This Thursday I would like to feature a therapy tool we use in our home on a daily basis...."therapy putty". From the pictures you might notice it looks a lot like playdoh; however the texture and pliability are much different. And not that playdoh is bad...we LOVE playdoh at the Dahl House...well...everyone except the carpet. The carpet in the front room met a container of hot pink playdoh a few weeks ago, and it just hasn't been the same since. No amount of scrubbing, combing or scratching has restored the carpet to it's original hot pink playdoh free self. There may or may not have been a swear word spoken out loud. :) Ok...playdoh rant over.
Therapy putty comes in a variety of colors and firmness. The yellow putty pictured above is much softer than the green putty. Therapy putty is an excellent fine motor tool. It has this amazing power to calm my children! They roll it into various shapes and sizes. You can roll the putty into a ball that will bounce. They enjoy pulling it apart over and over and over again (great way to build hand strength). They have been know to try and hit each other with the pulled apart strands. Someone small has even tried to put it up her nose. She possibly succeeded. No worries though...it's non-toxic. You can even hide small objects in the putty and have them find them and pull them out as a type of game.
The consistency of therapy putty is much different than playdoh too. It has a sheen. Sometimes it seems to almost have a liquid consistency. If I left the green ball of putty out (pictured above) it would eventually become a pancake on the table. However, it does not leave a residue on hard surfaces or little hands. My only caution would be never leave it out on the carpet for a long period of time (hours). It will "melt" into the carpet making it difficult to remove. But if it is dropped on the carpet it will not immediately stick...ahhhmmm unlike the playdoh. :)
Therapy putty can be purchased from various online retailers for less than $4 dollars per 2 oz container (the below containers are 2 oz.). I purchased the yellow putty through Fun and Function . The green we purchased from Luke's occupational therapist. Also, Learning Palace sells putty in tin cases that my daughter has discovered. Some of them are glow-in-the-dark and magnetic! Such a fun, inexpensive, simple activity that has so many great benefits!
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