With the holidays around the corner, most people are planning what to gift your kids.
I've been sharing a bunch of ideas and toys to support underlying sensory and motor skills that help kids' coordination throughout the past month in my Helping Kids Write FB group.
Today, explore some creative ways to breathe new life into the toys and games you already have. These ideas will help revive interest in toys your kids have, extend the amount of time they play with those games, and at the same time, develop underlying sensory and motor skills that help writing.
3 Ways to Add Some Spark to Your Games!
1) Incorporate the game into an obstacle course-
Create an obstacle course where your child crawls, climbs and jumps over items to retrieves pieces of a game and then transport them to the other side. And repeat for each piece.
Why?
Incorporating big body movements develops kids' body awareness and core strength which helps prepare them for fine motor tasks, concentration and writing..
2) Play from a different position-
Experiment with different positions—lying on the tummy, sitting on the floor, kneeling at a coffee table, using a yoga ball at a table, or standing at a counter. These variations can boost core and shoulder strength, providing movement breaks for better focus.
Why?
These positions boost core and shoulder strength, or provide movement breaks so kids can feel more comfortable in their bodies allowing more focus.
3) Treasure hunt –
Hide the game pieces in a box of rice or beans, or playdoh to find.
Why?
This helps develop hand awareness, hand strength and fine motor skills. And it’s simply more fun and exciting.
Remember, it's crucial to address sensory awareness and core stability for better fine motor and visual motor skills (i.e. writing).
I hope these ideas inspire new ways to enjoy games at home.
Which one will you try first?
Munira is a paediatric Occupational Therapist and owner of ot4kids Ltd. She has been supporting neurodivergent kids’ sensory processing, coordination and writing for 25 years.
Being a mum herself, she loves helping parents feel empowered, inspired and hopeful to help their kids’ skills for writing.
She is a huge believer in getting to the root cause of a child’s difficulties and starting from where they’re at to develop the underlying skills they really need. This is why she uses the No Writing Way™ to help kids write in her Foundations for Writing program. She’s also host of the Helping Kids Write FB group for parents.
Munira is also a home educating mum to her son, and playing piano and guitar, traveling and going on foodie adventures.
