Lowercase Letter Formation Occupational Therapy Program
The "Lowercase Letter Formation OT Program" is a resource that you will love using in Telehealth occupational therapy or in direct therapy services. The program includes three components.... 7 OT escape rooms, 26 multi-sensory learning options and 64 printable worksheets.
What's an escape room?
An "escape room" is a fictitious room that guides your child through a series of puzzles that leads them to unlock the room, based on their answers. The seven rooms created for this program are each designed to reveal a "letter family group". It introduces the child to these letters as a group to facilitate handwriting practice. The escape rooms were created in google forms and requires an adult (therapist or parent) to read the information and explain the puzzles if needed. You can share the escape rooms via a "screen share" during online therapy. Some will have the capacity to draw on the screen depending on the program being used, however the child is encouraged to write on paper.
Letter family groups are a way to separate letters by the "motor plan" that is needed in the first "stroke" for writing them. This means letters that start with a tall straight line down, are grouped together (ie. l, t, h, b and k). Letter families are a way that occupational therapists help children to learn letter formation as it encourages kinesthetic learning (relating to a person's awareness of the position and movement of the parts of the body by means of sensory organs proprioceptors~ in the muscles and joints). This is preferred rather than learning to form the letters in alphabetical order.
Multi-sensory Learning.
Multi-sensory learning engages a child in a hands-on way to work on handwriting. This is important for visual motor planning and execution. It helps to build automaticity and fluency. Multi-sensory learning can help to reduce letter reversals (read more here).
The new ""Lowercase Letter Formation OT Program" includes 26 different options for multi-sensory learning. Therapists and families should discuss what is realistic in terms of resources, time and participation. The options include many items that families may already have.
Worksheets.
There are 64 printable worksheets in this program! The worksheets are divided into letter family groups and include:
- Letter trace fade sheets (the gradient for tracing is faded so that the child uses less visual cues the more they trace)
- Letter grid (find the letters within a grid using visual discrimination and figure ground skills - add a fine motor component if possible)
- Individual letter search (letters are in different fonts and positions - use visual discrimination and form constancy skills)
- Write the words (trace and write words beginning with each target letter placing the letter in context - exception is x )
