Leila's Therapy notes

Not really for anyone else but me to refer back to so I can have in one place what I'm doing/ supposed to be doing:

Speech:
* Positional words
        put the item on the _____
        put the item in the _____
        put the item under the _____
     later in the week flip it from telling her what to do to asking her where it is
        Is the item under or in the __________? (for example)

Occupational Therapy:
* Practice pulling pennies out of putty for hand strength
      - hide pennies under pinky & ring until collect 5
      - move from palm to pinch grasp (same hand)
      - pinch to put in piggy bank
* For strength: yoga, wheelbarrow walk, carrying [5-10% body weight- pumpkin, backpack,
      groceries, books, jug, etc]
     - for yoga do Superman & Roly-Poly
* Fold towels, socks

Physical Therapy:
* Do Superman & Roly-Poly yoga poses. 10 seconds each, x3 each day
* Practice standing without holding onto anything (alternating legs)
* Go up and down steps while switching feet [one per step]

Sneak teaching

Or sneakily helping your kids in area they need help in. Because we're all about learning when my kids don't even realize that they're learning.

Reading & Writing:
* Write food recipes and cook/ bake them
* Read recipes from cookbooks and make them
* Write the family dinner menu (daily/ weekly)
* Write family grocery list
* Help find/ read foods off grocery list at the store
* Write a "treasure hunt" of the the house, yard, etc and you [the parent] follow it to the "treasure
   (or do scavenger hunt) 
* Become pen pals with family members/ friends who live elsewhere.
* Get magazine subscriptions for them to read
* Play reading/ writing computer, video games
* Write their birthday or holiday wish list
* Play games with sight word, word phrase flash cards (concentration games, travel,
   create-a-sentence, etc)
* Write and read Hangman/ Wheel of Fortune games
* Read street signs, restaurant signs, store signs,etc while driving/ riding in a car
* Have entire family have a 15-20 minutes "quiet reading time" everyday. All members read
   something of their choice.
* Play board games where they have to read the instructions to know what to do  or make words
   (Fluxx, Monopoly, Upwords/ Scrabble/ Boggle, etc)
  
Math: 
* Count money out when shopping/ purchasing item(s)
* Create time schedule for after school, the weekly schedule, school schedule, sports/ activities
* Measure while cooking
* Measure household items around your home
* Flash Cards (addition, subtraction, time, money, fractions, shapes, multiplication, division, etc)
* Food Math- counting, adding, subtracting, etc with various food items (candy, cereal, fruit, etc)
* Make monthly calenders
* Map trips- follow along as you take your family trip. Discuss directions (N,S,E,W),
   miles per hour, etc)
* Interact in math computer games
* Graph the weather
* Measure the temperature daily with thermometer
* Create a savings account
* Weigh different objects around the house
* Look for patterns in every day living.
* Make math an important tool around your house. Promote it as fun detective work.

Yoga!

I'm just trying to show everyone I really am a hippy.

This is our latest addition to our OT/PT thing that we do at home. I wish we could do it more, but life is crazy/ busy.

So some examples because I'm a visual person:

My goal is to do this whole series with them. I don't think that's too crazy. We'll be starting with 5 poses 10 seconds each. We may switch out a high warrior for the lunges if they are too hard for them.

Other ideas I have:
Sunrise, Sunset
Tree pose
Downward facing dog, up dog
Bow Pose

Camel Pose

Boat Pose 

Frog Pose
Starfish
Bridge
Dancer
Cobra

I'm sure there's others I could incorporate easily too, but that's what came to mind. We've starting doing some of it (my kids just started trying to do yoga with me one day). I'm excited to do more!

Give me Five!

Some ideas from my OT for hand strengthening activities (and some that I've found along the way too):

There's the typical preschool/ early elementary activities:
        scissor cutting
        playing with clay/ playdough/ silly putty (which I think the best kind is the regular homemade 
                  kind or the peanut butter kind). You can even hide objects in playdough for them to find.
                  (my kids love to do this.)
        tearing paper
        coloring (especially on a easel).
        roll tissue paper into balls for collages
       wash things off with a sponge (hmmm... I think my car needs to be washed...)
       clothes pins (be careful to show them how to do it)
       chop sticks
       hole punch
       bubble wrap (this is also a great gross motor activity when trying to teach kids to jump...
                SO much fun!)

The Sous chef activities:
        pealing carrots (easy) or round veggies/ fruits (more difficult)
        grating carrots (easy) or cheese (more difficult)
        using a veggie chopper (my kid LOVE to help me with mine!)
        stirring
        pushing on/ off buttons (my kids love to take turns pressing the button when we make smoothies
                  or shakes in my blender)
        untwisting/ tightening jar tops
        spreading butter with butter knife
        sifting flour

Plant sprayer to water plants or teach them to spray and wipe windows (my eldest loves this chore).

Toys:

Legos/ duplo/ megablocks/ tinker toys/ k'nex
pop beads
make necklaces/ bracelets lacing beads
sand/ dirt/ mud
shoveling
play card games (practice holding them in a fan)
crafts that use glitter, puffy paint, glue bottle, fabric paint, etc
dress up dolls
paper dolls