Fun Sensory Activities to do with Your Child

by Henry Matthew Occupational Therapy for Kids

Twenty Activities to Boost Visual Attentiveness

A variety of visual activities:

Efficient Sensory Processing Disorder 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.

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About Author:

Henry Matthew practicing as a therapist and mentor in Sensory Bounce Therapy Program. His education and professional background in both the psyche and the body gives him a one of a kind and powerful way to deal with counseling. He attempts to provide Outpatient Pediatric Occupational Therapy and Occupational Therapy For Kids with customized treatment plan that can be incorporated into their daily lives.