Stacey Armstrong Occupational Therapist

01/12/2025

Great for:
💪🏼Motor planning
💪🏼Midline crossing
💪🏼Bilateral Integration
💪🏼Sequencing

If you try this at home:
🌟Be creative and try multiple different sequences.
🌟Include hopping, clicking, clapping, turning, criss-crossing... Anything really!
🌟Notice the accuracy of the sequence. Can your child do it without error?
🌟notice the fluidity. Can they do it without pausing to think.
🌟Can your child think up their own sequences?

15/11/2025

So beautifully explained! This is why even 'educational' screen time doesn't match actual embodied play.

14/11/2025

Join me on substack if you're interested, as I start to put some of my thoughts to paper.

https://open.substack.com/pub/staceyarmstrongot/p/the-farmer-the-ot-and-the-carnivore?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=6hs1t0

04/11/2025

Tying shoe laces! It's a major milestone. With Grade One just around the corner for one of our sons, this is topical in our household.

I vaguely remember a rhyme about bunny ears and trees that didn't make much sense to me.

This is how I've taught a few kids to tie shoelaces. I hope this helps someone!

Note: tying laces is both a fine motor and a perceptual skill (and a bilateral and sequencing skill). Difficulty with laces could stem from a number of underlying difficulties.

28/10/2025

Even after 19 years in the profession feedback like this means a lot. I don't think I'll ever get 'too old' to not need to know I'm making a difference.

30/07/2025

Free-time! One either has too much or too little of it... 👵🤰🏃

But mental health depends as much on WHAT you do with it, as it does on how much of it you have.

Does your leisure time pursuit bring balance to the rest of your life?

Think activity levels, 🏋️‍♂️physical vs 🎮sedentary?
Creative (writing, photography, art) vs consuming (reading, movies, scrolling)?
🕺Time with people vs 🙃Time alone ?
🏠Indoor vs ⛺️outdoor?
Learning a new skill 🏹vs enjoying an existing one 🍰.

You may be in a season where you can't make big changes in HOW MUCH free time you have, but...

Being intentional about making one small change in how you spend your free time
could be the first step towards feeling like a whole new you. 🥰🥰

28/07/2025

One way to have puzzles in the house (without too much pressure to keep track of every piece!) is to let your child make their own (low cost and 'disposable') puzzle. This can be a fun activity which includes colouring/drawing, pasting and cutting. Lots of fine motor tasks, and a puzzle at the end which they can build. Just make sure your child knows at the outset, and is ok with the idea, that their artwork is destined to be cut up into a puzzle!

1. Have them draw a picture or colour in a picture of their choice.
2. Glue the picture onto cardboard or the back of a cereal box
3. On the back of the cardboard (not on the picture), draw puzzle 'lines'. For younger kids, wavy lines horizontally and vertically will be easier to cut out. For older kids, you can include tabs for them to cut around.
4. You may need to help with the cutting, depending on the age of the child.
5. (Optional) by gluing a sheet magnet on each piece, you can create a fridge puzzle.

If they don't want their artwork cut up, just use the picture on the cereal box as the picture. They can cut it up and try rebuild it.

28/07/2025

https://www.facebook.com/share/16iQFKMuJ6/

𝗪𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗥𝗲𝗴𝘂𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗡𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗼𝘂𝘀 𝗦𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺
Thanks to Executive Functioning Toolbox for sharing this great infographic from ! Try some of these tips to soothe & relax your nervous system!
𝗠𝘂𝗹𝘁𝗶𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗧𝗼𝗼𝗹𝘀: https://tinyurl.com/mr3uaatk

27/07/2025

I won't lie, as a parent I find it very hard to keep puzzles in the home, as there are just so many pieces to keep track of!! 🥴 Yet I include Building a Puzzle in nearly every kid's assessment I do.

Here are some reasons to persevere with keeping puzzles in the home, apart from the obvious and numerous "visual perceptual skill" benefits:

🐞they promote problem solving (there is no 'right way' to build a puzzle, but there are some strategies which are more effective than others)
🐞improved memory and focus
🐞improved tactile processing and fine motor coordination
🐞encourages patience and perseverance
🐞promotes spatial awareness
🐞floor puzzles add a dimension of postural control and weight bearing
🐞when done together they promote family bonding

Are you a puzzle building family? What are some of the strategies YOU use as a parent, to keep track of all the pieces?