Exploratory Play - Manipulative Play - Block & Construction Play Pretend Play – Sensory Play - Purposeful Play - Interactive Play OT Activities & So Much More!
Play is at the very foundation of a child’s learning, development, growth and interaction.
Active play, integrates and facilitates developmentally based movement patterns, provides cognitive processing experiences, develops gross to fine motor coordination and control, addresses functional interaction with the environment to build sensory integrative foundation skills, and guides in the learning of self-awareness.
Playful interaction, beginning in infancy, is crucial to a child's learning abilities, language, speech, and overall emotional balance.
Children learn about themselves and their world through sensory awareness of their surroundings. Through play, a child explores their environment, discovers, examines, and learns.
Play provides new experiences and opportunities for learning new skills. This book is jam-packed with different types of play-time as well as OT activities, ideas, games, and exercises for each type of play. It really is an OT Play Book!
This book, “The OT Play Book,” will cover:
Introduction to Therapeutic Play
Play-Time – Play Space Preparation Ideas
Exploratory Play
Exploratory Play and Learning Activities
Manipulative Fine Motor Play
Manipulative Fine Motor Play and Learning Activities
Block and Construction Play
Pretend Play Introduction
Pretend Play Ideas and Learning Experiences
Creative Purposeful Play
Beyond Coloring
Playdough Beyond the Container
Playdough Play-Time Activities and Ideas
Interactive Playful Play
Ball Play
Sensory Water Play
Sensory Sand Play
Sensory Sand Play Activities and Safety Tips
Giant Sensory Bubble Play
Bubble Recipes & Bubble Play Options
Messy–Mess Sensory Play
Messy Play Activity Intro and Prep
Messy Play Activities and Ideas
Heavy Play (Individual and Group)
Heavy Work Idea Checklist for Home, School, Outside
Author, Judy Benz Duncan has been an Occupational Therapist for over thirty years. She has worked with children from infants to teenagers in numerous settings that included early intervention, pre-school programs, grade school, home health, developmental training centers, and sensory integration clinics.
Judy developed the foundation for designing therapeutic activities and tasks using interactive play and creative imagination to engage the children at a level they could easily relate to while working toward the achievement of their Occupational Therapy program’s functional goals and treatment plan
Judy attended the University of Florida, University of Kansas, and the University of Tennessee. She received New York State approval as a Supplemental Evaluator for OT with early intervention and pre-school students, and has helped develop and start an OT program for families and children in New York. Judy continues to stay up-to-date in the clinical field through mentoring other OT students and new graduates.
She continues to contribute to children, families and professionals everywhere through her professional writing endeavors which include writing books and manuals, managing the therapeutic website, TheraPlay4Kids.com, writing OT blogs and topic-specific articles, working on "interactive story play" book series, writing bi-weekly professional blogs for a pediatric orthopedic surgeon group, a psychiatrist, and an attorney at law. She continues to be an active mentor of new OT graduates, as well as OT students.
