I started my Christmas shopping today! (Yes, I'm asking for a pat on the back!) Christmas decorations aren't up yet but with the end of the school year approaching, I like to get some shopping done before my kids go on their summer break. 

Last year, I shared a Christmas Activity Sheet which was so popular with you!  It was designed to be used at the Christmas table with your kids or for therapists to use in their sessions (or even give away). 

This year, I've gone bigger and better! Last year's activity sheet is here together with three new pages! Find lots of Christmas jokes, find-a-words, hidden pictures, colouring, drawing and more! I've called this set of printables my Christmas Fun Sheets! Yes there is a lot of colour on these pages... well, it's Christmas! You may want to laminate the pages to use over and over!

​Simply subscribe to claim your FREE Christmas FUN Sheets as a thank you! (Current subscribers will only be added once to the list) Remember to select "shrink to printable area" for these pages! 
​

Looking for more targeted therapy created printables for Christmas?  

My friends at the Inspired Treehouse are committed to building strong, health bodies and minds through their free and low-cost developmental play groups for kids.  They run a non-profit organisation to run these programs; making them accessible and appropriate for all children. 

You can grab a set of therapist-created Christmas printables and meanwhile support this worthy organization.  This offer is only available until December 6th, 2018.   There are over 170 pages in this Holiday Activity Bundle and it includes the following downloadable pdf files.

• Christmas Crayon Cafe Drawing and Pretend Play Pack (34 pages)
• Christmas Fine Motor Activities (63 pages)
• Cookie Decorating Templates (3 pages)
• Holiday Modified Writing Paper Pack (13 pages)
• Holiday Prewriting Pages (22 pages)
• Holiday Printable Pack (20 pages)
• Christmas Cutting Activities (6 pages)
• Holiday Visual Perception Pack (5 pages)
• Gingerbread Brain Breaks (12 pages)

I want to find out more --- > Holiday Activity Bundle

(All proceeds for this sale will go to the Inspired Treehouse non-profit organization.)

One last thing!

This week, share your fun Christmas therapy ideas on Instagram to participate in the final photo challenge for 2018.  Find the photo challenge at  Your Kids Therapy Ideas.  You only have until the 7th December to share your photo.  Tag #therapyideas so my guest judge (Margaret from Your Therapy Source) can choose a winner! There will be a prize too!

Have you started your Christmas themed ideas in therapy or in the classroom?  
Have you started your Christmas shopping?  

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​What are gross motor skills and why are they so important for your child to master?

As a teacher in the early childhood classroom, movement was one of the most important activities in my daily routine, for good reason.

Gross motor refers to the coordination of the arms, legs and other large body parts when moving. It involves skills such as balance, strength, muscle tone, agility, attention span, body stability, postural control, eye-hand and eye-foot coordination, as well as an understanding of position in space.

Babies start developing their gross motor control when they learn movements such as lifting their head, turning, holding onto structures and eventually walking.

Control develops from the head down and from the body outwards to the limbs. Later, children start developing their fine – or small – muscles, which are needed to be able to hold a pencil or button a shirt.

During the toddler and preschool years, building these skills is crucial as children need good motor control to be able to function and learn optimally when they start formal schooling.
Here are a few examples of how motor skills are needed for learning and functioning:

• Sitting upright at a desk, with the correct posture
• Task completion - working without tiring
• Holding a pencil correctly and writing
• Concentrating for an appropriate length of time
• Participating in sports and activities

Read this interesting article on how children need motor skills to stabilize their page when writing.

As parents, it is important to know what the basic skills are that your child should master and how you can go about helping to develop them during the early years.

7 Types of Gross Motor Skills
There are two main divisions of motor skills – locomotor and object control. Locomotor refers to movements such as running, jumping and swimming. Object control refers to movements such as throwing, kicking and catching, which involve objects or equipment.

Below are 7 kinds of movement skills that your child should master by the time they start formal schooling.

They will all be learnt during play. As long as you are providing lots of opportunities at home for your child to engage in different activities, they will learn these skills naturally. Make sure that over and above activities you plan, such as building a balancing beam to walk across, your child has lots of time for independent free play.

1. Walking and Running 
Children should be able to walk and run forwards, backwards and sideways.
 
By playing games such as running and chasing games, children learn to understand the position of their bodies in space. This means they can move between spaces without knocking into others and they have an awareness of where things are in relation to themselves. They also develop the ability to stop suddenly, turn or change direction.

2. Ball Skills
​Playing with balls is one of the best activities you can do to develop a child’s eye-hand and eye-foot coordination.

Encourage activities such as hitting, bouncing, throwing, catching, kicking and dribbling balls of all types and sizes. Beanbags are a great alternative for developing eye-hand coordination.

3. Balancing Activities
Balance involves being able to perform simple actions like balancing on one leg for a few seconds, jumping on one leg or walking along a narrow beam, heel to toe.

Play games or set challenges such as timing how long you can balance on one leg or building simple obstacle courses with beams or planks to walk across.
​
4. Rhythmic Activities
Children need to learn to hear rhythm and beat, as well as coordinate their bodies to move with it. Simple activities such as marching to a beat or dancing to a piece of music will encourage rhythmic movement.

Young children should have lots of opportunities to move freely to music and sound. As they get older, children should be able to follow a simple dance routine and may enjoy attending a dance class such as ballet.
​​

5. Climbing and Strength Activities
​​In order to develop their muscle and core strength, children can climb up jungle gyms, climbing frames or even better – trees!

Other movements such as hanging from monkey bars, wrestling, lifting up, doing somersaults, pulling and pushing during play will also develop their muscle tone and strength. Swimming is an excellent activity for developing strength, agility and coordination.

6. Hopping, Skipping and Jumping
Activities such as hopping, skipping and jumping help develop a child’s bilateral coordination. This means they are able to coordinate the two sides of their bodies, such as when alternating feet during skipping.

Coordination is one of the most important skills because it will greatly impact a child’s ability to function at school. If the two sides of the body are not coordinated and the child is not able to cross his midline, he will struggle with reading and writing.

Here are two examples of difficulties with crossing the midline:

• When reading – struggling to get the eyes to cross over the center line to the left of the page (to read from left to right)
• When writing – struggling to start writing a sentence from the left of the page (the writing tends to slant further to the right as you go down the page)

Read more about bilateral coordination and crossing the midline

7. Riding
Learning to ride a toy motorbike or tricycle is great for developing gross motor skills such as core strength, balance, and bilateral coordination. Older children can be challenged to transition to a bicycle as their balance and coordination improves.


There are many more skills and movements that children learn during the early years. These are the basic ones that parents can focus on to ensure their children have good physical development before staring school.

All these skills can be learnt through simple, fun play activities.

We often feel our preschoolers should be doing more “formal” activities to get them ready for school and are tempted to sit them down to learn to write or read when they are not yet ready. The best start you can give your child is to let them move and play as much as possible in the early years. This will ensure that when the time comes to learn to read and write they will have all the necessary gross and fine motor skills in place, and learning will be easy!

Here are some ideas for fun games you can play at home with your children to develop their gross motor control.

Please share your favourite movement ideas and games in the comments section with us!

Affiliate links are used throughout this website to promote products I love and recommend. I receive a commission if any purchases are made through these links. Please see my disclosure policy for more details. ​

When working or living with children and young adults, one of the most common areas that needs to be addressed is self regulation and it's development. Self regulation contributes to a number of outcomes including success in the school and workplace, development and sustainability of quality relationships, and successful engagement in occupations. It's an area of development that has been explored from a number of professionals including occupational therapists, educators, psychologists, sociologists and neuropsycholgists. This array of perspectives and approaches to self regulation development can be both overwhelming and confusing.
 
After studying literature across a variety of areas, I realised the need to have something that "tied it all together". As a visual learner myself, I wanted to create a visual model that could be used to both increase and support understanding of self regulation development, and explore what areas may be contributing to dysregulation within a given occupation and environment. I gave myself the goal of developing something that:

• Clearly and succinctly summarised how regulation develops using areas agreed upon by the above areas and/or strongly supported by research.
• Demonstrated how regulation can change in response to the environment (including the presence and quality of caregiver support).
• Showed the goal of regulation as occupational engagement.
• Demonstrated how the personal factors needed for regulation depend on the occupation an individual is trying to engage in.

 
And so the Regulation Rocket was born!
 
The Regulation Rocket encourages parents, teachers, therapists or children/adolescents exploring their own regulation development to ask 3 questions:

• Where does the Rocket come from? (environment)
• Where is the Rocket going? (occupation)
• What does it need to get there? (personal factors)

 
OCCUPATION
I like to start with the first question, where is it going? Having a destination (or goal) helps plot the route, figure out what supplies are needed and what changes may need to be made to get there. The model shows three planets that represent the countless occupations that an individual may engage in. Some things we want to do (such as our hobbies), some things we need to do (such as look after ourselves) and some things we are expected to do (such as work or go to school). An individual may be having difficulty reaching a particular planet, but be able to reach other planets with ease. Recognising that there may be a fair few planets in between where an individual can go and is attempting to go, can help build the parts of the Rocket needed to get there by grading the occupational demands.
 
ENVIRONMENT
Once we know where a Rocket is headed, it's important to look at where it's coming from? An environment needs to be supportive both in the construction and launching of a Rocket. In other words, we need to ensure the physical, cultural, and most importantly, social environment helps develop and support regulation. Of the social environment, an individual's co-regulators play the largest role in supporting regulation development. Addressing co-regulation as a factor has been found to be more often than not missing from interventions focusing on self regulation development. This is a pretty worrying finding, when many studies identify co-regulation as a major predictor of successful regulation development. A statistic the Regulation Rocket model is aiming to change!

PERSONAL FACTORS 
Lastly, we look at the Rocket itself. We know where it's going, so we can figure out what it needs to get there. Sometimes an individual will be able to steer it themselves, other times they may need their co-pilot (or co-regulator) to help them. We may need to make changes to the environment in order to ensure certain parts of the Rocket are being built. Sometimes this means explicit teaching, but oftentimes it's about addressing the various personal factors throughout an individual's day or week in naturalistic settings. Factors will influence regulation differently depending on both the occupation and environmental demands. This is why some factors would be looked at more closely than others throughout an individual's development. The personal factors that contribute to regulation maintenance and development are:

• Basic Needs (e.g. sleep, health, nutrition)
• Motivation (includes values and beliefs)
• Habits and Past Experiences
• Self Awareness
• Biology
• Social Abilities (e.g. expressive and receptive communication, understanding social norms, Theory of Mind)
• Executive Functioning (e.g. attention, motor planning, decision making)
• Sensory Processing
• Emotional Understanding (e.g. recognising emotions in themselves or others, understanding link between thoughts and feelings, recovering from emotional distress).​  ​​

Affiliate links are used throughout this website to promote products I love and recommend. I receive a commission if any purchases are made through these links. Please see my disclosure policy for more details. 
​Vuly has provided a Lift 2 Large Trampoline for the purposes of this giveaway.  Your Kids OT has not received any remuneration for this article or giveaway.  Vuly does not have an affiliate program. All opinions expressed in this article are that of Your Kids OT.   

Trampolines have become a quintessential part of an Aussie backyard! Do you have one?

There are so many therapeutic benefits to trampolining. 

1. Sensory benefits  
Trampolining provides proprioceptive and vestibular input and can help children to regulate their bodies. 

Proprioception is sometimes called "position sense" or "muscle sense" as information from receptors in our muscles and skin help to inform us of where are body parts are in space, how they relate to each other, how much and how quickly they are stretching, the speed and timing of movement as well as the mount of force exerted.  Proprioception helps us to be aware of our bodies and directs our motor control and planning. 

The brain processes vestibular sensations received through the hair receptors in the inner ear and are stimulated by gravity.  Vestibular input can be described as linear (up/down, forward/backward and side to side) as well as rotational (spinning around).  These movements can be calming or stimulating.

Trampolines are a great way for children to explore movement and their own bodies.  A well regulated body means that a child's mind will be ready to learn! 

2. Motor benefits
A trampoline is a great way to work on balance, coordination, weight bearing, body awareness and bilateral coordination. Trampolining can also provide cardio-vascular and fitness benefits!

3. Social skills
A trampoline is fun on your own but even more fun with friends and family.  Children can practice turn taking and social skills; working out different ways to use the trampoline and be collaborative in play. 

4. A boost of happiness!
A child's mental health and happiness is so important and can affect every aspect of their lives.  Trampolining enables children to feel weightlessness and bouncing can bring pure joy! 

GIVEAWAY TIME!
I am partnering with Vuly Trampolines to bring an incredible giveaway to an Australian reader.  Vuly is an Australian manufacturer and supplier of world-class trampolines and swing sets. Vuly are now a registered NDIS approved supplier of trampolines. 

GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED. WINNER: DANIELA MCCANN

Terms and Conditions
​**1. The prize includes a Vuly Lift 2 Large Trampoline and delivery within Australia. Vuly will provide all costs associated with shipping the product to one address in an Australian territory.
2. Open to Australian residents only.
3. Entries close on October 27th, 2018 at 12am. 
4. Winner will be announced at on Your Kids OT Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/yourkidsot/ after October 27th 2018.
5. Winner will be notified via email provided with entry. 
6. Prize winner must inform Your Kids OT of their mailing address within 48 hours of being notified as the winning entry. 
7. This is a game of skill, not a random draw. Your answer must be original or creative.  The winner will be chosen from the original comments.
8. Your Kids OT and Vuly will not be held accountable for any injury sustained as a result of misuse or damage to the product.** 

I'm looking forward to reading all your great entries!

​Who wants a trampoline??? (.... perfect for Christmas which is not too far away!)

​Remember to share this giveaway with your friends and family!
​

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Your baby turns their head with their mouth open when the corner of their mouth is stroked or touched. They look like they are looking for food. (Rooting reflex).

You touch the corner of you baby's mouth and they begin to suck to feed, suck on fingers, suck on a pacifier. (Sucking reflex). 

Your baby throws their head back, extends their limbs, cries and pulls their arms and legs back in again when they hear a loud sound or even their own cry.  (Startle reflex).

Your baby wraps their fingers around yours when you place it into the palm of their hand. (Palmar grasp reflex).

These are some of the primitive reflexes that full-term babies demonstrate at or soon after birth.  Primitive reflexes and their postural reactions are automatic brainstem-mediated movement patterns that start developing inutero and are usually integrated (and are harder to elicit) after 6 months of age. * 

After birth, a baby experiences the sensations and stimulation of the world.  They begin to develop more coordinated movement and neurological control.  This helps them to integrate the primitive reflexes and postural reactions to higher level motor patterns (such as crawling, walking, talking) and higher level learning and brain development. 

When primitive reflexes do not fully "integrate" they are also referred to as "retained".   You can get a free copy of "Signs of Retained Primitive Reflexes" from Integrated Learning Strategies.  
​----> Take me to Signs of Retained Primitive Reflexes. ​

Primitive Reflexes and Brain development 
There is much evidence that can be found in medical, neurological and pediatric journals on primitive reflexes and brain development. Here are a few references from the great body of evidence.

• Zafeiriou, D. I., MD, Phd. (2004). Primitive Reflexes and Postural Reactions in the Neurodevelopmental Examination. doi:10.1016/j.pediatrneurol.2004.01.012  
• Futagi, Y., Toribe, Y., & Suzuki, Y. (2012). The Grasp Reflex and Moro Reflex in Infants: Hierarchy of Primitive Reflex Responses. International Journal of Pediatrics. http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2012/191562
• Schott, J. M., & Rossor, M. N. (2003). The grasp and other primitive reflexes. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry,74, 558-560. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/jnnp.74.5.558

Impact of Retained Primitive Reflexes
There is a growing body of evidence connecting retained primitive reflexes with a variety of disorders including cerebral palsy, autism spectrum disorder, ADHD and learning difficulties. Here are a few of these references.

• Konicarova, J. & Bob, P. Act Nerv Super (2012) Retained Primitive Reflexes and ADHD in Children. 54: 135. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03379591

• Konicarova, J. & Bob, P. Act Nerv Super (2013) Principle of Dissolution and Primitive Reflexes in ADHD. 55: 74. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03379598
• Konicarova, J & Bob, P.  (2013) Asymmetric tonic neck reflex and symptoms of attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder in children, International Journal of Neuroscience, 123:11, 766-769, DOI: 10.3109/00207454.2013.801471

• Gieysztor, E. Z., Choińska, A. M., & Paprocka-Borowicz, M. (2018). Persistence of primitive reflexes and associated motor problems in healthy preschool children. Archives of Medical Science : AMS, 14(1), 167–173. http://doi.org/10.5114/aoms.2016.60503

• Gieysztor, E., Sadowska, L., Choinska, A., & Paprocka-Borowicz, M. (2018). Trunk rotation due to persistence of primitive reflexes in early school-age children. Adv Clin Exp Med.,27(3), 363-366. doi:doi: 10.17219/acem/67458
• Goddard Blythe, S. (2006). The Well Balanced Child: Movement and Early Learning(2nd ed., Early Years). Hawthorn Press.

• Brandes, B. (2016). SYMPHONY OF REFLEXES: Interventions for human development, autism, adhd, and other neurological. S.l.: CREATESPACE.​

Efficacy of Movement Programs for Helping Those with Retained Primitive Reflexes.
This is an emerging area of research which continues to grow. Here are a few of these references.

• McPhillips, M., BSc, Hepper, P., Phd, & Mulhern, G., Phd. (2000). Effects of replicating primary-reflex movements on specific reading difficulties in children: A randomised, double-blind, controlled trial. The Lancet,355(9203), 537-541. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(99)02179-0

• Fredericks, C. R., Kokot, S. J., & Krog, S. (2006). Using a developmental movement programme to enhance academic skills in grade 1 learners. South African Journal for Research in Sport, Physical Education and Recreation,28(1), 29-42.

• Krog, S. (2010) Movement programmes as a means to learning readiness, University of South Africa, Pretoria, <http://hdl.handle.net/10500/3514>

• Krog, S. (2015). Movement activities: A critical link in developing motor skills and learning in early childhood. African Journal for Physical Health Education, Recreation and Dance,21(1.2), 426-443.

​
This is not an exhaustive literature review.  Please let me know if you have further evidence. 

* Zafeiriou, D. I., MD, Phd. (2004). Primitive Reflexes and Postural Reactions in the Neurodevelopmental Examination. doi:10.1016/j.pediatrneurol.2004.01.012
​

Affiliate links are used throughout this website to promote products I love and recommend. I receive a commission if any purchases are made through these links. Please see my disclosure policy for more details.

Beginner writers have lots to remember!

They need to remember how to sit at the table, how to hold their pencil, how to form letters and numbers.... 

Teachers and parents remind early writers about simple sentence writing rules such as the use of capital letters, punctuation and spaces between words.  With so many things to remember beginner writers need help!

"My hand is a sentence" shows children how to use their OWN hand to help them to remember how to write a sentence.  A visual printable is also available to help prompt you and your child with the actions and words. 

I have shared this resource with teachers who have used it with their whole class.  The prompt can be adapted to be for questions too but remember to let your kids know to end with a question mark. 

ACTION: Hold up right hand with fingers together.
SAY: My hand is a sentence. My fingers are the words.
ACTION:  Move out and wiggle your thumb.
SAY: I start with a capital letter.
ACTION:  Move out and wiggle your pinky finger.
SAY: I end with a full stop.
ACTION:  Spread fingers open.
SAY: I put spaces between the words.

Check out my IG account for a video of this prompt in ACTION! 

Get the visual prompt at the Your Kids OT shop
​ (FREE UNTIL OCT 31st, 2018)!

For older children, they may be able to use a writer's checklist to remember sentence writing conventions.  Find the checklist over HERE! 

​How do you help kids to remember sentence writing rules?

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There are heaps of "tricks" and "visual prompts" available for teaching commonly reversed letters (just check Google or Pinterest) . Most of the tricks and prompts you will find rely on a child's visual discrimination and visual memory.  This is great for the majority of children who are developing typically, however sometimes these are not "enough".  Some children can not retain the information from visual prompts to prevent reversals in identification and writing.  

Before jumping into teaching any tricks or these letters specifically ...  there are a few things that I work on with my OT students first!

This includes:

• Left to right direction  

It is important that children are able to discriminate their left side from their right side (ie. can identify their left hand from their right hand).  Find a quick trick for teaching left and right HERE.

After learning to discriminate left and right; then it is important that children learn that most reading and writing (in the Western world) occurs FROM left to right.  The direction of writing is really important for prevention reversals and is also related to a child's ability to "cross the midline". Read more about  crossing the midline and  bilateral coordination HERE (you will also find a neat left to right direction page as part of the Bilateral Integration Reference Sheet).

• Letter identification

This may seem obvious, but children learn letter formation best when they know how to "name" and "identify" each letter.  Many kindergarten (and even older children) are asked to write letters and they are yet to master naming them and identifying them.  Being able to identify letters provides a "road map" for children to "visualise" what the letter is that they are forming.  If you have an older child, you can combine naming and identifying letters with also naming and identifying letter sounds.  

• Letter families

When teaching handwriting, I teach in "letter families" according to formation or size (depending on a child's difficulties).   Children who are having letter reversal difficulties benefit from classifying letters into a "family" or group according to the first motor pattern needed to form these lowercase letters (ie. the left component for formation).    This means that all the lower case letters that start with a "straight line down" are taught together and all the letters that start with a "c" component are taught together. 

For children who reverse letters, they can begin to group all the "straight line" down letters together (ie. l, t, b, h, k) and differentiate them from the letters that start with a "c" (ie. c, o, a, d, g, q, s).  These "letter families" are taught at different times to help with discrimination between the letter families and grouping a letter family.   Read more about letter families HERE.  

• Visual Perceptual Skills needed for handwriting.

​There are a number of visual perceptual skills that affect handwriting and therefore letter reversals.  These visual perceptual skills include eye/hand coordination, visual discrimination, position in space, figure ground, visual closure, form constancy and visual memory.  A child who is having difficulty with letter reversals may also be having difficulties with one or more of these visual perceptual skills. Read more about visual perceptual skills needed for handwriting HERE.

Lane, K.A.  (2005) Developing Ocular Motor and Visual Perceptual Skills: An Activity Workbook. Slack Incorporated.
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