Building Blocks

The following are some occupational therapy activities to help improve your child's pencil grasp:

• Tongs/tweezers: let your child use kitchen tongs or strawberry hullers to pick up small objects such as small blocks, ice, pom-poms, sorting pieces, Don't Spill the Beans pieces, etc.

• Eye droppers: pinch to transfer colored water into ice cube trays or make a tie dye picture

• String beads, cheerios, fruit loops, etc.

• Break crayons into small pieces

• Pop bubble wrap between fingers

• pick up raisins/cheerios and put into container

• pinch small clothespins

• toothpick and packing peanut structures - let your child push the toothpicks into the packing peanuts and "build" structures, connecting the packing peanuts together

• wind up toys

• spinning tops

• pop beads

• building with small lego pieces

Craft Activities:

• gluing small objects to make a project - rice, macaroni, corn, pom poms, beans, buttons, fish tank pebbles, sand

• ripping small pieces of paper and gluing them to make a project

• tissue paper art- crumpling paper with fingertips and gluing on project

• push pin art

For more ideas, consult your Child and Family Development Occupational Therapist!

Image source: Busy Brissy Mom