msalexaot

msalexaot Pediatric occupational therapist in NYC sharing my treatment ideas and experiences one day at a time

Any other 90s therapists as obsessed with shrinkie d***s as a kid as I was? With Mother’s Day coming up I figured it was...
05/05/2026

Any other 90s therapists as obsessed with shrinkie d***s as a kid as I was? With Mother’s Day coming up I figured it was a good time to bring out the millennial nostalgia and help my kiddos make keychains with their handwriting on them.

05/05/2026

For all my fellow 90s therapists: were you as into Shrinky D***s as I was? With Mother’s Day coming up, I thought it was about time to bring back that millennial nostalgia for my kiddos to make presents for their moms and mother figures.

This activity works on:
- Graphomotor skills 📝
- Executive function 🧠
- Fine motor 🙌
- Tracing
- Direction following

These came out adorable and my kiddos cannot wait to give their gifts to their moms!

Supporting your child’s progress just doesn’t stop when therapy sessions end. It continues in the small, everyday moment...
17/04/2026

Supporting your child’s progress just doesn’t stop when therapy sessions end. It continues in the small, everyday moments at home! 🏠
If your child receives occupational therapy services, “carryover” simply means practicing those same skills during daily routines. This helps children generalize what they learn in sessions so it becomes part of their real-life independence and not just something they do in therapy.
The good news? You don’t need special tools or long activities.
OT carryover can look like:
• Letting your child help get dressed (zippers, buttons, socks)
• Playing with playdough at the kitchen table
• Creating a quick obstacle course in the living room
• Encouraging them to help with simple chores
• Taking movement or sensory breaks throughout the day
These moments build skills like strength, coordination, focus, and confidence in ways that feel natural and meaningful to your child. Even a few minutes a day can make a big difference over time.And remember: you are a key part of your child’s progress. The support, patience, and opportunities you provide at home truly matter more than you may realize. 🤍
Follow along for more simple, realistic OT tips you can use in your everyday routines. ❤️

I love this simple low prep and low materials activity! #💛💚Use tongs to pick up pom-poms from the cup and make a patter...
14/04/2026

I love this simple low prep and low materials activity! #💛💚

Use tongs to pick up pom-poms from the cup and make a pattern. Then do the same activity but in reverse, sorting them into cups. Add some challenge by having your kiddo cross midline to grab pom poms or have them complete the activity in quadruped position (hooray for upper body strengthening)! This activity targets Fine motor strength, Hand-eye coordination, Bilateral coordination, crossing midline, tool use, & sorting & color recognition.

Activities like this build the foundation for skills needed in everyday tasks like dressing, writing, and self-feeding ✍️

Simple, engaging, and so effective!

Building coordination and balance all while having lots of fun! 🤩 I had my kiddos crossover midline to grab a beanbag wi...
31/03/2026

Building coordination and balance all while having lots of fun! 🤩 I had my kiddos crossover midline to grab a beanbag with their opposite arm and place it in the bucket until they complete completed all of the beanbags. Then I had them switched and do it with the other hand on the other side.

Using just balance board, couple of chairs, and bean bags, we worked on:
✨ Balance & postural control
✨ Coordination
✨ Bilateral integration
✨ Crossing midline
✨ Motor planning
✨ Visual-motor integration
✨ Upper body strength & control
✨ Grading force and accuracy
✨ Following directions Try placing beanbags on a taller surface to downgrade the task (because less bending down = better balance). Or try with vision occulded to upgrade the task. This activity would also be great as a group activity if you have more than one balance board. Have students pass each other the beanbags or even a ball to cross midline. So many ways to play!

I love this threading, balancing, and sequencing activity all in one playful setup! In this activity, we used colorful b...
27/03/2026

I love this threading, balancing, and sequencing activity all in one playful setup!

In this activity, we used colorful beads from and pattern cards to target multiple skills at once:
• Fine motor strength and coordination through stringing
• Visual tracking and attention by following a pattern
• Sequencing and early math skills by recreating color/shape orders
• Core strength and balance by standing on a wobble surface

By combining movement with tabletop tasks, I’m helping my OT kiddos build the foundation for focus, coordination, and functional independence! ✨

🍀✨ St. Patrick’s Day fine motor fun! ✨🍀If you know me, you know I love incorporating holidays into my sessions. These th...
17/03/2026

🍀✨ St. Patrick’s Day fine motor fun! ✨🍀

If you know me, you know I love incorporating holidays into my sessions. These themed activities are working overtime to build little hands and big skills! 🤚

🌈 Dot art rainbow painting → precision, grasp, and color recognition, direction following (for another step, have the kiddo identify and write the sequence of colors in the rainbow)
⚪️ Pom-pom “pot of gold” → counting, sorting, and bilateral coordination (use tweezers/tongs to pick up Pom poms)
🟢 theraputty + bead Rainbows→ hand strength, dexterity, and direction following (hide beads in theraputty and pick them out one by one, following the sequence of colors ROYGBIV)

All play-based, all purposeful!!!! 💚

Save this for your next session as they can be adapted for all Spring long!

he Dots and Boxes game was always one of my favorite games to play as a kid. Little did I know, I’d be using it a a ther...
12/03/2026

he Dots and Boxes game was always one of my favorite games to play as a kid. Little did I know, I’d be using it a a therapy tool decades later. The Dots And Boxes game is an effective, low-prep occupational therapy activity that enhances fine motor control, visual-perceptual skills, and cognitive planning. It strengthens hand-eye coordination, pencil control, and spatial awareness, as well as fostering executive functioning skills like strategy, turn-taking, and patience. Kiddos take turns drawing a single line to connect two dots and take turns until someone closes the box and writes their initial (or try a shape or number to target whatever you’re working on).

This game works on:
* Fine Motor & Visual-Motor Skills: pencil control and hand-eye coordination for connecting dots accurately. ✏️
* Visual Perceptual Skills: 👀
* Spatial Awareness/Relations: Understanding the spatial relationship between dots and planning where to place lines.
* Figure-Ground Perception: Distinguishing specific lines from the busy background of the dot grid. 🧩
* Form Constancy: Recognizing the square shape regardless of its orientation in the grid. ◼️
* Cognitive & Executive Functioning: Planning, strategy development, foresight, working memory, and turn-taking. 🧠
* Handwriting prep and graphomotor skills: line orientation, alignment, and directional movements, and letter formation. 🔤
Adaptations for Therapy:
* Vertical Surface: Play on a whiteboard or easel to encourage wrist extension and shoulder stability. I love having my kiddos do fine motor/writing tasks on a vertical surface! 👩‍🏫
* Sensory Integration: Use playdough to or Wikki Stix for lines and play on a bigger board. 👋
* Therapy Tools: Use colored markers or dot markers to increase engagement. 🖍️
* Adapt the size of the board (dots can be placed farther apart or closer together as well as the amount of dots can be adjusted as well.

Obsessed with activities that look like play, but target SO many skills at once!🤎✏️This handwriting activity is one of m...
25/02/2026

Obsessed with activities that look like play, but target SO many skills at once!🤎✏️
This handwriting activity is one of my favorite low-prep, high-impact tools in sessions.
We’re not just writing words — we’re working on:
✨ fine motor strength
✨ visual motor integration
✨ bilateral coordination
✨ letter formation & sequencing
✨ hand endurance
✨ sensory regulation
And when you add a fun theme (hello, animal rescue 🐘🐳🐑🦋), engagement goes way up. I love this theraputty from .
Sometimes the most effective therapy doesn’t look complicated.
It looks like play.
It looks like connection.
It looks like a child feeling proud of what they just wrote.
That’s the sweet spot 🤍
Save this for your next handwriting session & tell me — are you team themed worksheets or sensory-based writing activities? 👇

Hi, OT friends! It’s been quite a while! I wanted to share a cute craft I planned for my kiddos this week to get into th...
20/12/2025

Hi, OT friends! It’s been quite a while! I wanted to share a cute craft I planned for my kiddos this week to get into the Winter ❄️ and Holiday 🕎 🎄 spirit! These cute little popsicle stick snowmen ⛄️ are low prep and make a perfect take home craft. Plus, it targets so many OT skills.

✨ We’re in our OT era! ✨ New school year means a new bulletin board! And being in elementary school means we’ve got lots...
08/09/2025

✨ We’re in our OT era! ✨

New school year means a new bulletin board! And being in elementary school means we’ve got lots of Taylor Swift fans, so this theme only seemed right!

We had our OT kiddos create friendship bracelets that represented them and traced their hands for a fun and functional first week of school activity!

What’s your back to school bulletin board theme? 😊

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