Activity Highlight: Let's Talk About Tape!

As OTs, we love a gadget. We don't walk through a toystore or scroll through Instagram without seeing a new piece of equipment or therapeutic tool that we picture using with one of our clients. Even with all the gear and goodies at our fingertips, if you asked me what my absolute, desert-island essential is, I’d probably pull out something you already have lying around your house. Tape is one of the most budget-friendly, portable, and activity-ready therapy tools out there. I love a good piece of tech as much as the next person, but for parents (myself included), the best tools are the ones you already have in your junk drawer. Tape is the ultimate "on-the-go" therapy tool because it’s cheap, fits in a bag, and offers incredible carryover opportunities. Read on to see how you can add OT-clinic level activities into your daily routine in a low-cost, mess free way!

My son working on dynamic sitting balance while reaching for the tape

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Why Tape? The Therapeutic Benefits

The best tools are the ones that work on a variety of skills every time. Inside every sticky roll is a whole world of therapeutic benefits:

• Visual Boundaries: It creates clear "start" and "stop" lines for kiddos who are still learning where their body is in space.

• Fine Motor Development: Strengthening, hand separation, arch development, and more! Peeling tape off a roll or a floor is great for strengthening tiny fingers, building the muscles needed for buttoning shirts and holding pencils.

• Bilateral Coordination: It’s a natural way to practice using two hands together (one to hold the roll, one to pull, two hands to rip a piece).

• Zero Stress: When the activity is over, you just peel it up and toss it. No batteries, no missing pieces, no mess.

Activity Highlights:

Check out this list of great activities to try at home or in your next therapy session!

1. Animal Rescue:

• The Setup: Use small strips of tape to secure plastic animals, cars, or even large coins to a tabletop or a vertical surface like a fridge or wall (the more vertical the better to target shoulder stability!)

• The Goal: Ask your child to "save" the toys by peeling the tape off.

• Variation: Use a muffin tin to hold the animals with a piece of tape placed atop. Have your child work on scissor skills by snipping the tape to free their animal friend!

• Skill Focus: Visual motor, pincer grasp strengthening, bilateral coordination, upper-extremity stability

2. The Hallway Tightrope

• The Setup: Lay down a long strip of tape (or a zigzag pattern) along your hallway floor.

• The Goal: Have your child walk "tightrope style" (heel-to-toe) without stepping off the tape.

• Variation: Have them do it while carrying a plastic cup of water or a beanbag, walk backwards, skip - so many possibilities!

• Skill Focus: Balance, Postural control, coordination

3. Tape Peeling Art

• The Setup: Provide your child with a piece of cardstock paper and have them rip several pieces of tape to make a criss-crossed design. After the tape is placed, use the art medium of your choice (paint, marker, crayon) to cover the white space. Wait for it to dry then remove the tape to reveal your art!

• The Goal: Challenge your child to find the "top" layer of tape and peel it off first, working their way down to the bottom to reveal their art.

• Skill Focus: Fine motor strengthening, fine motor precision, visual scanning, visual motor, sequencing

4. The Sticky "Laser" Maze

• The Setup: In a hallway or between pieces of furniture, stretch strips of tape from one wall to the other at various heights and angles

• The Goal: Your child has to crawl under, step over, and wiggle through the "lasers" without touching them.

• Variation: Have your child help make the course and strategize ways to "level-up" between successful trials to target motor planning!

• Skill Focus: Body awareness, visual scanning, motor planning, feedforward/feedback

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The possibilities are endless! Let us know in the comments what your favorite way to use tape is!