Master 4, Autism his way! #4

Fine motor skill development was the mission of the day!

Putty was the answer.

When all else fails and it has been a long day but I still want to get a little OT included, silly putty is always a winner with Master 4.

Well not really silly putty but theraputty. These putties are specially designed for children to help develope fine motor skills. They come in a range of different strengths.

We are using 2 different types at the moment. The blue is extra firm. It takes an extreme amount of effort for Master 4 to manipulate and move. This is sometimes a good thing and sometimes not. When he is having an off day we usually start with this putty and switch pretty quickly to a softer one.

I find that making him have a go, especially when he is a bit frustrated actually gets us better results. He takes his anger out on the putty and today managed to find the hidden toy in under five minutes.

Other days, he gives up pretty easily as he finds it to hard. On these days I switch him to the softer green putty and he quickly finds the hidden treasures, today was little yellow coins, the fact that he was able to find them so fast gives him a great senses of achievement. It makes him want to play the game again and see if he can beat his time. Thus more time is spent on his fine motor skill development.

Any play involving the putty is benificial, pinching it to try to find hidden objects, moulding it into shapes, even taking it out of the container, all helps with skill development.

We only managed to play for around 10mins all up today, but 10mins is better than nothing. Some days i am able to mix it up a little more and hide different things in a range of putties and have him find all the items to win a prize. Again, it depends completely on his mood and the risk verse reward.

Being forced to play when he has had enough is never a good idea, it means the game is jo longer fun and thus just becomes one more "job" he has to finish. It's a fine line some days and today he had decided he was done. But he had fun while it lasted and that's the most important part!

Thanks for reading!

@mumofmany