Occupational therapy suggested activities for lockdown
Occupational therapy suggested activities for lockdown
Occupational therapy activities during covid, Occupations refer to the everyday activities that people do as individuals, in families and with communities to occupy time and bring meaning and purpose to life. Occupations of the global population have been adversely affected in one way or the other because of this COVID-19 pandemic.
Occupations of the global population have been adversely affected because of this pandemic. Children are unable to play in the park with their peers or study at school, adults are unable to cope with adjusting their schedules while working from home, with home schooling and children around.
occupational therapy activities during covid
Occupational Therapists specifically deal with Remedial, restorative treatments and rehabilitation of persons with Physical, Cognitive, Psychosocial and Developmental Impairments.
Activities suggested for kids at home during lockdown
Draw some simple puzzles, dot to dot shapes, crosswords etc. It helps to engage child in useful manner, improves child’s memory, attention, concentration, problem solving skill, processing speed or flexibility of thinking. Examples are given below.
occupational therapy activities during covid
TO IMPROVE COGNITION:
1. Puzzle (Route, Word)
Solving puzzle is one of the best things for improving the Childs eye hand co-ordination, their perceptual skills, visual spatial reasoning, mental exercise, etc and lot more.
2. Rubik’s Cube
Playing with Rubik’s cube, improves concentration in general, and also helps in improving the thought process.
3. Dot to dot
Working on a dot-to-dot is a great way to strengthen hand and finger muscles in preparation for writing. During early childhood, it is the optimal time to help develop vital muscles that they will be using throughout their life.
Children can concentrate on gripping their pencil and strengthen their hands while working on dot-to-dot.
4. Spot the difference
It is very useful as it helps to improve joint attention in kids.
5. Set up a treasure hunt
Treasure hunts are pretty easy and depending on how many items there are, could last a while. Hide anywhere from 10 to 20 items around the house to keep kids occupied for a few hours. Hide some useful things and ask the child to spell the name and use of that thing once he/she found.
6. Have an indoor picnic
Grab a sheet, whatever food you have, and enjoy a living room picnic. You can even play that memory game at the same time: “i’m going to picnic and i’m bringing….” Each person takes turns remembering (in order) what everyone is bringing and then adds one thing each turn.
7. Family-Photo Bingo
Take nine family photos and arrange them into rows of three, then give your child nine playing cards or checkers pieces to serve as bingo chips. When someone calls out “Daddy” or “Grandma”your child cover the photo with he card. Whoever gets three in a row wins.
occupational therapy activities during covid
8. Sorting Colours
This game helps cognitive development. Things needed Bowls, Marbles or small items of different colours How to Play Mix up items of all the colours together. Now ask your toddler to sort items of the same colour and put them each in a different bowl.
You can make use of tongs for improving the fine motor skills.
9. Practice opposites
Playing the opposites game is an educational exercise for toddlers. You say “in”, they say “out” , you say”on”, they say “off”
TRAVEL AROUND THE WORLD -DIGITAL TOUR
1.You can have an aquarium tour, watch it in 3D to feel it real!
2. You can E-visit famous places, the wonders of the world.
3. Also visit the digital tours offered by a lot of digital platforms.
4.Take a virtual field trip famous national parks.
Art and Craft:
1. Indulge in some sponge painting, vegetable painting, painting with cotton balls, crumble pieces of newspaper and it helps in good painting tool as well, etc!
2. Balancing Beam
This is an easy activity and can be great for younger kids and toddlers and helps them improve motor skills and their balance. Things needed Coloured tape, Flat floor space to play
How to Play:
Stick different coloured tapes tape on the floor Each coloured tape can have a different rule to walk on. For example, you can ask the kid to walk on one leg on the red coloured tape
The child has to walk only on the tape. If he falls off the tape, he’ll be out of the game.
The child that walks the entire length of the tape without falling off the tape wins the game
3. Pitching Pennies
This game will help in building your child’s hand-eye coordination. Things needed Pennies or currency coins, Large sized paper or plastic drinking cups
How to Play
- Place the cup on a chair on the table in front of the children
- Give each child 5 coins each
- You can ask the child to take a few steps away from the cup in accordance with his age
- Explain to your child that he has to toss the coins, one at a time, into the cup
The person with the most coins in the cup win
4. Stacking pebbles
You need a few pebbles, preferably flat from one side, you could get them painted with colours of rainbow.
How to play
- Ask you kid to lie flat on his/her tummy on the gym ball
- The kid can stack the pebbles inn accordance to the colours of the rainbow or to the size of the pebbles and make a tower of it.
- After that may be you can ask your child to stand a few steps away and target the tower of pebbles with the help of the ball.
5. Making a fort
Things needed
- Pillows
- Chairs
- Cardboard boxes
- Blankets
- Anything else in the house that can be used
How to Play
- To make a cardboard fort, you can simply stack up a few cardboard boxes together andstick them with tape
- Stack up pillows on two sides with a gap between them and throw a blanket over for asimple pillow fort
- A few sticks and a blanket can help you build a tepee tent. Simply cover a table or a couple of chairs with a blanket and you’ll have a small fort. You could also fold up the blanket on one side and call it an entrance.
For more ideas check out our other related blogs
- Tips to improve sensory motor issues in autism - December 22, 2022
- What is sensory meltdown and how to cope with it? - December 23, 2020
- Occupational therapy suggested activities for lockdown - October 28, 2020
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