The Benefits of Making Tie Blankets!
by Anna DeHondt, OTR/L
Certified Trauma Professional
Tie Blankets are a fun way to work on a variety of occupational therapy skills!
When your child puts their heart into using their hands to make these blankets, they experience development in the following areas listed in this post.
Watch KTL’s occupational therapist Anna DeHondt as she teaches you how to do a tie blanket at home with your child. THEN, read about the benefits of making tie blankets BELOW!
Fine Motor Skills
Bilateral Coordination: Tying the knots for the blanket requires crossing of midline and coordinating the right and left hands simultaneously to complete a task.
Grasp: Your child will likely be practicing a tripod grasp to make the knots in the blanket. A dynamic tripod grasp is used when holding a writing instrument and supports handwriting skills.
Hand Strengthening: The repetitive movement patterns used to complete each tie helps to strengthen the intrinsic muscles of your child’s hands- in a fun way!
Scissor Skills: If your child is old enough, they can assist you in cutting the strips of fabric to make the knots.
Self-care/ Dressing
Shoe tying: When making a tie blanket, your child is working on a variety of fine motor skills that support shoe tying. The simple knot for the tie blanket is the foundational knot for tying a shoe!
Sensory Processing
Tactile: The soft fleece is a great way to introduce a new texture for your child’s sensory system to process and modulate. It is also great to snuggle in after for tactile input on the whole body!
Proprioception: Lifting and moving the heavy fleece blanket provides a great opportunity for heavy work to support your child’s proprioceptive system. Additionally, you can make sensory burritos with the blanket when you are finished. Lay the blanket flat and have your child pretend to be the “meat” of the burrito as you roll them up inside.
Visual: Have your child help you pick out the different patterns and colors at the store with you. This will provide a variety of visual input and can be a great way to work on identifying different shapes, colors, and designs.
Visual Perceptual: Your child will be working on their visual perceptual skills as they distinguish between the top and bottom fabrics to make the ties.
Visual Motor: Your child will use their visual scanning skills to scan the edges of the blankets to determine which pieces of fabric still need to be tied.
Executive Functioning
Sequencing: Tie blankets require the sequencing of multiple steps and offer a fun way to work on completing a certain order of operations to create a finished product. You can support your child by helping initiate the sequence or finish the sequence until they are able to complete the ties independently.
Attention: Work with your child to set a goal for how many ties you will complete together in a single sitting. This will work on attention skills during a seated task and skills for task completion. Remember to consider your child's individual tolerance and sensory needs, providing movement breaks as needed!