WINDMILL
The windmill is a fun oral motor tool and is great for extending lung capacity and activating breath. It encourages oral motor control of the lips and cheeks as they purse to allow a narrow stream of air to be blown at the windmill. Encourage blowing on a long out-breath to keep the windmill spinning.
Anxious children often tend to breathe shallow breaths. Blowing in this way can assist in encouraging the greater expansion of the chest. By encouraging an extended out-breath, one naturally encourages a reciprocal deeper inhalation.
Discourage the child from puffing in short sharp out breaths because this may result in hyper-ventilation.
SENSORY BRUSH
The soft sensory brush is used to provide deep-pressure tactile input. These brushes provide firm yet soft tactile pressure input. Use the brush as if massaging the skin using slow, even strokes up and down the arms, legs and back.
Deep-pressure tactile brushing should always be done in a respectful manner with consideration for the touch preferences of the child or individual who is being brushed.
Product Care: Wash in warm soapy water, rinse gently, and let dry.
QUIET BOOK
Quiet time allows children the chance to sit in quiet with their own thoughts and feelings. This is an amazingly important skill to develop, as the ability to quiet your mind has been shown to help regulate emotions and self-control. A child who plays with the quiet book can get so many beneficial life skills, together with developing fine motor skills.
The developmental benefits include:
- Fine motor skills development.
- Hand-eye coordination.
- Problem-solving.
- Attention span development.
- Spatial imagination.
- Logical thinking.
- Colour association and sorting.
The children will also develop learning skills including:
- Mathematical (numbers and counting).
- Creative skills.
- Main colours.
- Sorting and matching.
- Geometrical shapes.
Finally, the quiet book also focuses on practical life skills such as buttoning, zipper, shoe lacing and weaving.
LAVENDER PLAYDOUGH
Playdough is fun for exploration as well as for building up strength in hand muscles and developing fine motor coordination. Aromadough can be squashed, squeezed, rolled, and flattened. Each one of these different actions aids fine-motor development in a different way.
The lavender oil which has been infused in the play dough can be absorbed through the skin as well as through inhalation. The lavender oil has been shown to relax and instil calm. The dough moisturises your hands and simultaneously awakens your senses.
After use, replace the dough back into its storage tub and ensure that you close the lid tightly. The Lavender Playdough was handmade will all-natural products.
ELASTIC STRETCH BAND
The elastic stretch band incorporates sensory integration, muscles strengthening and bilateral integration with kid-friendly activities, all in one.
Find some ideas here:
FINE MOTOR TWEEZERS & POMPOMS
These large, plastic tweezers are an ideal tool for picking up small objects. The tweezers have raised ridges on the insides to assist with gripping. As they are supplied in bright basic colours, the child can use them to pick up the pom poms of the same colour as the tweezer when teaching colour recognition and colour sorting. They are most useful for working on categorising and organising skills, while also working on hand function. This little tool requires a lateral pincer grasp, which can assist in improving hand function.
Used with the Lavender Playdough, the fine-motor tweezers can be lots of fun. Get the children to roll lots of small balls of play dough using their ‘pinchy fingers’ (the thumb, middle and index fingers). Then line up all the little balls and let the child use the tweezers to squish each one into a griddle-scone shape. The children can also place the small sticks into the playdough and remove them with the tweezers to develop their fine motor skills and pencil grip for when they go to school.
MUSH SLIME & STRAW
The mush slime was also hand-made with natural ingredients and can be used for sensory integration. The slime can be squashed, squeezed, rolled, and flattened. Each one of these different actions aids fine-motor development in a different way. The straw can also be placed in the slime and used to blow bubbles in the slime to encourage oral motor control of the lips and cheeks. This is a great activity, especially for those children that struggle with drooling.
SENSORY SWISHY FACE
Fiddling and squeezing the face provides a soothing and organising sensory activity for children who find it difficult to sit still. By squeezing and fiddling with this sensory swishy, the child provides himself or herself with organising proprioceptive input.
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