Therapy Thursday

A Day at the Beach

Think of sand for a moment.  Soft, hard, wet, dry, smooth, rough, uneven, shifting, light, heavy.  It is ever-changing depending on where you step.  It is an incredibly diverse landscape, very similar to life.

For a child, the beach is an opportunity to explore, relax, run, play and most importantly, learn.

But have you ever wondered what it's like to see the world through different eyes?  One that requires a different approach to learning and sensing?  Have you seen or heard the term Occupational Therapy and wondered what it's all about?

A day in the life of my sensory sensitive boy is full of things that are therapy based activities.

Large rocks and driftwood can serve as tactile (sense of touch) experience.  If they stand or walk across them, they help develop balance, co-ordination and motor skills.












Collecting rocks for fine and gross motor skills, visual skills, sorting and tactile experience.  I ask him reach for the (pink) rock (shiny) rock (smooth) rock which adds language experience as well.

Body awareness is easy with sand!

Many times over the course of our visit

hands, feet, body and belly are 

covered in it.  Having him gently rubbing it off his

skin helps him isolate body parts, creating better body awareness.  

I plan on writing a post every Thursday for the next little while to give you a glimpse inside our lives.  Thursday will henceforth be known as Therapy Thursday, and I hope that you will join me.  Post a blog, or tweet about it using the hashtag #TherapyThursday.  Feel free to post a link below in the comment section!  Remember that there are many different types of therapy- Occupational, Physical, Feeding, Speech Language and Behavioural to name a few.  I hope it will serve as yet another way to spread awareness of special needs!

From the Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists

"Occupational therapy is the art and science of enabling engagement in everyday living, through occupation; of enabling people to perform the occupations that foster health and well-being; and of enabling a just and inclusive society so that all people may participate to their potential in the daily occupations of life (Townsend& Polatajko, 2007, p. 372)."

Dance like no one is watching.