A little sparkle or bling in therapy sessions can offer fantastic sensory benefits! Just a little preparation and patience while the glue drys and you’re ready to use an array of glittery options!
All you require to create this kit is a bag of glue-glow pens an eraser, cardstock, and scissors.
The glitter is an raised surface with the appearance of a “bumpy” surface. Let your kid “feel” by rubbing their fingertips along the glitter that has dried. This gives your child tactile feedback in addition to visual information. The tactile feedback can assist in learning names, letters, shapes and more.
You can also disperse the glitter so that your child is able to paint over the glitter. This is great for children who struggle with “colouring” within lines or coloring the entire surface they have to color. Kids enjoy coloring on the bumpy surface of glitter.
Here are a few ways I incorporate glitter into therapy sessions, and sometimes my own children benefit as well!
1. Alphabet glitter Use these glittery cards to master the alphabet, classify into alphabet families and spell out names for your children, master the correct spelling of letters, etc. If you’ve used or have heard of “sand papers” These glitter alphabets can function similar fashion at less than the price. You can create them in any size you like and even make capital letters, too!
2. Glitter Shapes Make use of glitter glue for outline of shapes or to color the whole surface of the shape. Imagine coloring inside those shapes before “hitting” on the raised boundaries. Your child will gain an idea of where to stop coloring. You can also trace the raised border to discover the number of sides these shapes have as being able to identify the names for the shapes.
3. Glitter Names Your child will enjoy learning the names of their names in glitter! Trace over the letters, write over them, spell…do it all over again without their eyes closed! Train them in the left to right direction of letters, and the letter’s formation as well.
4. Glitter Colouring Are you a parent of a your child who isn’t keen on coloring? Have you tried glitter for painting? Draw simple images small is best and then cover by glitter glue. Distribute the glitter so it’s thin, and allow the glue to set. Aren’t these Easter eggs attractive? Your children will be delighted coloring the eggs and the images can be used as the form of a treasure hunt.
My reluctant-colorer Mr was delighted to color these after which Miss 8 put the crayons in the garden for him to search for. Fun and a little some pencil control the mix, win-win-win I say!
I’m not a fan of letting students I visit for OT use glitter glue pens because I usually see children at schools. I don’t know if that there’s a place for the art to dry and there won’t be a big mess!
This next task is something I’d like to like to do from home.
5. Glitter drawing – Ask the child an easy picture using markers. Give them glitter glue and let them trace their sketch. Squeezing the glitter glue can be the perfect way to increase the grasp of a pincer and to work on hand muscles that are intrinsic to.
Did this inspire you to pull out the glitter glue? I can assure you that it easy to clean up and does not take a lot of time to organize. Your children will be thrilled with the effort you’ve put into it!
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