As an occupational therapist, I am a complete sucker for any game that uses chopsticks, grabbers or tweezers. There are so many benefits of games that use some kind of grabber. I will sometimes even use the grabbers from games for other games that have a lot of pieces. The most obvious benefit of grabber games is that it’s a great way to work on improving fine motor, grasping and manipulation skills. By using grabbers, you are working on strengthening the small muscles of the hands which are essential for things like holding writing instruments, uses scissors and other school-related activities. Another benefit of games that use grabbers/tweezers is that they often encourage bilateral coordination skills and encourages crossing the midline. Using chopsticks/tongs/grabbers also helps with developing the arches of the hand which is essential for school-based activities like drawing, writing, coloring and so much more.
Some tips in order to maximize the therapeutic benefits of the games suggested below:
1. Please make sure that your child is using their dominant hand to hold the tweezers/grabbers/tongs/chopsticks.
2. If your child isn’t holding the grabbers appropriately (look at picture at the right for reference), assist them and put them in the correct position in order to encourage a more tripod-like grasp that you want to see on a writing instrument. I go a little bit crazy when I see pictures of kids playing the game and holding the grabbers all wonky but that is the occupational therapist talking.
3. Encourage crossing midline as often as you can. This might mean putting the the game board or game pieces on the opposite side of their dominant hand.
4. If you think that the grabbers/tongs/chopsticks aren’t the best fit for your child, you can always swap them out with ones from a different game or something that you might have lying around at home.
Below, you will find a handful of my favorite games that use different kinds of grabbers. Many of the games are from Learning Resources, which has a large selection of these kinds of games. What I love most about many of the games below is that you can use the materials inside the boxes without actually playing the game.
Snack Party Pals-I like to start the school year off with new games, toys and activities and while I was searching, I stumbled upon this adorable cooperative game. There are so many things I love about this game besides the fact that it comes with tongs to pick up the game pieces with. This is one of my newest games and I love that it is less about winning and more about working together to complete the game. Players take turns using tongs to flip over snack wedges with the goal to find all the matching pairs of food before filling up the stinky cheese plate. Not only is this game great for working on developing fine motor, grasping and manipulation skills, it works on improving visual motor and visual perceptual skills, improves concentration, attention and focus and works on building memory retention skills.
Noodle Knockout-this has been a longtime favorite game of mine from Learning Resources and yes, it comes with kid-friendly chopsticks! The game comes with 20 recipe cards, a spinner, chopsticks and all the ramen ingredients. As I mentioned above, these games from Learning Resources allows for multiple ways to play based on a child’s age and skill set. You can also just work on increasing grasp strength and manipulation skills by dumping all the pieces of food out and have the kids clean them up using the chopsticks. The game itself if fairly easy; kids take turns using the spinner and try and gather the ingredients on the order card they have chosen. This game also works on improving visual motor and visual perceptual skills, works on following directions and works on color identification and matching.
Pete The Cat I Love My Buttons-this is one of my favorite games and one of the things I love about it is just how versatile it is. I actually don’t play the game as much as I take advantage of the fact that it’s great for working on improving grasping and manipulation skills. The kids love it because they love anything Pete The Cat which makes it easier to encourage kids to try something a bit more challenging. If playing the game, players have to take turns spinning trying to be the first to put all the buttons on his shirt using the Pete the Cat grabbers that come with the game. This game is great for working on social emotional development because the spinner includes things like having to put one or all of your buttons back and giving a button to another friend playing. This builds resilience while improving frustration tolerance. In addition to working on developing fine motor skills, this game is great for working on improving matching skills, color and shape recognition and encourages bilateral coordination skills. If I don’t have another child for kids to play the game with, I throw in an upper body strengthening and crossing midline component by having them get in the net swing and put the buttons on Pete The Cat’s shirts.
Grab That Donut-this is a great game from Learning Resources geared towards toddlers or children with more significant fine motor, grasping and manipulation skill delays. One of my favorite things about this game is that there are several modes of play for different ages and skill sets and that the box has a built-in activity for kids who might not be ready to play any of the games. The game comes with 24 adorable donuts of varying shapes and colors, 4 different colored grabbers, a spinner for game play and order cards. What I love about this particular game is that in addition to offering several ways to play the game:
Baker’s Dozen-be the first person to fill your donut order card by matching the shapes and colors of the donut. Kids take turns spinning the spinner and can choose either the color or shape of the donut of where they land. If the spinner lands on the double donut, kids can choose any two donuts that they need to fill their order but if they land on the donut with a bite taken out of it, they must put one donut back in the box.
Donut Dash-this game doesn’t require the use of a spinner. Kids each pick one order card and race to pick up the matching donuts; the first person to yell “donut” is the winner.
Snack Attack-kids work together to build a tower of circle donuts trying to make it as tall as possible without it falling down
The box can be used to display the donuts. You can encourage kids to sort donuts on the shelves by color or shape to work on improving matching skills.
In addition to being a fun way to work on improving grasping and manipulation skills, Grab That Donut works on improving visual motor and visual perceptual skills, improves focus and attention, encourages hand-eye, bilateral coordination skills and crossing the midline.
Frida’s Fruit Fiesta–Educational Insights has a whole series of games that use fun grabbers made especially for smaller hands and I love them all. Frida’s Fruit Race is a fun alphabet game that uses a toucan-shaped grabber to pick up game pieces. Each player gets a nest card with a bunch of uppercase letters on them. On their turn, they spin the triple-letter spinner and try and collect matching letters to be the first to get four letters in a row. If the spinner lands on a monkey, they will lose a letter on their board and if it lands on the bird they get to take a letter from a friend. This is an engaging and motivating way for young children to learn how to identify their uppercase letters and work on improving matching skills. In addition to working on increasing grasp strength, improves grasping and manipulation skills, works on improving hand-eye coordination, visual tracking and improves focus, attention and following directions.
Thin Ice-this game is intended for younger children who are working on developing their fine motor skills. The game is easy to set up and the directions are easy to follow. You create “ice” by putting a tissue in the game board and then drop all of the marbles in the well at the bottom of the base. Kids take turns using the tongs to pick up the marbles and then gently place them on the “ice” without it breaking. Not only is this great for working on improving grasping and manipulation skills, it works on improving hand-eye coordination, encourages kids to modulate their movements and improves focus and attention. I encourage kids to work together to see where they think the safest part of the ice is to work on improving collaborative play and teamwork instead of focusing on who wins and loses.
Operation-this game has been around for ages and ages but this version is a definite upgrade. One of the things I like about it is that the shaking and buzzing aren’t as jarring as the original one which is great for my sensory sensitive kids. There are two modes of play: Hospital Mode (pick a card and collect the most pieces) and Emergency Mode (ditch the cards and try and grab as many pieces as possible before time runs out). Using tweezers, kids try and remove objects from the board without touching the metal rim. Playing Operation is a great tool to work on improving grasping and manipulation skills, works on improving hand-eye coordination, improves focus and attentional skills and can work on building up a child’s frustration tolerance. This particular version of Operation is nice because it is smaller which makes it easier to take on the go and the cards, tweezers and game pieces are all easily stored within the game making it easier to keep track of everything (which is great for kids who are working on improving executive functioning skills).
Ruby’s Gem Quest-this is another great game for younger children who are working on developing their fine motor skills. Instead of chopsticks or a tweezer/tong like tool, kids use a dragon-shaped tool that kids hold like a pair of scissors. As a therapist, I love the idea of kids being introduced to the motor-planning and coordination aspect of scissors without actually cutting in order to build their confidence and self-esteem. The purpose of the game is to be the first to fill your treasure chest with all gems but it’s not so easy because the spinner contains a couple of tricky spots. The box itself doubles as the game board: kids place the colored gems in the matching part of the box and start playing. This game also works on improving visual motor and visual perceptual skills, works on color recognition, matching skills, encourages bilateral coordination and works on crossing midline.
Dreaming Dragon-another game better suited towards school age children or preschoolers who don’t have fine motor, grasping and manipulation delays. The objective of the game is to use tweezers/grabbers to remove lizards from Mama Dragon’s next without waking her and without letting any of the eggs drop from the nest. If an egg falls out while you are removing the lizard, you lose a lizard. The person who has the most lizards at the end of the game is the winner. If you want to include some kind of social component to the game, encourage the kids to work together to strategize while each of them are removing the lizard from the nest eliminating a winner and loser all together. In addition to working on improving grasping and manipulation skills, Dreaming Dragons works on improving hand-eye coordination, encourages bilateral coordination and crossing midline (make kids take their lizards and put them on the opposite side of what they are holding the tweezer in), works on problem solving and critical thinking and works on executive functioning skills like focus, attention, self-control and planning and organization skills.
Oodles of Aliens-another great educational toy from Learning Resources that is intended for preschoolers and is both a board game and a sorting toy. Just like the other Learning Resource’s educational games, instructions for a various ways to play is included. Using their Tri-Grip Tongs, kids sort and match 30 aliens into a multi-colored flying saucer. It also comes with a very detailed instruction book with loads of different ways that you can play the game. Oodles of Aliens is great for working on improving grasping and manipulation skills, increased grasp strength, works on color identification and matching, works on counting and number recognition, improves hand-eye and bilateral coordination skills, works on improving visual motor and visual perceptual skills and increased focus, attention and problem solving skills. If you are looking for a fun and multi-purpose game to work on building counting and number skills, this game is perfect.
One thing to keep in mind is that you don’t need to invest in a bunch of these games in order to incorporate chopsticks or grabbers into play at home. Below I am going to share a handful of my favorite chopsticks/grabbers/tongs and toys that you can buy that have been a big hit with my kids at work. As you can see in the picture below, I have a huge stash of these squishy toys and a big variety of grabbers so that I can offer each child ones that I know they will be successful with. These squishy toys are great because they don’t take up a lot of room and kids love looking through, sorting them by colors or looking through to find their favorite animals or creatures. It’s always fun to see what kinds of conversations come about when I take these out!
Colored Sorting Bowls
Children’s Tongs
Hand Grabbers
Child-Friendly Chopsticks
Stretchy Snakes
Stretchy Balloon Animals
Stretchy Lizards