Playdough Rolling Pins Textured and Dough Tools and Cutters, Wooden Roller, Clay, Children Craft Play, School Toddler, Play Dough Plastic Shapes with Patterned Rollers

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Be considerate of the smell of play dough. Some love it, while others can not tolerate this familiar smell. Play dough manipulation also provides tactile sensory awareness and proprioceptive input, which can serve to be therapeutic by giving deep pressure to the hands, fingers, and arms in a calming manner. Play dough is a tactile gem, and occupational therapy practitioners know this! There are so many benefits of play dough. Playing with this dough regularly is great, as it is a toy with no right or wrong way to play, is safe, and appeals to many people with various learning styles and needs. Children can make their own play dough making it even more fun! As an added benefit, playdough mats support emotional regulation. These emotions playdough mats can be used in combination with other self regulation strategies to offer heavy work through the hands while building emotional intelligence in kids. Boosts creativity and imagination

When using play dough as a tool, children participate together by talking, sharing, and co-building. Add different textures such as salt, glitter, beads, rice, to add more tactile input for your sensory seeker. Use playdough as a creative way to practice math skills and concepts, or use it to mold and shape letters to work on handwriting. Use a kit, tray, or a few cookie cutters, and you’ve got an instant engagement tool that allows for conversation and creation, while building that important therapeutic relationship. When using play dough with no right or wrong way to play, play it is the perfect tool for social interaction without competition. Learning toolSo, when you pop open a tub of colorful play dough, you probably aren’t thinking about the benefits of playing with playdough…but your pediatric occupational therapist probably is! Fine motor skill development Using play dough can be great for the sensory seeker who loves texture. Those who seek out heavy work through the hands can benefit from Still another idea is to match colors with play dough using small objects and different colors of play dough. Rolling a play dough snake is particularly effective for developing bilateral coordination skills. In many functional tasks, both hands do symmetrical task (buttoning a shirt, pulling up pants, jumping rope, etc. When rolling a lump of play dough with the hands together, one needs to use the same amount of pressure or force with both hands, and move the playdough together at the same time. Otherwise, the play dough snake is lopsided, or thin on one end and not the other. We’ll cover how to use play dough as a tool to support development in all of these areas in greater detail below.

Engaging with play dough can help to build important life skills as children follow simple recipes to make their own play dough, and use kitchen tools for engagement. They are measuring, mixing, and creating, while developing knowledge of tool use and hand skills in the kitchen. If learners seem tired of routine fine motor and visual motor activities, adding these super fun play dough game boards and cards to your OT Toolbox will keep kids engaged, while building their skills. Get out a set of Mr. Potato Head pieces and work on pressing these into the dough to make a funny character. When kids use play dough tools like plastic knives, play dough scissors, and other sculpting tools, they are strengthening the skills needed to hold a fork and spoon, developmental progression of grasping utensils, and particularly the skill of cutting food with a knife.Simple play dough recipe- This play dough recipe without cream of tarter is probably the simplest version which still challenges life skills. Another one of the benefits of play dough is building bilateral coordination. Bilateral coordination can be both sides of the body doing the same thing, working together, like squishing the play dough.