Playing games together can be a fun way to help build and refine important skills without having to plan formal activities!
Game playing can also be an enjoyable way to bond as a family. Below are 10 occupational therapy game favorites the whole family can play together: versatile games that help develop sensory/motor/communication/social skills (like fine motor, visual motor, perceptual, counting, color recognition, finger dexterity, and social skills like following rules, taking turns, and being a gracious winner/loser). These top-pick games can easily be adapted to make the challenge higher or lower for different ages and can be used for other "therapy" type skill-building activities.
1. Jungle Rescue Fine Motor Skills Game
Kids adore this engaging fine motor/finger skills-building game! Place lovable little animals in the jungle bin then use 8 rubbery vines to set up a criss-crossing web. The more vines you use, the greater the visual motor challenge! Kids spin the spinner, then use the squeezer tongs to maneuver between the vines to "rescue" a jungle animal and match it to their card. The goal is to collect enough animals to fill your cards! This colorful, skill-building tongs game is great for building pre-scissor, motor planning, eye-hand skills, bilateral coordination, and more.
2. Emotion-oes
This neat dominos-like game is wonderful for children (teens and adults, too) who have difficulty identifying feelings and facial expressions, or for those who need practice recognizing emotions. Players match kid-friendly kid pics that show a variety of emotions like worried, silly, sorry, angry, tired, confused, and more. Each "domino" also includes a descriptive word that reflects the emotion being depicted. For ages 4 -up.
3. Noodle Takeout Sensory Motor Skills Game
Draw a recipe card and use tongs to fill your bowl with the matching ingredients to make the perfect noodle dishes! Noodle Takeout Game is an excellent sensory and fine motor skill building game for developing finger strength, eye-hand coordination skills, finger grasps, pre-writing and pre-scissor skills, sorting, matching, visual perceptual motor skills, and more! This very colorful, scrumptious play set includes 4 different colored bowls, 4 matching tongs, 10 double-sided recipe cards, a "recipe" spinner, 47 rubbery ingredients, and instructions for 3 variations of therapeutic game play.
4. Eureka Motor Planning Skills Game
Eureka is a neat "mad scientist" game where players mix "molecules" to make the "right" formula! To play, you pick a challenge card, 3 test tubes, and 6 colorful balls to solve the scientific formula. The challenge is to pour balls from tube to tube without touching or dropping them in order to match the colorful formula card and master the formula! This brain and motor skill building logic game (a game of speed too if desired) is great fun for working on eye-hand coordination, finger dexterity, visual motor, bilateral coordination, and motor planning skills. The first "scientist" in the lab to get the correct mix wins! Eureka is recommended for ages 8-up. 2-4 players can play the formal game, but we love it for solo skill building, classroom stations, and therapy activities.
For this game, players spin the wheel, then use jumbo tweezer tongs to pick up fun little pieces of brightly colored, rubbery fruit! Avalanche Fruit Stand is a terrific game for promoting finger grasps, pre-writing skills, finger strength, and eye-hand coordination. It's also a fun way to work on fine motor and crucial foundational skills like sorting, counting, patterning, placing, and color recognition. OTs love its vertical orientation and the smorgasbord of therapeutic tong activities this game offers! Includes: a vertical fruit stand, 40 assorted pieces of colorful fruit, 2 jumbo tweezers, and a spinner. Fun for ages 3-up.
I Spy Dig It is a phenomenal game for sorting, counting, fine and visual motor skills, matching, patterning, tactile discrimination, eye-hand coordination, and more! Players select a picture card then "dig" thru the sorting bowl to find all the colorful objects on their card. Therapists and teachers love pairing it with one of our specialty tongs (3-Prong Gripper Tongs, Tiny Teasure Tongs, Teeny Weenie Tongs or Jumbo Tweezers), to increase the fine motor skill benefits! This neat game comes with: 128 I Spy objects (32 objects in 4 colors), a jumbo digging bowl, 12 double-sided picture cards in 2 different levels, and a sand timer. Fun for solo activities, this game is easy to adapt for a wide range of ages and abilities. Designed for ages 5-up.
7. Magic Snap Matching Puzzle Finger Skills Game
You'll love this unique fine motor skill game that builds finger strength and visual perceptual skills! Provides a fun and engaging way to develop important visual motor and finger skills needed for handwriting and fine motor activities. Players complete the puzzle cards by pushing colored orbs around inside matching colored rings on their Magic Snap and Push Puzzle Balls. An entertaining, skill-building game for solo play, therapy activities, and/or organized group play (up to 4 players). For ages 6-adults.
8. Gem Quest Scissor Skills Game
Neat treasure hunt game with the coolest scissor-like dragon tongs on the planet! Spin the spinner & use the dragon to scoop up & place colorful gems in your treasure chest; the first to collect all 5 colors wins! Gem Quest Scissors Skills Game is delightful for building fine motor, eye-hand coordination, pre-scissor skills, and more. Includes a game board storage box, 20 gems, 4 treasure chests, dragon tongs, and a spinner. For 1-4 players, 3+. Ideal for family game night with little kiddos!
Honey Bee Tree is a downright darling game that's marvelous for building eye-hand coordination, important grasping skills, visual, and fine motor skills. After inserting all the leaves into the see-thru honey tree (a great visual-motor task in itself), players carefully pull single leaves out of the tree, trying not to wake up the little sleeping bumble bees... because the bees will come tumbling out if you pull the wrong leaf! Honey Bee Tree includes: a honey pot oak tree, flower tray base, 32 leaves, and 30 adorable honey bees (which are great for counting and tong-sorting activites, too).
10. Sneaky Squirrel Tongs Game
The squirrels are hungry and need your help! In this magical game of fine motor skills, kids spin the spinner and use "squirrel squeezer" tongs to pick up little colored acorns–and fill up the matching color holes on their mini logs. Sneaky Squirrel Tongs Game offers tons of fun for building functional finger grasps, pre-writing skills, finger strength, pre-scissor skills, and eye-hand coordination. This neat game includes: 1 squirrel tongs, 20 colorful rubbery acorns, 4 logs, and a game spinner. A fun fine motor activity and educational toy for 2-4 players, ages 3-u
Click here to see more popular games and fun educational toys, and skill-building learning activity sets.
– Therapy Shoppe® OT Mom ❤️
*Updated July 2024
More articles you might enjoy:
Fun Sensory Recipes & DIY Craft Ideas To Try At Home
Yummy Cookie Recipe to Try This Weekend!
10 Fun Toys and Games To Build Fine Motor Skills!