Crafty program for kids

Fun activities for children designed to improve their motor skills

Summer in a classroom? Now that’s a hard sell.

But Alberta Health Services has found a way to make summertime classroom work fun for 13 Grande Prairie-area students, ages 6 to 8, who have mild or moderate motor skill deficiencies. These children might have trouble with balance and co-ordinating movement, and struggle with printing, using scissors and doing finely detailed work.

“These students were all assessed by us during the school year and we gave their parents some stuff to work on with them at home. But, on top of that, we thought it would be a good idea to give them an extra little boost,” says Amanda Penney, an occupational therapist with the Student Health Initiative Program (SHIP).

Penney and SHIP rehabilitation assistant Jacinthe Vetsch created a free, eight-week program that works on improving the children’s fine motor skills through activities including finger-painting and craft-making, with some games involving gross motor skills mixed in for variety.

The students are divided into two groups that meet separately for hour-long sessions on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Each week has a theme – like Canada Day, pirates or the beach – and each session ends with the students bringing home the craft they made that day.

“It’s really nice that they offer a program like this. I was really surprised that it didn’t cost anything,” says Trudy Hodges, a Beaverlodge resident and mother of eight-year-old Kameron.

Hodges says she’s already seen some improvement in her son’s penmanship.

“Before he comes here, he does some math tutoring,” she explains. “He holds his pencil kind of different but (Penney and Vetsch) are working on getting him to hold it better and (the tutor) has noticed a bit of a change already.”

In one session, the students made key chains pieced together, bead-by-bead, on a template. The activity hones precise finger skills and teaches the students how to follow a pattern.

“Very rarely do any of our activities hit only one skill,” says Penney. “We try to hit as many as possible.”

Torin Chambers, 7, says he likes the craft-making the best.

“I like making the designs. Today, we made a snake keychain,” he says. “Actually, it’s a watersnake.”

Torin’s mother, Monica, is confident her son will have improved motor skills by the time the program wraps up in late August.

“He’s doing very well. They’re making it active and creative for the kids so they’re enjoying it,” she says.

Janet Facette, mother of eight-year-old Carter, says while improving her son’s motor skills was a major selling point of the program, so was the chance for him to hang out with friends.

“Social activity is another main thing for me,” Facette says. “It seems to be benefiting him – he loves coming. It works out great because a lot of the kids in his class are from his school.”