Products, Therapy Tips

12 iPad, Xbox, and Wii Games That Help With Occupational Therapy

In occupational therapy, there are many ways to use motivating technology to address specific fine motor, sensory processing and sensory-motor skills.  Here is a parent’s guide to apps and game systems that will keep children entertained while also assisting in their development.

iPads & Tablets

Games such as Temple Run and Fruit Ninja help with visual tracking and scanning, as well as overall attention and focus on tasks Handwriting and letter apps are great to work on fine motor skills. Our favorites include Dora ABCs and ABC tracing games. Both help kids learn their letters and give instruction on how to properly form them. Sequencing games such as Cookie Maker and Pizza Maker address how to follow multi-step directions and increase kids’ attention on tasks. Challenging cognitive and problem-solving apps work to increase these higher-level skills in a creative way. Our favorites include UnBlock Me and Where’s My Water?

Xbox Kinect & Nintendo Wii

Videogame systems address lots of body movements to increase and improve a variety of skills, including balance, coordination, strengthening, and endurance. Kinect for Xbox is a system that allows for full body fun, in which the child controls the movements on the screen and doesn’t need a controller.  Nintendo’s Wii system is a classic favorite that offers motion-controlled action play, incorporating lots of coordination work with a variety of controllers and accessories (such as a balance board and dual-hand controllers). Both systems provide tons of sensory input, allowing for improved body awareness, movement processing, and overall motor skill acquisition and development.  Games that focus on these areas include:

• Wii Fit Plus:  Balance, coordination, and body awareness
• Wii Sports: Hand-eye coordination, timing of movements
• Dance Dance Revolution: Strength, endurance, following sequences, vestibular (movement) input
• Kinect Dance Central: Strength, gross motor imitation
• Kinect Training: Strength, endurance, proprioceptive (active resistive) input
• Kinect Sports: Hand-eye coordination, timing of movements

Have fun and learn with technology! What are your favorite games that can help with occupational therapy? This post was written by the occupational therapy department of The Kaufman Children’s Center for Speech, Language, Sensory-Motor, and Social Connections. Kaufman Children’s Center provides individual speech and language therapy, occupational therapy, sensory integration therapy, social skills instruction, and applied verbal behavior therapy for children from birth to 17 years old.