ARK's Blog

Skill-wise, what would a child gain from using a Baby Grabber vs. a Grabber vs. a Y-Chew?  In other words, does the Baby Grabber work on different skills than the Grabber?  Does the Grabber work on different skills than the Y-Chew?  . Great question.  The Baby Grabber is for mouthing and oral exploration for babies/toddlers up to about the age of 3 years old. & …

Putty, play dough, and other hand manipulatives are classic occupational therapy tools for fine motor work and sensory play.  Not only are they fun, but they can also be used to work on a whole host of developmental skills, such as hand strength, finger isolation and dexterity, bilateral coordination, imaginative play, and much more.  Here are some of our favorite play-dough games/exe …

Just like its namesake, lip closure (also known as lip seal) is the ability to close one's lips.  It's important for several different speech/feeding/oral motor skills: .  .  •  Being able to close one's lips around a straw, spoon, a piece of food, etc. •  Being able to pronounce the speech sounds /p/, /b/, and /m/ •  Being able to chew food with one's …

The best therapy exercises are the ones where the child doesn't know it's an exercise, which is why every pediatric speech and occupational therapist's "bag of tricks" is mostly full of toys and games and other fun activities. Play dough is one of these staple activities.  There are endless possibilities of what you can do with it, one of which is creating a "birthday cake" for imag …