Fun, Family, and Food- the perfect recipe for continuing Feeding Therapy skills at Home for the Holiday season!
Holidays are a joyous time spent with family and friends and many of those times are centered around a meal! These mealtime gatherings can be a source of additional challenges for children who are already picky eaters.
New and unfamiliar foods can be a source of dysregulation and stress for picky eaters and we are here to help! Keeping a child’s sensory system regulated before, during, and after mealtimes can help reduce stress and allow children to be in a safe and regulated state to enjoy the holidays.
Sensory input comes in many forms, however, for support with feeding and eating, we focus on 3 main sources of input including PROPRIOCEPTIVE, TACTILE, and ORAL INPUT.
Proprioceptive input allows our bodies to understand and recognize our position in space to feel safe and secure and we achieve this input through providing pressure to our joints and muscles. Providing our body with proprioceptive input prior to mealtimes creates a regulated state of arousal to support children in participating in mealtimes. Some ways to achieve regulating proprioceptive input are heavy work such as pushing or pulling movements, carrying heavy objects, and body positions that facilitate pressure on the muscles and joints.
Tactile input is our body’s way of feeling and interpreting the world around us through touch and texture. Foods come in many different textures and regulation through tactile input aides in food exploration. Some ways to achieve regulation through tactile input is manipulating and touching various textures including wet, dry, rough, smooth, slimy, and sticky to create a sense of calm with novel and familiar textures.
Oral input assists our bodies in regulation through various activities surrounding our mouths. Activities to provide regulating oral input include chewing gum, blowing bubbles through a straw, sucking liquids through a straw, and eating crunchy or chewy foods.
Creating a regulated state or arousal through multiple sources of sensory input can allow your child to successfully participate in mealtime activities and trying novel foods during the holidays! Ask your therapist for additional tools and regulation strategies for sensory input to support your child and family during this holiday season!
Hearing Holiday Cheer can help your child with important Language Skills!
The holiday season presents many opportunities for creative ways to make progress towards your child’s speech and language goals. Whether surrounded by friends or by family, language is all around us during the holidays. There are always opportunities available to incorporate articulation, expressive language, receptive language, and social language into our daily routines as we embark upon this holiday break.
For children working on receptive language goals, involving them in cooking, decorating, or wrapping tasks by having them follow simple 1-2 step directions is a great way to incorporate language at home!
One way to keep articulation skills sharp is to have your child “teach” a family member how to produce a sound they are working on, encourage them to teach that family member tongue placement and show off how well they are practicing that sound at speech therapy.
Social language can be addressed over the holidays as well, encouraging your child to sustain topic maintenance when talking to family members, practice appropriate greetings and farewells, and appropriate conversational discourse.
Working on language goals outside of therapy does not have to look glamorous, it can be as simple as asking your child more open-ended questions, reading a holiday story, or setting the table together for a meal.
Language is all around us, especially during the holidays!
Festive Fine Motor Development: Crafting Essential Fine Motor Skills while home for the holiday!
The holiday season offers a wonderful opportunity to engage children in creative activities that not only entertain but also support the development of essential fine motor skills. Whether you’re crafting, playing, or decorating, these festive activities are perfect for strengthening those important hand skills. Here’s a list of some holiday-themed activities:
- Holiday Bead Necklaces: Threading beads to create festive jewelry is a fun way for children to work on their pincer grasp and hand-eye coordination.
- Gift Wrapping Practice: Cutting, folding, and taping wrapping paper to create holiday presents helps kids build scissor skills, bilateral coordination, and hand strength.
- Snowflake Cutting & Decorating: Cutting intricate snowflakes from paper and adding glitter or stickers encourages scissor control, fine motor precision, and creativity.
- Christmas Tree Shape Collage: Tear paper into pieces and glue them to form a tree works on promoting tearing and gluing skills.
- Holiday Card Making: Cut and glue paper to design personalized holiday cards and write a message to promote scissor skills, precision, and handwriting.
- Holiday Puzzle Games: Completing holiday-themed puzzles enhances problem-solving, spatial awareness, and hand-eye coordination.
- Holiday-Themed Playdough Creations: Mold playdough into festive shapes like snowmen or Christmas trees to help develop hand strength, fine motor dexterity, and creativity.
- Holiday Sticker Scenes: Creating scenes with holiday-themed stickers promotes pincer grasp, focus, and creativity.
These holiday activities provide a blend of festive fun and fine motor skill development. Whether it’s threading beads for a necklace or cutting snowflakes, children will practice essential skills like hand-eye coordination, pincer grasp, and finger strength—skills that are foundational for writing, drawing, and other daily tasks.