Occupational therapy checklist for grade one teachers

It is the beginning of a new year. Your class filled with new excited faces. You may feel pressured to ensure that all the children in your class perform to their best abilities. The following checklist can be followed to identify children that may benefit from Occupational Therapy and enhance their performance in the school environment.
Gross motor
•Child appears physically weaker compared to other children their age.
•Child is unable to gallop, skip, jump and run.
•Child is unable to stand on one leg for a period of 19 seconds.
•Child has a slouching sitting position at their desk.
•Child is clumsy.
•Avoids playing on the jungle gym during break time.
•Struggles to catch a ball with only his hands and still catches the ball against his body.
•Unable to bounce a small sized ball and catch it again.
Fine motor
•Difficulty with manipulating small objects.
•Difficulty with drawing and colouring.
•Child is unable to cut on a straight line as well as curved lines.
•Child’s dominance not established.
•Child’s school work is untidy.
•Child writes too big or too small.
•Child presses hard or too soft while writing.
•Child has not developed a three point pincher grip, which involves holding the pencil with their thumb, index and middle finger.
Perceptual development
•Child is unable to point and name their body parts.
•Child struggles to draw a detailed picture of a man and omits various body parts.
•Child does not know the names of all the basic geometrical shapes.
•Child does not know the names of the colours.
•Child is unable to count from one to thirty.
Visual perception
•Child has difficulty with following objects with eyes.
•Child has difficulty with completing a puzzle of 30-100 pieces.
•Difficulty to distinguish between numbers, shapes and letters.
•Turns shapes and letters upside down when copying.
•Difficulty with copying from the blackboard
•Difficulty in following the words while reading.
Academic performance
•Short attention span less than 30 minutes.
•Restless and does not want to sit still.
•Slow work speed.
•Hyperactive.
•Difficulty with understanding instructions and to execute a task.
Vestibular
•Scared of climbing stairs
•Avoids play activities that require balance
Auditory
•Child is over sensitive to sound and would try and block sounds out.
•Child has difficulty in recognizing sounds.
Emotional
•Difficulty in adapting to the new routine at school.
•Gets frustrated easily when he/she does not succeed in a task.
•Struggles to make friends and regularly has quarrels with children their age.
•Functions better in smaller groups than in a classroom.
•Enjoys to distract other children.
•Difficult to express his feelings.
•Child finds it difficult to participate in games with rules.
Tactile
•Child tries to avoid physical contact and does not enjoy being touched.
•Isolates himself/herself from other children and prefers to stand in front or at the back of the row
For further information please phone (056) 816 2155.