Memories of Playdoh: cookies, flowers, dinosaurs, and whatever you could dream up. Playdoh offers more for a child with cerebral palsy or muscular dystrophy.
The colorful dough offers a fun way to make hand muscles stronger for improved handwriting and self-help skills such as buttons and zippers.
Fine Motor Skillsare the things that we do with our hands. The hands are made up of complex muscles. Occupational therapy and special education programs often incorporate activities that will build hand and wrist muscles and coordination.
Daily Living Skills Using Fine Motor
- Cutting with scissors
- Using a computer mouse
- Pinching (holding a pencil, pulling Velcro)
- Poking / pushing numbers on a calculator or telephone
- Squeezing
- Writing
- Buttons
- Zippers
- Using sign language (especially ABCs and numbers)
What to Do If your child shows tactile defensiveness and sees you cringe to touch the doughy fun, he will react in the same way. Have fun!
- Use index finger to poke into a ball of dough.
- Use thumb and two fingers to pinch small amounts of dough .
- Roll the dough between your hands or with your hand on the table to make a snake.
- Use a child-sized rolling pin to roll the dough flat.
- Use cookie cutters to make fun shapes.
- Use Playdoh presses to squeeze out pretend hair or other shapes.
- Push dough into play baking tins.
- Once again ---- Have fun!
Safety Perhaps you are the parent of a child on the autism spectrum. A curious characteristic of many autistic children is that they avoid unfamiliar food textures, yet they taste everything: glue, Playdoh, paint, etc.
If your child eats things that are not foods, try an edible dough mixture. A number of recipes can be found on the web. Homemade dough has an added advantage. You can add color and scent to the dough, making it an even more beneficial sensory experience for your child.
It is messy! Many parents avoid Playdoh activities because they are messy. Remember the benefits to the child (building muscles needed for everyday self-care and sensory processing). A covering such as an inexpensive vinyl tablecloth from a discount store is a quick floor protector.
Note: Not every idea is appropriate for every child. Activities represented here are ideas. Parents (not the author) are responsible for choosing an appropriate activity for a particular child and for the consequences of that activity.
My next article:
Encourage Your Child to Talk Using Playdoh
