School is out for the summer!

If you're looking for fun and easy at home sensory activities that will help maintain and improve those important school skills, this is it!  Scroll down to see all the benefits and a break down of the activity.

This activity targets SO many skills. Here are just a few…

⭐️ Hand strengthening
⭐️ Upper extremity strengthening
⭐️ Bilateral hand coordination (using both hands together)
⭐️ Graded force
⭐️ Tripod grasp
⭐️ Precision
⭐️ Proprioception
⭐️ Letter & color recognition
⭐️ Memory
⭐️ Problem Solving
⭐️ In hand manipulation
⭐️ and SO MUCH MORE!!

 HERE IS HOW WE DID IT!

This is a super easy set up because it only requires TWO items, our non toxic play dough and these fun stampers.

Now, lets break down all the benefits of this activity together...

 As an Occupational Therapist, I always try to include my children in the "setting up" and "clean up" part of the activities.  There are hidden benefits within these tasks.  For example, you could dig out the play doh for your child, but why not have them do it?  Have them smash it down like a pancake onto the table.  Having them participate in this part will incorporate some important skills like bilateral hand coordination, hand/upper extremity strengthening, and proprioception.

Once we have our beautiful pink play doh set up we can do so many fun things!

1.  Have them grab a stamp and stamp it into the dough. 

• Taking the stamp out for them and placing it onto the dough.
• Placing your hand gently over theirs to assist in stamping.

Make it harder by prompting them to:

• Name the letter. 
• Name a word that starts with that letter.
• Ask them to find a specific letter.
• Find the letter that the word "apple" starts with, etc. 

2.  Practice spelling words or names.

Make it EASIER by:

• Spelling the word or name for them.
• Write the word down so they can copy the letters.

3.  Have them match each letter to the letter stamped in the dough.

Make it EASIER by:

• Only laying out the letters used in the word.

4.  Take turns seeing who can stack the highest tower.

Make it EASIER by:

• Stacking multiple towers of 2-3 blocks at a time. 
• Stack larger, wider letters only.

Make it HARDER by:

• Counting the blocks as they stack them
• Stack skinnier letters.
• Give them a number of blocks they have to stack....4...7....etc.

5.  Mix up the letters and have them stamp them in alphabetical order.

Make it EASIER by:

• Starting with only the first 5-6 letters of the alphabet, gradually adding more.
• Sing the A, B, C song and provide verbal cues.

Make it HARDER by:

• Having them roll all the round balls of dough for each letter.
• Lay out all the letters and mix them up.

6.  Clean up!  This part is important.  Don't you want your child to LEARN they need to pick up their own toys? I sure do!!  Ask them to place each letter back in the appropriate spot.  Bonus points if you ask them to store the stamps in their proper place (closet, drawer, etc.).  You can thank me later! haha

I hope you and your children enjoyed and learned something fun from this activity.  We also have tons of cool sensory toys, playdoh accessories, sensory subscription box, and playdough kit on our site at sensationallyot.com. 

This unicorn playdough kit is one of our most popular!

Follow us on Instagram to see more sensory play tips and tricks from me, an Occupational Therapist! 

Nikki Tejada, OTR/L 

Owner & Creator of Sensationally OT