Examples of activities requiring manual dexterity

The occupational therapy evaluation focuses on basic fine and visual motor skills, such as using pencils and scissors, to manage the demands of school successfully. At school age, the additional responsibilities of attending school, following directions and completing assignments are added to the self-generated interests of play. Through play, a child explores the outside world and develops the coordination necessary to manipulate it. The nature of the occupational therapy evaluation changes with growth and development.ДЇor a toddler or young child, the day is dedicated to the important task of play. Therapy can take the form of recommending assistive devices, changing the environment or adapting tasks to be more easily accomplished, recommending or assisting with therapeutic exercises, or helping to formulate new and more appropriate goals.

The role of occupational therapy, in assisting children and young adults with A-T, is ongoing as the passage of time naturally brings new interests and needs to normal developing children and A-T brings new burdens of neurologic impairment. Occupational therapists often work closely with physical therapists, who are concerned more with helping problems of mobility and posture, particularly with respect to function of the legs and trunk. In general, occupational therapists are interested in arm and hand use, eye-hand coordination, posture as it relates to stability for arm use, and the intellectual understanding necessary to perform motor tasks. Occupational therapists are dedicated to assisting with difficulties in the performance of activities of daily living, including self-feeding, dressing, grooming, bathing and toileting, as well as job performance. 2008 originally published 2000 ACTIVITIES OF DAILY LIVING AND FINE MOTOR ABILITIES Mary Lashno, OTR/L Role of the Occupational Therapist Tearing and scrunching paper, rolling, squeezing, and twisting model magic, opening and closing glue jars, threading pipe cleaners into holes, pinching clay into pots, gaining dexterity by using different size paint brushes, threading beads, building three dimensional creationsвЂ¦these all are ways we encourage your children to exercise their fingers, hands and wrists.Rev. Without well-developed fine motor skills, a child may have difficulty learning to write or performing other critical tasks required in school, such as turning pages of books, cutting, drawing, and squeezing glue from a bottle.ДЄt Philly Art Center, students gain dexterity, hand-eye coordination, strength and flexibility as they use their hands and fingers to work with all kinds of objects and materials. You may not realize it, but the control over finger movements used for clay modeling and finger painting is the same control the child needs to be able to grasp a pencil and write.

During art lessons, your childвЂ™s small muscles in the fingers, hands, and wrists are exercised and strengthened, helping to make learning to write easier. One of the most important skills that are developed through art is fine motor development. Although the art project is itself is important, the skills developed during the process of creating art will enable your child to meet with future success in school and life. It might appear like thatвЂ™s all weвЂ™re doing (which is a good thing), however, everything that we plan for your child(ren) has a much greater purpose.Д®very art lesson is created keeping the development of the whole child in mind вЂ¦ social, cognitive, emotional, and physical. Each time you pick up your child from Philly Art Center, youвЂ™ve probably observed us getting вЂњ down and dirtyвЂќ and having a lot of fun.

Examples of activities requiring manual dexterity