By Rebecca Russell, Occupational Therapist

Being cooped up indoors is the perfect time to get creative with household items like painter’s or washi tape. Here are some fun ideas to try with your family.

Balance beam

• Put tape on your floor and instruct your child to walk along the line. For a challenge, see if they can walk heel-to-toe, balance on the line with one foot, and bend down to pick up small items without falling off the “beam”
• Make a curved or zigzag balance beam
• Make boxes on the floor for kids to jump into and out of
• Make your own hopscotch game
• Practice jumping with feet together, and feet apart. Use tape to indicate where feet should go. You can also practice jumping on one foot and two feet.

Exercises

• Long jump: see how far your child can jump, and place a piece of tape there. Make this into a family friendly competition, and see if you can beat your distance, or jump to the next “level”
• Side jumps: use a tape line to practice jumping over the tape side to side
• Jump forward and backward over the tape line
• Target practice: tape a box on the wall and see if you can hit your target with a ball
• Make a path on a wall, as simple or complex as you would like, and have your child drive a car along the path, or roll a ball along the path.
• Wall pushups: make boxes or lines at an appropriate height for your child to do wall pushups or just push against the wall to increase regulation and build strength
• Use tape to make a spider web in a hallway: place tape or tape string/streamers on both walls across a hallway and instruct your child to get through the web without touching
• Crawl under or step over tape to get to the other side

Practicing fine motor skills

• Letter formation: use tape to build letters on the floor, wall, or table. Then talk about the components of each letter (straight lines, curvy lines, big line, little line, etc) Trace the letters with your finger
• Ripping tape
• Peeling tape off floor or wall and re-taping
• Roll tape into small balls and pick up with tweezers or tongs
• Cover a small toy in tape and have your child take off the tape to “find” it; repeat the activity and let them “hide” the item in tape by wrapping it up
• Chalk art outside: create a design with tape and have the kids color in the shapes, and peel the tape off to reveal their artwork (kind of like a big DIY stencil)
• Working on a vertical surface (wall/fence) increases shoulder/elbow stability, and wrist extension
  • Working on a driveway/sidewalk increases upper body and core strength
• Motor Path: put all these activities together to create your own sensory motor path inside your home using tape and your imagination. You can create a path leading into various rooms with a tape balance beam, arrows, boxes, and instructions for an action

Integrated Pediatric Therapies is committed to offering individualized and family-oriented teletherapy services with our highly qualified clinicians. To schedule an appointment or for more information, contact Integrated Pediatric Therapies at 847.412.4379 or IPI@JCFS.org