6 Tabletop Activities To Help Children With GDD Improve Their Focus

After Miguel’s recent occupational therapy session, his teacher told me that he did quite well with his activities for that day. However, she emphasized that we should work on Miguel’s concentration since she noticed that it was a little challenging to persuade him to do the activities. In fact, Miguel was crying while he was accomplishing his tasks but he was able to finish them, nonetheless.

6 Tabletop Activities To Help Children With GDD Improve Their Focus

I asked her what we can do about it and she said that we needed to supplement his usual sessions with more activities at home. At the very least, we should target a minimum of one-hour daily sessions to be able to make an impact on Miguel’s attentiveness. It need not be a full home therapy session; we can just do our usual tabletop activities so as not to exhaust Miguel.

Anyway, here are six activities that we found to be the most effective and enjoyable for Miguel.

1. Matching shapes using formboard

The formboard, whether vehicles or letters, is one of Miguel’s favorite activities. It’s one of the tabletop activities that he quickly learned when we began his occupational therapy sessions and home program.

Buy it here.

2. Shape sorter

The shape sorter is also one of Miguel’s favorite toys. He was already playing with it even before he was diagnosed with Global Developmental Delay.

Buy it here.

3. Loop educational toy

We like that this toy is able to work Miguel’s hand and eye coordination. We still do hand-over-hand assistance when we do this activity but Miguel is quite cooperative the entire time.

Buy it here.

4. Stacking using wooden stack toy

It’s one of the easiest tabletop activities for kids but it works well in practicing their aim, focus, and hand and eye coordination.

Buy it here.

5. Lacing activity

This is admittedly one of Miguel’s least favored activities and he would often complain when we do this. Again, this activity is highly recommended for improving concentration and coordination. 

Plus, you don’t really need to buy a piece of equipment for this activity because you just need a piece of thread and another sturdy material where you can punch holes (like a cardboard).

6. Dot marker activity

We love how simple yet educational this activity is. At the same time, we can see Miguel and even Rafa enjoying coloring the dots in the worksheets. We got ours from Casa Valenzuela and we like that the items are of excellent quality at an affordable price.

Buy it here.

Epilogue

Previously, we used to do activities only when Miguel was in the mood. However, I was told by his teacher that he should already have some sort of discipline when doing our daily assignments. As such, we need to set a time and stick to it even if Miguel was trying to resist.

How about you, do you have a favorite educational activity that you love to do with your child? Feel free to share them in the comment section below.

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