Pediatric Occupational Therapy Tips

4th of July Craft

2026-06-29T13:07:36.714-07:00

This is a cute 4th of July craft for kids that is easy to create and fun to play with. Making it is also a good way for a child to work on their fine motor skills.

Materials Needed:

Card stock paper in a variety of colors
An empty clean ice cream "Push-up"
Red, white, and blue curling ribbon
Scotch tape

Directions:

Cut a piece of card stock paper to the size of the "Push-up" cylinder/container, cover it, and tape it in place. Decorate the card stock cylinder with stripes, dots, or decorations of your choosing. Cut a handful of ribbons to 5-inches in length and curl the ends. Tape the ribbon onto the "pusher" component of the "Push-up" container. Remove the original "Push-up" cylinder. Insert the "pusher" component into the card stock cylinder. Push-up to launch the firework!!!

Visual Perceptual Popsicle Stick Activity

2026-06-20T11:48:59.280-07:00

Visual perceptual skills involve the brain organizing and making sense of visual information. Design copy activities like the one described below are a good way for a child to improve visual perceptual skills.

This DIY visual perceptual popsicle activity is easy to put together and carry out. All you need are several different colors of large popsicle sticks, Velcro dots, paper, and a copy machine. Place three of the Velcro hook dots each popsicle stick at each end as well as on the middle of the stick (as seen in the photo above) and three of the velcro loop dots on the other side of each stick. Arrange the popsicle sticks into different shapes or designs and make a photo copy of the designs. Now your child can have fun copying each design!

Popsicle Stick Color Matching Activity

2026-06-15T17:05:56.273-07:00

This popsicle stick color matching activity is an easy DIY activity! Here are the instructions.

Supplies Needed:
Popsicle sticks in a variety of colors
A small box
Construction paper that corresponds in color to each popsicle stick color
Scotch tape
Scissors
Craft knife

Cut the different colors construction paper into strips that will fit on the top of the box. Secure the construction paper strips in place using tape or glue. (See the photo above.) Using the craft knife, cut a slit that a popsicle stick with fit through through each different color of construction paper as well as the top of the box.

Have fun matching!

Toddler Counting Activity

2026-06-08T12:51:40.579-07:00

This simple and fun toddler counting activity is a great way for your child to work on number recognition and practice counting.

Supplies Needed:

Scotch tape
Double sided Scotch tape
Construction paper of various colors
Ribbons in various colors
Magic marker
Scissors

Simply cut out 5 diamond shapes to serve as the kites and cut enough ribbons for the tail pieces. Tape one long tail onto each kite. Use the marker to write the numbers 1 to 5 on each kite. Secure a piece of double-sided Scotch tape to each tail. Each piece should be long enough to hold the "cross-tail" pieces for each number. If your child needs prompts for counting, use the marker to place the correct number of dots on each tail. (See the photo below.) Have fun counting!!!

Simple Color Sorting and Matching Activity

2026-06-02T09:33:01.498-07:00

Supplies Needed:

Small plastic cups or bowls in different colors

A spoon

Pom-poms in a variety of colors

This fun sorting activity is a great way for your child to work on color recognition, color matching, and naming colors. It’s also good for fine motor skills, such as grasp and release, crossing midline, and scooping with a spoon. Simply put the pom poms in a container and place the smaller cups next to the container. Your child can begin by transferring the pom-poms from the container to the small cups while naming each color and matching the pom-poms to the corresponding-colored cup. Once your child has mastered this, introduce the spoon and demonstrate how to scoop a pom-pom and place it into the matching-colored cup.

Under the Sea Fine Motor Activity!

2026-05-19T09:45:20.533-07:00

This is an awesome activity because it’s simple, inexpensive and fun for any toddler or young child. It is a great way for a child to work on the following skills: fine motor, finger isolation, pincer grasp, and visual-motor skills. It is also a good way to address following directions, paying attention, and naming colors.

Materials Needed:

colorful construction or card stock paper
a marker or pen
scissors
colored dot stickers

Simply draw and cut out your child’s favorite sea creature, draw dots that are the same size at the stickers, and it’s time to peel and place the dots! Tip: You can challenge your child and work on color identification by instructing them to find and place a certain color dot!

DIY Binoculars for “I Spy” Game

2026-04-15T09:40:00.000-07:00

I Spy is a fun game that kids love, and it’s great for a variety of skills, such as scanning, figure ground discrimination, visual attention, visual memory, and more. These binoculars are easy to make!

All you need are two toilet paper rolls, some construction paper, string or ribbon, and glue or tape.

Have the child decorate the toilet paper rolls with construction paper. They can secure the paper to the rolls using a glue stick or tape. Use some tape to connect the toilet paper rolls and tape each end of the string onto the outside of each roll (as seen in the photo) and that’s it! Your child can then use the binoculars to look for different items. Mix it up by telling them to look for items of different color or different shapes. Or you can have them look for a specific item that you name. Just be sure to make it fun and engaging, and your child will have a blast!

Activity for Following Directions

2026-03-19T11:36:00.000-07:00

This is a wonderful activity to work on following directions with a child! It is also a great way for a child to learn their colors and shapes. Because the child has to peel and place the stickers with accuracy, it is also a great nice activity for fine motor skills.

All you need is a blank sheet of paper, some colored markers, and dot stickers in a variety of colors. Draw a variety of shapes in different colors. Now all you have to do is give the child instructions such as, "Put the pink sticker on the pink circle, or put the purple sticker on the purple square."

The Benefits of Play Dough Play!

2026-02-23T06:36:00.000-08:00

Rolling, squishing, pinching, and manipulating Play Dough has so many benefits for toddlers, preschoolers, and young children. In this post, I’m going to focus on two of those benefits: strengthening and bilateral skills.

Developing arm and hand strength is important for growing children, because they are needed for functional skills, such as self-help and fine motor activities. Grip strength and dexterity are needed for buttoning, writing, zipping, and other manipulation tasks. Bilateral skills are necessary for using both sides of the body together in a coordinated manner. This is also called bilateral integration, and it is an important for many activities that your child will carry out in home and at school. If a child has difficulty with bilateral coordination skills, they may end up using one hand alone rather than both hands together, which leads to challenges with certain activities, such as tying shoes, using a knife and fork, cutting with scissors, and buttoning.

Play dough provide many opportunities to for a child to strengthen their arms and hands and improve bilateral integration. For example, while they are rolling, squeezing, flattening and shaping the dough, they are developing muscles in their little hands and learning to use them together in a coordinated manner!

Making a Difference at th Rachel Kay Stevens Therapy Center!

2025-12-13T07:40:00.000-08:00

The Rachel Kay Stevens Therapy Center (RKSTC) at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center is a student-run pro bono clinic that provides occupational therapy services to children from birth up to 18 years. Under the supervision of faculty and a licensed occupational therapist, the clinic operates with student leadership and involvement. Therapy services are delivered by students under the direct supervision of a licensed OT. Offerings include consultation, evaluation, individual treatment, and parent/family education.

The mission of the center is to educate future practitioners, and to empower families through the provision of educational and healthcare services.

To make a donation to support the clinic, click HERE.

Pom Pom Color Matching Fine Motor Toddler Activity

2025-11-04T06:04:00.000-08:00

This DIY pom pom activity is easy to make and will keep your toddler entertained while learning lots of different skills.

Materials Needed
- Pom poms in various colors
- Toilet paper or paper towel rolls
- Construction paper in a variety of colors
- Scotch tape
- A small box
- Sharpie

If using paper towel rolls cut each paper towel roll in half or use toilet paper rolls. Wrap each roll/tube in a different color of construction paper that matches a pom pom color. You can number the tubes if you want to work on counting skills. Tape the rolls to the back of the box side-by-side. It's time to play! Your child can work on color matching, naming, and counting. This is a great activity to work on grasp and release skills, and as your child's skills advance, they can even add a spoon and work on scooping!

Easy DIY Felt Board!

2025-09-29T14:10:00.000-07:00

This DIY felt board can be used in a variety of ways! I love to use it when teaching a child the different shapes. You can begin by asking the child to point to the shape that you call out by name. It’s also fun to practice matching the shapes.

Another fun activity is have the child identify big shapes and small shapes, as seen with the triangles in the photo below.

The best part about it is that the board and shapes can be made in 15 minutes or less!

Supplies Needed:
-Felt in a variety of colors
-A rectangular piece of cardboard (Approximately 11” x 14”)
-A large enough piece of craft felt to cover the cardboard
-Hot glue & hot glue gun
-Scissors

Cover the cardboard with the large piece of felt and glue it in place. Cut out a variety of shapes in different colors and sizes. Now have fun!!!

Obstacle Course Ideas!

2025-08-30T05:10:00.000-07:00

An obstacle course is a great activity to work on improving a child’s body awareness, motor planning, strengthening, sensory processing, and ability to follow instructions. When creating an obstacle course for a child, it can be very motivating to follow a theme that is of interest to the child. For example, possible themes are dinosaurs, jungle animals, or outer space.

An example course might require the child to hop on one foot to a pile of pillows where the child finds a hidden item. Use an animal walk (i.e. bear walk) to go to another destination to complete a fine motor activity. Lastly, walk on a balance beam to the finish line. Here are some additional skills that can be addressed with obstacle courses.

· Following multi-step directions

· Midline crossing activities

· Work on core strength

· Running

· Climbing

· Fine motor tasks

· Balance

Fun Color Matching Fine Motor Activity

2025-07-29T15:17:00.000-07:00

This is color matching DIY activity is simple to make, and it's a great for working on fine motor and bilateral skills which are important for writing, typing, and cutting with scissors.

It’s also a great activity for teaching a child how to recognize and match colors. All that you need are several different colors of construction paper or poster board cut into circles and paper clips of corresponding colors. Instruct the child to place the paper clips on the circle that is the "same" color. It may be helpful to demonstrate at first, but it won't take long for them to catch on!

The project above was completed by one of our Master's of Occupational Therapy students at

The University of Tennessee Health Science Center and posted with permission.

Clothespin Counting Activity

2025-05-30T05:50:00.000-07:00

This DIY clothespin activity strengthens the hands and fingers, which improves fine motor skills and helps with handwriting and other manipulative tasks. You can vary the activity to work on matching colors, recognizing numbers, and counting!

You Will Need:
A paper plate or poster board cut into a circle
Different colors of Sharpie markers
Different colors of stickers
Clothespins

To Make the Activity:
Place colored stickers on the clothespins and the paint stirrer. Use a Sharpie to write/draw shapes, numbers, math symbols and letters on the clothespins and paper plate.

Activity Instructions:
Work on matching and placing the corresponding clothespins to the sticker colors and numbers. Instruct the child can alternate hands when placing and squeezing the clothespins.
If the child can't differentiate colors/numbers, etc. you can help them identify which one to match. Position the circle to encourage crossing the midline.

Fun Color Sorting & Matching Activity

2025-04-24T14:47:00.000-07:00

I just love this color sorting activity! It’s great for teaching a child to recognize and match colors, and it can also improve skills such as reaching, grasping, transferring from one hand to another, and eye hand coordination.

The cups are also stackable which is fun for toddlers! The set is available on Amazon!

Calming Sensory Space...AKA the Safari Room!

2025-03-01T13:48:00.000-08:00

I created this calming sensory space for my grandchildren, and they LOVE it! They call it the Safari Room. It is a small space under our staircase that I previously used for storage.

I painted a safari mural with lots of animals and added several stuffed animals. The shelves were already there, and that worked out perfectly, because we now use them as a bookshelf. I found the cute leaf rug and safari table and chairs on Amazon, and I made the pillows myself.

This is the perfect space to read and book, chill out, or take a nap!

Entertaining DIY Activity for Infants & Toddlers

2025-01-25T15:14:00.000-08:00

This DIY actvity is an inexpensive way to entertain your infant or toddler while they work on their visual motor and bilateral skills! It's a nice way to work on grasping, placing, and releasing in a controlled manner. All you need are popsicle sticks and a clean to-go coffee cup and lid.

After a bit of practice, this little one progressed to holding the cup with one hand and placing the popsicle sticks with the other hand. Well done!

Busy Board for Baby: Another Great Developmental Toy!

2024-11-29T15:14:00.000-08:00

This Kitchen Busy Board is a fun interactive toy that will definitely entertain your little one! It plays music, lights up, and has lots for opportunities for your baby to improve their fine motor skills. You can also teach your child the concepts of open, close, in, and out while the two of you play with the busy board.

Playing with the Busy Board will also promote your baby's problem solving skills! This would make the perfect birthday or Christmas gift for your little one, so check it out!

Developmental Baby Toys: Easy Grip Ball Activity...Another Favorite!

2024-11-02T08:50:00.000-07:00

I'm excited to tell you about a fun activity to carry out with your baby using an Grasp Classic Ball and some cloth or organza tissue squares. All you have to do is stuff the cloth squares inside of the ball, and show your baby how to pull them out. This activity will help teach your little one about the concepts of "in" and "out." It is also a great activity to help them use both hands together and to work on their pincer grasp. You can also name the colors of the cloth squares as they pull each one out of the ball. Eventually, your baby will gain the skills to stuff the squares back inside the ball, but that may take a little while. If you don't have any cloth or organza tissue squares, you can just purchase some colorful cocktail napkins, and they will serve the same purpose. Your child will love this activity and it will fully entertain them!

Developmental Baby Toys: Another of My Favorite Things!

2024-10-19T09:24:00.000-07:00

Here is another developmental baby toy that I highly recommend. This musical baby pop-up toy is fairly inexpensive, and it promotes a variety of skills, including problem solving, understanding cause-and-effect, and eye-hand coordination.

I also love that it lights up and plays music! Playing with this pop-up toy is a great way to teach your baby the concepts of "open" and "close." You can talk about colors with you little one by pointing and telling them to push the "red" button.

This particular pop-up toy include a variety of animals, so parents can teach their babies about those animals and the sounds they make. This musical baby pop-up toy is available on Amazon, so go check it out now! It would make a wonderful gift for any baby.

Developmental Baby Toys: A Few of My Favorite Things!

2024-10-12T13:03:00.001-07:00

In this post and several future posts, I'm going to share a few of my favorite baby toys that are great for promoting your child's development! The toys that I will be featuring are wonderful for the development of a variety of skills, including cognitive, and fine and gross motor skills.

This Country Critters Wooden Activity Play Cube will keep your baby busy! Each side includes a different activity center with wooden balls, a shape sorter, and much, much, more. My favorite thing about it is that is is sturdy enough for a baby to pull up on and cruise around the edges.

The activity cube is recommended for ages 12 months to 6 years and will entertain your baby for hours. It is available here on Amazon.

Fun with a Variety of Sensory Activities!

2024-08-25T13:40:00.000-07:00

Check out these easy recipes for a variety of fun sensory activities. The dough or sand can be used to create a sensory bin. Just add additional items for tactile exploration such as pom poms, marbles, different types of pasta noodles, and a scoop!

Sensory Bottle: Use an empty water bottle with the label removed. Add water, vegetable oil, glitter, and food coloring. You can also drop an Alka-Seltzer tablet in to create bubbles!

Cloud Dough: Mix together 1/3 cup of lotion, 2/3 cup of cornstarch, and a couple of drops of food coloring.

Salt Dough: Mix together1 cup of all-purpose flour, ½ cup salt, ½ cup of cold water, and a drop or two of food coloring.

Moon Sand: Mix 1 cup of flour, 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil, and several drops of food coloring.

Note: Provide direct supervision for children who might put the sand or objects in their mouth.

This project was completed by a Master of Occupational Therapy student at The University of Tennessee Health Science Center and posted with permission.

Create a Kinetic Sand Sensory Bin!!!

2024-07-22T12:12:00.000-07:00

A kinetic sand sensory bin is great for sensory exploration and learning. It is a wonderful way to stimulate multiple senses at once, and children can also learn how to tolerate new and different textures when playing and exploring in the sensory bin.

Supplies Needed:
A medium to large plastic bin
Kinetic sand
Large buttons
Pom-poms
Large marbles
Blocks
LEGO pieces
Plastic animals or insects
Plastic letters, shapes, and/or numbers

Tools such as tongs, large tweezers, a plastic spoon, or a small plastic shovel can be used to dig, stir, scoop, and pull pieces out. or the child can just explore with their hands. If the child resists touching the kinetic sand, start by having them explore using one of the tools listed above.

Sensory bin play is also a great way to work one naming colors, shapes, animals, letters, numbers and concepts such as up, down, inside, beside, soft, and hard.

So please consider putting together a sensory bin that is age appropriate for your child!

Note: Provide direct supervision for children who might put the sand or objects in their mouth.

This project was completed by a Master of Occupational Therapy student at The University of Tennessee Health Science Center and posted with permission.

Free Match the Shapes Worksheets!

2024-06-19T11:20:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple of shape matching worksheets that can be used to learn the properties of different shapes. This activity is fun for children who are working on recognizing, naming, and remembering shapes! Your child can color the matching shapes the same color. This is a great way to practice coloring within the lines. They can also simply draw a line to connect the matching shapes.