UNPLUG AUGUST Sensory activities for the hot days ahead!

UNPLUG AUGUST

Sensory activities for the hot days ahead!

We are half way through the summer and the weather has been gorgeous here on the East Coast which allows you and your children to be outdoors most days and nights.  Make sure you stay outside, experience nature, and enjoy as many whole- body sensory and motor activities as possible together.

Here are some suggestions for making the most out of the remainder of the summer with your children.

1.       Play in the sand!

If you have access to a beach that’s great, but you can also take advantage of a sandbox or even a sand-pit.  Bury your legs or arms.  Make castles and forts with motes filled with water.  Carrying the buckets of sand to provide “heavy work” along with the tactile play.  Use your HANDS as much as possible for the tactile experience of the sand.  Add tools for a change of pace and hoe, push, shove the sand. If your child cannot tolerate the sand, add water to change the texture.

 

2.      Have fun with water balloons!

Fill balloons with water and throw them at targets (if you have older kids) or into containers. Use funnels and measuring cups to work on bilateral skills when filling up. Watch the water balloons explode.  Make this into a math activity by adding up points or multiplying your “hits”.  As you add more water to the balloons, you increase the “heavy work” your children participate in. 

       3.   Pick wildflowers!

              Pull off petals ( for fine motor precision) and turn them into potpourri. 

Paint flowers with fingerpaint and make abstract pictures.  Varying scents provides olfactory information to the nose.  Talk about the differences in smells.

       4.   Play hopscotch and boxball!

              Draw your own boards with different colored chalk.  Vary the way you play

              to challenge your motor skills.  Hop more, jump sideways, jump backwards,

              spin jump or clap while you jump.  Sing songs while moving if possible. 

So remember to get outside every day and get your senses activated in big and small ways while inviting friends and family to join in the fun!

 

 

 

 

 

Sensory Earth Day 2014

Sensory Earth Day 2014

Earth Day 2014 is upon us and it is a beautiful, sunny and warm day in New York.  This comes after a long, cold, snowy winter when many children spent too many hours indoors and attached to technology.  As Therapists and Child Development Specialists we know the importance of the natural environment in the lives of children and their development. 

Richard Louv wrote an influential book in 2005 named, “Last Child in the Woods”.  He discusses the importance of the natural environment and coined the phrase, Nature Deficit Disorder.  He links our lack of exposure to the natural world to an increase in obesity, attention disorders and depression in children. 

While Louv discusses the importance of nature for our physical

and emotional health, I would like to suggest that we participate in the natural environment from a sensory perspective as well.  The outdoors provides sensory experiences in six of our seven senses. If you are eating outside, then all 7 senses are included.  Think of all the different experiences your children can have in the natural environment that they cannot have indoors. All of our sensory exposure is different outside and provides varied and learning experiences for your child.  Try to think of all 7 sensory systems when choosing activities. 

They are: light (visual), sound (auditory), smells (olfactory), touch (tactile), taste (olfactory), movement (vestibular) and joint sense (proprioception).

Here are some ways to uniquely celebrate Earth Day:

1-Go to a new playground!  This provides your child with new sensory experiences especially movement and proprioceptive. 

2-Fly a kite!  See how long your arms can keep it in the air.  Watch the changing colors.  Run in different patterns; stopping and starting.  Watch it dip and rise.  This provides extra sensory input.

3-Go to a petting zoo! This provides extra touch and smell experiences.

4-Plant a garden! Get messy with your hands and dig with your fingers.  This provides extra input that helps develop your child hands for handwriting and other fine motor activities. 

5-Have a marching band!  Play real or pretend instruments while matching and singing in your backyard, in a park or on your street.  This provides movement, proprioceptive and sound input while also exercising your body and fingers.  You can sing too! 

6-Most importantly, have fun!

These are just a couple of ideas but don’t limit yourself.  Use your imagination and be creative.  What is most important is that you get outdoors and use all your senses to explore, experience and enhance healthy development.  

For more information, contact me at rlevy@dynamickidsny.com

NATIONAL DAY OF UNPLUGGING

NATIONAL DAY OF UNPLUGGING

There is no denying the media, the Internet, video games, and computers are all part of our daily lives. We use these electronic devices for a variety of reasons; for work, to assist us in our everyday routines, to keep up with friends, and for play and recreation.  For the most part, technological advancements have improved society.  But what effects do these gadgets really have on young childrens’ development as they grow?

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), children spend an average of 7 hours a day on entertainment media. As a parent, it is crucial to limit children’s screen time and offer only educational media and non-electronic formats such as, books, board games, and sensory motor activities.  If your young child does use media, watch together and then talk about what you saw.  Or sing the songs together.  This will help guide your children to a better media experience.  In a child’s first 5 years of life, the brain grows rapidly.  Young children learn best by interacting with other people and directly from sensory and motor play with their bodies utilizing all their senses.

National UNPLUGGING Day from sundown on Friday, March 7^th to sundown on Saturday, March 8^th allows us 24 hours to reconnect with our children, family, and friends (and self) without the interference of technology.  As an Occupational Therapist and child development specialist for 33 years, I assure you this is a wonderful opportunity to unwind, de-stress, try new activities or pick up an old one that you have forgotten.  

Here are some suggestions of activities that parents CAN do with their children on this day that will have the most powerful impact on a child’s sensory and motor properties.  You don’t have to limit these suggestions to a National Unplugging Day, so feel free to do them frequently.  You will be providing your kids with the ingredients they need to strengthen their bodies and minds. 

1. Go out in nature! Even if the weather is cold, take a walk, play in the snow, ice skate, or go sledding.  Do something physical but also talk about what you see and feel in the world that is the colors, textures, temperature, clouds, and animals.

2. Start a garden indoors or outdoors! Dig, plant, hoe, spread dirt and plant seeds.  Work with your hands and have your child get his or her hands dirty. 

3. Cook together!  Especially focus on the gooey stuff, such as mixing, stirring, spreading, and pouring.  For older children, allow them to cut and chop with supervision.

4. Read together! Tell each other stories.  Ask questions about what you are reading.  Ask your children to anticipate what they think will happen.  Ask them to make up a different ending. 

5. Play with manipulatives together!  Try various types but especially ones that require pushing and pulling.  Try pop-beads for younger hands and zoobs for older hands.  Don’t tell your children what to make.  See what they come up with and then talk about it. 

6.  Make an obstacle course indoors or outdoors!  Use furniture, toys and pillows, and then go over, under, through, and around objects.  Change directions and go the other way.  Then try crawling backwards.

Unplug and enjoy!!!!!