Sue Dacre OT

12/02/2026

Fun in the kitchen!

Here's 4 reasons helping out in the kitchen is great for development!

1. Experimenting and ‘playing’ with food makes children curious about tastes and textures 🧠
2. Planning and sequencing, adjust recipes for early readers like I have done with this tried and tested flapjack recipe 📚
3. Patience and creativity learning about shapes, colours and patterns 🌈
4. Family time, let your child have fun creating and cleaning up afterwards! ❤️

05/02/2026

Building strong hands

Building hand strength and fine motor skills is an important part of a preschoolers day. Here’s some ideas for activities!

🧠 Add in some sensory stimulation by using shaving foam or kinetic sand.

🌸Use different sized items to promote different grips.

👁️Balance items on top of each other or along a line to promote eye hand coordination.

💪Pick up more than one thing at a time for in hand manipulation and strength.

29/01/2026

Apparently the last Monday in January is bubble wrap appreciation day!

Bubble wrap is wonderful for more than just its original purpose of keeping fragile items safe. Here are some fun ideas

For grown ups, popping the bubbles can be really calming because of the tactile and proprioceptive input. For babies and young children, let them have the same experience by letting them crawl or walk over it

Build hand muscles by scrunching it, and dipping in paint 🎨

Or put it on a rolling pin or a toilet roll to make wonderful patterns or a car track 🚗

⚠️ Just remember to always supervise bubble wrap play, especially for babies and toddlers who might put it in their mouths!

22/01/2026

Fun activities building our body concept 🧠

Children learn about spatial skills on their own body first. Using different movements and mediums they understand how to move through and engage with the space around them

15/01/2026

Keeping it real with Back to School!

Over the next few weeks, there will be lots of information flying at you and your kids about all the new routines, extra murals and ‘must do’ activities.

Here are my top tips

🕦 Allow a routine to establish quickly, predictability is calming and allows tasks to become automatic and lower effort! Use a visual schedule or talking cues, depending on what works best for your family.

🔋 Make sure there is downtime where nothing is planned. Children in preschool and foundation phase still need lots of time to play creatively and if every minute of their day is scheduled, they can’t do this. And when you select extra murals, make sure the coaches understand child development well. Before Grade R, children don’t have a broad enough concept of rule based activities, for most of foundation phase children are not really developmentally ready to manage obviously competitive tasks.

🫟 Include regulating activities in little bursts through the day. Activities that are slow, involve weight bearing and deep touch and pressure work well. Jumping on the trampoline, wriggling on their tummy or squishing play dough are some great examples

11/02/2022

Fine Motor Friday
Fine motor skills are skills which require dexterity of the hand and fingers.
We've been having fun this week using different toys and positions to work those important little hand muscles!

29/01/2022

06/07/2021

Something I really value is walking and getting out into nature.
Most of us know the benefits of exercise, and there are some hidden benefits for development

😀 When we walk, especially on an uneven surface, our proprioceptive and vestibular systems get a workout. They have to constantly adjust our body position to maintain balance, adjust to different surfaces and manage up and downhill.

😀 Our visual system also works hard. We look far away and nearer. We focus on things close to us and are able to scan and track objects.

😀 We get to think and imagine. Rocks become dinosaurs and clouds look like rabbits! There's rocks and sticks and every other toy nature gives us.

😀 Kids can practise their pathfinding skills, following directions and looking for clues in the environment.

On Sunday I had a lovely walk on Melville koppies, and I've included some suggestions below of how you can do some fun pathfinding.
Stay safe!

11/06/2021

Every child has an inner timetable for growth - a pattern unique to him.
Growth is not steady, forward, upward progression.
It is instead a switchback trail; three steps forward, two back, one around the bushes, and a few simply standing, before another forward leap.

28/05/2021

For a fun Friday, let's play with the humble pipe cleaner!
I love using this in lots of different activities, and they are usually re-useable.
Some of the skills I can build using pipe cleaners include

😎 Fine motor skills and eye hand coordination - You'll see in the pics below they are great for practising threading and lacing, as they hold their shape better than string or laces.

🤩 Pattern making - pipe cleaners come in many colours and can be formed into lots of shapes, making them ideal for building patterns.

😎 Creative play - as they are so flexible, pipe cleaners can be legs, arms, hair, plants, aliens or pretty much anything you want them to be!

🤩 Regulation - A pipe cleaner is great for a fidgety child when you need them to sit in one place for a while. Children (and adults) enjoy wrapping them around or between their fingers or squishing them, and they're easy to keep in your pocket for when needed.

Have a look at the pics below for a few more ideas. Have a lovely weekend!

27/05/2021

Today we focus on the lovely book 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' by Eric Carle, following the author's passing at the age of 91.
This book was a favourite when my own children were little, and its a lovely story for lots of reasons
It's a simple story, that teaches sequencing, quantities, rhythm while we watch our friend the caterpillar get fatter and fatter until he spins his cocoon and emerges as a butterfly.

In one of my sessions this week we had fun making a lovely caterpillar in OT out of stickers, and we even hid him in some cardboard grass. Its a fun one to do over the weekend.
I don't have photos, but its pretty easy to follow. For younger children, describe the steps one at a time, for older children give 2 - 3 instructions and allow them to complete all 3 with minimal prompting
🔴 Take a piece of paper or cardboard and fold it along the long side, about a third up. Ask your child to cut vertical stripes up to the fold. This is the grass

🔴 🟢 Using circular stickers (I've got biggish ones, but even the smaller round ones work fine), make your caterpillar body. It should be just above the fold so that the 'grass' covers it.

🔴🟢🔴 Draw a face and feet on your caterpillar, and let your child add any other decorations they want to.

🔴🟢🔴🟢 If the grass seems a bit complicated, then have a look at the pic below where we've made a lovely caterpillar simply by placing stickers along a curved line.

26/05/2021

An important skill that preschoolers need to develop is good control of the shoulder girdle. Children need strength and stability in their shoulders in order to develop fine motor skills including cutting, threading and writing.
Children naturally develop shoulder control when they crawl, climb, catch and carry. Here are some more activities to build good shoulder control...

🦾 Climbing trees and jungle gyms. Monkey bars and rings are also great for shoulder strength and mobility.

🦾 Wheelbarrow walking (walking on hands, parents hold feet) and crab walking (child facing upwards taking weight on hands and feet). This is a great movement to incorporate into a daily routine when moving from one part of the house to the other.

🦾 Make a baseball bat out of a 2l bottle. Use a soft ball, and start with the bat above your shoulder, hitting across the body. To increase the challenge use a slightly heavier or slightly smaller ball.

🦾 When drawing and painting, do this against a tilted / vertical surface. An easel is great, but I also love to use whiteboard markers on a mirror. Encourage big pictures like tall buildings and rainbows. If you're brave, give them a squeegie and maybe they'll wash a window for you!

Have fun and happy exercising🏃‍♀️