Child Development Tips, Tools, and Strategies
Encourage your child to reach their fullest potential through hands-on play and developmentally appropriate activities.
Welcome!
Here at Growing Hands-On Kids, you’ll find child development tips, tools, and strategies through hands-on activities.
My mission is to help you encourage your child or student to reach their fullest potential through hands-on play and developmentally age-appropriate activities.
Get My Free Fine Motor Checklist for Ages 0-6!
Get my FREE Fine Motor Checklist for Ages 0-6 when you subscribe to Growing Hands-On Kids. Put your email in the box below to get yours now! You'll also get my weekly child development tips newsletter. Join 55,000 others and get these free weekly tips.
Free Sensory Systems Email Series
Discover how all 8 sensory systems are connected and are the building blocks of child development. Also, get an 8 Sensory Systems Handout with signs of sensitivities and activity suggestions.
Free Fine Motor Email Series
Not sure where to start with fine motor skills? This Fine Motor 101 email series is a great place to start. Get a Fine Motor Skills Checklist, plus activity suggestions for all ages and levels of ability.
Free Pre-Writing & Handwriting Series
Understand the importance of pre-writing lines and strokes, how pencil grasp develops, and ways to promote handwriting success through hands-on activities.
Why are pre-writing skills important for handwriting? In this brand new ebook, Heather takes a look at the research on why pre-writing skills are crucial for your child’s future handwriting.
You’ll discover the foundational skills needed for future handwriting like sensory processing, gross motor, fine motor, and visual-motor skills. Plus you will get specific hands-on activity ideas for each of these developmental areas, including ways to introduce pre-writing lines and shapes to your child.
This ebook is ideal for any person who has or works with a child ages 2-6.
Sensory Processing Explained was written by an Occupational Therapy Assistant and mom of seven children. They use their unique experiences as a parent of children with sensory processing disorder and working in the classroom setting with children of various sensory processing challenges.
This book is three books in one so that you will get exactly what sensory processing information is right for your situation. It was written with easy to understand terms and language so that you can feel confident in explaining your child or student’s sensory processing struggles with parents, family, friends, or co-workers.
“Basics of Fine Motor Skills is a comprehensive breakdown of the fine motor skills needed for development and function. Heather has provided a valuable resource that describes each underlying skill under the vast term, “fine motor skills”. This book is a great compliment to individualized goal areas for children. Therapists can use this resource for activity development and planning. Parents and educators will appreciate the clear and concise breakdown of skill areas and “red flags” that provide education in an easy to understand manner. The engaging activity lists are designed to target necessary skills while supporting the healthy development of children at all levels.” – Colleen Beck, OTR/L – The OT Toolbox.
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Fine Motor Checklists for Ages 0-6
Find out exactly what is age-appropriate and developmentally appropriate for your child to do when it comes to fine motor activities. These fine motor skills checklists were created to help you do just that.
Perfect for therapists, educators, or parents to use as a quick reference guide.
Hi there, I'm Heather.
COTA
I’m Heather, a Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant (COTA) turned homeschool mom of two. I believe that all children can reach their fullest possible potential through hands-on play and developmentally appropriate activities.
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Fun Summer Bilateral Coordination Activities for Kids
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Eye-Hand Coordination Activities for Children
Completing eye-hand coordination activities can improve visual perception and coordination skills in children. It is an important part of fine motor skill development and here are some easy ways you can help children improve this skill. Table of contents for…
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Typical Fine Motor Developmental Milestones for Ages 0-6
Children go through a series of fine motor developmental milestones during the early years. Find out which fine motor developmental milestones you should know in this article. Typical Fine Motor Developmental Milestones Ages 0-6 Milestone checklists can be helpful to…
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Finger Dexterity Activities for Kids
Finger dexterity activities are designed to help kids improve their ability to handle small objects. Here are my favorite activities to help improve finger dexterity with kids. Table of contents for finger dexterityWhat is finger dexterity? Finger dexterity challenges Occupational therapy and…
How to Improve Your Child's Handwriting Speed
Does your child's handwriting speed affect their participation in writing assignments? Handwriting speed develops over time and there are some ways you can help improve it. Keep reading below to find out what typical writing speeds are by grade level…
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Grip Strength: Fun Activities For Kids
Building grip strength can be fun and easy … even if you're just a kid. To show you how I've created this list of activities that are great for kids. Plus we'll dig into why grip strength is important and…