﻿Hi, I'm really looking forward to our lesson today. I hope you are too. Before we get started, this is just a little reminder. We are here to support any approaches you might've already be using and any work you might have already been set. We know that this lesson is going to be going up to so many different children and families. So, if you are not sure about anything or have any questions, then please do contact your usual therapy team. Hi, today's lesson, is all about using our hands together and why that is so important for all the activities we do everyday in our lives and also just to get our brains working really really well. So, I'm looking forward to this lesson. I hope you are too. Hi, so as I said earlier we're going to be looking at the importance of getting both our hands, to work together. But why is that so important? Well if you think about it, you've got two sides of your body. And we need both sides to work really well together, so that there're activities that we need to complete, loads of activities need both our hands. And sometimes they have to be able to do the same thing together such as tearing paper, clapping and sometimes they have to do different things like, I've got a little pot of play doh. So, like holding food with a fork, and cutting with a knife, or a pot of play doh. One hand is holding and the other hand has got to take the lead off, okay. To get the play doh out, one hand is going to hold and the other one, has got to do that. If my holding hand was really weak, I really struggled with that, okay. So, it's really important that we get our hands working super well together, okay. Because if we don't, things are just going to be really tough for us. And, improving how well our hands work together means that we can develop a preferred hand, a dominant hand, which then becomes the main hand that we use throughout our lives. So, for example for writing. However, we still have to make our helping hand strong as well. For today's activity, you need to get the following: some string, beads or something similar that you can thread onto the string like some maybe some penne pasta, a knife and a fork, so other than the ones you normally use, ask the adults or carer if you can use the normal knife and fork or maybe you've got a toy, or, a plastic knife and fork, some play doh or theraputty and a lacing board. Now, if you don't have a lacing board, you can make one by simply hole punching a sheet of card. Okay. Once you've got everything ready, restart the video and we'll begin. For our first activity of threading, I want you to make sure that there's a really big knot at the end of the string. Ask an adult to help you make one if it's not there already. Then I want you to place your beads or similar small toys to thread them together. One hand is going to hold the string, and the other hand is going to take the bead and push it through and then they're going to swap and one's going to pull, okay. So, one at a time, take one and thread the string through the middle. You could give yourself a challenge by asking an adult to time you and see if you can go faster each time. And you can also try using smaller beads or toys to make it even more challenging. Okay, pause the video now to try threading. Restart once you're finished. For our second activity, we're going to be looking at cutting up play doh. So, you're going to roll some play doh into a sausage shape, you're going to put it in front of you and you're going to use your knife and fork, spear the play doh sausage with your fork to hold it still and then you're going to cut a piece off with your knife. Try and make each piece the same size. And then we're going to try moving the pieces onto a plate, using the knife and the fork not our hands. So, you can challenge yourself by using a smaller play doh sausage or by making all sorts of different shapes to cut up. And, you can even time yourself, okay. Or get an adult to time you. In this video you can see I'm using my hands to roll. So again they're doing the same action, yep. And if one hand was stronger or weaker, my sausage wouldn't be even, one side would be much thinner than the other. So, then we've got to start off with you're going to hold the sausage with your hand, if you finding it too tricky to use your fork right from the start. And then, can you see the little sawing movements that I'm doing, sawing okay. Yep, little tiny movements. Okay. In our next video, you can see that I'm now using the fork. So, it's almost like it's real sausage and we need to use our knife and our fork. So, one hand is going to be stabbing the sausage and the other hand is going to be cutting. And what's really important here is if you have a look, my arms are tucked quite closely next to my body. In fact my shoulders aren't up like I was just showing my shoulders are down and relaxed. And, my arms as you can see there, are just relaxed next to my body. So, they're not far away cause we don't want to try and fly all right, do we? We're just staying there and having our food. Then we're going to stab and put them into a little pot. So both your hands are working really well together again for that activity. Yep. Now, you pause the video to try cutting a play doh sausage. Restart once you're finished. For our last activity, you need to get a lacing board. Now, if you don't have one, you can ask an adult to simply draw a picture on some cardboard, and then punch several holes in it with a hole punch. So you can even draw just draw a circle and put holes in it, it doesn't have to be anything fancy. With one hand you're going to take the string that's got a knot tied in the end. And, you're going to thread this string through one hole to start. You're going to pull it all the way through, that's really important is that it goes all the way through and not just a little bit because then you're going to run out of string, okay. You're going to pull it all the way through, turn the lacing board and post the string through the next hole. So most of it is going forwards, backwards, forwards, backwards. And you're going to keep going all the way to the end, making sure that you turn the board the whole time. And making sure that you're not going over the edge of the board but rather in and out, okay. And you can make this tougher or more challenging by using a board with more holes or by using thinner string. Pause the video now to try lacing the board. Restart once you're finished. So, to make this activity easier, we can try using larger objects for threading and thicker string, okay. And, that means if you want to make it more challenging you're going to use teeny tiny little beads and a thinner string. If you're finding that it's too difficult to cut through the sausage by just sawing with the knife as you saw me do there, try pushing it down, okay. Cause that again is working on some really important muscles and you might find that cutlery with thicker handles are easier to hold on to. Remember, do the best for you. Practise, practise, practise. So when you're having sausages for your tea, practise cutting your sausage up, your real sausage, okay. And, have fun. As always if you'd like to, please ask your parent or carer to share the wonderful work that you are doing using both of your hands together on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter, tagging @OakNational and #LearnwithOak. See you next time.

In this lesson, we will get better at using both hands together.

In this lesson, we will get better at using both hands together. Resources provided by University of Gloucestershire (CC BY-NC-SA: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0)

Lesson overview:Bilateral integration

Core Content

Equipment Required

Fine motor skills: