Pediatric Occupational Therapy in Charlotte

I recently read an article about the value of play for development of executive function skills. www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php

I couldn't help but think of all of the other valuable skills that are developed when children are able to truly play.  As an Occupational Therapist here at Child and Family Development, I see many children who have difficulty with various fine motor skills, social skills, and executive function and who can benefit from play. 

Children who have difficulty with fine motor skills can better develop them by utilizing basic toys such as play-doh or putty, coloring, and playing other games. Development of the grasping skills that come naturally with learning to manipulate small or challenging objects in a variety of ways is imperative for appropriate and successful development of the grasping skills needed for writing, dressing, feeding oneself, and a variety of other every day activities including bathing and hygiene performance. 

Children who have difficulty with social skills can often benefit from being given appropriate opportunities and venues for interacting with others their age, participating in activities, developing and executing games and crafts, and completing a variety of tasks which require social interaction for best success. These activities also require development of self-control and self-regulation in order to participate with others, sustain attention to complete a task, and behave appropriately and successfully throughout a task while interacting with others.

Children who have difficulty with executive function can benefit from activities such as those that require appropriate sequencing for success, following directions, and execution of a variety of skills such as cutting, writing, and coloring. There is skill involved in cutting and pasting a picture together. It requires not just the control and coordination to color within the lines, cut on the lines, and then paste the objects to the paper where intended. It also requires developing a plan of what order to best color, cut and paste those items; where to do these things, as well as developing an accurate mental picture of the end product (either by using an example or better yet by using your imagination and problem solving skills) and being able to reach that goal. It requires children to develop a plan and execute it.

We have a lot of fun "playing" here in OT at C&FD.  Your children don't usually even know that they've learned the fine motor control and coordination as well as the self-control and social skills required to execute a plan that they learned how to develop all on their own and couldn't have done before they came to with us.