Balance

The Ultimate Hypermobility-Friendly Toy List (Part 2)

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….Following on from The Ultimate Hypermobility-Friendly Toy List (Part 1) (This post contains affiliate links because I stand by the educational/developmental value of these products!) Here are the remainder of my top picks for toys which keep the focus on skill building for children with hypermobility. Even if you don’t end up buying a single […]

dexterity

Scissors & Scissor Skills

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Scissor skills. One of the most common reasons a child gets referred for occupational therapy by their school teacher. The other is obviously handwriting, but we will talk about that in another post.   For the hypermobile hand, using scissors can be a pain… and painful. Finding the right scissors for your child is really […]

Creativity

Zoob. That’s right. Zoob.

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This fantastic creation is fun for everyone. Zoob. Most people haven’t heard of it… but if they have, they rave about it. Think lego, mobilo, duplo… but cooler. Zoob are plastic pieces that snap and click together to form joints or rods in different shapes and forms. You can then build all sorts of things […]

Creativity

Magic-Kinetic-Moon Sand.

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Courtesy of spiders   Kinetic Sand. Sand in Motion. Sands alive. Magic sand. Moon sand. Many names for the AMAZING creation that is the sand that even my most neat-freak-mummy-friends will let their kids play with INSIDE the house. Ok, maybe not in the formal dining room, or their bed… but inside in the play […]

Activities of Daily Living

Teachers and Parents Pet Peeve

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What is one thing teachers and parents both hate? Shoe laces.  Teachers hate having to say 20 times per day “Sally, your shoelace is undone”; “Josh, stop and fix your shoelace”. Parents equally loathe shoelaces. How many times can you tie a shoelace before your child leaves the house? How do kids laces always get in a […]

dexterity

Make drawing & writing more fun

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Got a child who doesn’t really like handwriting? Or a child who doesn’t really take to drawing & colouring? This could be part of your answer. The Crayola Dual Sided Dry Erase Board Set makes drawing, colouring and writing just that little bit more fun. With bright coloured crayon that can be rubbed out, a white board […]

Creativity

Wikki Stix

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I think Wikki Stix are a paediatric occupational therapist’s best kept secret. We LOVE Wikki Stix, and so will your children. In my experience, most parents who brought a child to therapy had never heard of Wikki Stix before, but once they did, they were onto a good thing. What are Wikki Stix? They are wax covered pieces of string that […]

Activities of Daily Living

Dressing my “Ownself”

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How do children actually learn to dress themselves? If you think about it, how do we learn anything? We are taught. The people around us model for us the way to do something; they pass down knowledge, or we go out and seek the experience to learn. Children learn through modelling from their parents/caregivers and from […]

Creativity

Old-school fun

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Technology definitely has its benefits (I really do love technology) however, there is nothing like the old school pen and paper to develop fine motor skills appropriate for school. Pencil and paper learning should not be overlooked in the race to get your child ready for school, despite the influx of technology in classrooms. At […]