills and help with fine motor skills. Scissor work can aid in fine motor skills and improve cutting skills. Give your child scrap paper to cut into small pieces. Once they have better control of the scissors, you can mark the paper with lines to cut on. Tearing paper instead of cutting can also help them increase their fine motor skills.

Self-Regulation Skills

To help your child with self-regulation, you could have them do the following activities:

• Hop like a frog.
• Walk like a bear.
• Crawl like a crab.
• Shuffle like a gorilla.
• Run (in place) like a cheetah.
• March like an elephant (trunk and all).

Have your child do these exercises for 30 seconds, and rest for 10 seconds in between each one. It can help when your child feels out of control or even anxious.

The exercises above can be beneficial for all children, but especially if your child has any of the disorders listed above. Talk to your child's pediatrician or occupational therapist about doing these or other exercises at home.