A sensory integration clinic that specializes in using a family centered approach to help improve fine/visual motor, sensory motor and social delays.
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Melissa Grant is a pediatric occupational therapist who has been working in the Washington, DC area for the past 11 years. Melissa specializes in working with children between the ages of 2 and 12 with fine/visual motor delays, sensory motor delays, autism, attention deficit disorder, down syndrome, fetal alcohol syndrome, developmental delay, and children with social delays. Melissa has experience working in early intervention, the school setting, and the clinic setting. Melissa is excited to announce that she has opened up her own pediatric occupational therapy clinic in Oakton, VA and is ready to accept new clients!
Operating as usual
Tracing is a great way to work on bilateral coordination (the use of both hands together, example: stabilizing the paper with one hand while writing with the other).
If you have any extra cardboard or card stock laying around, grab it and make some stencils! Today we’re tracing hearts for Valentine’s Day❤️
Color by Letter! I called out a letter and a color and the kids had to color that letter that color. Great for letter identification, color identification, and visual scanning. ❤️
A hole punching Valentine’s Day activity! This is a great way to build those fine motor skills and overall hand strength❤️
Drawing on a vertical surface is a great way to work on shoulder stability and crossing the midline. Two big foundational skills for writing.
Don’t have a chalkboard or easel at your house? You can always use a paintbrush and shaving cream or tub crayons in the bathtub!
For more ways a vertical surface is ideal for your little ones, visit our website, www.fairfaxfundamentals.com and go to Activity of the Day!
Do your kids want to play in the snow but you don’t want to go outside?? Bring it in! We added sand toys, animals and kitchen utensils to the mix. A fun way to work on early tool use!
Finger golf! A fun and challenging way to work on fine motor manipulation and hand eye coordination!
Happy National Bubble Wrap Day! Here are three ways you can use bubble wrap with your kiddos!
1. Paint with it! This not only works on tool use, but the bubble wrap provides some fun texture.
2. Pop it with your fingers! This is a great finger/hand strength exercise for your child!
3. Get out some of that extra quarantine energy and have your child jump, crash, or roll on it. Great for those sensory seekers!
Today we played with Fizzy Snow! This was a fun and engaging way of working on sequencing and hand strength in my preschoolers.
All you need to do is pour some baking soda in a container (the snow) and then use an eye dropper to squirt some vinegar, the reaction makes a fizzy sound, so Fizzy Snow!
Enjoy!
Today we used painter’s tape and a sharpie to create a snowflake on the ground. Now we can practice letter identification, balance, and motor planning!
Check out our Activity blog on our website, www.Fairfaxfundamentals.com, for all modifications and additional ideas!
A super simple and fun pouring station! A great way to work on those budding fine motor skills in your young child. I just used a large plastic container and old, empty spice containers, measuring cups, and toy tea cups!
*yes, I used a towel underneath
*yes, expect water all over your child (it’s ok, they’re learning!)
Perks to having a Mama as an OT, you get to sample some of the new toys! These bears just arrived and they have tongs to work on building grip strength (skills necessary for using pencils) and cups that can help facilitate wrist/hand rotation with scooping and dumping!
Today we made glitter play dough! This was a fun activity that I was able to do with a variety of age ranges:).
You can use your favorite play dough recipe, all you need to do is add some glitter.
If you need a recipe to follow, you can find one, and all the wonderful skills targeted in this activity, on our Activity blog at www.fairfaxfundamentals.com.
Enjoy!
Today we practiced identifying letters while we built hand strength!
For all the FUN letter identifying details, come and check out our activity blog for this activity and others on our website, www.fairfaxfundamentals.com.
Enjoy!
Making a snowstorm!
What you’ll need:
*Paper
*Markers
*Glue (stick or squeeze)
*Cotton balls
Targeted skills:
*Pincer grasp
*Visual scanning
*Hand strength (if you use the squeeze glue)
*Visual motor skills
You could also just allow your child to glue the cotton balls down wherever, if you wanted to work on letter recognition or name recognition you can make the dots in that pattern!
Enjoy!
Looking for a great way to feed those sensory systems in the winter?? Grab a large plastic container and fill it with rice and beans! It’s like a sandbox but for inside!
Want to know what I put in my sensory box? My son is 22 months and we have small animals, scissor tongs, regular tongs, empty spice containers and their lids, beads with string, and old protein scoopers. But this can be customized to your child and their preferences! And yes, every child always gets in the box so make sure it’s big enough.
Don’t forget to lay a sheet down first to catch any and all rice/beans that escape to make for easy clean up!
Cookie decorating, a wonderful fine motor activity for your young ones! 🍪
Today we’re learning the letters of our name and decorating them with holiday stickers!
*We have a start dot for each letter so the kids all start their letters at the top-a very important first step in learning letters so we don’t have those funky formations!
*The stickers are also a great way to work on fine motor manipulation, a great foundational skill for pencil use!
Happy Hanukkah, from all of us here at FUNdamentals!
Looking for a fun and festive way to strengthen your child’s hand this holiday season? Grab some holiday cookie cutters and rubber bands and get wrapping!
Today we used our green painter's tape and created a fun activity that worked on letter identification, visual scanning, balance and motor planning:). For all the FUN details, and a variation for other holidays being celebrated this season, come and check out our blog!
http://www.fairfaxfundamentals.com/actvitiesoftheday/2020/12/8/balancing-holiday-tree
OT Activity of the Day Balancing Holiday Tree Target Age Range: 3 and up Do you have green painter’s tape (I didn’t until I ordered it off Amazon), a sharpie, and some small objects? Great, you too can make this holiday tree and decorate it! This activity is very versatile and while I’m using ...
It's that time of the year, when a little Elf may make an appearance in some households. It's tiring for these Elves to come up with all these ideas all by themselves. Come and see what the OT Elf is having it's children do!
These Elf "suggestions" are a great and motivating way to engage your child in fine motor activities during the day! Come and get all the details/suggestions on the blog and enjoy!
http://www.fairfaxfundamentals.com/actvitiesoftheday/2020/12/8/elf-of-the-shelf-with-an-ot-twist
Elf on the Shelf with an OT Twist! Elf on the shelf ideas Looking for some motivation to engage your child into doing more challenging things? Why not tell them your house Elf invited them to try? (Wink, wink). Most of this stuff you should already have in your home, except
Today we did a little holiday/fine motor STEM! The object of the game was to find green things around the room that you could use to build a holiday tree at least 7 inches tall. The “little lines” were already provided!
This is a great way to target motor planning/problem solving and fine motor skills!
Today we’re having fun with our Gift Box Find and Feel!
The ability to locate items with just your sense of touch is important when you’re looking for your keys in a purse/pocket, or looking for items in a backpack or desk. It’s also an important skill for handling a pencil and writing.
For all the details about the targeted skill and this game, come and check out our website, www.fairfaxfundamentals.com, and look under Activity of the Day!
Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at FUNdamentals! We hope you stay safe and enjoy the day!
We couldn't let this holiday go by without making a "thankful" turkey. We made a thankful turkey puppet by using a paper bag, however on the blog we talk about another variation should you not have paper bags! Enjoy!
http://www.fairfaxfundamentals.com/actvitiesoftheday/2020/11/18/thankful-turkey
OT Activity of the Day: Thankful Turkey Target Age Range: 2 and up We can’t let this holiday sneak by without making a “thankful” turkey. You can do this in a variety of different ways. I used squished up paper to decorate my feathers, but if you would like to continue to focus on cutting, you
Today we used our hole punchers and made a "number turkey"! This is a great way to work on scissor skills, hand strength, and so much more. Come and check out all the details (including why we have dice in the picture) on the blog and enjoy!
http://www.fairfaxfundamentals.com/actvitiesoftheday/2020/11/16/namenumber-turkey
OT Activity of the Day: Name/Number Turkey Target Age Range: 4 and up This activity was designed to work on name writing, hand strength, bilateral coordination, and visual motor skills. This is what we did! First we cut out the turkey’s body (I drew a circle on a piece of paper and the child cu
A friend of mine posted a picture of her and her little girls making napkin rings a few weeks ago and I fell in love with the idea! So I put a Thanksgiving spin to them:). I also highlighted some great fine motor skills that are being targeted!
At a time where many may be scaling back on a big Thanksgiving and sticking to a smaller gathering, this is a great way to help your kids get involved and hopefully have them feel less stress or worry at a time when stress and worry are at an all time high.
Come and check out all our FUN fine motor Thanksgiving Meal Prep activities including napkin rings, placements and holiday hats!
http://www.fairfaxfundamentals.com/actvitiesoftheday/2020/11/11/thanksgiving-meal-prep
OT Activity of the Day: Thanksgiving Meal Prep Target Age Range: 2 and up Looking for a way to engage your child in setting up for Thanksgiving? Have them help decorate the table! Today we’re highlighting three things that can be made, and used, during the Thanksgiving meal. Napkin ring- I’v
Today we used our executive functioning skills to build a Thanksgiving table to hold our food (pom poms). For all the "Thanksgiving Table" game rules, come and check out our post!
http://www.fairfaxfundamentals.com/actvitiesoftheday/2020/11/12/thanksgiving-table
OT Activity of the Day: Thanksgiving Table Target Age Range: 6 and up This was a fun executive functioning activity for my First Graders today! This game had a few steps: First, we rolled two dice to see how many pom poms (Thanksgiving food) we needed to have fit on a table. Then, we gathe
Not only can you stuff a turkey (see previous post), but you can feed a turkey as well! We recycled an empty tissue box, grabbed some eye droppers, dice, and pom poms and we had a great fine motor game! Come and check out all the DIY details on the blog and enjoy!
http://www.fairfaxfundamentals.com/actvitiesoftheday/2020/11/11/feed-the-turkey
OT Activity of the Day: Feed the Turkey Target Age Range: 2 and up This is a super fun way to work on hand strength in your young children. Early hand strength is important because it sets the stage for how your child will hold on to their pencil/marker and be able to participate in fine motor a
Remember this Activity of the Day?? It may be the perfect festive activity for a rainy day like today. Grab those paper bags, some tongs, and dice and you can stuff a turkey! A great fine motor/hand strengthening activity!
Today we used items around the room to build "Thanksgiving things". This was a great way to talk about Thanksgiving and everything that goes along with it🍁🍎🦃🥧. This was a great activity for planning and executing an idea (executive functioning) and perfect for those in Second and Third grade! Come and check out all the details on the blog and enjoy!
http://www.fairfaxfundamentals.com/actvitiesoftheday/2020/11/6/all-things-thanksgiving
OT Activity of the Day: All things Thanksgiving! Target Age Range: 6 and up This was a fun problem solving/motor planning game I played with some of my First, Second, and Third Graders this week. I gave them three items; pom poms, pipe cleaners, and blocks and ask them to make something “Thanksg
Today we made a yarn wrapped turkey! This is a great way to work on bilateral coordination (using both sides of the body in a coordinated fashion) and motor planning (sequencing through a task). For some kids, we even scaled it up to include some writing! For all the variations and skill details, come check out our blog!
http://www.fairfaxfundamentals.com/actvitiesoftheday/2020/11/9/yarn-wrapping-turkey
OT Activity of the Day: Yarn Wrapping Turkey Target Age Range: 4 and up Yarn wrapping is such a great bilateral coordination, body awareness, and motor planning activity for children. Each year at camp we always make sure to have a few yarn wrapping activities simply because it is so beneficial
The old colander and feather fine motor activity! This weekend I started in on our Thanksgiving inspired activities. My son, 21 months, needed a little help putting the feathers in and also enjoyed pulling the feathers out. So grab your colanders and some feathers, it’s a great way to practice those early grasp patterns (think pincer), visual motor skills, and be festive all at the same time!
3137 Stratford Ct.
Oakton, VA
22124
| Monday | 09:00 - 18:00 |
| Tuesday | 09:00 - 18:00 |
| Wednesday | 09:00 - 18:00 |
| Thursday | 09:00 - 18:00 |
| Friday | 09:00 - 18:00 |
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Excited it’s Friday and very excited to be in Falls Church! Our new space is located in the heart of Falls Church, VA, off West Broad St. Call and schedule your first appointment today, we can’t wait to meet you!!
On Thursdays I run a small handwriting group for a few kids at a school I contract with. This week’s assignment: build a way for the marble to travel 5 feet and into the cup without moving it with their hands, and then write the directions! I provided all the supplies and they could pick and choose what to use and how! A great way to work on collaborative work, problem solving, and handwriting!
Sheri R. Abrams, Attorney at Law
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Sheri R. Abrams, Attorney at Law
10467 White Granite Dr., Suite 306
Autism Society of Northern Virginia
10467 White Granite Dr, # 324
Down Syndrome Association of Northern Virgini
10467 White Granite Dr, Ste 320