Helping our students build and develop the small muscles of their hands so they can be successful with their daily routines both at home and while at work is very important. Here are some of my favorite hand strengthening treatment ideas!

• Theraputty or Playdough: You can roll it, knead it, turn it into a pancake. I love to hide items, such as beads or coins inside to have the students try to find them.
• Rip Paper and Crumble: Work on using two hands together to rip paper. The thicker the paper the harder to rip! Take those ripped pieces and roll them into a ball so you can use those materials to create a craft.
• Cookie Cutters: Use cookie cutters with the playdough, or take small elastic bands and try to have students stretch them around the cookie cutter
• Tennis Ball Mouth: Make a small incision in the tennis ball, and draw on some eyes. Squeeze the tennis ball to open the mouth and feed it some pompoms or beads.
• Clothes Pin or Tweezers: Both are great manipulation tools
• Pompoms in a Wiffle Ball: Try picking up and pushing pom-poms through the holes of a wiffle ball. This is also great for in hand manipulation by passing the pom-poms from the palm of a hand to the fingertips.
• Beads: Take small beads and slide them onto a pipe cleaner. Combine these beads with the theraputty or playdough for further hand strengthening
• Using a Spray bottle is a great way to target the open web space and graded pressure.
• Classroom materials such as hole punchers, squeeze glue, and a stapler are all beneficial for building hand strength and bilateral coordination
• Wheelbarrow Walks: This also includes any other weight bearing exercises where your students are pushing through their arms
• Squigz: The suction of Squigz provides good resistance for hand strength. Combine this with using a scooter board. Have students use the Squigz on a tile floor to propel themselves forward.
• Pegs: Foam Pegboards also provide resistance when trying to insert the pegs. Incorporate color matching to build with the pegs for targeting additional skills.

By Andrea Doumar, Pediatric OT @ot_room