Homemade Valentine cards much more than expression of love

With Valentine’s Day around the corner, I have fond memories of time spent at my childhood elementary school decorating a white valentine bad and placing it on my desk for hand deliveries form my classmates. At home, I made individual valentine cards, folded them and then carefully inserted the finished card into an envelope. I addressed in my best handwriting while being certain to correctly copy the spelling form the class list. It was a much-loved tradition and one that has been carried over to this day at elementary schools everywhere.

 Occupations therapists love Valentine’s Day! For those who know me well, they may think that it’s the candy conversation of hearts and chocolates. Thought the candies are a plus, OT’s love Valentine’s Day for Do It Yourself (DIY) valentine cards.

One DIY valentine card encompasses drawing, coloring, folding, cutting with scissors, gluing and handwriting. It’s an OT’s dream come true. It’s a simple arts and crafts activity that includes the many necessary functional fine motor skills that a student needs in order to participate and be successful at school. More specifically, these fine motor activities require fine motor precision, a variety of grasp patterns, bilateral coordination and eye-hand coordination.

But wait, there’s even more…

One DIY valentine card also supports:

·       Visual Perception. For example, placement/centering written messages or designs.

·       Visual Motor Integration to draw heart designs.

·       Visual Skills for near point copying an address to an envelope.

·       Executive function for task initiation, sustained attention, planning and organization for a finished product.

·       Creativity

·       Self esteem

Whew! That’s a lot of skills for one Valentine’s Day card. You can certainly see why occupational therapists love Valentine’s Day!

So, this year join occupational therapists everywhere and their love of Valentine’s Day by opting out of store-bought cards in favor of DIY. Since traditional in-class deliveries are not possible, take the opportunity for a movement break and walk to the nearby mailbox, or even hand-deliver cards to your friends’ doorsteps.

Kimberly Bonacum is an occupational therapist for Piedmont Unified School District and owner of Mindful Fidgets, LLC www.mindfulfidgets.com. For additional questions, she can be contacted at mindfulfidgets@gmail.com