More Fishing Activities

The fishing activity shown below was successful again today. Sorry that I don't have any new photos due to my very busy hands. An almost three year old guy who refuses to sit with legs crossed at home due to tight hips has been avoiding any long leg or crossing leg positions during hippotherapy (he also cries when the EI. PT touches his legs but is fine with his parents). However, I convinced him to cross one leg, with other hip abducted while reaching for fish with the magnet and putting the fish in the basket. Kids like this who are really good and love fine-motor activities don't really need to work on hand skills, but I use the activities to get them to tolerate positions they don't like. Another child did squat stand repetitions while on top of the horse- reaching for the fish and squatting to put them in a container on the mane. Sequencing and motor planning to do this was big progress for him and his mother filmed the whole thing.
Barbara Smith, M.S., OTR/L author of, The Recycling Occupational Therapist
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