HOLIDAY SPECIAL: Therapy Activities for Valentine’s Day

February 14, 2014

Happy Valentine’s Day from the Washington University NF Center!

Valentine’s Day is a great opportunity to remind those around you that you care. Try out one of these Valentine’s Day inspired therapy activities with your child and help him or her work on developing important skills!

Occupational Therapy – Fine Motor Skill Development

Fun with Conversation Hearts

Don’t know what to do with all the excess candy from school parties? Use conversation hearts in unique ways to work on fine motor skills! Have your child stack them in a tower and see how high they can go before the tower topples. Use a straw to suck up a heart and pass it to a friend. Pick up hearts with tweezers and see how fast you can fill up a glass.

What this activity works on: fine motor skills, grasp, motor control, visual motor

This activity, and other great play-based therapy activities, can be found on the blog The Inspired Treehouse.

Physical Therapy – Gross Motor Skill Development

Alphabet Yoga

Spell out Valentine’s Day words–like love, kiss, hug–with your bodies!

What this activity works on: balance, bilateral coordination, body awareness

Speech Therapy – Language Skill Development

Hearts a Plenty

Write words on paper hearts and hide them around the house. As children discover the hearts have them read out the words. If your child is working on making specific sounds, make sure to choose words that involve those sounds.

What this activity works on: articulation, vocabulary, expression

This activity, and other great speech therapy activities, can be found on the blog Speech Therapy Ideas.