Christmas Fun Sheets for Subscribers!

Cindy Chuan is a registered Occupational Therapist practising in Sydney Australia.  She has two young children who are a constant source of inspiration and learning.  Cindy loves working creatively to help children to reach their potential, finding opportunities in everyday living and making learning fun.

Cindy is the author of the Occupational Therapy blog Your Kids OT 

Read more articles from Your Kids OT at https://www.yourkidsot.com/blog

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6. Ipad/Tablet apps -

• Vision Training 1 - This is a great app that has a variety of options to work on visual pursuits/visual tracking skills - follow arrows, upper case letters, lower case letters, in a variety of patterns (I prefer left to right as this is the pattern needed for reading and writing) and use your finger to touch the lit up item.  It also keeps track of your most recent highest score.
• ABC touch - Pop balloons in alphabetical order that are mixed up on the screen.
  
• Dexteria Jr.- 3 activity options "Squish the Squash" and "Pinch the Pepper" are great for ocular motor and visual-motor skills.

7. Games - I love games to work on ocular motor skills in a fun way! My favorites are Elefun (great for visual tracking skills to follow paper butterflies out of an elephant trunk and into your net) and Spot it (finding the same picture on two cards great for visual scanning skills).  Also beading activities and tweezer games help with working on visual fixations.

8. Worksheets - Mazes, dot to dots and word searches are great activities for working on visual motor and ocular motor skills.  There are many free printable worksheets available in these areas.

Accommodations - Accommodations are supports that help your child to complete a task more easily with use of adaptive strategies.  If your student has trouble with copying information from the board, offer copying from near point instead and use a marker item to hold place when copying (ie. eraser, paper clip, tongue depressor).  When reading, you can have your child use their finger or index card to help with keeping place.

I hope this information has been helpful and that you have found some new activity ideas for ocular motor development. :)

By Kim Heyer (OTR/L)

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Cutting, laminating, photo copying, lesson planning .... do you do your preparation in the school holidays?

Teachers and OTs (or an other therapists for that matter)... we have a problem!

We never quite "switch off"!

We are always looking or listening out for a great idea that we can implement with the kids we see.  Even on holidays...  I notice ramps and think about access,  I notice toys in shops and think how I could use that or I watch kids play and guess how old they are! Yep, I have a problem!

Last year we were quarantined at home during one school holidays due to illness (gastro from memory).  To make the most of this time, I made these scissor skills busy boxes! I knew that they would come in handy once the illness had passed and I was back at work!  These boxes are perfect for home, preschool or in an OT tool kit!

Yes they take  a little while to set up but they are worth it!

I sourced theseplastic boxes years ago from IKEA Australia and love that they have little compartments which can be adjusted in size.  They also have a lid making them ideal to move around from place to place!

I set up two types of boxes but you could use a combination of craft and cutting strips.  The cutting strips were made from scrapbooking paper.  This is a little thicker than normal writing paper and easier for little hands to hold and to cut (as it doesn't flop around as much and require too much stability with the non-dominant hand).

In the cutting strip box, I wanted to have a range of developmental stages including shorter strips, thicker lines, thinner lines, curves, straight lines, corners and more!  Read more about developmental stages over at MamaOT.   If you are making this box for home, you may want to consider where your child is at developmentally before starting! 

A craft box is a great way to encourage those who are just starting out with scissors! Present a range of things to cut such as straws, crepe paper, wrapping paper, tissue paper, wool, ribbon, twine, tinsel, etc! Encourage your child's creativity with some glue to stick down all the things they cut!

These scissor skills busy boxes will appeal to your child if they already interested in cutting or they love experimenting with craft supplies!

However, there are some children who are just...not..interested...in...cutting! These are the kids who are  referred to OTs because of poor fine motor skills, poor hand strength and poor postural control.  Sometimes these children have difficulty with cutting because they have not yet established a hand preference or have poor bilateral coordination (see here for more information).

Here are some tips for using the scissor skills busy boxes!

• Consider your child's stage of development. Provide cutting lines which are age-appropriate or just beyond what they can currently manage.
  
• Choose appropriate scissors for your child.  There are a wide range of scissors available! Consider your child's hand size and ability.  Some scissors provide additional help (such as the spring-loaded preschool scissors below).  There are also specific left-handed scissors available.
• Help your child to NOTICE the cutting line. Use wool, wikki stix, play dough or pipe cleaners to cover the cutting line.  Then take off the material and have your child trace the line with their finger. Help your child to be follow the visual motor cues of the line (even when it turns or curves). I love using glitter to go over the cutting line (and letting the glitter dry).  This provides a "bumpy path" for cutting and further sensory feedback for those who need it. (Read more about using glitter in therapy here).
• Emphasize "turning points".  Use stickers, stamps or even holes to help emphasize when scissors need to turn to stay "on the line".
• Stick it down!  Whether your child is cutting out lines or craft material, turn this into something tangible for your child.  Help them to make a crooked road, cages for zoo animals, design a city or some other fabulous work of art.  Giving your child's scissor skill practice a purpose will be more rewarding for your child than just cutting out various lines for the sake of up-skilling their scissor skills. This will also encourage imagination and play!
• Be on hand to help. You could use these "busy boxes" to keep your child entertain themselves happily snipping and cutting.  If your child is not so keen or is just starting out, be on hand to help.  Your child may need help to open and close the scissors.  They may need help to stabilise the item being cut.  They may need help to use both hand simultaneously. They may need help to turn the page.  They may need help to keep going and persevere with something they find difficult.

Please tell me that I'm not the only one who has trouble "switching off"! Perhaps this is a subconscious reason I started this blog, so that I could record ideas and observations!

Have you got a "busy box" for scissor skill practice? What have you included in your box?

Rainbow "coloured" rice is a great addition to a "sensory bin"! There are heaps of tutorials on-line to teach you how to colour rice.  I used a really simple method ... I added a cup of rice to a plastic container and a few drops of food colouring.  I shook the container until all the rice was covered with food colouring, then lay the rice out on baking paper to dry.  Our rice took less than 24 hours to dry (drying time will depend on the weather and the amount of food colouring used).   You may notice we have a few lentils in our rice mix (already mixed in when we used the rice in a sensory bin).   I didn't bother with vinegar or alcohol and did not have a problem with the colour transferring onto our hands.  I found that my cheap supermarket food colouring worked better than may gel colours as this was more "blobby". 

Combining our coloured rice with some small items, we made a beautiful "I spy" bottle! ​I took a photo of our treasures and laminated a print out before  Mr 6 enjoyed pouring the rice into a funnel  and hiding the treasures.  Once filled, I sealed the lid and attached the laminated page with a dry-erase marker.  Super-easy craft! 

Watch our fun video to see how we made the I spy bottle - You Tube Link!

We made this "I spy" bottle to use as a travel toy.  It is a fun way to work on visual memory and visual discrimination skills. I'm looking forward to trying it out with my OT kids this term.

For younger children, you may choose a clear plastic bottle rather than glass.  For older kids you could choose very small similar items to place in your bottle ...  you can make this really difficult! 

When we have finished with this bottle, I can pour the contents out into a sensory bin for further play! It will make a great treasure hunt to explore with busy fingers as well.

Have you made an "I spy" bottle? What is your favourite thing to hide?

​

​Cindy is a registered Occupational Therapist practising in Sydney Australia.  She has two young children who are a constant source of inspiration and learning.  Cindy loves working creatively to help children to reach their potential, finding opportunities in everyday living and making learning fun. Cindy is the author of the Occupational Therapy blog Your Kids OT.

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​Handwriting is a complex skill. Handwriting involves the ability to form letters with consistent letter size, proportions and spacing, so that others can read words and sentences.  Producing legible handwriting requires complex visual perceptual skills as well as an integration of motor skills with these visual perceptual skills. A deficiency in visual-motor integration may be evident when observing poor quality handwriting (Volman, van Schendel, & Jongmans, 2006).

Visual perception is the process where the brain extracts and organises information, giving meaning to what we see.  Visual-motor integration is the degree to which visual perception and finger-hand movements are well coordinated (Beery & Beery, 2010). There are many components of visual processing which work together to assign meaning to what we see and include eye-hand coordination, figure ground, visual discrimination, form constancy, visual memory and visual-sequential memory.

Eye –hand coordination is the ability to coordinate eye movement with hand movements and includes the ability to process visual information to guide hand function.  When children are learning to control a pencil for handwriting, they will rely on visual information as they look at their hand and what the pencil is producing as they write.

The ability to copy a vertical line, circle, horizontal line, right oblique line, square, left oblique line and an oblique cross have been recognised by therapists as an indication of a child’s readiness to integrate visual-motor skills to begin handwriting instruction.  Beery & Beery (2010) recommend that formal pencil-paper instruction is postponed until a child can easily execute an oblique cross as it requires crossing the midline, which is the source of many reversal problems.  They also suggest that transfer of improved visual-motor skills does not automatically transfer to academic tasks and teaching letters, words and sentences are still required.

Typically children are encouraged to control their pencils and practise eye-hand coordination with tracing various lines, then shapes and then letters.  These lines may include bold dotted lines, faded dotted lines, bold unbroken lines, faded unbroken lines to trace on.  Children may also be provided with paths, roads or outlines to draw between to produce lines, shapes or letters.  Therapist may support children with eye-hand difficulties by contrasting the path to be drawn or by emphasizing the boundary line (eg. with a raised surface).

Eye-hand coordination of fine and gross motor tasks may also be encouraged prior to handwriting instruction.  This may emphasize large movements before moving to small movements. Children may be encouraged to develop eye-hand coordination of larger tools before using small tools for more accurate control (eg. crayon rock before ordinary crayon).  
 
Visual Discrimination is the ability to classify objects or shapes based on visual information such as colour, form, pattern, size or position. In handwriting, children need to be aware of common characteristics as well as subtle differences which distinguish letters and words.  Children need to identify letters as well as the sequential order of letters to recognize words for reading, writing and spelling.  Difficulties with visual discrimination may be seen with letter reversals or lack of attention to detail in letter formation.
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For example. When writing “n”, if the initial line is drawn too long it appears as “h” or if the up and over section is too short it appears as “r”. When writing “a”, if the line is produced too long and below the circle it appears as “q”, if the line is produced too long and above the circle it appears as “d”, if the line is too long above and below the circle it is unrecognizable, if the line is too long and placed to the left and below of the circle it appears as “p” or if it is placed to the left and above the circle it appears as “b”.

 Visual discrimination in handwriting may also be seen with confusions with the use of lower and upper case letters. Children need to be able to firstly identify letters regardless of lower or upper case formation (ie. classification) and then use these appropriately (eg. Capital letters used at the beginning of a sentence).

Children with visual discrimination difficulties may require additional strategies to classify letters.  Providing a multi-sensory approach to learning (eg. use of pipe-cleaners, playdough, rice, shaving foam, etc) may assist with kinaesthetic learning and muscle memory.  

Position in Space or spatial relationships involves the ability to process information about oneself in relation with their environment in space, orientation and position.  It may involved the ability to understand directional language concepts such as up/down, next to, left/right, over/under, etc.  In handwriting, difficulties with spatial relationships may also affect letter formation as described in visual discrimination as children have difficulty relating the position of lines in relation to other parts of a letter.  Children may also demonstrate difficulty with writing on a line, adequate spacing between letters or words.  They may have difficulty ruling up a page and maintaining writing on the left hand side of the page with the beginning of each line.

Children with difficulties with spatial relationships require a range of intervention strategies to assist with this visual perceptual difficulty.  This may include gross motor activities and postural control activities to encourage body awareness as well as shape positioning games such as Tangrams and felt shapes.  They may also benefit from copying patterns made with blocks, LEGO models and beads before attempting to copy patterns on paper. Further strategies may include use of speciality writing paper (eg. coloured lines), grid paper, highlighting the writing line, placing a ruler on the writing line and the use of a “spacer” between words.

Figure-Ground is the ability to see an object or form when presented in a complex background.  In handwriting, this is needed when copying information from a source (eg. the whiteboard) and keeping track of where you are up to.  Children with figure-ground difficulties may begin writing on a line and then after looking up do not know where they should write the next letter on their page. They may also miss important information or segments of a letter or a word when writing.

Extra cues may be needed for children with figure-ground difficulties such as providing information on a piece of paper rather than a board, a square drawn around a word or phrase to be copied or a ruler to highlight the writing line.  They may also benefit from scanning exercises.

Visual Closure is the ability to process visual information when the object or word is partially hidden. In handwriting, this may affect letter formation and spelling words.  Visual closure in letter formation is closely related to visual discrimination described earlier.  Children may also demonstrate incomplete letter formation which affects handwriting legibility and neatness.  Activities recommended in the visual discrimination section are relevant for those with visual closure difficulties.

Form Constancy is the ability to identify an object, shape, letter, number, symbol when it is presented in a different way (eg. larger, smaller, rotated, italics, bold, different font, sideways, upside down, different colour).  In handwriting this may result in not realising when they are having difficulty with letter formation as they may interpret their formation as accurate. For example they may see the visual closure examples above and may consider the forms to be constant (form constancy) and are unable to identify the discriminating features (visual discrimination).   Children who have difficulty with form constancy may also have difficulty transitioning from printing to cursive writing.

Children who experience with difficulty with form constancy may benefit from consistent use of the same writing font in the classroom, presentation of information at the same orientation that it is expected to be reproduced (eg. flat on the table when writing at the table or vertical when writing on a whiteboard).  Teaching letters and words using a multi-sensory approach can help children to become more aware of the properties of shapes and letters needed for handwriting.

Visual memory is the ability to remember and recall objects, shapes, symbols or movements in short term memory.  Visual memory requires visualization of what to remember.  This may affect a child’s ability to recognize and name shapes, letters and words. They may have difficulty remember what these “look like” without a visual prompt. For example, children may be able to copy the letters of the alphabet when it is on a desk strip, however if you randomly ask them to write various letters of the alphabet they may not recall what it looks like.  They may also have difficulty remembering all the letters of a word to copy and need to “look up” to copy each letter even with familiar words.

Children with visual memory difficulties benefit from playing memory card games and chunking small amounts of information at a time for writing (eg. word on a flash cards rather than a whole sheet). They may require visual aids for longer than other students (eg. use of desk strips of the alphabet).  These children also benefit from multi-sensory learning especially incorporating the use of verbal cues associated with motor movements (eg. tall straight line down, up and over to draw an “h” can be creating walking on a chalk line, creating this with a skipping rope, tracing in shaving cream, writing on a whiteboard, using a ribbon to draw in the sky and using finger to write on someone’s back). 

Visual sequential memory is the ability to remember and recall a sequence of objects, shapes, symbols or movements in a particular order. In handwriting, this may affect letter formation with more frequent letter reversals as children have difficulty remembering the order for letter formation as well as the spatial position of the next line. This may also affect a child’s ability to write words which may have similar letters (eg. on, no, one) or a sequence of words to make a sentence.

Children with visual sequential memory difficulties benefit from pairing verbal cues with motor skills as described in visual memory.  Children may read and repeat letters for writing words, or read and repeat phrases and sentences for extended writing.  These verbal cues may need to be said “aloud” before the child learns to internalise this and “says it in their heads”.  Simple sequential memory games using physical props such as beads, blocks, pom poms may precede games using letters, numbers, shapes and words. These may be presented in increasingly large numbers and covered to be reproduced with shorter time frames over time as skills develop.

Occupational Therapists use a variety of assessment tools to identify visual perceptual and visual-motor integration difficulties.  If your child is experiencing difficulties with these aspects of handwriting contact a registered Occupational Therapist for a comprehensive assessment. 

This post is part of “Functional Skills for Kids: 12 month series by Paediatric Occupational and Physical Therapists”.  You can read all of the childhood functionsHERE.  Read all Your Kids OT’s monthly posts HERE.

The information in this article may now be found in THE HANDWRITING BOOK! The Handwriting Book breaks down the functional skill of handwriting into developmental areas. These include developmental progression of pre-writing strokes, fine motor skills, gross motor development, sensory considerations, and visual perceptual skills.  Read more about THE HANDWRITING BOOK HERE (an e-book which you can download instantly)!

References:
Beery, K. E., Buktenica, N. A., & Beery, N. A. (2010). The Beery-Buktenica developmental test of visual-motor integration: Administration, scoring, and teaching manual (6th ed.). Minneapolis, MN: NSC Pearson. 
​Volman, M. J. M., van Schendel, B., & Jongmans, M. J. (2006). Handwriting difficulties in primary school children: A search for underlying mechanisms. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 60(4), 451-460. 

It has been three months since I released my "Visual Perception Reference Sheet". This article contains information from the reference sheet and looks at the aspect of visual perception called "figure ground", every day examples of where it is needed and potential areas of difficulty as well as strategies to assist.

Figure Ground
The ability to see an object or form when presented in a complex background with a lot of visual information at one time.

Everyday examples where visual perception is needed and potential areas of difficulty.

• Sorting shapes and completing puzzles.
• Finding matching socks in a laundry pile.
• Finding specific information on a whiteboard or word wall.
• Finding words on a page or in a dictionary.
• Ability to copy information from a source and keep track of where you are up to.
• Reading each word or sentence without losing place.

​

Strategies to assist.

• Hidden picture books (eg. I spy, Where’s Wally, etc).
• Sorting similar items from a pile (eg. sorting pasta shapes, cutlery, socks, etc).
• Minimise clutter or categorise information to help find information (eg. nouns on word wall on a yellow background, simple worksheets with no extra decoration).
• Provide extra cues such as a “post-it” note to bookmark each letter category in the dictionary.
• Provide information to be copied from a piece of paper rather than a board.
• Practise scanning worksheets or books to find relevant information (eg. word search puzzle).
• Provide a “window” to highlight the word or sentence that requires attention during reading.

​

Do you have an everyday example of Figure Ground? What is your favourite strategy to assist those having difficulty?
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If you have been following Your Kids OT for a while, you will know that I love printables.  I love creating them, finding them and using them! 

I've been focusing on visual perception over the last few weeks with the launch of my visual perception reference sheet! One of the ways that I support kids I see with working on their visual perception skills is through the use of printables. I make the clinical decision to use printables based on individual children who I see and will integrate the use with other therapeutic activities. 

I love these visual  perception printables from Your Therapy Source.  Each picture below will take you to each resource with free sample pages. (Note that Your Therapy Source operates in $US). 

Also check out the amazing and comprehensive Visual Motor Collection which includes 18 different resources created by Your Therapy Source!
​

There are also more great resources here:

• Freebie Friday#4:Visual Motor Skills
• Your Kids OT shop: visual perception​

Have you got some favourite visual perception printables? 

Make sure you check back to the blog soon as I have some great ideas for getting the most from using your printables (using them mulitple times)!  You couldsubscribe here to make sure you don't miss an article!

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When reading and applying the strategies in this reference sheet, please keep in mind the following:

• Visual perception is just one aspect an occupational therapist may assess and address when working with a child.   Visual perception is not usually addressed by an occupational therapist in isolation. For example, a child's difficulty with cutting out a shape may be due to difficulties with eye/hand coordination, bilateral coordination, hand strength, manual dexterity, etc.
  
• Strategies suggested in the reference sheet include ideas to assist with skill development (eg. copy block patterns) as well as compensatory strategies (eg. provide grid paper to assist with letter size).
• Visual Motor Integration is the ability to make sense of visual information and then use it appropriately when performing a motor task.  It may involve one or more of the components of visual perception. Many of the activities listed in the reference sheet require a motor component and therefore an integration of vision and motor skills.  
• This reference sheet will suit children age 6 years and older, however there may be some application to younger children as well.

To give you a "taste" of what is in the reference sheet, here is the first component of visual perception that I write about.  
 
Eye-hand coordination
The coordinated control of eye movement with hand movement.  This includes the ability to process visual information to guide hand function.

 Everyday examples where visual perception is needed and potential areas of difficulty.

• ·   Driving a toy car on a road mat.
• ·   Throwing and catching a ball or beanbag.
• ·   Hitting a ball with a bat.
• ·   Knitting or sewing.
• ·   Using a computer “mouse” or “track pad”.
• ·   Drawing precise straight or curved lines within a visual boundary.
• ·   Cutting out a shape.
  

Strategies to assist.

• Hand over hand physical assistance to guide coordinated movement.
  
• Practicing large (gross) movements control (eg. use a larger bat and ball or cut larger shapes) before moving to smaller movements and smaller tools.
  
• Outline boundaries where appropriate (eg. highlight around area for colouring).
  
• Provide multi-sensory approach so that the child is not reliant only on visual information (eg. verbal cues).
  

Visual perception is the process where the brain extracts and organises information, giving meaning to what we see.  I am pleased to share with you a new reference sheet that I have been slowly working on for the last 12 months. This is a valuable resource especially for OTs and teachers!  I wish I had a copy when I first started out as an OT!

It was a great honour to have some of my fellow therapy bloggers review and edit this reference sheet!  Special thanks to Lyn (lynaot), Becca (OT mommy) and Jaime (Miss Jaime OT)!  

The visual perception reference sheet contains definitions for eight components of visual perception, forty-five every day examples where visual perception is needed and potential areas of difficulty as well as forty-five strategies to assist with visual perception. 

Over the coming months I will be sharing information about each component area (bite size chunks so it is not too overwhelming).  However, if you would like all the information now then please purchase the reference sheet for yourself from the Your Kids OT Shop!

There are lots of great resources that I am looking forward to sharing with you in the coming weeks to help your child/ren with their visual perceptual skills including a brand new app that has been recently launched.

Purchase your copy of the visual perception reference sheet from the Your Kids OT shop or if you prefer you may also purchase this from Teachers Pay Teachers!  Let me know what you think!

STOP PRESS: Are you following Your Kids OT on Facebook?  I'm giving away 20 copies of this reference sheet on Monday 17th (Sydney time)! Be quick!

Thank you for your ongoing support!

Also available at our TPT store!

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Spatial awareness is being aware of the position of our own body in relation to our environment around us.  This is a fundamental skill to develop before we can then understand how other objects, shapes, other people, letters and words relate to each other and to ourselves.

Spatial awareness is important for both the development of gross motor and fine motor skills.  It is linked to our visual perceptual skills as we often use our eyes to judge the distance between ourselves and objects or others.  

Development of spatial awareness is gradual and can be observed through childhood experiences:

• A baby will learn spatial awareness as they roll, bat at things with their hand, begin to grasp objects, crawl, pull to stand, walk, etc.
  
• A toddler will continue to develop spatial awareness as they feed themselves, release toys into containers, build and knock over towers of blocks, care for a doll, navigate stairs, sing nursery rhymes with actions, etc.
  
• A preschooler will develop spatial awareness as they kick or catch a ball, control scissors and paper in cutting, thread beads,  draw with crayons, drive a toy car on a road map, dress themselves, etc

As children develop spatial awareness, movement and control of their body becomes more precise.  They can "label" their movements with language (eg. under, over, next to) and have a better understanding of distance and direction.

School-age children may demonstrate difficulty with spatial awareness in a number of ways.

• They may bump into other children and appear clumsy.
  
• They may have difficulty with eye-hand coordination needed for sports.
• They may have difficulty with mathematics reproducing patterns, sequences or shapes.
• They may have difficulty with handwriting legibility (letter formation, writing on lines, spacing).

Occupational Therapists can work with children of all ages who are experiencing difficulty with spatial awareness. They may use a variety of activities depending on the child's age, goals and/or disability or diagnosis.

Here are some activities I have been doing with some of the school-age kids {Kindy and Yr 1} I have been seeing, who have been experiencing difficulty with spatial awareness and handwriting... using simple small blocks.

1. Block pattern copying - OT creates simple block pattern and student builds a copy using their blocks.  To make it easier I provide the child with the coloured blocks they need.  To make it more difficult, I ask the student to close their eyes whilst I'm building so they can not see the process.

2. Block pattern copying from picture - OT draws on a whiteboard the block pattern or has a printed pattern sheet.  Student builds block pattern from the picture.  To make this more difficult, I place the model on the desk horizontally rather than vertically as seen in these photos. To make this easier, the students can place the blocks directly on the pattern sheet covering the matching box. 

3. Block pattern drawing - OT builds a block pattern and student draws it by colouring a grid. To make this easier, the paper could be placed on a vertical surface next to the blocks.

Whilst these activities seem simple, for children struggling with spatial awareness...they can be difficult.  You may need to help students to notice what coloured blocks are "next to", "on top", "between" or "below" others. 

Some children will have difficulty when things are presented in a different orientation to where it is reproduced. These children may have difficulty copying from a whiteboard onto paper in front of them.

Do you have a set of blocks in your therapy bag?  

What is your "go to" activity for working on spatial awareness?

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Everyone from babies to grown ups can have fun with puzzles.  Some people find them frustrating, whilst others love the challenge! In a world of fast responses, instant satisfaction and technology to grant it, there is something really nice about slowing down to complete a puzzle.  Kids can develop a range of skills when working on puzzles and they can have fun in the process!

Babies will typically start with large knob wooden inset (or insert) puzzles. Often the picture of the puzzle is printed in the inset section, the knob is large and easy to hold for little hands.  

Toddlers will enjoy slightly harder inset puzzles with more options and bright colourful pictures. They will also start to put two, three and maybe four piece interlocking puzzles together.

Preschoolers will enjoy layered inset puzzles and more complicated interlocking puzzles (approximately 20-50 pieces). They might be more confident with interlocking puzzles that are within a wooden frame which have the picture underneath to match.  Preschoolers also love really large floor puzzles (that are bigger than themselves)!

School age children (and adults) will progressively accomplish very complicated interlocking pieces (50+ pieces). The speed of progression will be different for each child, however, your school age child will develop interest in non-traditional puzzles too.  This may include 3D models, Tangrams and games (such as Rubik's cubes and Q Twist).

There are so many benefits in encouraging your kids with puzzles:

• Fine motor skills - Fingers are busy picking up and putting down puzzle pieces including a small pincer grasp to pick up small pegs.  Hands are busy manipulating pieces around in different directions and numerous pieces may be held simultaneously.  There is also eye-hand coordination in placing the pieces to fit.
• Cognitive skills - Children need to consider their overall goal of completing a puzzle and maybe set themselves smaller goals to achieve them.  Puzzles can help teach colours, shapes, numbers, picture matching as well as skills in problem solving and planning.
• Social/Emotional Skills - Puzzles help children to develop patience and perseverance.  It can help develop self esteem and confidence in achieving something that may have been difficult initially.  Older children will particularly enjoy working together to complete a difficult puzzle.  
• Visual Perceptual/Motor Skills - Puzzles require a range of visual perceptual skills such as discrimination (the ability to distinguish between similar pieces and scan for others), figure ground (find the correct piece in a confusing environment of lots of other pieces), spatial relations (turning pieces so that they can be seen together in the correct orientation), position in space (identifying pieces even when they are upside down or sideways to the piece that needs to be matched), visual closure (being able to see the small parts of a puzzle making up a whole bigger picture), visual memory (remembering the visual information that needs to fit with another piece).

I'm working on a 1000 piece puzzle whilst Miss 8 works on her first 500 piece puzzle.  Whilst there have already been cries of frustration followed by moments of triumph (for both of us), I think she might finish first!  Bring on the summer holidays!

Do your kids like puzzles? Do you?

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