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Rainy Day Activities That Can Improve Your Child’s Fine Motor Skills

Now that the warm weather is approaching, it is likely that your children will be playing outside more frequently. During this time, there are endless opportunities for your children to improve their motor skills through play. But what about those cold and rainy days that are spent inside? No need to worry!

Here are a few fun activities to complete at home that can also help to improve fine and visual motor skills:

Bake Cookies

Who doesn’t like warm chocolate chip cookies on a rainy day? Completing this activity with your child can be beneficial for developing multiple skills.

  • Measure ingredients to assist with fine motor control and bilateral coordination. Give your child a small container with the ingredients and a measuring cup. They will have to demonstrate the motor control to not pour too much or too quickly and use both hands together.  
  • Mix the dough for upper extremity strength because it will work your child’s arm muscles all the way from their shoulder down to their hand.
  • Form each cookie to help with sensory exploration, pinch skills, and bilateral hand use. Have your child grab small balls of dough to improve their pinch. Then have them roll it into a ball to work on bringing their hands to midline and using them together. The sticky mixture is also a new texture that can be explored to provide sensory input. 
  • Clean up to provide additional sensory exploration and bilateral coordination. While your child is helping to wash the dishes, they have the opportunity for sensory input with the water and soap and both hands have to work together to wash and dry the dishes.

Build a Fort

Sitting in the living room and watching a good movie is always a great option for rainy days. Why not have your child build a fort to watch their movie in? This activity can be beneficial for motor planning, strength and visual perceptual skills. 

  • Open up the blankets and place them on the chairs to assist with motor coordination skills. Your child will need to use both hands together to stretch out the blankets. They will also have to demonstrate motor control while placing the blankets on the fort to make sure that they do not fall. 
  • Secure the blankets to help build hand strength. You can use large clips or rubber bands to hold the blankets in place and securing these items will help to improve your child’s hand strength.
  • Design the fort to improve visual perceptual skills. Your child will have to visually process which blankets are the right size or if chairs have to be moved to make the blankets fit. It is almost like a giant puzzle!

Puzzles and Activity Books

Activity and coloring books are a great way to address your child’s fine and visual motor skills and hand strength at home. Word searches or finding the hidden picture activities are also beneficial for visual motor skills. Below are some links for activity books that can be used. 

Highlights First Puzzle Collection

Gratitude Growth Mindset Puzzle Book

School Zone Activity Book Sets

Jumbo Book of Hidden Pictures

– Morgan Petroff, OTR/L

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Crystal Scheibe

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Great place, glad we found them. Been going to Medina over 2 months now and he loves Lauryn and Kyler. Wish they had more ABA therapy places available... live in Wooster and long drive everyday.

Karrie Swan LaRock

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My 11 year old son has dyslexia and has made noticeable gains in working At LLA THERAPY. Katie is strong in her approach toward him and also keeps him comfortable enough to perform well. We will continue visiting both the Fairlawn and Hudson offices and recommend them highly.

Ron Monroe

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My 9 year old just completed about 9 months of weekly speech sessions (due to his stuttering) with Matt Hagge at LLA and we are thrilled with the experience and results. What I thought might be a negative (what kid really wants to go to speech class?) was made very positive by Matt, and my son never hesitated or complained when we talked about class. He really enjoyed it and really took what Matt taught him to heart. His speech has been greatly improved and we definitely recommend LLA. Thank you so much!

Heather Dougherty-Pantoja

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My son’s Occupational Therapist, Jess, is an amazing OT! She gives practical tips on working with my son at home and school!

Terri Apgar

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I cannot say enough good things about LLA Therapy. My daughter was a client of Teal Simmons’ for approximately 2 years and was just released from speech therapy! She was diagnosed with Apraxia in 2015 and worked with Teal twice a week. Through Teal’s application of PROMPT therapy, my daughter had age-appropriate speech after one year. All of the staff we interacted with at LLA were absolutely wonderful. They really care about what they do and making sure your child achieves their goals.

Kelli Geisler Davisson

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LLA Therapy has been an excellent experience for my son as well as my family! My son always asks, "When can I go see Ms. Jeannine again, is it Monday??" He has also made huge gains in only 5 months! I would highly recommend LLA and have already shared my experience with friends looking for services!

Victoria Hansford-Price

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We are so grateful for our Speech Therapist Ms.Teal. We have seen a great improvement with our sons confidence and communication abilities since we have started "Prompt" therapy. What we love the most about LLA and Ms. Teal is that Kohl feels comfortable and relaxed which has played a critical role in his progress. Thank you Ms. Teal for all you have done.

Laura Lee Hogsett

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They have helped in numerous ways. Speech, OT and behavioral. I've had numerous compliments on my son's progress thanks in very large part to LLA. I would recommend LLA before I recommend our local children's hospitals, though they are good, they don't have the staff that LLA does.

Amy Furukawa

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We had a great experience with Matt Hagge at LLA! Our Middle School age son was becoming very conscious of his voice, which is nasal due to a cleft palate. Matt helped him to better form his sounds and project his voice in a way that makes the unavoidable nasality less noticeable.Our son is more confident and outgoing & even took on a speaking role in the church play. Matt has the perfect personality to relate with our son, and we would recommend him to anyone needing speech therapy services!

Jessica Havalotti

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LLA Therapy has been an excellent experience for our daughter. I would highly recommend LLA. Miss Grace was so amazing and I can't believe how quickly our daughter showed improvement. Thank you!
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