Some of the only times I can get Bella to sit still with me is when we do crafts together. These are some easy, cheap crafts I've come across over the last year or so that are not only easy and fun, but help with common issues in autistic children like fine motor skills and sensory issues. These crafts can be done with neuro-typical siblings as well. (Or, if you don’t have an autistic child, these crafts are still fun to do together).
#1. Sensory Glitter Bottle
What you’ll need:
Soda bottle or other clear empty bottle
Food coloring or colored glitter
Baby oil
Little trinkets or small objects
One of the easiest craft ideas you can do with a child who has autism is a simple “sensory glitter bottle”. Fill the bottle 3/4’s of the way up with water and fill the rest with baby oil. Leave some space for other floating objects like colored bouncy balls, letter tiles or small gumball prizes. Add glitter or food coloring and glue the top on.
These are two "sensory bottles" that Bella and I made together.
#2. Edible Finger Paint
What you’ll need:
Vanilla pudding (single serving cups work great)
Food coloring
Not only is this a safe, non-toxic way to get them painting, it helps with hand eye coordination and color identification. All you do is mix vanilla pudding with a few drops of food coloring. Ta-Da, instant finger paint that’s also edible. Perfect for kids, like mine, who tend to want to taste and mouth everything they touch.
#3 Paint With Ice
What you’ll need:
Tempera Paint
Ice Tray
Tin Foil
Craft Sticks
Another easy-peasy painting trick, (that’s a little less edible) is to mix liquid tempera paint with water, pour it into an ice tray and stick a Popsicle stick in it. It will freeze and the effect you can get from painting with them as they melt is pretty neat. An easy way to keep the sticks standing while it freezes is to put some tin foil on the top and poke the sticks through it.
Picture is from http://www.education.com
#4 Crayon Resists
What you’ll need:
Poster Board or Paper
Crayons
Paint
Have your little artist draw a picture with light colored crayons, pressing down hard. After they are done, paint over the picture with black or dark paint. Where they drew their picture will resist the paint making for a pretty cool piece of art.
#5 Matching Games
What you’ll need:
Anything you can use to creating pairs of matching objects.
Use the lids of baby food jars, two Popsicle sticks, index cards etc. Draw matching objects on pairs of cards for your child to color in. Then you can play with them. Flip them all over and take turns trying to match the pairs.
Magnetic refrigerator magnets stick right to baby food jar lids and make for easy matching games. Also, click here for free printables for matching games.
#6 Buried Treasure
What you’ll need:
A sandbox with sand (or sand in a Tupperware tub)
Some of your child's favorite small toys
Simple… bury the toys in the sand and then help your child dig for the “buried treasure”. If your child has a habit of eating the sand, you can scale this down and use “glass gems”. They are fairly cheap at most dollar stores. Pour all the gems into a Tupperware container and “bury” small things like dice or small toys. Bella enjoys this version because the gems feel nice on her hands and it’s smaller so it’s not so overwhelming. (Less of a distraction then a giant sandbox to play with)
#7 Fine motor skills games
What you’ll need:
Depending on which activity you want to do…
Put uncooked spaghetti noodles in a wad of play dough to keep it standing. Hand your child a pile of Cheerios and help them slide the Cheerios onto the noodle.
OR
Take a bottle filled with water, a spoon and some marbles, set them up on a table and guide your child to scoop up the marble with the spoon, carefully “pouring” it into the opening of the bottle. These two activities can help greatly with fine motor skills and hand eye coordination. The Cheerios game is also fun because afterwards, your child can snack on the Cheerios.
#8 Edible Necklaces
What you’ll need:
Red Vines and Fruit Loops
This is one of Bella’s favorites. You get to make beautiful edible jewelry with your child by stringing fruit loops on a piece of red vine licorice. Then, have an even grander time eating them! A great project to help with hand eye coordination and fine motor skills.
Take into consideration the skill level of your child. Doing these activities together or with siblings is a great way to get everyone involved. While most will just see them as fun things to do, each of these activities can help improve fine motor skills, hand eye coordination, can help with sensory issues (touch, taste and texture) and can help engage your child, improving eye contact and personal bonding. As always, supervision is always required, especially for those who have children who like to mouth objects or don’t always follow safety rules.
Have fun!!!
