Occupational Therapy at home-10 Supportive OT Activities

“Occupational therapy at home” or OT activities is a great decision for your child. If you want to improve your child’s motor skills, coordination, sensory regulation, and language, you can make a significant difference using “OT activities”. Occupational Therapy can be helpful for children with Autism, Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD), Developmental Disabilities, Down’s Syndrome, Mental Retardation, Dyslexia, Cerebral Palsy, or any Learning Disability.

Remember, you are not just playing with them—you are playing a major role in their development. In this blog, I have explained “10 OT activities” that you can incorporate into your daily routine to positively impact your child.

Did you know How Occupational Therapy Works?

Before starting therapy, it is very important to know whether your child has a speech delay, autism, or any other developmental disorder. Understanding the difference between “speech delay vs autism” is crucial.

When “occupational therapy” is combined with “speech development at home”, it leads to a significant reduction in the child’s behavioral problems. Along with OT activities, “sensory integration therapy at home” should also be targeted, which will bring about significant improvements in the child’s language development, fine motor skills, gross motor skills, and social interaction skills. Some parents may also create an “autism PPT” to manage these three therapies for their child.

According to the points explained in the image below, we should start these activities while keeping in mind the child’s daily routine.”We need to set a target in our mind of what we can do in our daily life with our skills and which activities we can perform.

“My Experience with 10 Supportive OT Activities”

I used to do all these 10 OT activities daily with my child, and I have seen a lot of improvement in him. My son is 5 years old, and Moderate Autism was detected in him when he was 2 years and 4 months old. I incorporated all these activities into our daily routine. Now, as he grows, I am gradually increasing the activities. Through consistent practice, there has been a significant change in him, and he is becoming more independent with guidance.

1. Deep pressure Excercise

Deep pressure using a Gym Ball

Gym ball exercises help reduce hyperactivity in children. Deep pressure is applied to the child using the gym ball, such as when the child lies face down on the ball and slowly rotates it. Light pressure is also applied to the feet, elbows, and hands. OT activities increase physical awareness in children and reduce sensory problems.

2. Water Play

Water Play with Bath Toys and Water Gun

In water play, let the child explore and take a bath, then place bath toys with them and allow them to enjoy. You can also give them the feeling of rain through a pipe, and teach them to play in a fun way using a water gun.

3. Sorting Games

Sorting based on Colours, Household things, Toys

You can teach children to sort based on color, texture, and shape. You can also sort food items like cereals, black gram, white gram, and kitchen utensils like a fork, plate, bowl, spoon, and glass. Sorting improves your child’s cognitive skills and enhances their attention and concentration

4. Swings and Slides

Outdoor OT Activities in Parks

Children benefit greatly from daily visits to the park, where activities like swinging, holding onto the slide and sliding carefully, and moving through the tunnel engage both their sensory and occupational therapy needs. Regular exploration at the park can also help reduce their social interaction challenges.

5. Outdoor Games

Cricket, Football, and bowling games

By giving full physical prompts to the child, teach him to catch and throw, kick, and hit the ball with a bat. When you include these activities in his daily routine, he or she will gradually start responding to these OT activities. This will improve the child’s body awareness, gross motor skills, balance and coordination, focus, and attention

6. Finger Painting

Use of Watercolours

You can also do a watercolor painting to make the child texture-friendly, like applying different colors to the child’s hand and then placing their hand on a plain drawing book. This helps the child recognize colors.

7. Trampoline

Bouncing and Jumping OT activities

Jumping on a trampoline will provide proprioceptive input to your child and is done to reduce hyperactivity. This OT activity helps improve balance and coordination and enhances motor skills. It is one of the best activities to release energy and experience a calming effect

8. Animal Walk

Crawling, Frog Jump, Jumping

Crab walks, frog jumps, and crawling are excellent exercises for kids. These activities help reduce sensory challenges and strengthen gross motor skills, body awareness, and muscle strength.

9. Beads with Thread Activity

Beads OT activity for Fine motor skill

In this OT activity, you first give the child large beads and guide them to complete the task by providing physical prompts to thread the beads. Once the child masters threading the large beads, you introduce medium-sized beads, requiring the child to focus more attention. With regular practice, you will notice an improvement in your child’s focus and fine motor skills.

10. Balance Beam

Mid-line OT Activities

Balance beam is a mid-line activity in which children learn balance and coordination. In this, you ask children to walk in a straight line on the balance beam, and once they master it, you make it even more challenging. These activities improve balance, focus, body awareness, and attention in children.”

Conclusion

You can also try these activities with your child. They have no side effects. Show your child how important they are to you through love and affection. In simple terms, express your love openly in front of your son or daughter. While doing therapies, always follow the advice of your therapist, as each child is different. These activities worked well for my child, but it’s important to consult your therapist from time to time.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)