Today’s resource is a wonderful sensory and fine motor resource. Like last week’s Hyperdash, its uses are only limited by your child’s imagination. It’s great for strengthening fingers and hands, for bilateral coordination and for promoting the pincer grip. It stretches when pulled apart slowly, snaps when pulled quickly and bounces when rolled into a ball.
We’re talking Theraputty. Available in different strengths, we currently stock the green putty (medium strength) for $18 a tub. Providing more resistance than play dough or plasticine, it’s fantastic for strengthening. So it’s great for keeping little hands busy, as well as promoting the development of fine motor skills. Want to know how? Here’s a few ideas:
- Work on bilateral coordination by using two hands to roll a sausage. Hide small objects such as beads and counters in the putty. Get your child to use a pincer grip to pinch out the sausage and pull out the hidden treasures.
- Use a pincer grip (index finger to thumb) to flatten a sausage- you can create snakes, dinosaurs or anything your imagination creates!
- Work on strength by pulling off pieces of putty. Use bilateral coordination to roll the putty into a ball using your palms. Gradually pull off smaller and smaller pieces of putty, using just the fingertips to roll the balls, and eventually work down so that you’re using a pincer grip to pinch off a small piece of putty, and rolling a small ball between the index finger and thumb.
For further information, or to purchase some putty for yourself, contact Occupational Therapy For Children.
*Warning: putty is gravitational- as in, you leave it on a surface and it will gradually sink and spread out. Hard non-porous surfaces are fine, but you’ll be in all sorts of strife if you happen to get any on your clothing, carpet or material couches. I found out the hard way by sitting on a stringy bit that was on the floor. And then there’s the children who love it so much they sneak little bits of it in their pockets! Some suggested remedies include rubbing alcohol or WD-40!!