Free ABA iphone/ipod Touch Apps - Until April 30, 2010

For Autism Awareness month kindergarten.com is offering there ABA iphone/ipod touch apps for free.  Be sure to check out what they have to offer.

Crazy Carrot

This is a project that I am doing with some of my Early Childhood Special Education students and some of my younger elementary students.

Here's what you do:


 Cut a carrot shape out of cardboard.

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Have your students tear pieces of orange paper.  If construction paper is too hard, try tissue paper.

Glue the oranges pieces onto your cardboard carrot.

Add some green for the leafy green part of the carrot.

For extra fine motor practice, tear the ends of the green leaves for an ever so authentic carrot look. 

 

Here are some of my students working hard.

Fidget Toys

I just love finding new fidget toys for my students, so imagine my delight when I came across all these lovely gems that were only $1.00 each at a local store called Five Below.  They all have different feels & the spiky one with the orange "arms" actually lights up too.  I'm not sure who's going to have more fun with these ~ me, or my students.

OT Activity Ideas Search Engine ~ Great Free Resource for Peditric OT's

Here's a link to to a wonderful website that has loads of activity ideas for pediatric OT's:  OT Plan

Here's a description straight from the website's home page:

"What is OTPlan (Occupational Therapy Plan)?

The concept is pretty simple: OTPlan is an activity idea and treatment plan search engine. The site matches the skills you want to work on, with the materials you have, to a detailed treatment activity that will help you strengthen certain skills. Each activity details the purpose, materials needed, process, rating for the activity, and comments by people just like you."

In addition to finding activity ideas, you can also submit ideas you have & they may be posted on the site.

Hand Skill Development Activity Ideas - Set 1 - Video Link

One of my goals for quite some time has been to come up with some sets of hand skill development activities that use objects/materials that most people would have on hand  ~and~  that could be easily implemented by parents, teachers, teacher assistants, or anyone interested in helping students. 

Here is a link to a video that demonstrates the first set that I've come up with Hand Skill Development Activity Ideas - Set 1. 



These are activities that I have listed on a handout that I give to parents and teachers.  I usually meet with the parent/teacher to go over the activities, but thought that a video demonstrating each activity might be helpful as well. 

This was my first attempt at a video like this, so there's lots of room for improvement, but it's a start anyway.

Welcome

Welcome!  If you're reading this post, you're probably one of the first to visit my very first blog, so thank you.  I'm so excited to start out on this new adventure.

I've been inspired by many other blogs by OT's and encouraged by my co-worker and good friend Karen Scott (you can check out her blog here: OT In Public Schools), so I'm taking the plunge and creating a blog of my own. 

I'm hoping to post activities, ideas, web links, etc. that other OT's might find useful, as well as blog a little about my life as a school based OT. 

I would love to hear from anyone who happens to stumble upon my blog, so please feel free to post a comment.

Happy Blog Reading!