It seems remarkable that the summer is coming to a close. In preparation for returning to school, take advantage of the many free on-line resources to get your child back into the swing of school work.

• Tip: It is helpful for a child to do some quiet sit-down work for short periods of time to gear up for classroom expectations.

For younger children, print coloring pages from (http://www.coloring.ws/coloring.html) and have your child color in the lines to practice crayon skills and develop spatial awareness. Pages with thick black borders and simple shapes are best. Alternatively, draw your own simple pictures. Outline with a thick marker around the edges to define the space. Afterwards your child can cut out the pictures to build scissors skills.

To make things interesting, turn your picture into a sun catcher.  Place a clear acetate sheet or baggie on top of the picture.  Help your child outline it with Wikki Stix (http:theraproducts.com).  Squeeze colored glue into each section to build up hand strength and work on pressure modulation. When the glue dries, carefully peel off your Wikki Stix/glue creation and stick it on a sunny window.  It should come off easily and leave no residue.

For elementary school children the end of summer is an opportune time to slide back into handwriting. Make it fun by playing games such as Boggle, Boggle Jr., Tic-Tac-Toe, or Hangman, or have your child help you make shopping lists or the schedule for the day. Tap into your creative side and make a scrapbook of your child’s summer. Have him/her write a caption below each picture and title each page. Use the writing implement that facilitates your child’s best writing.

In addition, there are excellent visual perception games, such as word searches, “same and different”, hidden pictures, tangrams, mazes, and lots more. Check out http://www.primarygames.com/puzzles/puzzles.html  and http://abcteach.com for a wide variety of free games.

To get a head start on building your child’s technology skills, several websites offer free typing games. Once your child knows the correct fingering, keep practice interesting by varying the keyboarding games in your repertoire.  Motor learning research indicates that varied practice is most effective in building up skills after the basics are established.  Check out http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/typing/ and http://www.freetypinggame.net/ for excellent typing programs.

Blog post by: Aviva Goldwasser, MS, OTR/L & Dr. Chaye Lamm Warburg, DPS, OTR/L  

8/22/11