Games are such a fun way to work on a variety of skills.  As an OT, I often use games in my sessions to work on fine and visual motor skills in a fun way!   There are so many options out there.  Jen did a post all about her favorite games for an ABA classroom that you can check out here. In that post, she also highlights some games that are great for fine and visual motor skills such as Pop Up Pirate and Perfection.  Here are just a few more fun game options that you might want to try, especially if you are looking to work on fine and visual motor skills with your students. .

Sneaky Snacky Squirrel

I love any game that requires the use of tweezers, and this one is especially adorable. This game can be played with up to 4 people.  The player spins the spinner, and then uses the squirrel tweezers to pick up the acorns and put them in the correct spot on his tree. If the tweezer are hard to use that’s ok, have the student pick up the acorn using just the fingers you hold a pencil with. This also works on muscle strength!  This game is great to use with early childhood students.  

Trouble

There are so many opportunities to work on fine and visual motor skills in this game.  You need to use strength to push down the bubble to roll the dice, fine motor coordination to pick up the game pieces and then the hand eye coordination to place the pieces in the correct hole. This is a great game to use with elementary students.

Connect 4

This is a classic game that I love to use with my early childhood and elementary students.  The game requires refined motor skills to pick up the game pieces and coordination to place them in the desired slot.  If the concept of getting 4 colors in a row is challenging for your student, you can adapt the game by just asking the student to ‘put in’ certain colors or a certain number of pieces.  

Rush Hour

I like using this game with older students.  This really challenges visual motor skills.  The goal is to get the red car out of the game board, so you need to move the other cars around in order to do so.  The manual provides a variety of different setup ideas so each game can be different.  This is more of a solo game, but it is a nice one to have on hand!

Hungry Hungry Hippos

This is another great option for working on hand and finger strength!  This game is so much fun.  You have to press on the hippo to open its mouth and ‘eat’ the marbles.  It tends to turn into a fast paced game, so kids get a lot of repetition and practice to build that strength!

Travel Sized and Yard Games

Don’t have a lot of storage space or a big budget for games? Try travel sized games!  As you can see in my pictures, I love using travel games because they fit easily in my bag when I commute between schools.  Because they are smaller,  they encourage even more refined fine motor skill development.  However, the smaller pieces could be a choking hazard so be sure to supervise to ensure safety!

Do you work with older students, maybe in a transition program? I think it would be super fun to purchase some of these games in a large yard version for rec and leisure time! I find it can be a struggle sometimes  to prepare developmentally appropriate activities for our oldest students, but yard games like large connect four and large jenga are popular right now and would be fun for our older students. 

What are your favorite games that work on fine and visual motor skills?

This blog is for informational purposes only.  The information provided is general in nature.  Please contact your OT for specific recommendations.