If your student is having a hard time focusing on their schoolwork these days why not try games instead! Read through for a list of my favorite OT Teletherapy games that can be played off-screen and on-screen. Shhh! They won’t know they are still learning through play!

It finally happened….

The massive emotional breakdown of my 7 year old since this whole pandemic began.

We were busy working on his school assignments when I asked to see his writing assignment for the day.

My innocent comment of asking him how to spell the word eraser (that was written about 18 times in the paragraph he just read) sent him into a tailspin of sobs and tears that lasted well over 20 minutes with comments like “I just can’t do it” and “This isn’t fair”.

After allowing him some time to release those big emotions and grieve all the feelings he had been bottling up for the past several weeks, we came up with a plan together on how to approach these assignments in the future (more about that in another post!).

Having no control and having you’re life turned upside down overnight isn’t easy for us or our children.

We really needed to take a big breath and step back to re-evaluate what’s really important in our lives right now.

After all…DEVELOPMENT IS NOT A RACE!

It will not matter down the road that my child could spell the word eraser accurately at 7 years old. However, it will matter that we all get to the other side of this pandemic knowing we are safe, loved and connected!

Children and Stress

You may be noticing that the families and children you serve (as well as your own children) may be more “needy” these days.

Stress in children can look different than in adults. Stress produces anxiety and can look like the following for children:

• Restlessness

• Fatigue

• Trouble concentrating

• Irritability

• Muscle tension

• Trouble sleeping (insomnia)

• Bossiness-trying to be in control of everything and everyone

You can read more about how to help your children with anxiety here.

Learning through Play

Now more than ever, one of the best ways we can help a child’s brain development is to meet them where they are at and find ways to connect and learn through play.

Learning through play is so beneficial. Here are just a few of the benefits backed by research:

• Problem solving and learning cause and effect.

• Learning how to play with others through compromise, conflict resolution and sharing.

• Development of fine and gross motor skills.

• Nurturing creativity and imagination.

• Discovering independence and positive self-esteem.

Using games to Learn through play

One of the best ways to accomplish learning through play is to use games during OT Teletherapy sessions.

Games are my “go-to” strategy during my OT Teletherapy sessions (and in my home) when I’m faced with inattentive, impulsive, hyperactive, lethargic and non-compliant behaviors…can anyone relate to these behaviors lately?

Games can take the focus off whatever it is they don’t want to do (aka. handwriting) and usually increases student compliance dramatically.

They are a great icebreaker and way to increase rapport and connection with your children.

I really dislike that too many children get way more screen time than is good for their brain development (especially now) so I try to balance the amount of on-screen time vs. off-screen time during all my OT Teletherapy sessions.

For that reason, I’ve included both on screen and off screen games below.

Most of the games below are geared toward school-aged children. If you are needing more ideas for younger children please check out this post!

OT Teletherapy Off-Screen Games

Cards

These work best if both you and your student have a deck of cards. If you don’t, I have seen some creative OT’s who have made numbered grids to place the cards into and then the student calls out the number of choice. This could work well for a memory type game with the cards. My favorite from the list is War!

Simon Says

The possibility of motor actions and sequencing practice is unlimited with this one!

Minute to Win It games

These are super motivating for younger and older students. Have them come up with their own challenges too!

Animal poses

How many animal poses can you make? Use a wheel of names to make it a game.

Animal hands

I love this video by Dan the OT Man. You can make it a game by modeling a few animal hands and seeing how many the student can remember when you call out the name of the animal or remember a few at a time to work on sequencing.

Rock, paper scissor

Simple but kids love it!

Tic tac toe

Fun to do with letters the child is working on mastering instead of just X and O.

How many (insert exercise) can you do?

Jumping jacks, wall push-ups, sit-ups, cross crawls. Set a timer to set a record each session or pick a number out of a hat or roll a dice to see how many the child performs. You could even keep a leader board with student’s initials for a little friendly competition.

Scavenger hunt

Find things that are a certain color, start with a specific letter, start with a specific sound, or by description (ie. find something that you eat with). A great way to get those kids moving!

Imitate motor sequences/rhythms

Start with a few and see how many your child can sequence. Clap, stomp, cross midline, strengthening poses, facial expressions..many possibilities here!

Loaded Questions

You can buy this deck or just make up your own loaded questions. I use these a lot for writing prompts.

OT Teletherapy On-Screen Games

Spot It

If the child has the game each of you would flip one card. If not, you can have both cards on your screen and see who finds a match first. You could even share a pdf version if you take a picture of some of the cards to use on a whiteboard (if you have that feature on your platform).

Mr. Potato Head Online

Great for spatial awareness but you lose the fine motor aspect! Do some playdough before this one to get some hand strengthening or have them draw what they created on paper afterwards.

Nick Jr. Games

Perfect for younger students with favorite Nick Jr. TV characters. Great games that target many visual perceptual skills.

PBS Kids

Similar to Nick Jr. but with PBS characters.

Bingobaker

Online bingo maker cards. Create any game to match your theme of the week/month. A perfect way to add more movement to the session by filling the spaces with gross motor, fine motor, yoga poses or brain break activities!

Jeopardy Labs

Make your own Jeopardy games! Maybe some fun handwriting questions or zones of regulation questions?

ABCya!

Fun educational website with games by subject and themes. One of my favorites is Trace to the Beat!

Highlights kids

Lots of great hidden pictures and games to work on those visual perceptual skills!

Toy Theater

An educational website with some great options for older kids to work on executive functioning. One of my favorites is Parking Lot. It also has a lot of cool teacher tools that you can use on your whiteboard such as a timer, spinner, dice, bear counters and many more.

Hopefully, these ideas add to your bag of OT Teletherapy tricks. I’d love to hear if there are any other games that you’ve been using during your OT Teletherapy sessions and which ones your students are loving. Please leave a comment below so we can keep this list growing in one place!

And make sure to pin this post so you know where to find the links for your OT Teletherapy sessions.

Looking for more done-for-you resources?

Check out the Growing Little Brains Shop!

Looking for more posts like this one?

50+ways to rock your Early Intervention Teletherapy sessions

OT Teletherapy activities for May