Today’s episode is in answer to a listener question about treatment planning - how to plan and set up treatment activities for a variety of kiddos, at a variety of levels, to address a variety of goals. Get ready to take notes as Rachel & Jessica break down how to set up an obstacle course activity and how to easily modify each step. They also provide you with several of their favorite games that can be used. This is an episode for therapists and parents alike!
Be sure to check out the show notes on our blog at Harkla.Co/Podcast.
Brought To You By Harkla
This podcast is brought to you by Harkla. Our mission at Harkla is to help those with special needs live happy and healthy lives. We accomplish this through high-quality sensory products, child development courses, and The Harkla Sensory Club.
Podcast listeners get 10% off their first order at Harkla with the discount code "sensory". Head to Harkla.co/sensory to start shopping now.
Today’s episode is in answer to a listener question about treatment planning - how to plan and set up treatment activities for a variety of kiddos, at a variety of levels, to address a variety of goals. Get ready to take notes as Rachel & Jessica break down how to set up an obstacle course activity and how to easily modify each step. They also provide you with several of their favorite games that can be used. This is an episode for therapists and parents alike!
Be sure to check out the show notes on our blog at Harkla.Co/Podcast.
Brought To You By Harkla
This podcast is brought to you by Harkla. Our mission at Harkla is to help those with special needs live happy and healthy lives. We accomplish this through high-quality sensory products, child development courses, and The Harkla Sensory Club.
Podcast listeners get 10% off their first order at Harkla with the discount code "sensory". Head to Harkla.co/sensory to start shopping now.
Welcome to the sensory project show with Rachel and Jessica. We're here to share all things sensory, occupational therapy, parenting, self care, and overall health and wellness from a therapists perspective, providing raw, honest, fun ideas and strategies for parents and families to implement into daily life. Thank you so much for joining us. Before we jump into today's episode, we have got to talk about a company that we recently discovered, Harkla. Not only do they make high quality, sensory products and supplements, but the owners are also local to us in Boise.
Jessica:We had the opportunity to sit down and chat with them and our missions totally aligned. You know that we only recommend companies and products that we trust and use ourselves. Which is why we're so excited to share this amazing company with you.
Rachel:Stay tuned to hear more later in this episode, as well as to get a special discount.
Jessica:Okay, let's start today's episode.
Rachel:Hey, guys, welcome back to the sensory project show. You're listening to Rachel and Jessica.
Jessica:Like we've said before, we are your podcast DJs, today, we are answering one of your questions from Instagram. This question had to do with treatment planning. We had a fellow therapist say that she spends so much time planning for each individual child, that it's just not realistic. That's absolutely true. It's not realistic to plan different things for every single client.
Rachel:Especially if you are treating full time in a clinic, but what we want to let you know, parents, if you're tuning in, don't click this off. This is not just geared towards therapists. It is really helpful for learning how to set up play activities and activities in your house for your child with a function in mind. We're going to kind of give you a little bit of what it looks like, how to do it, all the tangible tips, tricks and strategies that we normally do.
Jessica:For parents at home, especially if you have multiple children, this can kind of give you an idea on how to use the same activity for multiple children in your house when they're different ages and different abilities. Because that's what we do in therapy as well.
Rachel:Exactly. We don't want you guys to feel burnt out. We want this stuff to feel doable. Therapists, parents, both of you guys, we want to make your life as easy as possible.
Jessica:Yes
Rachel:You're welcome.
Jessica:That's why we're here. First thing you have to do is you have to set up an activity.
Rachel:When we say set up an activity, Jessica, and I usually think about something that has to do with a theme, right? We typically follow a theme. Because it's Thanksgiving week, right? Now, while we're recording this, maybe we would do some sort of a turkey based activity. Let's break down what exactly an activity might look like because
Jessica:When we say activity, we also don't mean just putting a game on the floor that's not setting up an activity. We mean there are a lot of different components that go into this one more like something that has a sequence to it. We're always talking about obstacle courses so setting up a sequential activity. obstacle course. You always want to have a gross motor component. Could be climbing, could be crawling, it could be animal walks, any big gross motor movements, you want to incorporate that into your activity,
Rachel:Then you want to think about a fine motor component, we always like to incorporate some sort of fine motor skill, whether it's manipulating small objects, writing, drawing, using tongs, playing with playdough, something that's going to work those fingers.
Jessica:Then you probably are also going to incorporate some other components, like Visual motor, ocular motor, some bilateral integration, so making sure we're getting both sides of the body involved. We're getting the eyes involved. Then just because we are sensory beings, let's incorporate some other sensory components. Let's incorporate some oral motor, some auditory, some different smells.
Rachel:Now if you're a parent, I hope we haven't just lost you there with all of those big words. If you just think about close your eyes and think about the five senses that you're familiar with, right? Because we're going to talk about the other ones later. But if you think about those five senses, try to incorporate an activity that really challenges one of those senses. That could be another another one of those components that we're talking about here.
Jessica:Then with your activity, with your sequential apps stickle course, you also want to think about transition components. If you have four different steps to your obstacle course you have an animal walk, you have a visual motor, fine motor, an oral motor section, or you can call them stations if you want. How is your child going to transition between those different stations? Are they going to do more animal walks, or they can use a scooter board? Are they just going to walk because you want to keep it simple.
Rachel:Now, this is the part where you can really target those goals, therapists. I'm talking to you right now. If you have goals that the child needs to increase proximal stability, if you have goals where the child needs to improve bilateral integration, you can choose the transition to target those goals. The beauty of it is you can make it as long or as short as you want to. If they're going to do an animal walk for five feet, great! If they are a young kid, if they need to do an animal walk down the entire length of the hallway in your clinic. Great! That's what they need to work on. Are they going to skip? Are they going to do cross crawls. Think about what specific goals you want to target and focus on hitting those a lot during your transitions because that's really beneficial for you.
Jessica:Yeah, those are kind of just the different components to setting up your activity. Then once you've got your activity set up and again, when we say activity, this could be just a two step activity or this could be like a bigger obstacle course whatever it is. Next, you need to identify the children, the clients, that you're going to have doing the activity.
Rachel:What are the different ages of the kiddos? What are their different goals and what specific deficits need to be targeted with these activities? At least in our clinic, we noticed that a lot of our kiddos may be in the same age range, different age range, they have similar goals that we need to address. Some of them are easier, some of them are more challenging for the kiddos. Based on their goals, there are different goals, that's going to tell you how to modify each section of the obstacle course or the activity that you're creating.
Jessica:Now, I will say that, especially in the beginning, especially when you have a new client, or if you are a new therapist, and all this is brand new to you, it really helps to write all of this down. Write down your obstacle course, write down the different components of it, write down the different skills it's going to address, write down the different goals that you're working on for your clients, and just map it out and figure out what works best for you to keep track of all of it. But really writing it down will be helpful, especially in the beginning and sometimes seasoned therapists still take notes and write stuff down a lot as well.
Rachel:I remember this was instrumental to my success as a new grad. Like I had to visually see each step of the activity, what I was going to do, how I was going to do it, and now that it's kind of second nature, you can look at the goals, you can think about a theme, and you can just kind of plan it and put it together. Sometimes it works out great. Honestly, sometimes at the clinic, I'll set up an activity and Jessica will walk in and she'll be like what on earth and I'm like, I don't know, just just try it. It made sense in my head. We actually put together a little freebie for our club members to help with treatment planning and I think that we should link it here for you guys. If you want our just super simple treatment planning freebie, then you can head to the show notes and download it and try it out.
Jessica:Again, it's just a really easy way to just write down what you need to do. Write down goals and just bam, bam, bam, do it.
Rachel:Ultimately, in therapy in play, parents, therapists, whoever you are, the goal is to make it fun for the kiddos while you're addressing those underlying skills of deficits to improve upon something. That's our goal in therapy.
Jessica:You know what, I think we have a podcast episode about creating experiences. That's what you want to do, you don't want this to be work for your child. Kids don't like to do work. Kids like to have fun and play and have experiences. If you can set up an obstacle course activity to address a variety of goals, a variety of skills, and have it be an experience and the kid loves it. Man you've won! It doesn't matter how anything else goes, if you have created an experience for your client or your child, you are set.
Rachel:Alright, let's talk a little bit more about today's sponsor, Harkla. Like we said earlier, they make high quality products, things like sensory swings weighted items, compression sheets and supplements that everyone can benefit from.
Jessica:if Rachel can successfully install a swing in her house, and if you didn't see her Instagram stories awhile back, then you're missing out. You need to just watch them because it was great. But if Rachel can do it, then you can to not saying anything bad about Rachel, I'm just saying that it's so easy. It's a simple process that takes less than a day, and provides results that will basically last as long as your house does.
Rachel:If you're in a clinic setting, this company is perfect
Jessica:Stay tuned, because at the end of this episode, we're for all of your sensory needs. Their equipment will withstand even the roughest of sensory seekers and with their lifetime going to give you a discount for when you purchase an item from guarantee, should something crazy happen, they will replace it. Harkla.
Rachel:Another cool thing about this skill for parents and therapists is being able to set up this one activity and use it for more than one client. It takes time, and it takes practice to learn how to do it and how to see the goals that can be addressed with these activities. The more you do it, the easier it'll it'll get, I promise. We've been doing this for like seven years and sometimes we still have a hard time coming up with new obstacle courses or new activities.
Jessica:All the time.
Rachel:The problem is that the thing that I struggle with is I feel like it has to be something new every week and it doesn't have to be new. It's helpful to have something novel for the kids to work on, but it doesn't have to be new. You can just make subtle changes to the equipment and the toys and things that you have at your house. You just have to change one component.
Jessica:Absolutely. Let's give you an example.
Rachel:This is why you're up here.
Jessica:We'll try to talk a little slower, maybe so you can take notes, if you want. But you can always re listen to it as well. Let's set up just a really simple four step obstacle course, like so super simple.
Rachel:This is simple enough that you can do it at your house.
Jessica:Yes, and this can be good for any age. Step one is going to be a log roll across a crash pad or a cushion.
Rachel:If you don't have a crash pad, take the cushions off of your couch and have them log roll over that. Step two, complete an animal walk across a path. You can use painters tape on the floor , you can use something like a balance beam or stepping stones, or roll up a blanket to make a balance beam, pillows, you name it you have it. Cross a path is the next step.
Jessica:Then step three is to complete one piece or one step have some sort of game, a cause and effect toy, or a puzzle. We'll give you some more ideas for different games and pieces that work for step number three, and just a minute. But you're going to complete just one part of that game or puzzle.
Rachel:Step four, you're gonna wheelbarrow walk or crawl back to the beginning of the activity. That's that transition that we were talking about that's so important because wheelbarrow walking is not easy and it builds a lot of the underlying skills required for more challenging tasks that the child is going to be required to do, like, sit at their desk, sit at the table for a meal, things like that.
Jessica:Again, this is such a super simple four step obstacle course. You can modify it for any child, you can use any type of game or toy for that third step, just depends on the level of your child. You can even have multiple games available that you can switch out between clients if you need to.
Rachel:That's the most important thing, if you're working with four toddlers in the morning, and then you have four school aged kids in the afternoon, pick your activity in the morning, and have it be something like the lucky duck game. They have to match the colors or they have to match the shapes. Then for the your older kids in the afternoon, pick a logic and reasoning game like river crossing. Your kids probably have similar goals if they're the same age so you can use that one activity.
Jessica:There's a couple of different ways you can modify this obstacle course up to make it more challenging. One of my favorites is to use a visual chart for the child to read while they're log rolling during the first step.
Rachel:That is so hard, by the way!
Jessica:It is it's such a good one, though! oh my gosh, just try it.
Rachel:One of my favorite ways to modify it up is to add the metronome and complete like the animal walk with the metronome. They're stepping on every beat or every other beat.
Jessica:Ask the child to come up with different animal walks for each time that they go through, then you're going to address all the areas of praxis and executive functioning.
Rachel:Then you could add a memory component, maybe they have to remember a number sequence from the very beginning of the obstacle course and then by the time they get back, they have to repeat it back to you. I really liked this because it works on their chunking. They have to be able to remember these numbers like a phone number, or an address. Even though with technology these days, no one even has to remember this. But I remember. I remember when I was a kid, and I had all of my friend's phone numbers memorized.
Jessica:Me too. Now I can barely remember anything.
Rachel:I know. You know what else? This is super off topic, but you know what else that I've noticed that's really bad for our memory skills?
Jessica:Oh, no.
Rachel:When you get sent a code from like, you're trying to log into PayPal or something, and they're like, Oh, you have to give me this code. You go to your messages and instead of looking at it and memorizing it, it automatically pops up now that says, Oh, here's the code for your messages. So you don't even have to remember it.
Jessica:I know!
Rachel:Terrible!
Jessica:Technology makes us dumb.
Rachel:Yeah, seriously.
Jessica:One other thing I was thinking to make this obstacle course or activity a little more challenging would be during step number three, when your child is completing their logic and reasoning game or their matching game, have them get into a strength position. In a plank position, or in a downward dog position, or have them hold a strength position, or have them hold a primitive reflex position. Just something to get them into a different movement position to make it more challenging versus just sitting on the floor to do the the task.
Rachel:Now let's talk about ways to make it a little bit easier so you're gonna grate it down. The first thing you could do is provide more visuals for each step. Maybe you are modeling what they're supposed to do and how they're supposed to do it. You are doing a log roll with them, or you are grabbing a puzzle piece with them, and you're putting a puzzle piece in while they are.
Jessica:Maybe provide more hands on assistance. Maybe instead of a long roll by themselves, they are you're doing the tortilla roll in the weighted blanket. They're getting that rolling vestibular input, but it's much more hands on and they're getting a lot more assistance for it.
Rachel:Then maybe to keep them engaged, you want to change the transition each time. Instead of doing a wheelbarrow walk every time they come back, maybe they get to choose an animal walks so they have a little bit more control in the activities that they're doing for those transitions.
Jessica:I was even thinking that this is a four step obstacle course sequence that we're giving you, but maybe you need to only have it be two steps. Maybe you're only doing an animal walk and only doing a container toy. You're just doing those two steps because that's what the child can do and that's what you're focused on instead of all four steps. They are the best!
Rachel:When you're modifying it to two steps, what I'd recommend They are. If you put all of them in a bucket on one side is have let's say you're playing with squigz. Right? Squigz are little suction cup toys. of the room, they have to grab a Squig, hop, hop hop to the other side of the room where they stick it on a whiteboard, right? Maybe you have a shape drawn on the whiteboard, but they have to put it in the triangle or they have to put it in a circle. That's a super modification, but you can kind of see how we're breaking down the activity from instead of just doing an animal walk, putting the Squig on the whiteboard. They have to take it from one side of the room to the other in order to get more function out of it.
Jessica:Easy peasy.
Rachel:Easy peasy. It will be easy easy. It will be easy peasy ance you practice.
Jessica:Yes, just practice it. Just do it. Just get out there and don't be scared to mess up and have it be terrible the first couple of times. Just engage with your kid. If you are engaged with your client, or your child out, there laughing and you're having fun, everything else will fall into place.
Rachel:Let's talk about some of our favorite games and activities that you can use as part of your sequence here.
Jessica:For toddlers, young children, kiddos who are just working on those really simple, simple skills because that's where they're at, puzzles and all those other cause and effect container toys are great.
Rachel:Follow your nose is a great game for some olfactory processing. You have to smell these little canisters and try to guess what the smell is.
Jessica:We did talk about like the lucky duck shaped matching game. That's a really fun one and then Squigz, of course,
Rachel:Think Fun has a yoga spinner that's really fun to get movement activities. Anything with a spinner is fun for kids.
Jessica:That's so true. Geo boards are great and anything with colorful pegs. Those are such easy, simple toys to add.
Rachel:Then just a variety of textures. There are tons of these things out on the market right now. But Amazon has these things, they're called teachable, touchable texture squares, and they're just all these different textures that you put in a bag. The kids have to pull out the matching textures. It's just a fun matching activity that incorporates more of that tactile play.
Jessica:Incorporate all those senses.
Rachel:Let's talk about some of the activities we love for our school aged kids.
Jessica:Man, anything by Think Fun?
Rachel:Yes, definitely.
Jessica:Oh my gosh, there's so many good ones.
Rachel:Picture Rica is a great one. Great for visual perceptual skills.
Jessica:What is that robot game?
Rachel:Oh my gosh...
Jessica:Robot Race.
Rachel:Robot Race. Good work. I really liked that one. Melissa and Doug have a really cool sandwich stacking game. Can you guys tell this is our favorite part of the episode?
Jessica:Oh, pancake pile up. That is a good one.
Rachel:Dr. Eureka, this is a great stem game. Kiddos who loves science this is a good one.
Jessica:River Crossing, I think is river crossing one of the thing fun games?
Rachel:Yes. Then I've always liked these. They're the stackable spinning tops so they're the ones that you like screw together and then push the button, and they spin and you can stack them. Kids go wild for them.
Jessica:They're super fun. All right, let's talk about a couple of ideas for those older kids, maybe the teenagers. Again, you can't go wrong with the Think Fun logic and reasoning games. Those are great for all ages.
Rachel:Is laser maze and gravity maze, are those both think fun games?
Jessica:Oh, they probably are. But those are so good.
Rachel:Yeah, those ones are fun too
Jessica:The PDQ game. That game is really hard. Oh my gosh.
Rachel:It's hard, but it's satisfying.
Jessica:When you finally get it.
Rachel:This is a card game. Super, super simple card game, works on visualization. You have to kind of fill in the blanks kind of like a like a crossword puzzle. Almost
Jessica:Kind of, yeah.
Rachel:Do you remember wonky?
Jessica:No.
Rachel:It's a game with the weird shaped dice and you have to like play the tower, you don't want it to knock over ,and all of that. It's like blue, green, and purple.
Jessica:I don't know if I played it very much.
Rachel:Oh, it's a good one.
Jessica:So familiar though.
Rachel:You'll recognize it when you see it. Then Qwirkle. You know Qwirkle, right?
Jessica:Why can I not think of these games?
Rachel:You'll recognize them if you see them. It's totally a visual thing because Qwirkle, it's kind of like Scrabble, but it has the different shapes on the little wooden pieces.
Jessica:Perfect
Rachel:But scrabble would be a good game too.
Jessica:Scrabble is such a great one. Anything with those letters.
Rachel:Then the last one that we were thinking of was the dry erase blocks. For our older kiddos, you can have them draw different activities, motions, yoga poses, words, numbers, and then do the activity with things that they've come up with. It's a little bit more engaging because they have the control.
Jessica:That's everything for these kids, they just man sometimes you just have to give them control.
Rachel:You do you have to pick your battles.
Jessica:All right, you guys hopefully this helps. Hopefully, you're not too overwhelmed.
Rachel:This is a fun one. I feel like I want to go set up an obstacle course right now. If you guys have questions about this topic, or if you have strategies that we can share on social media, don't hesitate to reach out. You can find us at the sensory project show on Instagram and make sure you tag us when you're listening to this episode. That would be awesome.
Jessica:If you have a minute, you can leave us a review on iTunes. Let us know if you love us or hate us and thanks for All right, you guys. One more quick reminder about today's being here. sponsor, Harkla.co. A family owned company that provides therapy and sensory equipment, along with supplements. We love them. We love their mission. We love their equipment and we love that 1% of each month sales goes to the University of Washington's Autism Center, which funds cutting edge research and sponsors scholarships for children with autism to attend a summer camp. How cool is that?
Rachel:For real? I love it. They're great. They're local to Boise, which is really cool for us. But I mean, it's still cool for everyone else too. But if you're ready to jump in and check these guys out, go to Harkla.co and you can save 10% on any of their products by using the code sensory. Make sure you let us know what your thoughts are and definitely go check them out.
Jessica:We are so excited to work together to help create confident kids all over the world and work towards a happier, healthier life.
Rachel:Just a friendly reminder this is general information related to occupational therapy, pediatrics and sensory integration. We do not know you, or your child, therefore, we do not know any specific things. Therefore you should always refer back to your pediatrician and occupational therapists for more information.