Active Imagination Activity Book: 50 Sensorimotor Activities for Children to Improve Focus, Attention, Strength, and Coordination [Spiral-bound]

Kelly Tilley OTR/L (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2011

Childhood is a time filled with new motor challenges and all kinds of hurdles; Kids are busy learning to tie their shoes, zipper their jackets, ride a bicycle, negotiate the playground, and write their names. All of these skills require kids to have strength, coordination, and the ability to focus and attend.

The activities in this book “Active Imagination Activity Book” tap into what kids love best - PLAY. The activities pictured in this book provide fun, easy, and imaginative exercises to build your child’s skills that are necessary for meeting the challenges of everyday life at home, school, and out in the community.

Whether your child/client can benefit from movement activities that are calming, energizing, strengthening, or simply from getting exercise in general, you will find this book to be a helpful resource at home, school, or in a therapeutic setting. The large clear pictures and concise descriptions are especially helpful for children who have difficulties with language, cognition, or attention. The activities themselves require little or no equipment and the duration of activities can be easily adapted as the child’s skills advance.  

 

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Kelly Tilley is a Board Certified Occupational Therapist that lives in Crystal Lake, IL.  She was educated at The University of Toronto and the University of Western Ontario.

She currently works at Arlington Pediatric Therapy Management Services in Arlington heights, IL, providing therapeutic intervention for children with neurological and congenital conditions.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

 

Selecting Activities for each Child: Description of tabs

Tabs along the bottom border of each page allow the teacher, parent, or therapist to select activities that are ideal for calming, energizing, upper extremity strengthening, and core strengthening.  The tabs allow daily routines of activities to be easily developed. Tabs also make it easier to select activities that are specific to the child’s area(s) of need.  Often these sensorimotor activities improve more than one area, so multiple tabs will reflect this along the bottom of the page. For example, “Meteorite Launch” is an energizing and core strengthening activity.

 

Every child has a unique set of sensory needs and abilities. Some children appear “over-aroused” (too wired, unable to sit still) while some children appear “under –aroused” (too sluggish, trouble getting moving).  Improving children’s level of arousal and their ability to attend and focus can be achieved through sensorimotor activities.

 

Calming Activities

 

Activities that are designated as “calming” provide input to muscles and joints in a slow/rhythmic way. These activities generally focus on “deep pressure” and “heavy work”. Deep pressure activities refer to input such as “squishing under cushions, or being rolled snuggly in a blanket. Heavy work refers to any movement activity against resistance (pushing heavy objects, pushing up against gravity).  

 

Note:

These activities are great preparation for bedtime. They are also helpful prior to table top work at school or before homework.

 

Energizing Activities

 

Activities that are designated as “energizing” provide input to the body that “revs” up or “perks” up the nervous system. The movements are usually quick and often involve changes in head position. These activities often involve jumping, rolling, bending forward, leaping over objects, etc.

 

 

Upper Body Strengthening Activities

 

Activities that are designated as “upper body strengthening” involve weight bearing on extended arms, modified push- ups, animal walks, etc. These activities all help to build the child’s strength and stability in the shoulder girdle, arms, wrists, hands, and fingers. Upper body strength is critical to fine motor coordination which is necessary for children to perform everyday tasks such as writing, buttoning/zippering, tying their shoes.

 

Core Strengthening Activities

 

Activities designated as “core strengthening” target the large muscle groups of the hips, trunk, and shoulder girdle. These activities build postural control, bilateral coordination, balance, and the ability to grade movements. Climbing, running, jumping, and playing on the playground are more easily accomplished with good core strength. Development of the core is also important for regulation and attention.  Activities that require stability and postural control, such as sitting at a school desk during the day, are also more easily achieved when the child has better core strength.

 

Product Details

• Spiral-bound: 54 pages
• Publisher: Sensory World; Spi edition (May 1, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1935567284
• ISBN-13: 978-1935567288
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 7.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #837,056 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars An Essential Resource for parents with Children with Sensory Issues, Low Muscle Tone, ADHD or Autism, August 10, 2011

By 

Gavin Bollard (Sydney, NSW Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Active Imagination Activity Book: 50 Sensorimotor Activities for Children to Improve Focus, Attention, Strength, and Coordination (Spiral-bound)

There are all kinds of different therapies for children on the autism spectrum but in my opinion, two stand out head and shoulders above the rest; Speech Therapy and Occupational Therapy. Both of these are expensive and even with government support, it's unusual for parents to be able to continue beyond one or two terms at a time.

You won't become an occupational therapist simply by using this book but you will learn a lot of fun and simple techniques to achieve many of the same things that occupational therapists work toward.

This book is intended for use with children and adults who need help with attention, calming down and energizing but I can see that it will also provide a lot of benefit for people with poor co-ordination and/or low muscle tone - two things which affect many people on the autism spectrum.

The Book
The book itself is spiral bound and set up so that it can be folded to "self-display". This is a really useful feature for this type of book.

Even better, the pages are all plasticised which not only provides better protection but also keeps them shiny and bright. In fact, these pages are so shiny and bright that they "leap out at you". The great use of colour makes this a fun book to use.


Page Layout
Each page has coloured tabs at the bottom which tell you which of the four categories a given exercise belongs to. Usually they belong to more than one;
Energizing
Upper-Body Strengthening
Core-Body Strengthening
Calming
It's all quite subtle and I missed it at first assuming that it was part of the page design but it's a very useful set of criteria. You'll want to use particular types of exercises with your child at different times during the day.

There is also at least one or two very relevant illustrations on each page. If an activity is "complicated", then multiple postures are shown.

The activities are all described in a few simple sentences which means that even the kids can self-pace themselves through activities.


The Activities
The activities all have great names, like "The hot dog", "Cotton candy" and "daddy long legs" and they're all quite achievable and look like a lot of fun.

The activities sensibly avoid any major equipment requirements and if you've got floor space, little bean bags (or something else, like tennis balls or balloons), then you've really got what you need to do most of the activities.

In Short
This is an extremely well thought-out, well laid-out book which contains 50 very relevant and easy (and did I say fun!) exercises for children and adults. If you're an occupational therapist - there's absolutely no excuse to not have this book - it really is that good.

If you're the parent of a child with special needs, or if you're an adult with sensory or muscular difficulties, then this is the best way to address them at home.

Finally, if you're a teacher, particularly a physical education teacher at a primary/elementary school or kindergarten or if you interact with groups of children in other ways and settings, then this book will come in very handy. As for myself, I'll be taking this one off to Joey and Cub Scouts.

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Activities, Convenient, May 25, 2011

By 

Monique (Columbia, SC) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Active Imagination Activity Book: 50 Sensorimotor Activities for Children to Improve Focus, Attention, Strength, and Coordination (Spiral-bound)

I have zero expertise on children with sensory disorders. However, I am a parent of 5 and 7 year old girls and both of then would delight in the activities listed in this book. This is a spiral-bound book which "stands up" to make it easy to read and look at the illustrations of the activities. The activities are divided by type (Calming, Core Strengthening, Upper-Body Strengthening, and Energizing) and are designed for children between ages 9 and 12. However, younger children are able to perform the activities as well, depending upon their skill level and comprehension.

As an added bonus, this book is small enough to fit in a large purse or in a tote bag, so a parent can refer to it while out and about. You're not limited to performing the activities at home.

Reviewed for Arms of a Sister blog

5.0 out of 5 stars 50 Fun Ways to get Energized, Calm and Strong, May 18, 2011

By 

Barbara Smith "Barbara Smith, M.S., OTR/L" (Massachusetts) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Active Imagination Activity Book: 50 Sensorimotor Activities for Children to Improve Focus, Attention, Strength, and Coordination (Spiral-bound)

Book Review: Active Imagination Activity Book

Just when you have think you have read about, seen or used every sensorimotor activity on the planet, along comes a gem that fills a niche. Active Imagination Activity book by occupational therapist Kelly Tilley is easy to follow and use, small, light and compact to fit in the therapists travel bag and a helpful tool for home programs. The thin plastic pages and cardboard jacket designed to fold into an easel format make turning pages, reading and viewing pictures convenient.

Parents will find it easy to help their children perform the 50 sensorimotor exercises disguised as games. Tilley does a nice job of explaining the basics of sensory tools without getting technical and children will enjoy the colorful illustrations. However, although the pictures are a definite plus, there are one are two that are confusing. Does the child holding the praying mantis position (page 12) have his knee on or off the ground and the child who is supposed to be lifting a beanbag with both feet (page 45) looks like he is using one foot. Regardless, of these possible minor interpretation glitches, the activity ideas are fantastic.

Tilley categorizes each activity as calming, strengthening, energizing or as fulfilling more than one area. Each page is color coded to indicate the primary purpose of the exercise. For example, the Dolphin Dive on page 4 works on upper-body strengthening (green), core strengthening (orange) and is calming (blue). In addition, the quick reference chart at the back of the book lists the corresponding areas that are addressed in each activity.
Now for the crux of this book- the activities! I love the fact that they require no equipment other than items such as a ball or rope that are typically found around the school or home. The activities are based on play and active imagination (hence the title) so that young children will be easily engaged. I can envision the school occupational therapist teaching a couple of movements each week to the entire class so that the teacher can carry them over into the classroom to benefit both students with or without sensorimotor challenges. This is occupational therapy at its best!

Barbara Smith, M.S., OTR/L has worked with children with developmental and learning disabilities for over 25 years. She is the author of The Recycling Occupational Therapist (published by Pro-Ed, Inc.) and her soon to be released book From Rattles to Writing: A Parent's Guide to Hand Skills (Therapro, Inc.)