SENSORY SENSE

The JumpTherapy Blog:
Sensory Processing, Motor and Social Skills Resources
for Parents of Special Needs Children

Sensational Strategies to Strengthen Sensory Skills

101 FUN sensory activities to do with your child

Part 4 of 5: Twenty activities to boost visual attentiveness

mural with art in graffiti
Taking a look at visual activities
Efficient sensory processing is necessary to navigate life successfully. Visually, that means we need to be able to pay attention to important details and filter out those that are not. Here are some fun strategies to try with your child to increase his or her visual attentiveness (eye contact, tracking, attention to detail, etc.).
 
– Playing flashlight tag (lying on your backs in a dark room and chasing each other’s flashlight beams)
– Playing balloon volleyball
– Playing slow catch with balloons, scarves, etc.
– Dancing with scarves
– Tossing beanbags
– Taking photos with a camera
– Blowing bubbles
– Sucking through straws
– Making snow angels
– Watching strobe light effects, fireworks, occasionally TV or computer/video games
– Reading independently using flashlights, or using flashlights to follow along with guided reading
– Spending time in a brightly-lit room
– Spending time in a room with walls painted in, or decorated with art in, bright, contrasting colors 
– Putting a brightly-colored mat on the table or copying worksheets/gamesheets onto brightly-colored paper
– Using bold fonts on worksheets
– Solving mazes, finding hidden pictures in larger pictures, doing ‘find the difference’ picture puzzles 
– Coloring — tracing around inside the lines of the design first and then coloring it in
– Playing board games
– Playing with light-up toys  
– Playing “guess what I see” games where one person describes an item in the room by its physical characteristics (color, size, shape, what it’s used for, etc.) and the other person guesses
 
Looking ahead:
In the next post (the last one in this mini-series about fun sensory activities), we will discuss ideas for different hearing-system-stimulating activities.
 
Do you and your child engage in any special visual activities? What works well for your family? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below. Also, let me know there or via email what topics you would like to discuss or hear more about. 
 
Feel free to share or quote from this blog (with attribution, please, and if possible, a link), and to repost on social media.
 
I look forward to hearing from you!
 
 
 

All the best,
Miriam

About Miriam:
Miriam Skydell MS, OTR/L is a pediatric OT with 30 years experience and a strong commitment to empowering every child and every family with the skills, confidence and emotional stability necessary for a meaningful, independent life. In addition to her Masters degree from NYU (1986) and membership in the AOTA (American Occupational Therapy Association), Miriam is a licensed Interactive Metronome®,  HWT (Handwriting Without Tears®), and TLP (The Listening Program®) provider.

Miriam performs preschool screenings, contracts experienced OTs, PTs and STs to schools, helped implement the HWT curriculum, and lectures extensively for parent and support groups and at teacher conferences for public and private schools throughout New Jersey. Through her private practice in Fair Lawn, Miriam Skydell and Associates, established in 1995, Miriam has helped countless children with a wide range of diagnoses improve functional living skills, manage the impact of sensory processing dysfunction, and meet their individual potentials.