Availing Hands Occupational Therapy, PLLC

01/14/2023

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On behalf of Ava's parents Angel and LaQuan we wanted to share Ava's story with you al… Tiffany Robertson needs your support for Funeral Arrangements for Ava

04/18/2020

02/14/2020

As an OT and/or a parent, if you’ve ever had concerns about finances to purchase tools to address fine motor enhancement, here is one idea on how you can use what you may have at home or can purchase at a discount store near you to create something that still gets the job done. This is an image of a home-made pegboard from a small cardboard box coated with colored paper and clear tape, and also holes punctured using a sharp needle and a screwdriver. The pegs are actually plastic hair pins from a beauty supply store that were cut into smaller pieces. Having the pins cut strongly encourages the use of a pincer grasp for retrieval, rather than a palmer grasp. This project can be affordable and fun if you enjoy craftwork, and need to budget 🙂

04/25/2019

Just some inspiration!!!!

04/21/2019

I had to share this with you all. I was so excited about this project I completed to block visual distractors while addressing my students’ functional skills building. I attached layers of large pieces of cardboard together. After learning from a STEM program educator at Living Word that the triangle shape absorbs pressure I decided to add an accordion shaped piece of cardboard inside of the protruded back support to prevent tipping over. The final touches were covering the wall with contact paper and labeling with adhesive letters. I chose solid blue to avoid defeating the purpose of building it. This idea was inspired by the non-profit organization called Adaptive Design Association http:// .com/adaptivedesigninc?igshid=2kphg9oqj5ju

04/19/2019

Here’s an activity that can aid in the enhancement of dynamic hand movement and a mature grasp during a writing task. There is a range of skills to be assessed here. You can observe here that this child is utilizing a 4-finger or 4-point pencil grasp (3 1/2 - 4 yo level). He was asked to color while staying within the small circles, which promotes more controlled motor output for circular movements rather than being limited to linear movements only. This also helps to improve other skills such as force grading, spatial awareness, wrist mobility and enhancing palmar creases for more intrinsic muscle involvement. This task also also aids in progression towards a dynamic tripod grasp, which is age-appropriate for 4 - 6 yo. You can also see that this child is incorporating bilateral hand integration skills by stabilizing the paper with his non-dominant hand while coloring with his dominant hand. These skills listed are examples of the combined necessary component skills to successfully perform a single task.

04/19/2019

Tracing along a Figure 8 encourages the arms to cross over midline. Why is this important? Crossing one extremity to the opposite side of the body promotes communication between both sides of the brain, which helps the development of bilateral coordination. An example of bilateral coordination is stabilizing a sheet of paper with the non-dominant hand while writing or cutting with scissors using the dominant hand at the same time. One way to trace figure 8 is on a horizontal surface (table top). Another way is in a vertical plane (white board), which actually promotes increased interest and attention to task, as well as addresses muscle strengthening in the arms as they work up against gravity. This was created by using a small paper plate and a smaller sized container as a guide to draw the circular parts and then carefully connecting both sides in the center. After coloring, the images were placed into a sheet protector for reuse with erasable markers and chalkboard eraser. .