Reach For The Stars Pediatric Therapy Blog

Autumn-lovers, your favorite season is finally here. As the weather gets cooler and the leaves begin to change color, it's time to start thinking about how you can help your kids get outdoors and take advantage of all that this amazing season has to offer.From fun arts-and-crafts projects to festive outings, this list of 20 fall activities for kids has something for everyone!Visit an apple orchard.Make a classic apple crisp.Build a scarecrow stuffed with newspaper.Have an apple cider "tea" party.Bake apple chips.Make an apple stamp.Make handprint leaves.Jump into a leaf pile.Play "I Spy" during a nature walk.Collect and identify leaves.Press leaves into a photo album.Visit a zoo.Check out a haunted house.Make a necklace with Halloween-colored beads.Take a hayride at your local pumpkin patch.Toast the pumpkin seeds from your carved pumpkin.Decorate pumpkins with paint, markers or stickers.Enter your decorated pumpkin into a local contest, or have your own contest!Roll down hills and...

Here is a great craft activity to do with your children where sensory issues will not be a problem. Painting with clothespins! This allows your children to be creative and play with different textures while staying clean at the same time. Who doesn't love an arts and crafts activity that keeps the clean up to a minimum? Watch this video by Whats Up Moms to get the full instructions.

Sensory bins are such a inexpensive and fun activity you can do with your children during holidays. Toddler and preschool age children benefit from the different activities that can be incorporated with them. They are also very popular for children with special needs or developmental delays. Who doesn't love an activity that is fun and encourages your child to learn at the same time? The best part is that you can buy everything that you need at a dollar store!

Here are some more great crafts from Whats Up Moms. These are activities are all Halloween themed. The ghost mud is great for sensory play. It will open your child up to a new and gooey texture while staying clean at the same time. Who doesn't love a craft that is fun and clean! Just make sure to do the activity outside or have a drop sheet on the ground for easy clean up! The spider web craft is great for enhancing fine motor skills while being festive for the holiday at the same time. Your child will be so excited to make decorations to hang up for everyone to see that they won't even realize they are doing an activity that is a source of therapy. I hope you enjoyed these activities. Happy Halloween!

It is summer, and hot! What's Up Moms share some great ice activities to do with your kids to help you cool down. The first activity is basically a sensory bottle much larger and frozen! Roll up your sleeves and make one of these for your child and they will be occupied trying to get those little toys out. 

Achieve Beyond Pediatric Therapy and Autism Services provides special needs children with the services they need to stop developmental delays from occurring. Arts and crafts are a great way for special needs children to support and encourage children to express feelings, enhance their social skills and cognitive functioning, resolve frustrations they may have, fosters coping skills, and increases their use of sensorimotor skills including hand-eye coordination and sensory stimulation. Here are 5 great arts and crafts ideas that would make great activities to do with special needs children. Feel free to add your own ideas in the comments sections below. We hope you enjoy these arts and crafts ideas and share them with your friends and family.

Achieve Beyond Pediatric Therapy and Autism Services serves children with special needs nationwide on a daily basis. With the invention of the iPad and rise of tablets in general many apps have been created to aid in developmental therapies of children on the Autistic spectrum. Here are 10 that come highly recommended by Applied Behavior Analysts, BCBAs and special needs parents. If you have an app that has ben beneficial to a child with special needs please feel free to post links to these apps below. Feel free to share these apps on your favorite social networks as well.AutisMate AutisMate's is a great app for children with Autism because of it’s comprehensive approach that encourages users to develop communication and behavioral skills simultaneously, allowing each skill to build on the other through features like video modeling, stories, schedules and much more. Drawing Pad Drawing Pad is a mobile art studio app...

Summer is here! There are so many great activities that can be done when the weather is sunny and warm outside. Here are some fun activities that can be done with special needs children that can potentially help them improve their social skills, motor skills and cognitive abilities. If you have more fun activities you would like to share with other special needs parents that read this blog please feel free to leave a comment below or post them on Achieve Beyond Pediatric Therapy & Autism Services's Facebook pageDig for worms This a great exercise to improve a special needs child’s fine motor skills. Re-home the worms next to that seedling you planted. The child can have fun getting their hands dirty and at the same time help your garden at the same time. Build a “fairy house” Create a miniature “fairy house” outside with your own yards’ twigs, pebbles, pine...