Here is a simple activity that addresses several skills such as cutting, drawing, writing, spatial awareness and the ability to complete a multi-step task. This activity to can be graded to a variety of skill levels. I am able to complete this task with a group of students that are not on the same level but have similar goals. Although the activity may look simple, it is engaging especially to the students with attention difficulties. All three of these students have a diagnosis of ADHD (one with autism) and none of them are medicated. I find that drawing activities help students control their impulsivity and slow them down which improves the handwriting for students who use quick strokes and chicken scratches for writing. They need to do controlled lines, know when to start and stop a line, and they learn how to self-correct (sometimes with a verbal prompts such as “does that look the same?”) Most of the time I do not tell students what we are drawing or I will do the directive drawings upside down, both the teachers and students love because they all try to guess what it is.
I often incorporate letters into the drawing as much as I can. I started this drawing out with the letter “L” as you can see in the video. I then added a “w” then another “L” and added a “c” for his ear. I always incorporate some sort of writing at the end. You can have the student write the name, copy a sentence, or generate their sentences.
DrawOT 