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Sue Dacre OT

Paediatric OT practise in the Parkview area focusing on developmental skills with a focus on sensorimotor and perceptual skills. Established 2001.

09/04/2026

Todays post is about cutting skills ✂️

Cutting skills are part of our fine motor development, but also needs skills like eye hand coordination, planning and use of the 2 sides of our body.

Between 2 and 3 years old child will start to coordinate the ‘open close’ movement and snip paper

A 4 year old should be able to cut lines and start with corners and a 5 year old more complex lines and shapes.

Some ideas to encourage cutting

💪Cutting needs strong shoulders, warm up first with some wheelbarrow walking.
⚠️Always encourage cutting away from the body, and turn the paper rather than the scissors for better control.
📍Start by cutting thin cardboard. It holds its shape and is easier to control.
🫟Paper/card doesn’t have to be the only thing we cut. Playdough is really fun, leaves, material and other items allow for better sensory feedback.

For younger children – cutting is best as a supervised activity to keep their fingers (and hair) in tact! 🌈

02/04/2026

April 2nd 2026 is World Autism Awareness day!

26/03/2026

Today’s sensory system is our Vestibular System

This is the system that gives our body information about which way up it is in space, and is important in balance, control of posture and visual tasks. 🧠

Children (or adults) with over responsive vestibular systems might easily become dizzy or get car sick. They might avoid heights such as the jungle gym and fireman’s pole, and tasks like swimming and hair washing where their head is tipped can be stressful and overwhelming.

Stimulating the vestibular system should be done gradually in a sensitive child, as the effects of too much input can last for quite a while, even making them disoriented or struggling to fall asleep.

4 fun activities to build the vestibular system gently include

👣 Encourage your child to be in different positions. Build puzzles lying on their tummy, or draw lying under the table with the paper stuck to the underside of the table. Do a forward roll when going to fetch something
⚖️ Play balance games. Balance on bean bags or wobbly rocks. Draw a line on the ground and let them ‘walk the tightrope’
🌈 When they swing, try different positions. Sit sideways on the swing, spin it around or lie on their tummy
🌸 Find a park with a hill, and let them roll sideways down it

Children have more tolerant vestibular systems, something that makes you feel sick thinking about it will be ‘super fun’ for them, but when they have been dizzy, give some deep pressure through a big squishy hug or holding something heavy to help them settle.

19/03/2026

New series!

Today I’m introducing a series ways of using ‘stuff around the house 🏠 ’ which I’ll post from time to time.

Toys don’t have to be expensive, curated items, in fact they’re often better when they’re not as they allow for creativity.

5 ways with chalk

- Use chalk to draw on any paved, cemented or tarred area. The big surface area allows children to build shoulder control and work across their midline. 💪
- Let them lie on their back, trace around them and then let them fill in the details. This builds body concept and spatial skills 👣
- Draw a hopscotch and let your child fill in the numbers. This builds motor skills and number concept. 1️⃣
- Draw targets, lines to balance along or jump over. This builds planning and motor skills. 🎯
- Draw patterns. This builds visual motor integration. If your child is older, let them write or complete words. 〰️

Chalk is also a different sensory experience to build on tactile and proprioceptive skills, and best of all, you can wash it off when you’re done!

12/03/2026

Basic concepts

How do we ‘teach’ little children basic concepts like colour, shape and number 🌈⚪️1️⃣ (and in fact even older children when they’re learning letters and numbers)?

Firstly – on yourself, on 3D items and on paper as we’ve talked about in previous posts.

Secondly, by matching, then identifying and then naming

Give them a red shape, offer them 2 alternatives – maybe yellow and red, and ask them to take the one that is the same. 🍎

Next, ask them to bring you the red one.

And only then, ask them what colour it is.

Then you’ll know they have understood and consolidated the concept, rather than just rote learnt it. 🧠

Don’t be afraid to do this lots of times with lots of different items – whenever possible use everyday items, as this has more meaning.

Build in movement, by sending them on a treasure hunt to find 3 green items. This is great for older children when you can make things more complex, like “show me 2 things in the room that start with m” 🔍

05/03/2026

Gross motor skills

These refers to movement of the larger muscles of our body for example when we move our arms and legs to jump, skip, crawl, kick a ball etc. ⚽️🏀

Why are these important?

The first reason is obviously to allow us to move through and engage with our environment!
Movement also encourages normal function of our internal organs and regulates our sensory system. 🧠

But also

When we move, we develop a map of where our body is in space, which direction its moving in and how it relates to other objects.📍🗺️
This ‘map’ then translates into tasks like puzzles and games, which in turn build reading, writing and numeracy concepts amongst other tasks.🧩
Movement makes us happy 😁 It activates our brain and allows us to be more engaged in tasks

This weekend build an obstacle course in the garden, or have a family dance off! 🌸

26/02/2026

Sensory Play
This term is used a lot, and really what it means is engaging different sensory systems of the body. This week we're looking at our touch or tactile system.
Children who are tactile sensitive might resist touching muddy, gooey or sticky things, or might seem super fussy about their clothes.
By gradually exposing them to different types of touch input, their tactile system can get used to different sensations, making them more tolerable.
🫟 Try and let your child get messy, even if it feels uncomfortable for you.
🫘 Start with predictable textures that don't stick and gradually build in more complex textures for example, start with beans or corn kernels, then sand, then something sticky like jelly or foam.
🔍 Don't make the main focus the 'texture'. Hide something inside and let them find it.
Have fun!

19/02/2026

Lets talk midlines

Our midline is an imaginary line that goes from our head to our toes through the middle of our bodies. We need to be able to cross it to assist with building hand preference, coordination, motor skills and later reading and writing.

If you notice that your child constantly turns their body to complete a task, shifts from side to side or switches hands to avoid working across the midline they might be struggling with this.

Fun activities to encourage midline crossing include

🌈Painting on a big piece of paper, or with a paintbrush and water on a wall – rainbow type strokes
〰️Games involving rolling and walking along a line
🔵Twister
✋Using tools that need 2 hands for example stamping with a cardboard cylinder
🧩Doing activities on your tummy where game pieces placed to either side

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!

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!

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