Healthy Habits: Hands on Fun OT Preschool Program Pilot Study

Whether you're looking for a structured program to strengthen your child’s fine and gross motor skills,or simply want to find some fun activities for your child to enjoy, at school or at home, your child’s development is in good hands with HOFOT. 

Question 1 : Why Does Occupational Therapy Matter? 

Occupational Therapy plays a pivotal role in helping children meet their developmental milestones. These include fine and gross motor capabilities, as well as sensory and social skills that are critical to their future physical, cognitive, and social functioning. The efficacy of integrated OT interventions is already well-established for children who display atypical physical and emotional development, but as we continue to recover from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is increasing evidence that mainstream children can also benefit from additional OT support to address delays in language, cognition, and dexterity development that have

become prominent following extended periods of isolation and lockdown. In addition, as students return to their classrooms, teachers and parents are looking for guidance on how to keep children motivated and engaged while learning, while also helping them maintain their developmental trajectory. 

Question 2: What are the current Models of OT? 

The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that the need for childhood OT intervention will increase by 15% or more in the next decade. Moreover, they predict that successful programs will be those which focus on multidisciplinary, integrated (i.e. during classroom time) interventions which address the academic, functional, and social needs of the students. A shift towards more coordinated OT support also provides an opportunity for therapists, teachers, and parents to all work collaboratively to optimize each child’s physical and psycho-social development. While a majority of OT sessions are currently 1-on-1, therapist lead, and extra-curricular, our goal is to develop a fun and effective OT program that also equips parents with the knowledge and tools to empower their child’s development. Whether it is home-based or school-based, Hands on Fun OT is designed to help children learn and heal through play in a way that compliments a school-based program. 

Question 3: What is HOFOTs Preschool Program? 

Hands On Fun Occupational Therapy (HOFOT) Preschool Program is just one of several evidence-based OT programs that combine functional and occupation-centered activities to support healthy development in children aged 3-4. Each program comes ith a set of activity outcomes, which align with scientific childhood milestones, to provide parents with a unique set of evidence-based goals along with the steps to successfully achieve them. Each program also includes HOFOTs very own toolbox, which includes digital and physical program resources, activity materials, and instructional activity videos. The Preschool Program is thoughtfully divided into five progressive modules-each with its own set of activities to improve head/neck dissociation, shoulder stability, wrist development, tripod grasp, and arch development. Our modules are also 100% modifiable for level of difficulty, meaning they provide the perfect opportunity for parents, therapists, and teachers to help their child learn and heal at their own pace. Our OT preschool program has already demonstrated its success for classroom-wide dissemination and integrated learning. You can check out our pilot study in the next section. 

Question 4: What Did the Pilot Study Find? 

i) Who, What, When, Where, How? 

The HOFOT pilot study set out to assess the feasibility of our program in supporting the fine and gross motor development as well as core strength of both mainstream students and students receiving Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) in a New York Preschool. All eight students (four in each learning style) received five 30-minute sessions a week for a total of eight weeks. Each session included activities and exercises from the HOFOT preschool program, including trunk control activities, head/neck dissociation, shoulder stability, wrist development, tripod grasp, and arch development. 

We conducted baseline and follow up assessments to see how our Preschool OT activities improved students’ fine and gross motor skills over a two month period. We used the Peabody Developmental Motor Scales (PDMS-2) to assess measures for baseline and follow up motor skills and capabilities in three subsets: 1. Grasping, 2. Visual Motor Integration, and 3. Fine Motor Quotient. Raw scores were transformed into standard scores, which were aggregated for each learning style and compared using statistical analysis (t-tests) to check for significant differences between baseline and follow up scores. 

ii) Findings + results 

All students, regardless of whether they were mainstream learners or had an IEP, showed improvements across all 3 motor subsets following the eight week HOFOT preschool program intervention. As measured by the Grasping, VM Integration, and Fine Motor Components of the PDMS-2, all of the subjects displayed large improvement in their post-test PDMS-2 Scores upon completing a total of forty HOFOT preschool program sessions. 

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To simplify visualization, data was grouped for students according to the two learning styles (mainstream or IEP). Figures 1a and 1b display pre-test and post-test scores across the three assessment subsets for all students according to their learning style. Pre and post-test percentile scores for Grasping, VM Integration, and Fine Motor Quotient were grouped. 

iii) Statistical Analysis 

Statistical analysis revealed significant differences for pre and post intervention scores for the following scenarios: IEP students: Grasping; Mainstream Students: VM Integration; Mainstream Students: Fine Motor Quotient (all p values < 0.05). While other conditions also approached significance, which may be improved with a larger sample size. 

Additional analysis was conducted for each group using aggregated percentile scores for Grasping, VM Integration, and Fine Motor Quotients for students in each learning style. Across both mainstream and IEP student groups, significant differences were found for percentile scores for all 3 PDMS-2 motor components. Specifically, all students in both groups showed higher scores following the 8 week HOFOT intervention, when compared to their own pre-test percentile scores. 

Question 5: What Do Our Findings Mean? 

HOFOT rose to the challenge and set out to develop an inclusive, supplementary tool to assist children at a preschool age improve their core strength, and fine and gross motor skills through tailored playtime activities. Our pilot study shows clear preliminary support of the efficacy of HOFOT’s first evidence-based toolkit at assisting students who were part of both IEP and mainstream learning programs. Its future application will involve helping children who are currently enrolled to attend or returning to preschool in the coming months seamlessly transition back into their learning environments. 

Question 6: Why Should You Be Confident in HOFOT? 

Here’s why we’re excited about HOFOT’s potential as a leading home & school OT program: 

✓ It’s comprehensive 

✓ It’s adaptable 

✓ It’s as simple as 30 minutes a day 

✓ It's activities are centered around fun 

✓ It’s designed to promote healing through play 

✓ It’s effective for all children, regardless of their OT needs 

Question 7: What Can HOFOT Do for Me? 

With a focus on integrated, goal-directed tasks and developmental interventions that include a social component, we have designed a comprehensive, adaptable program that emphasizes healing through play. Our program is also designed to empower parents by equipping them with tools and activities that can be enjoyed at home and at a pace that suits your child, to ensure they meet their developmental trajectory milestones. 

i) What’s in it for you? 

Along with all the items in our toolkit, your learning center will receive our comprehensive 5 day schedule which outlines more than 20 different fine and gross motor strengthening activities along with 8 core training exercises that our program offers. 

ii) What's in it for us? 

As HOFOT continues to grow, we are eager to expand our research and carry out more long-term and follow up studies on the success of our preschool programs across different age groups and learning styles. Collaborating with more learning centers will allow us to realize this goal and help us continue to expand and shape the HOFOT vision. We are confident that, by adopting the HOFOT approach, and successfully implementing our intervention strategies, we can continue to empower teachers, parents, and students, while expanding into middle and high school programs as well. In doing so, we strive not only to increase students’ academic performance and address developmental mobility in a fun and innovative way, but simultaneously to improve the emotional and social components that are so crucial for successful occupational development.