Soon you'll be reading all kinds of awesome posts from us. Everything from amazing resources available to you to tips and tricks to do at home! Looking forward to hearing your feedback!

Sensory bins are plastic bins that are filled with various items. Typically, they include dried beans, dried rice, packing peanuts, sand, or water beads. Ideally if you can find a plastic bin with a lid on it, it will make clean up, storage, and transportation of the sensory bin that much easier.

Sensory bins provide sensory input to a child’s hand and upper extremities. In addition, items can be added to the sensory bins to work on specific goals.

For example,

• To work on Sensory Play with a sensory bin hide items inside the bin (puzzle pieces, small toys, small figurines, Lego pieces, etc.) Next have your child close their eyes and feel around in the sensory bin until they find the hidden items. While doing this, children are receiving lots of sensory input to their hands and upper extremities while having to be aware of what they are touching and notice differences in the items in texture, shape, size, etc.
• Fine motor skills are another area that can be addressed while playing in a sensory bin. To work on fine motor skills with a sensory bin, try the following:
  • Practice using a pincer grasp (thumb and index finger) to pick up items in the sensory bin as opposed to use a scooping fist grasp. By picking up different items with a pincer grasp, children are able to develop their fine motor coordination. Picking up item like dried beans, dried rice, and packing peanuts with a pincer grasp provide a good challenge. For an extra challenge, try picking up water beads with a pincer grasp as water beads are slippery and smooth and tend to easily slip out of our hands as we try to pick them up.
  • Practice scooping items up with a spoon. Practice using a spoon to scoop up the contents of the sensory bin and then practice spoon control by either slowly turning the spoon over to pour out the contents back into the sensory bin or by transferring the contents of the spoon to another container. Working on these skills with a spoon in a fun play setting will help the child when they are feeding themselves with a spoon.
• Add an extra challenge to puzzles by hiding puzzle pieces inside the sensory bin. Now your child will get to practice the visual motor skills of putting together a puzzle, in addition to locating the pieces hidden inside the sensory bin.
• To work on visual tracking and visual scanning hide some items in the sensory bin but leave part of them exposed and practice playing “I spy with my little eye.” This will help your child with their visual tracking and scanning as they need to visually scan the entire contents of the sensory bin to try and find the desired item.

The possibilities are truly endless with sensory bins. Give them a try and if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask your therapist.

Mike Jankowski, MS, OTR/L

Occupational Therapy Director

DIY Edible Finger Paint with Pudding Cups

Supplies: 

• Vanilla pudding cups
• Food coloring drops

Directions:

To make these finger paints takes just a few moments.  I used the food coloring drops you can find in the baking aisle.  We used the neon colors in purple, pink, green and turquoise.  I also picked up the non-refrigerated pudding cups in regular Vanilla flavor.  It seemed to be the whitest color for the food coloring to show through. Here is a table for the drops I added:

Purple: 15-20 drops

Blue: 15-20 drops

Green: 25-30 drops

Red (neon pink): 20-25 drops

Simply remove the lids of the pudding, add the drops, and stir thoroughly.  Add a small spoonful of each color to the paper.  Then, it’s time to finger paint!

Understanding the difference between reinforcement and punishment –

When we think of the word reinforcement it is most likely looked at in a negative connotation; however, it didn’t start off that way! Kids thrive off of structure and rules. Yes, they like rules –even when they are not excited that dinner comes before dessert. Our friend reinforcement is a huge part of making kids’ lives better!

There is positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement, both are able to be utilized and loved at home, when they are used correctly and in a loving manner. To start, we can look at what the definition of reinforcement is: The process of encouraging or establishing a belief or pattern of behavior, especially by encouragement or reward.

In the definition it is looked at in a more positive light! How can this be? Let’s look at some ways to look at in its true positive nature.

1. Giving stickers for going potty on the potty (positive)
2. Getting dessert after finishing dinner (negative)
3. Pressing a button that makes a loud scary noise (negative)

Positive reinforcement is for when a child has done a desired behavior and you give them something they desire! It is a win/win situation. Negative reinforcement is when an undesired thing is happening and it is taken/finished to make the desired behavior.

Reinforcement is supposed to increase a behavior we want to keep happening. Now, there is punishment and that is when we want to decrease a behavior we do not want to happen. Just like reinforcement has a negative and positive side, punishment does as well. Both can be effective depending on the child’s personality and how they are delivered.

Positive Punishment, adding something that is unwanted.

1. Rocking on the chair and falling.
2. Touching something hot and being burned.
3. Getting in trouble and being put in time out.

Negative Punishment, taking away something that is wanted.

1. Not behaving well at the store and no longer getting their favorite cookies.
2. Hitting a sibling and taking the iPad away.
3. Yelling at someone and their dessert is no longer being given after dinner.

Being able to balance both reinforcement and punishment can be tricky but watching your child’s behavior change depending on the reaction from each will help you know how to handle each situation that comes your way!

Happy Better Hearing and Speech Month! Our speech team at Sonoran Sun Pediatric Therapy is excited to celebrate with all of our families who share their time and energy with us. It can be a lot of work, but seeing children make progress every week is so rewarding. Have you wondered what your child’s “speech teacher” is working on every week? There are so many areas of speech-language that we target with a variety of ages, ranging from Early Intervention (birth – 3 years) all the way up to teenagers. Some skills your child’s therapist may work on can include (but are not limited to):

-articulation/phonology

-social skills

-problem solving

-listening comprehension

-expressive language

-fluency/stuttering

The amazing thing about a speech session, is that sometimes children do not even realize that they are doing “therapy”. You may see your child playing with animals to practice sounds, or going down the slide to request “more”, or blowing bubbles to say “pop”. Everything is done with purpose. If you’re not sure what skill your child is working on, please ask! We love to give recommendations for home activities to make speech practice fun and to help language skills progress quicker.

For more ideas on working with little ones at home, please visit some of my favorite websites that I frequently refer families to:

• http://www.playingwithwords365.com/
• http://mommyspeechtherapy.com/
• http://teachmetotalk.com/

As always, if you ever have questions about your child’s speech and language development, please speak with your pediatrician or come visit us for a free screening!

Better Speech & Hearing Month

https://www.asha.org/bhsm/