At Home
What is Modeling?
Somebody asked me the other day if I’ve ever written a post defining what modeling is. I haven’t, but it’s a good idea since I suggest modeling things for children basically constantly. 
I think […]
fine motor activities
Activities
X-Ray Car Technician
I love it when kids merge the toys I have at different areas of my room. He merged the car table and my wooden “tools” and began pretending to use a screwdriver and a hammer […]
Activities
Finding Buried Treasure
A play invitation from my therapy gym — as part of the child-led exploration of stations in my room during OT time, or for the children who use the therapy gym for other reasons than […]
Activities
Pirate Adventures
The child saw a giant cardboard box and suggested it was a pirate ship. Even if pirate fiction wasn’t one of my own special interests, I would have been on board immediately (ha ha, pun […]
Activities
The Scariest Possible Wizard Spell
I have “old paper” in my OT room (white paper stained brown with tea or coffee, crumpled up, etc) and sometimes the kids will get interested in making wizard scrolls or pirate maps or whatever. […]
At School
It Only Makes Sense To Us
Modeling writing authentically and meaningfully and delightfully doesn’t always have to be, like, great works of prose or poetry. They don’t even have to make sense or be meaningful to someone who wasn’t using them […]
Activities
Six Ways to Play with Vacuums
At my lecture last Friday, during the Q&A session, somebody asked me if I had any ideas for connecting meaningfully and playfully in therapy with a child whose special interest was vacuums, and who spent […]
Activities
Mailbox Project: First Notes
So last week I wrote about my mailbox project with four classes at the schools I work in — 4th grade, 3rd grade, 3rd grade, and 1st grade (or approximately age 9-10, 8-9, and 6-7). […]
Activities
Playing With Scissors
Yesterday, my kids (age 5 and 4) found a stack of papers that my son had brought home from school. The speech therapist sent home a bunch of picture cards that he could use at […]
Activities
Invisible Ink
A fun idea for the big kids. This one is pretty involved and takes prep time. (You could delegate the steps of figuring out what supplies you will need to an older child who can […]