Understanding Executive Functioning Checklists are often used to help students who struggle with executive functioning, but research shows that pairing pictures with lists is critical to their effectiveness. Executive functioning is a key to students' success

(Disclosure: Some of links below are affiliate links, which means that at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.) Where are my kindergarten and pre-K teachers? Are you teaching scissor skills? It is so important for young children to use TOOLS safely in the […]

Life skills may need to be specifically trained in kids with disabilities, often though chaining methods. 100+ Indepent Living Skills Checklist included in this post.

A review of pencil grasp development in children is critical as an Occupational Therapist to understand where the child is in pencil grip development and how to best help them to be successful in writing and eventually holding the pencil in the best way they can. Image retrieved from here Fisted grasp: Reaching/holding items with entire fist. Pinky will be closest to the paper. Pronated grasp: All fingers holding the writing tool, movement comes mostly from elbow at this stage. 4 Finger grasp: Arc begins to form between thumb and index finger. Static Tripod Grasp: Children should be able to copy a diagonal line, a square, a diagonal cross, a circle, a triangle. *Quadrapod grip can happen at this stage with the fourth finger involved. Dynamic Tripod Grasp: Consistent 3 fingers on the writing utensil. "When OTs consider writing as an important early literacy and communication skill in addition to it being a complex fine motor task, their approaches to supporting writing are greatly expanded" (Gerde, 2014). According to Bear, children go through stages of on their way to conventional writing such as scribbling, drawing, scribble writing, letter-like formations (shapes that resemble letters such as /, +, and a triangle). and letters. Ideas/activities to develop and strengthen thumb/finger muscles from Royal Children's Hospital: Note: Have child use thumb and index finger (as well as middle finger if required). Finger games: thumb war, itsy bitsy spider Buttoning clothes Tweezers to pick up small beads or toys--place them into a bowl/container Remove coins one at a time from a bowl Playdough (roll, squeeze, push, poke) Tear up collared paper for a collage Threading beads Manipulating legs Squeezing clothes pins on/off a rim of a basket/bowl Sticker play Spray bottle play with water Citations Bear, D. R., Invernizzi, M., Templeton, S., & Johnston, F. (2008). Words their way: Word study for phonics, vocabulary, and spelling instruction (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall. Gerde, H. K., Foster, T. D., & Skibbe, L. E. (2014). Beyond the pencil: expanding the occupational therapists' role in helping young children to develop writing skills. Open Journal of Occuaptional Therapy, 2(1).

Next up in the Effective Interventions in ABA series is Pivotal Response Training (PRT), which is a great naturalistic intervention for all types of skills.

Life skills may need to be specifically trained in kids with disabilities, often though chaining methods. 100+ Indepent Living Skills Checklist included in this post.

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This handout makes a great addition to your digital Social Work Tool Box (also known as the Social Work Tool Kit). Along with this hand-out, a non-scholarly narrative follows to explain this import…

AI integration in education can enhance higher order thinking skills by using AI to generate higher-level questions that promote critical thinking & creativity

I target sequencing and vocabulary while working on activities daily living sequencing tasks. Find out HOW and to grab some free materials.

Utilizing all of HappyNeuron Pro's cognitive worksheet packets gives you access to all of the exercises and worksheets for your clients!

Master cutting kids need to practice scissor skills a lot... so here are 20 fun ideas for cutting practice!

While many succumb to the trauma of failure and lose confidence and performance, Resilient individual rise again, learn from their failure and improve their performance. Can Resilience be taught?

A training manual is not only for new employees or trainees but also for veteran employees trying to learn about a new software or procedure.

These fine motor skills activities could work with older kids who find other tasks too childish.

To learn why crossing the midline is key for everything from emotional regulation, fine and gross motor skills, reading and writing, and better behavior, click through to read this post now or pin for later! #brainintegration #crossingthemidline #braingym #emotionalregulation #childdevelopment#learntoread

Spending the first week of school teaching classroom expectations and procedures is essential for a successful year. Glue is a tricky school supply for many little learners and there definitely needs to be instruction dedicated to teaching learners how to use this tool.Glue BottlesWhen learners are not taught how to use their glue correctly things

UX Knowledge Base Sketch #46

A prompt in intervention assists or encourages a learner before or during a learning task to acquire a skill. Prompts are used by a learner's intervention team including but not limited to parents, therapists (e.g., speech, OT, EI, PT, ABA, etc.), child care providers, and family to help the learner acquire target skills (Neitzel & Wolery, 2009). Different types of prompts are used depending on the learner style and level of independence. Visual Prompts: visual prompts includes videos, photogra

Assertiveness for Kids: 10 Tips to Teach Assertive Communication to Kids and help improve social interactions and self-esteem

Are you trying to make those around you better? Improving our mentoring skills will make you a better leader, coach, and supervisor.

The boys always love chances to test their gross motor skills, and the Astronaut Training Course we put together is a perfect activity to do...

Playing memory games for adults can help strengthen valuable mental skills that you will continue to rely on every day. Suprisingly...

Twelve Strategies to Get from Working Memory to Long Term Memory: tricks to help students make learning stick!

Visual attention and processing are necessary skills for strong readers, writers, and more. Use these activities for visual cognitive skills.

Who is prepping more work boxes this summer? I just love getting new ideas, especially for our older life skill students! Christina Bailey, a transition life skill teacher, offered to share a bunch of her work boxes on my blog! Thank you Christina! Christina works with transition aged students (19-26 years old) with severe cognitive and/or health impairments. Her school serves students from multiple school districts within the county who learn best in an alternative placement. Are you ready? Here they are!! Putting together (or taking apart) flashlights. Bonus points if students can get the batteries in correctly and get the light to turn on! (Motivation!!) Ice cube tray and colored pebbles with tongs. I love the fine motor aspect added here. Marker packaging. I absolutely love this task and would be a great one to buy during back to school marker sales (especially on those really cheap markers you don't really want to use in your classroom!) Erasers on pencils. This has always been one of my favorite tasks! Silverware sorting. A must for every work task station, am I right? And a super easy and cheap one to put together. Silverware rolling / packaging. I love this task as it is perfect for vocational preparation. Putting together curlers. Ribbon threading around a wire basket. I never would have thought of this task! I love using the wire basket to thread the ribbon, and bet students would have fun with this task too. Sewing kit packaging. Packaging tasks like this are great! Tea candle sort. I love this age appropriate color sorting activity. Toiletry packaging. Wouldn't it be awesome to get donations of items like this and put together kits to give out to the homeless as a classroom service project? So, there you have it! Did you get some more good ideas? Happy task box prep! If you ever have anything you want to share, feel free to email me. I love being able to share your fantastic ideas with other special education teachers like yourself!

Use this worksheet to help students identify the differences between Passive, Aggressive, and Assertive communication styles. ...

Today's post for our Happy New Year, Healthy Kids is about Visual Motor Milestones and Tips for Working on Visual Motor Integration.

Free and quick icebreakers for your training workshops, seminars, and meetings. Team building, ice-breakers activities for teachers & trainers.

Potty training and autism. Here are some tips to toilet train an autistic child. Don't give up on potty training!

Free to use unconscious bias quiz for giving inclusive leadership and management workshop and classroom training for employees.

Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) is effective in treating adults and adolescents, and now it is being adapted for younger children. DBT is also described as a transdiagnostic treatment, which means that it can be applied across various psychiatric disorders. Research shows that among the different skills taught, mindfulness and distress tolerance are highly valuable to adolescents. The What Is DBT PDF handout offers valuable information on the nature of DBT, how it helps clients, one of its primary goals, and the skills training modules taught. It uses clear and simple language that’s accessible to younger clients as well as illustrations to hold their interest. This handout helps kids and teens appreciate the relevance of DBT skills in their everyday lives, especially outside of therapy sessions. Parents may set aside time to practice coping skills together, such as immersing themselves in the present moment (under the mindfulness module) and radical acceptance (under the distress tolerance module). Our DBT Skills Introduction handout is a helpful add-on for a 1-page overview of each of the core DBT modules - Distress Tolerance, Mindfulness, Emotion Regulation, Interpersonal Effectiveness, and Walking The Middle Path. *This item is an instant digital download. A link to download your files will be emailed to you once payment is confirmed. Want more resources like this? Check out our full catalog of DBT worksheets and handouts. References: Pardo, E. S., Rivas, A. F., Barnier, P. O., Mirabent, M. B., Lizeaga, I. K., Cosgaya, A. D., Alcántara, A. C., González, E. V., Aguirre, B., & Torres, M. A. G. (2020). A qualitative research of adolescents with behavioral problems about their experience in a dialectical behavior therapy skills training group. BMC Psychiatry, 20(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-020-02649-2 Chapman, A. L. (2006). Dialectical behavior therapy: Current indications and unique elements. Psychiatry (Edgmont), 3(9), 62–68. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2963469/

While tough for some, this was always one of my students’ favorite activities because they knew how “real life” it was.

Selbstbewusstsein stärken, auch bei Kindern. Mit diesen 3 Tipps klappt es ganz bestimmt.

One of our OT’s was so excited last week to show us the new activity she was doing with a few of her kiddos. She had just started it so she hasn’t had time to embellish it for pictures…

A list of the best leadership activities for workplaces to develop leadership skills, communication skills, creativity, and critical thinking.