Incorporating play therapy at home

 As I mentioned in my last post my 6 year old stepdaughter has cerebral palsy that has limited both her gross and fine motor skills and her speech.  With a background in physical therapy, and specifically neurological physical therapy, I wanted to share some toys that we have loved having around the house and that are super helpful with promoting improved gross and fine motor skills.

This Beauty and Beast tea cart is great because it can be used for both fine motor skills and gross motor skill development.  With assistance she is able to walk holding onto the cart and as you push the cart it plays music which is great motivation to continue taking steps forward.  The teapot and cups can be removed from the cart and there are spoons as well.  All of these items can be used seated to have a tea party and to help with object manipulation and grasp using just one hand or both. 

This activity set has soccer, basketball and bowling.  We usually do bowling seated on the floor using either one hand to bowl or two for improved use of bilateral upper extremities.  The basketball is great for reaching up with both hands to put the ball through the basket.  This one can be done in standing or seated on a large physioball.  The soccer is great for standing balance and learning to maintain balance on one leg while using the other leg to kick.  Of course with Harper, she needs a great deal of assistance with all of these, but she is able to work on head control, trunk control, balance, core stability, and the use of both legs and both arms with these varied activities.  So much that you can do with this one.  And there are lights and sounds for visual and auditory input.

This is a great, inexpensive toy (under $10) with many uses.  Manipulating the play-doh is great for sensory integration especially if the child has any texture aversions, and the slight resistance of the play-doh is great for gently challenging the muscles of the hand and fingers.  I love that the handles on the stamps in this particular set are so large so that they are able to be easily grasped by little hands and by hands that need more assistance when it comes to fine motor skills.  If your child is able there are so many games and activities for learning colors, counting, sorting, early math skills, etc with this one.  

Ball pits are always great for sensory integration.  Harper needs assistance for sitting in hers or she can be positioned with wedges where she is able to maintain her balance while reaching for the balls. The brightly colored balls are great for visual tracking skill development, and she is able to work on core stability while reaching for balls.  As skill development improves children can use one hand or both hands for activities requiring catching and throwing the balls in the ball pit.

This is one of our absolute favorite things that we have.  Moonlite is a small projector that attaches to your smartphone that projects storybooks onto the ceiling or wall.  It works in conjunction with an app on your phone.  You are able to read stories on your phone complete with sound effects while the picture from each page is projected onto the ceiling.  Harper absolutely loves any toy that lights up so she especially enjoys this one.  She is much more focused on stories and attentive when we read bedtime stories with our Moonlite story projector. 

My sister gave this toy to Harper and she has really loved it.  It has a suction cup bottom so we use it a lot on her tray of the high chair while she's sitting waiting for dinner.  It helps promote reaching, and I typically like to set up on her weaker side to increase attention to that side and to make her reach for it with her weaker hand.  We've also used it on the floor in front of her if we have her postitioned on a wedge or beanbag on her stomach so that she has to reach out in front of her for it also promoting back and next extension.  This toy also teaches colors and counting and lights up and sings songs.  Harper always loves any of her toys that light up and make noise so this keeps her attention well.

I like this toy for a lot of the same reasons as the above toy.  It sings and teaches colors, shapes, body parts, and numbers/counting.  One of my favorite things about this toy is that if you press and hold the heart it will sing songs for abut 5minutes.  I love this feature because most toys you have to keep pressing over and over.  This singing feature is her favorite on this one, so we love that she can press it once and it will sing and entertain her for 5minutes before she needs to press it again.

This is one of my favorites because I feel that every little girl should have a doll that looks like them. I would love to see doll and toy companies continue to be more and more inclusive of those with special needs and different ability levels.  This is one of several wheelchairs out there that fit 18inch dolls.  

This toy has helped so much with Harper's sleeping.  Since we started putting this on her at night she sleeps so much better and wakes up much less.  The sensory input from the snuggie provides a calming effect and helps her sleep better.  Plus, with a typical blanket she would kick it off in the night and then not be able to re-cover herself.  With this she is able to stay comfortably wrapped up through the night.




All of the toys above can be found at Target or through Amazon.  I did not include any links above to specific toys because I just wanted to give a general idea of ways that we use ordinary toys at home to help incorporate play therapy into our everyday life.  This is in no way an exhaustive list, and the idea is to help to start the process of brainstorming ways to use toys to help you help improve your child's balance, core stability, upper body and lower body fine and gross motor skills in the home setting. I will continue to share more in future posts about other toys and games and other ways to incorporate play therapy in the home and community.