Finding fun activities for hot summer days can be a challenge, but these simple games and activities are great for helping children to work on fine motor skills. The summer months are a great opportunity to try new things — and for children with special needs to engage in activities that are both fun and challenging.
5 Summer Activities: Working on Fine Motor Skills
Check out these fun ideas to beat the heat AND work on fine motor skills:
Squirt Gun Painting
Fill your favorite squirt gun with liquid watercolors, use an easel or secure a piece of watercolor paper onto a tree or post and spray away to create instant art! Clean up for your art crew is also a blast..simply turn on the hose and/or run through the sprinkler. (adapted from Fireflies and Mudpies )
Chalk It Up
Use sidewalk chalk for drawing outside in a driveway or other cemented area such as a playground or patio. Fill a bucket with water and add various tools: eye dropper, turkey baster, squirt guns, spray bottles, small plastic watering cans, sponges etc. Use one or more of each of the water tools to make silly changes to the chalk art and/or wash away. Great for building fine motor skills and promoting pinch and hand strength (adapted from Therapy Fun Zone).
Go on an Ice Dig
This basically entails freezing a bucket of water with added objects suspended in the ice block. It’s great for visual perception as well as fine motor and hand strength skills and is sure to keep your kiddos enthralled as they “dig out” their treasures from the block of ice. (from Your Kid’s Table).
Sensory Jell-o Fun
For indoor fun, make a large batch of Jell-O® in a shallow baking dish or cookie sheet. Just as the gel starts to thicken add a few small toys/objects (bingo chips, small plastic figurines, etc.) so they will suspend in the mold. Great for kids with low vision and/or more severe cognitive impairments for touch, smell (and even taste!) sensory input but supervise accordingly with the small parts. (adapted from Wonder Baby.org).
Sand and Water Sensory Play
To keep a group of busy hands active check out the MantaRay Mobile Mite. Fill with water or Shape it Sand, and add your favorite water and/or sand tools for instant portable sensory play.
More Special Needs Activities & Ideas
If you’re looking for more ideas and inspiration for children with special needs, check out the other blogs on our Special Needs category page. We have activities, self-regulation tools, study tips, and more.
