Developing Hands Pediatric Therapy
3100 Ridgeway Unit 22 L5L 5M5 Mississauga, ON, Canada

It's officially the last day of school before the holidays!! This holiday season will be a little different than previous ones and may require unique ways of keeping our kiddos entertained, but we'll get through it together. Look out for our next few posts as we share some ideas on how to keep your little ones busy. ... Are you ready for the kids to be home for the holidays?

Exciting news! Developing Hands, offers Remote/Virtual Pediatric Physiotherapy to children all across Ontario! Our highly qualified Physiotherapist has many years of experience working in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and Level II Nursery at Mount Sinai Hospital. She has also been conducting virtual sessions throughout the pandemic with great success and efficacy.... If your infant or toddler are not reaching their developmental milestones, then our Physiotherapist can assist with sharing tips and techniques to enable the development of your little one! Feel free to contact us and we would be happy to answer all your questions and assist in any way we can! 416-576-6842 or visit our website at www.developinghands.com.

With the holidays just around the corner, and not many options available for entertaining our children this year, we recommend investing in some fun board games suitable for your child’s age. Here are a few familiar ones we remember playing growing up: 1. Chutes and Ladders- Board Game for Kids Ages 3 and Up. ... Try to reach to the top of the gameboard without sliding down the chutes! Great for kids to practice numbers, have your child count the numbers as they move through to help with number recognition and move along the board to get to the top. 2. Hedbanz - Picture Guessing Board Game suitable for Families and Kids Ages 8 and up. Hedbanz is a fun fast paced question game to play. You simply ask yes or no questions to guess what food, animal or object is on your headband before you run out of time. The Hedbanz categories are easy allowing everyone, including young children to join in on some family fun! You must race against time to win! Playing Hedbanz, will help kids with their critical thinking skills. 3. The Memory Game! The Memory Game helps your little one’s practice on their concentration, memory, and matching skills. Matching is a fun game for preschoolers but also great for adults to participate. All of these games are suitable for children with or without a learning disability. They help improve skills like memory, focus, strategizing, communicating, and social skills. You can search the titles of each game and find different variations of them at your local toy store website.

How does your child react to noise and light? If your child shows signs of sensitivity to loud noises, and light they might be having trouble responding to some of the sensory information that enters their senses on a daily basis. Sensory overload from loud sounds, bright light, smells, certain food textures, and tastes can cause your child to react and have sudden change in behaviour. ... Some signs to look out for if your child has sensory challenges; Your child is easily overwhelmed by people and unfamiliar spaces. Your child is easily frightened by sudden noises. Your child is bothered by bright light. Your child experiences a strong reaction to texture or smell of certain foods. Your child gets upset easily about small changes in daily routine. Our Occupational Therapists are qualified to recognize and create treatment plans for sensory challenges in children. Give us a call at 416-576-6842 if you would like to book an assessment today.

It’s that time of year again when progress report cards come home? Assess your child’s report card carefully. Focus more on your child’s work effort, quality and responsibility, more than focusing solely on the grades. Reinforcing a child’s efforts at school and hard work is what will lead to quality work ethic. Your child may appear to work hard and put in the effort, yet is still struggling with the grade, then ensure you make a point to reward and acknowledge the effort. ...Teaching children that follow through, commitment and hard work is what matters most and is key to developing good work ethics, this matters more in the long run than grades do now! If there is an area your child is struggling with, have a discussion with your child explaining that we all have strengths and opportunities for learning, and work with your child to set up a plan to assist with enhancing their skills. If your child is struggling with their handwriting skills, our Occupational Therapists can assist by conducting an assessment and working on your child’s development. Handwriting is a skill that requires a lot of prerequisites such as eye hand coordination, visual perception, and motor control. These essential skills can be the root cause for poor handwriting, once your child is assessed by an Occupational Therapist, a plan can be put in place tailored to your child’s needs. Our Occupational Therapists use a supplemental handwriting resource called Handwriting Without Tears. This has shown to be beneficial and effective for elementary-age students with handwriting difficulties. If you have any questions or concerns feel free to give us a call at 416-576-6842.

Does your child have poor handwriting skills? Handwriting can be a challenge for kids when spacing is wrong. When letters and words are poorly spaced, this results in visual spatial challenges and can lead to poor handwriting. We recommend using a spacing tool or a pointer stick as it can be a great help for some kids! Using a popsicle stick and some markers you can create this at home. This pointer/spacing stick will help children with their writing skills. Use it to point ...to words when your child needs to copy from a textbook, this will help keep their place visually. Align columns and use it to make space between words when writing. There are many aspects when it comes to writing. A child must have good visual motor skills to be able to accurately write. Writing requires the processing of visual skills as well as with coordination and handling of the pencil along the lines and margins. If you need further assistance with your child’s visual and fine motor skills, give us a call today at 416-576-6842 and one of our Occupational Therapists will be happy to assist you.

Remembrance Day is significant globally! It is important to teach children its importance and keep alive the memories of the sacrifices made by soldiers in conflict. Here are a few ideas we found to help in educating children of all ages about Remembrance Day:... Approach the subject with compassion and pride because it is one of the most important days in our history. Make sure to keep it simple and age appropriate. If you have a toddler start with making a poppy craft and talk about the poppy. If your child is older, you can move on to talking about peace, and about the war, sacrifice, and honour those who have and continue to serve. Avoid using terms such as fight and war and focus on the bravery and dedication of men and women who serve to ensure our freedom and safety. Wear a poppy and explain that we wear it symbolically to honor those who served because they were the flowers that grew in the battlefields. Read age-appropriate books on the subject or watch documentaries that provide further information on the history and significance of the day. Lest We Forget!

Have you ever done a scavenger hunt with your kids? It’s a fun activity to try with your little ones to keep them engaged during a walk. Try out this Fall outdoor scavenger hunt we’ve put together. Save and print the photo above to check off each box as your child finds all the objects. This is a great exercise for their mind and body as they explore nature around them and an opportunity to learn about texture, shape, colour, etc.... P.S. Feel free to tag us with all your findings during your walk!

Is your child showing signs of low self-esteem? Children at a young age can develop low self-esteem by doing things that are challenging for them. These challenges become a source of anxiety for some children. They tend to get flustered, throw tantrums, show signs of sadness or easily give up. Our Occupational therapists are trained to help with basic everyday tasks that can be challenging for some children and can help improve their self-esteem.... Activities are conducted during each session to help the child complete daily tasks as independently as possible. They will focus on fine motor skills such as tying their shoelaces, zipping their coat, writing, typing, pencil grasping and so much more! As children learn and master those everyday tasks and challenges, they become more confident in day-to-day activities and will improve their school performance as well as their self-esteem. If you have any questions or concerns please call us at 416-576-6842.

While Halloween might be a little different this year. We hope all the kiddos get to have some safe social distancing fun and a few treats! Here are some fun ideas from our team at Developing Hands to play with your little ones that can help with some sensory and fine motor skills. 1. Pumpkin Bowling: Use a small round pumpkin, or you can use a ball that is orange! Have your kiddo stand at the designated spot you choose for them! This is where you can challenge their balanc...e. Have them stand on one foot, in tandem stance, or have them stand backwards and roll the ball through their legs. Just get creative and have fun! Have them roll the pumpkin to knock over the pretend ghosts (this can be paper towels, or toilet paper rolls stacked side by side or on top of each other). 2. Spider Web Operation: String the yarn back and forth through the holes on the basket. Go in all different directions so that it looks like a spider web. Add the spider rings to the bottom of the basket. Give your child some tweezers like the ones pictured above and have them pull out the spider carefully so that it does not get stuck or caught on the yarn. 3. Coloured Rice: Measure One cup of white rice to a bowl, add 1 tsp vinegar and a few drops of food colouring. Once mixed place on paper towel for one hour until dry. Add rice to a bin/bowl or any box you can find, you can then add spider rings or little toy figures. Provide your child with a scoop or a shovel and an empty bucket to transfer the rice or if they are more advanced to scoop out only the spiders or toy figures. This sensory bin allows your child to explore, and play using practical life skills such as dumping, filling and scooping, this teaches them to learn valuable play skills. 4. Spider web lacing plate: You will need a paper plate and a shoelace or any string you have available. Make sure your string is long enough for six holes, but you can do more holes if you have a longer string and if your child is older or more advanced. Pre-knot the string from one end and write the numbers on the plate, if your child is advanced or older have them punch the holes themselves going from 1 to 6. Then they can lace the web and once they are done have them hide the spider or bug at the very end as their reward. This is a good Halloween fine motor activity for both younger and older kids!