OT Activity of the Day:
Color on the wall!
Target Age Range: 4 and up
Shoulder stability is important in the development of fine motor skills, most importantly, handwriting. It's hard to use our hand muscles and control a pencil when our arm and shoulder are having a hard time maintaining their position!
A great way to focus on shoulder stability is to color on a vertical surface. Now I know not everyone has a giant chalk board on their wall, so I used some painters tape and taped a picture to the wall as another example. You can have your child sit on a more stable chair or you can use a therapy ball, or they can even stand up. By placing the crayons, or chalk, on the floor, the child is not only working on shoulder stability, but they are also using their trunk muscles to bend over and pick up and put down the crayons.
Color and Enjoy!