As I write this I am looking outside to see the first of the colored leaves emerging to signal fall is here.

I love fall.  I live in northeast Ohio, so fall can be pretty magnificent in its colors.Fall to me also represents cozy weather, sweaters and the like.

With the change in weather from summer to fall, comes the increase in time indoors.

And that change is also accompanied by the need to plan activities to do during those extra time indoors.  For those with a special needs child, this can be both challenging and also a great time to find things that are fun to do while accomplishing some “work” as well.

My daughter Elizabeth has special needs.  For those who do not know, she has global dyspraxia and sensory processing disorder.  Her motor skills are affected, and anything that helps work on those muscles and motor planning to is fantastic.  The sensory part of her issues mean that, for her, she is resistant to all new things sensory.  Things are so much better for her now as she has gotten older.

So as I said, anything that can be done to have fun and strengthen motor skills, is a good match for Elizabeth.  One of the areas that was hard to “work” for us was her fine motor control.  I think because it is easier to encourage jumping or throwing and make a game of it than for the concentration it takes to accomplish a fine motor task.  At least for us, this the case.

There is a therapy fine motor tool that is called Jumbo Tweezers that can help with fine motor control, eye hand coordination, color recognition and helping with the pincer grasp that ultimately leads to help with handwriting skills.

The set comes with 12 tweezers in 6 colors including: red, blue, yellow, orange, purple and green.  The tweezers are over-sized which makes them easier to work with as well as results in more successful work than their smaller, metal counterparts.   Holding them helps with learning hand placement as well as helping them learn how to gauge the pressure needed to accomplish the task.

I love the idea of using them to pick up cotton balls on one side of a table and put them in a bowl on the other side.  This helps them work on crossing midline, which can be a struggle for some.

You can use the fine motor tool to pick up smaller objects and work on counting skills as you go.

You can also pickup beads as this would require steady control and concentration….such nice “work”.

I think that having more than one tweezer is pretty nice because I know that Elizabeth’s siblings always seemed to want to use the items we had for Elizabeth’s work.  It was fun for them to play with her and this made the work more entertaining.

With winter coming soon ( again, I live in Ohio), it’s not a bad idea to think of fun therapy activities and motor tools to use when you are stuck inside.

So , take a peek at our site to read more about the tweezers!

I wish everyone a peaceful week.

Michele Gianetti author of “I Believe In You: A Mother and Daughter’s Special Journey”, “Emily’s Sister” and “Elizabeth Believes In Herself: The Special Journey Continues” (NEW book that you can now order on Amazon!)

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