Whether you are full blown Irish or you just like the color green, St. Patrick's Day (and other holidays) is an excellent time to mix things up a bit. Every year at our clinic we pull out some of our favorite St. Patrick's Day books and homemade activities.  We use these books and activities in a variety of ways to target our clients' goals while having fun!  Check out a few of the activities we have been doing the past few weeks to celebrate St. Patrick's Day:

St. Patrick's Day books.  We love books and we use them in a variety of ways!  Books are a fun way to work on speech-language skills, such as sequencing events of the story, expanding vocabulary, rhyming, making predictions, and working on targeted speech sounds.  Our occupational therapists use books to work on visual perceptual skills, such as identifying objects when only given part of the picture, finding objects in a busy picture, and identifying letters/words within text.  We also use books as a distraction at times while our clients are getting stretched.

St. Patrick's Day shamrocks.  The foam shamrocks you can pick up at Michael's have a ton of uses!  We use them as targets for jumping or throwing objects.  We also use them to work on gross and fine motor sequencing.  This is a fun game that kids mimic, "I Can Do That," which is a great 'action and following directions' game.

Gold coins and the pot-o-gold.  We use our gold coins by tossing them into the pot.  Sometimes our clients stand, sit on a moving swing, or stand on an unstable surface while throwing.  We also use our coins for curling.  Our clients curl while lying on their tummies and pushing the coins to designated spots (addresses head/neck extension, putting weight into their arms, shifting weight, and ocular-motor skills).  We also have them stand and push them with their foot (balance, coordination, and regulating the amount of force they use).  Inside the gold coins are little shamrocks that have directions, which allows for them to work on following directions, motor planning, and sequencing skills.

Crafts and fine motor activities.  We always have some sort of craft available to work on part-to-whole skills, cutting, coloring, and sequencing skills.  We also have little gold coins that go into a bank, allowing them to be used for in-hand manipulation skills.

Therapy can be hard work, but we like to take opportunities like St. Patrick's Day to have some fun while targeting our clients' goals.  Seriously, who has this much fun at work?  Have a great St. Patrick's Day everyone!