My vacation away from work is over. As an Occupational Therapist, working with children with developmental disabilities is very rewarding, but can be tough at the same time. In the last few years I have seen a gradual decline in the skills of the children at the kindergarten age. The times have changed along with our connection to technology. There are many learning skills that are most important in the birth to school age years. It is meant to prepare our children for school whether or not they have a developmental delay. The time is now to regain mindfulness of the early developmental processes.
Studies have shown, the first 5 years of life is the most important in the development of social, physical, cognitive, and emotional skills. I have worked with children from 15 months until high school age and I have seen a range of skills. For today I will list some great activities that it good for children ages 1 to 5 years to help prepare them for school. It’s never too early to start. The earlier the better because one day they’re 2 years old and the next they are already 5 years old. So here they are…
Inflatable Sensory Water Pad: For the children who are under 1 years, this activity promotes tummy time that builds core strength, neck stability, arm strength, and visual scanning.
Feed the Dog: What you see are safety tweezers and small doggie bones. This activity works on hand strength and use of a pincer grasp.
Whack-A-Mole: A game many of us loved to play in the arcades as a kid. What this game does is work on visual scanning, arm strength, and color recognition.
Large Knob Shape Puzzle: Introduction to form is important as everything in our lives have a shape/form. The earlier this is recognized the better the cognitive skills in going on to learn basic math and science.
Memory Game: The key word is memory. A classic game that is still needed. Start of with 3 pairs to help the child learn the concept and then add more as their memory begins to improve. This game also works on patience with the turn taking process.
Scissors: As pictured there is small adaptive component to work on building hand strength and cognition for opening scissors. But if not using this, you can provide hand over hand assistance instead. This activity is great for stability, hand strength, and eye-hand coordination. You can start the child off with cutting short lines.
Piggy Bank: With the sounds working your sensory system, you also have the little hands working on fine motor skills. Also, problem solving is used to figure out how to place th coins into the slot.
Lacing beads: There is color recognition, fine motor skills, and sequencing all in this one activity.
To end, remember these are just a few selections. There are many more activities out there to add on or have a modification of the exact items shown. Technology has been a good addition to our lives, but only in moderation. There is nothing like the old school way of play skills as the way to continue to educate our children and create a better future for them.