Tag Archive for: fine motor skills

10 Common Household Items to Develop Fine Motor Skills

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The building blocks for fine motor success begins on day one. Skill development is commonly observed when the child becomes explorative in their environment and increasingly independent. Independence in age appropriate tasks is often a great measure of where they are developmentally. Specifically, the common influencing skills for fine motor development are strength, coordination, visual perception and motor planning. To assist in maturation of these skill areas you can engage your child in simple activities with things you may already have around the house! Blog-Home Fine Motor Skills-Main-Landscape

10 great tools you may find around the house to develop fine motor skills:

  • Broken crayons– Don’t get rid of those broke crayons! Coloring with these can assist with precision, hand strength and grasp maturity.
  • Q-tips– They can be utilized for painting, dotting and erasing from a chalk or white board. Fine motor precision and grasp maturity are challenged in activities with Q-tips.
  • Clothes pins– Transferring small items while playing different games such as matching, minute to win it, and relay races. Clothes pins also assist with motor planning, strength, and coordination.
  • Tweezers– This is another great tool for transferring small items while playing different games that addresses motor planning, strength, and coordination skills.
  • Child safe scissors– Begin with snipping construction paper and progress into more complex activities such as cutting shapes. To start, make a fun fringed edge for a picture they drew or advanced beginners can make a snowflake with parental assistance. Cutting activities can be difficult, but it significantly addresses coordination, strength, visual motor, and motor planning skills.
  • Legos– These small pieces may hurt when stepped on, but they are great for coordination, precision, visual attention, and strength.
  • Small blocks– Blocks can be used in many ways. A few suggestions would be to stack, string, and build various structures. Blocks are wonderful tools for coordination, visual perception, and grasp maturity.
  • Play Doh– Great way to mature manipulation, coordination, strength, and creativity skills.
  • Shaving cream– A fun way to practice their drawing skills in a non-traditional pencil and paper way. This can assist with precision and motor maturity as well.
  • Spray bottle– Clean up from the shaving cream and painting activities with a spray bottle filled with water. This can really test as well as develop the child’s grasp strength and endurance.

**All activities should be closely supervised and supported by an adult.

NSPT offers services in Bucktown, Evanston, Lincolnwood, Glenview, Lake Bluff, Des Plaines, Hinsdale and Mequon! If you have questions or concerns about your child, we would love to help! Give us a call at (877) 486-4140.

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What Will My Child Experience in an Occupational Therapy Session?

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Pediatric occupational therapy focuses on increasing your child’s level of participation in all the activities of their daily life. From teaching your child to sit still, play basketball or fasten buttons, occupational therapists can work with your child to make sure their needs are met in the areas of self-care, play, school/academic-related skills, attention and regulation.blog-occupational therapy-main-landscape

Develop Fine Motor and Visual Motor Ability

Fine motor skills involve the controlled movements of fingers and hands to carry out tasks. For a child with difficulty in this area, one of our occupational therapists might work on the following tasks with your child:

  • Holding a pencil properly
  • Fastening zippers
  • Putting on socks
  • Stringing beads
  • Transferring coins from palms to fingertips

Visual motor activities often go hand-in-hand with motor skills as they combine fine motor control with visual perception. Occupational therapy sessions targeting visual motor skills can include activities such as drawing and cutting out shapes, writing letters, completing puzzles, completing mazes and dot-to-dots.

Explore All the Senses

Occupational therapy sessions targeting sensory integration are designed to help your child take in, process and respond to sensory information from the environment more efficiently. Here are two examples of how sensory integration activities could benefit your child:

  • If your child is hypersensitive to tactile input, a session may involve encouraging your child to tolerate playing with sand, dirt or finger paint.
  • If your child seeks out constant movement, a session may involve providing deep pressure input through yoga poses, for example.

Improve Executive Functioning Skills

Executive functioning skills help guide your child’s brain to complete tasks. These includes: task initiation, planning, organization, problem solving, working memory and inhibition. In teaching these skills, your child’s occupational therapist will mimic real-life tasks to improve the ease at which these tasks are completed.

“For example, to work on planning and organization, your child’s session may involve planning for and carrying out a long-term project with step-by-step-completion,” “For a child who has trouble with task initiation, a homework routine or contract may be created with the use of auditory and/or visual timers or movement breaks.”

Build Strength and Coordination

Tying shoes. Sitting upright at circle time. Playing basketball at recess.

These might seem like simple activities, but upper body strength and coordination play a large role in your child’s ability to carry out these daily tasks. Here’s how our occupational therapists help address these issues:

  • Upper body strength: This may be addressed with activities such as manipulating “theraputty” or by playing with a scooter board.
  • Core strength: This is often addressed through tasks that challenge the core muscles. During these activities, children are encouraged to complete yoga poses or play “crab soccer” in a crab-walk position.
  • Coordination activities: These activities target the planning and putting together of movements, particularly those that use both arms and legs at the same time (throwing and catching a ball, jumping jacks or climbing on a playground ladder).

NSPT offers services in Bucktown, Evanston, Highland Park, Lincolnwood, Glenview, Lake Bluff, Des Plaines, Hinsdale and Milwaukee. If you have questions or concerns about your child, we would love to help. Give us a call at (877) 486-4140 and speak to one of our Family Child Advocates.

 

Make the Summer Olympics Come to Life in Your Own Home

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With the Summer Olympics just days away, what could be a better time to engage your kids in fun Summer Olympicsactivities to promote physical activity, social interaction, a healthy lifestyle, and improve their overall development? Many kids dream of becoming a gold-medalist in the Olympics and with these activities, you can make your child feel as if they are standing on top of that podium while assisting in their skill development without them even realizing it! There are endless opportunities to promote your child’s well-being. Be creative! Below are a list of easy-to-do Olympic related activities to get you started:

Focus on Fine, Visual, and Gross Motor Skills:

Table time activities

  • Print off Summer Olympic word searches, mazes, and coloring pages.
  • Create the Olympic rings (Cut strips of paper, form them in to circles, and connect them).
  • Olympic torch craft (create an Olympic torch using a paper towel roll, covering it with tin foil, and cutting/taping flames to the roll using red, orange, and yellow tissue paper).
  • Origami Olympic Rings (http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/origami-olympic-rings)
  • Create gold, silver, and bronze medals using paper, clay, tin foil, or paper plates. Then connect them to a string or ribbon to wear during your Olympic games.
  • Write about a favorite sport, Olympian, or your child’s Olympic dream.

Play Sports and Competitive Activities:

  • Basketball, swimming, running, simple gymnastics tricks, volleyball, soccer, hockey, mini-golf, etc.
  • Water balloon toss or ring toss
  • Races (three legged races, sack races, spoon, or relay races)
  • Obstacle course
  • Throwing a ball through a hoop or at a target,
  • Create a long/high jump

Focus on Social-emotional Skills:

  • Model good sportsmanship- Play the Olympic games with family and friends. This gives you the opportunity to model good sportsmanship when losing, working as a team, and how to support/encourage others for your child.
  • Promote social interaction with others, sharing, and taking turns – these are all important for building friendships and play skills.
  • Use positive self-talk– “I can do it,” “I will try my best,” “The more I practice, the better I will get.” Promoting positive self-talk will help improve self-confidence, increase positive thoughts, and will help improve performance during tasks.
  • Create rules for the games to teach direction following and playing fair with others.
  • Celebrate differences– the Olympics are a time of celebration, unity, and peace. Take this time to teach your child about different cultures and countries from around the world and that we accept our differences and treat everyone equally.
  • Promote friendly competition– While playing games, time your child and see how fast they can complete the game. Then see if your child can beat their score every trial. This will promote focus, improve overall attention, and assist in friendly competition with themselves or others.
  • Identify feelings of others– Find pictures of athletes in the Olympics on the internet or in magazines which portray emotions on the athletes faces and ask your kids how they think the athletes are feeling.

Focus on Sensory Processing:

  • Tactile input
    • Create the Olympic rings with finger paint- have the child create a circle with their thumb and index finger and with a paint brush, paint their hand. Then print on to the paper and repeat with the next color (this is a great tactile play activity for the tactile defensive child)
    • Bake cookies and decorate them to look like the Olympic rings, medals, basketballs, etc. Have your child mix the dough with their hands and decorate with frosting, sprinkles, or candies. This way your child is engaging with all different textures.
  • Proprioceptive input with heavy work– Have races, whether it be while pushing a laundry basket, running around a track outside, or animal walk races (these are great activities to help regulate the sensory seeking child or increase arousal levels)
  • Oral and tactile input-Engage with and try different foods from different countries and cultures from around the world- maybe your picky eater will try something you never though they would!

Focus on Speech and Language:

  • Incorporate your child’s target sounds in the context of the Olympics. For example, if your child is working on his or her “L” sound, have them practice saying: Summer Olympics, medal, or basketball.
  • Improve expressive language by describing/explaining as well as answering open ended questions, you can ask you child some of these questions:
    1. How hard do you think the athletes work to be able to compete in the Summer Olympics?
    2. How do you think the athletes feel on the day when they will be competing in the Olympics?
    3. What types of things would you do on that big day to prepare?
    4. How do you think an athlete would feel if they took last place in the Olympic Games?
    5. If you were going to compete in the Summer Olympics, which sport would you chose and why?

Make it even more fun by making a whole day out of it and creating your own Olympic Games! Create an athlete registration table, make teams, dress up, and don’t forget the award ceremonies. Enjoy and may the odds be ever in your favor!

NSPT offers services in Bucktown, Evanston, Highland Park, Lincolnwood, Glenview, Lake Bluff, Des Plaines, Hinsdale and Milwaukee. If you have questions or concerns about your child, we would love to help! Give us a call at (877) 486-4140 and speak to one of our Family Child Advocates!

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Fine Motor Skills: Ideas for At-Home Improvement

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Fine motor coordination is the capacity of the small muscles of the upper body to allow for controlled movements of the fingers and hands. They include the ability to hold a writing utensil, eat with a fork, open containers, and fasten clothing. These small movements correspond with larger muscles such as the shoulder girdle, back, and core to provide stability for gross motor functioning and with the eyes for hand-eye coordination. Weaknesses in fine motor skills are often the result of poor hand strength and poor motor coordination.

Does My Child Need to Improve His/Her Fine Motor Skills?

For a comprehensive list of fine motor development red flags, please view my previous post, Fine Motor Skills: Is your Child Lagging Behind?

Why Should I Seek Therapy if I Notice Difficulties with Fine Motor Skills? 

  • To improve ability in and persistence with fine motor tasks
  • Increase school readiness
  • To help your child complete self-care tasks, such as buttons and zippers
  • To avoid disengagement in an academic environment due to difficulties completing fine motor activities (e.g. writing, cutting, drawing)
  • To help maintain and develop a positive sense of well-being
  • To ensure that your child doesn’t fall behind their peers in handwriting development

A Word About the Tripod Grasp

The “tripod grasp” is the way we occupational therapists describe what the fingers look like as they hold a pencil or other small utensil. Like a triangle, or a tripod, the thumb, index, and middle fingers work together to maneuver the pencil, clothespin, fork, etc. Mastering this grasp indicates a mature manner of utilizing those small hand muscles. Most kiddos have learned to utilize this grasp by the age of 5 or 6.mightyhands2

Fine Motor Toolkit

As a pediatric occupational therapist, parents continuously request ideas for easy activities to do at
home. Recently, one of my families requested ideas for the car ride to school. Introducing….the Mighty Hands kit! This bin is a fine motor development dream (from an occupational therapy standpoint), AND it’s fun! Tailor it to what you’ve got on hand, show your child how to use the items inside, place it in your home (or even your car!), and let your kiddo go to town. You can thank me later.

What’s Inside the Mighty Hands Kit and What Do I Have My Child Do with This Stuff?

Theraputty: Hide small beads in the putty to use pincer grasp to dig them out, play tug-of-war, pull and twist, but don’t use the table to help! Medium-soft (red) and Medium (green) grade.

fine-motor-theraputty

Theraputty

Clothing fasteners: Practice fastening clothing items such as buttons, zippers and laces for increased finger dexterity and independence!

Screw-top jars: Screw-top and push-top jars filled with small items such as coins, marbles, pom poms, cotton balls, small toys such as these dinosaurs. I hold all of my Mighty Hands items in jars or Tupperware for additional fine motor practice!

Play-Doh: Roll, pound, squeeze, press, pinch!

Locks puzzle: Practice opening various types of locks – a great way to strengthen fingers!

Spoons: Practice scooping small items and transferring them from jar to jar.

fine-motor-spoon

Spoon and pom poms.

Playing cards: Kept in a sandwich-sized plastic bag. Practice shuffling cards and deal them one by one.

Kiddie Tweezers: Use thumb and first two fingers to squeeze objects and transfer them to a container. Great for hand strength and coordination!

Magnetic Mini Games: Great for pincer grasp (the use of the thumb and forefinger)!

Cardstock: Kept in freezer-sized plastic bag. Tear paper into small pieces (one hand turning away from body, one hand turning toward body) using tripod grasp with thumbs at the top of the paper.

Q-Tips: Hold the Q-tip in the middle, dip either end into two different colors of paint, rotate Q-tip in hand to create fun art – make sure to use dominant hand only!

Screwdriver With Nuts & Bolts: Hold the screwdriver with dominant hand and the set with the non-dominant hand to practice turning nuts and bolts.

fine-motor-tweezers

Tweezers

Bank: Encourage your child to hold three coins in his/her hand with the ring and pinky fingers while pushing a coin through the slot one at a time without dropping the other coins.

Craft/Jewelry Sorting Case: Label individual segments 1-15. Have your child hold a few small pom poms in his/her hand (again, using the ring and pinky fingers) while placing them into the container one by one by moving a single pom pom up to the fingertips each time. Or, use the tweezers to sort!

Scissors: Draw straight lines across 4×6” scraps of paper and cut in half.

Clothespins: Clothespins can be used for a series of great activities that facilitate the tripod grasp, strength, and coordination. Be sure to use the pads of the thumb and forefinger.

Tennis Ball Container & Pipe Cleaners: Punch holes in the top of the container and use the dominant hand to push the pipe cleaners into the hole while stabilizing the container with the non-dominant hand.

fine-motor-tennis

Tennis ball container and pipe cleaners.

Tennis ball With Horizontal Slit: Squeeze ball open with one hand (tennis ball resting in palm) while removing small objects from its “mouth” with the other hand.

Pegboard: Stretch bands across pegs to increase hand strength and coordination.

Squigz: Adhere these toys to a wall, door, or refrigerator and pull off! It’s trickier than one might think!

Additional Activities for Around the House

Chores can be a great way to practice fine motor development – and help out mom and dad around the house! Have your child help you put away silverware, turn the door handle and lock the door when leaving the house, unscrew jars and containers while cleaning out the refrigerator, pull weeds, pour laundry detergent, refill soap bottles (be sure to have your child open and close the lid!), and close Ziploc bags.

How Will These Activities Help?

All of the items in my toolkit are designed to strengthen small hand & forearm muscles as well as improve in-hand manipulation, finger isolation and dexterity, and fine motor coordination. As your child’s fine motor skills improve, you will begin to notice an improvement in his/her larger (gross motor) movement, trunk stability, and hand-eye coordination as well. It’s a win-win-win! As always, be sure to consult with an occupational therapist to ensure proper follow-through of fine motor activities and for a more tailored plan.

NSPT offers services in Bucktown, Evanston, Highland Park, Lincolnwood, Glenview, Lake Bluff and Des Plaines. If you have questions or concerns about your child, we would love to help! Give us a call at (877) 486-4140 and speak to one of our Family Child Advocates today!

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Resources:

http://www.childdevelopment.com.au/areas-of-concern/fine-motor-skills/92

Fine Motor Skills: Is Your Child Lagging Behind?

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Fine motor coordination is the capacity of the small muscles of the upper body to allow Blog-fine-motor-skills-Main-Portraitfor controlled movements of the fingers and hands. They include the ability to hold a writing utensil, eat with a fork, open containers, and fasten clothing. These small movements correspond with larger muscles such as the shoulder girdle, back, and core to provide stability for gross motor functioning and with the eyes for hand-eye coordination. Weaknesses in fine motor skills are often the result of poor hand strength and poor motor coordination.

Red Flags for School-Aged Children

As a former Kindergarten teacher, at the start of each school year, I received a group of children with an assortment of fine motor skill-sets. Because children have such different preschool experiences, their skills will vary based on the activities to which they have been exposed. If a child has had the opportunity to practice cutting with scissors, for example, he or she will likely be able to accomplish snipping a piece of paper by 2.5 years old. Fine motor development occurs at an irregular pace, but follows a step-by-step progression and builds onto previously acquired skills.

By the approximate ages listed below, your child should be able to demonstrate these fine motor skills:

2 to 2.5 Years

  • Puts on and takes off socks and shoes
  • Can use a spoon by himself, keeping it upright
  • Draws a vertical line when given a visual example or after an adult demonstrates
  • Holds crayon with fingers, not fist

2.5 to 3 Years

  • Builds a tower of blocks
  • Draws horizontal & vertical lines when given a visual example or after an adult demonstrates
  • Unscrews a lid from a jar
  • Snips paper with scissors
  • Able to string large beads
  • Drinks from an open cup with two hands, may spill occasionally

3 to 3.5 Years

  • Can get himself dressed & undressed independently, still needs help with buttons, may confuse front/back of clothes and right/left shoe
  • Draws a circle when given a visual example or after an adult demonstrates
  • Can feed himself solid foods with little to no spilling, using a spoon or fork
  • Drinks from an open cup with one hand
  • Cuts 8×11” paper in half with scissors

3.5 to 4 Years

  • Can pour water from a half-filled pitcher
  • Able to string small beads
  • Uses a “tripod” grasp (thumb and tips of first two fingers) to draw, but moves forearm and wrist as a unit
  • Uses fork or spoon to scoop food away from self and maneuver to mouth without using other hand to help food onto fork/spoon

4 to 4.5 Years

  • Maneuvers scissors to cut both straight and curved lines
  • Manages zippers and snaps independently, buttons and unbuttons with minimal assistance
  • Draws and copies a square and a cross
  • Uses a “tripod” grasp (thumb and tips of first two fingers) to draw, but begins to move hand independently from forearm
  • Writes first name with or without visual example

4.5 to 5 Years

  • Can feed himself soup with little to no spilling
  • Folds paper in half with edges meeting
  • Puts key in a lock and opens it

5 to 6 Years

  • Can get dressed completely independently, including buttons and snaps, able to tie shoelaces
  • Cuts square, triangle, circle, and simple pictures with scissors
  • Draws and copies a diagonal line and a triangle
  • Uses a knife to spread food items
  • Consistently uses “tripod” grasp to write, draw, and hold feeding utensils while moving hand independently from forearm
  • Colors inside the lines
  • Writes first name without a visual example, last name may be written with visual
  • Handedness well established

By age 7, children are usually adept at most fine motor skills, but refinement continues into late childhood. If you notice your young child demonstrating difficulties in the above “red flag” areas, it may be time to consult with an occupational therapist. For at-home ideas to improve hand strength and fine motor abilities, read my other blog, Fine Motor Skills: Ideas for At-Home Improvement.

NSPT offers services in Bucktown, Evanston, Highland Park, Lincolnwood, Glenview, Lake Bluff and Des Plaines. If you have questions or concerns about your child, we would love to help! Give us a call at (877) 486-4140 and speak to one of our Family Child Advocates today!

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Resources:

Beery, K.E., & Beery, N.A. (2006). The Beery-Buktenica Developmental Test of Visual Motor Integration. Minneapolis: NSC Pearson

Folio, M.R., & Fewell, R.R. (2000). Peabody Developmental Motor Scales, 2nd Ed. Austin: Pro-Ed.

Retherford, K.S. (1996). Normal Development: A Database of Communication and Related Behaviors. Greenville, SC: Super Duper Publications

w sitting

What’s Wrong With W-Sitting?

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Parents bring their kids in for a physical therapy evaluation for many different reasons, from toe-walking to neuromuscular conditions to decreased ability to keep up with peers. Regardless of the diagnosis, about 25% of my clients under 5 also present with w-sitting. When brought to the attention of the parents, typical responses range from, “I’ve never noticed that before; is that bad?” to“I w-sat as a child, and I turned out fine.” Physical therapists will most always work to correct this sitting posture and some of the underlying impairments. Here are some of the reasons w-sitting is not healthy for children.

What’s wrong with w-sitting?

  • Decreased Core Activation – Due to the wide base of support afforded with w-sitting, less coreWhat's Wrong With W-Sitting? muscle (trunk extensors and abdominals) activation is required to maintain position. This wide base of support also limits the child’s need to weight shift from side to side during play, resulting in decreased use of lateral and posterior balance reactions.
  • Poor Posture – “W”-sitting encourages excessive posterior pelvic tilt, which can result in slouching. Excessive hunching over results in minimal trunk extensor activation. This creates a cycle of poor sitting posture due to muscle weakness, resulting in poor sitting posture.
  • Pigeon-Toed (In-Toeing) Walking Pattern – Increased hip internal range of motion, decreased hip external range of motion, and hip abductor weakness can contribute to an in-toeing gait pattern. It should be noted, however, that some in-toeing gait can be attributed to femoral anteversion.
  • Decreased Trunk Rotation – Poor trunk extension due to posterior pelvic tilt can limit ability to turn trunk from side to side. This is important because decreased trunk rotation during play can impair the body’s ability to integrate left and right sides of the body, leading to decreased coordination
  • Delayed or Impaired Fine Motor Development – This delay is usually due to a combination of the impairments already mentioned above, such as decreased trunk rotation and poor core strength. These impairments can lead to decreased play involving midline crossing and poor development of bilateral coordination. High level fine motor tasks, such as fastening a button, requires a coordinated effort between left and right hands.

Click here to read more about w-sitting and the young child.

To help your child who ”w”-sits, please contact one of our physical therapists at North Shore Pediatric Therapy for a free screen.

NSPT offers services in Bucktown, Evanston, Highland Park, Lincolnwood, Glenview and Des Plaines. If you have questions or concerns about your child, we would love to help! Give us a call at (877) 486-4140 and speak to one of our Family Child Advocates today!

4 year old doctor visit checklist

4-Year Doctor Visit Checklist

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We continue our series on checklists for yearly Pediatrician check-ups (click here to see the checklists for the 1-year visit, the 2-year visit and the 3-year visit). Pediatricians have a set of developmental red flags, but these only hit the “big-bad-uglies” as we like to call them, including the following: Can you understand everything your child says? Does your child fall excessively? Is he feeding himself? These red flags are very specific, meaning a child who exhibits these red flags would be identified for services, but not very sensitive, meaning many children who would benefit from therapy services are missed. To help bridge the gap between Pediatricians’ red flags and children who need therapy services, I have put together a checklist of things to discuss with your Pediatrician at your child’s 4 year check-up.

At 4 Years Your Child Should Be Able to Do the Following:

Gross Motor Skills4-Year Old Doctor Visit Checklist

  • Places one foot on each stair, while going up and down stairs without handrail use
  • Hops forward on one foot
  • Throws ball at a target 5 feet away
  • Runs and stops without falling to ground

Fine Motor Skills

  • Unbuttons and buttons clothing
  • Cuts paper in near straight line
  • Independent eating with good fork use

Speech Skills

  • 100% intelligible to familiar audience
  • Uses plurals and past tense
  • Correctly uses “he”, “she”, “they”
  • Follows 3-step commands
  • Points to parts of pictures

Take this checklist with you to your 4-year visit. If you have further concerns, schedule a pediatric physical therapy evaluation.

north shore pediatric therapy physical therapy

NSPT offers services in Bucktown, Evanston, Highland Park, Lincolnwood, Glenview and Des Plaines. If you have questions or concerns about your child, we would love to help! Give us a call at (877) 486-4140 and speak to one of our Family Child Advocates today!

3 year doctor visit checklist

3-Year Doctor Visit Checklist

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We continue our series on checklists for yearly Pediatrician check-ups (click here to see the checklist for the 1-year visit and the 2-year visit).  Pediatricians have a set of developmental red flags, but these only hit the “big-bad-uglys” as we like to call them, including: stutter, go up and down stairs by themselves, or answer and ask “yes or no” questions.  These red flags are very specific, meaning a child who exhibits these red flags would be identified for services, but not very sensitive, meaning many children who would benefit from therapy services are missed. To help bridge the gap between Pediatricians’ red flags and children who need therapy services, I have put together a checklist of things to discuss with your Pediatrician at your child’s 3 year check-up.

At 3 Years, Your Child Should Be Able to Do the Following:

Gross Motor Skills3-Year Doctor Visit Checklist

  • Pedals a tricycle
  • Catches a ball thrown from 5 feet away
  • Jumps forward at least 24 inches, with both feet leaving the ground at the same time
  • Stands on 1 foot for 3 seconds
  • Walks up stairs with 1 foot on each step

Fine Motor Skills

  • Draws circle, horizontal lines, and cross, with demonstration
  • Strings small beads
  • Opens screwed top container
  • Pulls up pants and puts on coat independently

Speech Skills

  • Increases word production to >300 words
  • Combines 3 word phrases
  • Starts to understand differences between opposites
  • Begins to follow 2 –step commands
  • Names colors
  • Demonstrates parallel play

Take this checklist with you to your 3-year visit. If you have further concerns, schedule a pediatric physical therapy evaluation.

north shore pediatric therapy physical therapy

NSPT offers services in Bucktown, Evanston, Highland Park, Lincolnwood, Glenview and Des Plaines. If you have questions or concerns about your child, we would love to help! Give us a call at (877) 486-4140 and speak to one of our Family Child Advocates today!

2-Year-Old Checklist

2-Year Doctor Visit Checklist

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Building off of last month’s 1 year check-list for Pediatrician check-ups, we bring you a check-list to look at prior to your child’s 2 year old check-up.  Again Pediatricians have a set of developmental red flags, but these only hit the “big-bad-uglys” as we like to call them, including the following questions: does your child get frustrated when trying to talk, can he or she jump or attempt to jump, did your child walk by 18 months. These red flags are very specific, meaning a child who exhibits these red flags would be identified for services, but not very sensitive, meaning many children who would benefit from therapy services are missed. To help bridge the gap between Pediatricians’ red flags and children who need therapy services, I have put together a checklist of things to discuss with your Pediatrician at your child’s 2 year check-up.

2-Year Check-Up Red Flags:

Gross Motor SkillsParent Checklist for 2-Year-Old Well Visit

  • Runs forward 10 feet, without a loss of balance
  • Jumps in place, jumps forward, and jumps down from a step
  • Walks forward, backwards, and sideways independently and without a loss of balance
  • Walks up and down a set of stairs, using a handrail
  • Kicks a ball forward 3 feet

Fine Motor Skills

  • Turns pages of thick page book, 1 at a time
  • Stacks 5 cubes
  • Draws vertical lines given demonstration
  • Takes off button-less clothing and socks independently

Speech Skills

  • Begins saying 2 word phases and 2 word questions
  • Increases vocabulary to saying >50 words and understanding >300 words, with new words added every week
  • Answers “yes or no” questions
  • Points to objects named
  • Speech should be understood at least  50-75% of the time by a familiar listener

Take this checklist with you to your 2-year visit. If you have further concerns, schedule a pediatric physical therapy evaluation.

north shore pediatric therapy physical therapy

NSPT offers services in Bucktown, Evanston, Highland Park, Lincolnwood, Glenview and Des Plaines. If you have questions or concerns about your child, we would love to help! Give us a call at (877) 486-4140 and speak to one of our Family Child Advocates today!

12-Month Doctor Visit Checklist

12-Month Doctor Visit Checklist

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Developmental check-ups with a Pediatrician throughout your child’s first year of life (at 2, 4, 6, 9, and 12 months) are a perfect place to bring up any concerns you as a parent may have a about your child’s development. While Pediatricians have their own set of developmental red flags, these only hit the “big-12-Month Doctor Visit Checklistbad-uglys” as we like to call them, including the following:

  • Is your child rolling by 6 months?
  • Is your child sitting independently by 8 months?
  • Is your child crawling by 12 months?
  • Is your child walking by 18 months?

These red flags are very specific, meaning  a child who exhibits these red flags would be identified for services, but not very sensitive, meaning many children who would benefit from therapy services are missed. I have seen many children referred to physical therapy for delayed walking skills, who are not standing independently or didn’t roll consistently until 8 months. To help these children who are being missed by the Pediatricians red flags, I have put together a checklist of things to discuss with your Pediatrician at your child’s 12 month check-up.

Checklist for your child’s 12-month doctor visit:

Gross Motor Skills

  • Independently transitions into and out of sitting
  • Rolling independently from back to belly, and belly to back, with ease
  • Crawling on hands and knees with reciprocal form
  • Pulls to stand at stable surface
  • Cruises along furniture

Fine Motor Skills

  • Begins using pincher grasp (thumb and single finger)
  • Transfers objects from one hand to the other
  • Places toys into large container, and takes toys out
  • Begins holding spoon during feeding

Speech Skills

  • At least 1-2 words
  • Babbling with constant – vowel combination, ie. ba-ba, ma-ma, da-da
  • Labeling object with consistent sounds, ie. ball is always “ba”
  • Pays attention to speech around them
  • Follows simple commands, ie. “go get the ball”

Take this checklist with you to your 12-month visit. If you have further concerns, schedule a pediatric physical therapy evaluation.

north shore pediatric therapy physical therapy

NSPT offers services in Bucktown, Evanston, Highland Park, Lincolnwood, Glenview and Des Plaines. If you have questions or concerns about your child, we would love to help! Give us a call at (877) 486-4140 and speak to one of our Family Child Advocates today!