I’m always looking for new, fun and cool ways to incorporate working on my children’s special needs in everyday life. I don’t have time for forty more hours of therapy per week and neither do they, so making the most out of every minute at home is my best, and preferred, method.
I also have a limited budget to purchase equipment, supplies and tools I need, and I never ever order anything from therapy catalogs (except software and that is because I cannot make my own!). Consider the most common OT tool – the ball. They may be large, extremely large, small, round, peanut shape, bumpy, ridged out or smooth. They also cost near one hundred dollars from a therapy catalog and about ten dollars at a local store. The difference? In the local store, they are called exercise balls and not therapy balls. They do the same thing though!
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My children are getting older and tweens, teens and young adults do not care for bean-bag tosses or similar activities. The younger the child, the easier it is to provide OT at home, since their nature allows them to be engaged and entertained by a myriad of activities. As they grow however, you have to get more creative and it can become more difficult to incorporate ‘fun’. I’m barely hanging on to being a ‘cool mom’; at least in the eyes of my fourteen year old.
Taking into account my personal circumstances, professional knowledge, budget, requirement of fun for three children ages 6-14, I began the daunting task of looking for items that are fun (for Christmas gifts), but purposeful.
This is why I love the Internet so much. I did a hybrid search of sorts and was lead to TOOBEEZ, which, is quite possibly the coolest toy ever and the uses and possibilities are endless. Better yet, to my delight, they have a section for ‘special needs’ and, to top it off, you can do OT and more, regardless of age.
The TOOBEEZ are like life size tinker toys! They are tubes that connect, so you can build unimaginable creations or use them individually in a host of activities. Since I’m working on OT, I’ll scale the ideas to fit that topic alone, although once you go and look you’ll see what I’m talking about when I say there are endless ways to use these.
Okay, sold, I’ll take them and I love making purchases that take care of so many things. It’s like buying the classic black dress that you’re so happy you own, because whenever you need something to wear, it works every time and never goes out of style. Same deal here, although you can’t wear the TOOBEEZ.
They provide activities already and, like my friends at Birthday in a Box, the activity ideas are great; as in you’ll actually use it and the kids will enjoy it. I want to put a Sensory Integration twist onto the activities they provide and the Blast Off Activity is a great one to start with.
Sensory Integration is the term used to describe the dynamic within OT that is used a lot with children that have autism. This is to reduce and dissipate stimulatory behaviors and regulate the sensory systems. To learn more about using OT to stop stimming you may want to read my past article on this topic.
How to use TOOBEEZ as a Sensory Integration Tool:
Fun will be instant and constant, so there’s little need for me to give suggestions on how to make sure these activities are fun. Instead, these tips assume you are having fun, simply playing with the TOOBEEZ and nothing more… except a little awareness.
To provide loads of sensory input, pushing and pulling does the trick. When building your space ship or handing tubes to each other, push and pull back on them with a little extra resistance. You’d be surprised how much input this provide the upper body. This is especially good for children that like to rock as, depending upon how animated you are, the rocking motion can be incorporated also.
Another great sensory activity is using the entire body, by making sure all major limbs have contact with the floor. When crafting your ship, launching off, taking a test flight to Mars and more, encourage your child to get up and down, work from the ground, and crawl on all fours if possible. You don’t have to give direct instructions, instead simply suggest moving things higher or lower; kids love to help so lots of “can you hand me that?” also does the trick.
For visual input, you can connect the tubes into the circular piece and spin away. This provides visual input, visuo-spatial awareness and it’s entertaining of course.
When playing with your child, it is always a good idea to consciously promote other skills. Making choices, team work, following directions and communication are all skills you can easily address during this activity.
Remember: if you give the body input it will eventually crave (stimming), then you are on your way to preventing it. Initially, you will see a reduction and elimination of the behavior will follow with more tweaking and fine tuning.
You’ll be hearing more from me about TOOBEEZ I’m sure, so I’d like to hear from you as well. What do you now to provide OT at home? Do you deal with sensory issues? If so, how?
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