Euphena Beaded Jewellery: Developmental Benefits of Beading for Children

In my previous blog, I highlighted the therapeutic benefits of beading. Well an article written by Kimberly Voaden confirmed my findings: http://www.beadingbuds.com/developmental-benefits-of-beading-for-children. Here is her wonderful article

As an Occupational Therapist with over 7 years experience working with children of all ages, I can strongly endorse beading as an excellent leisure activity, promoting childrens' development in the following areas:

Fine Motor Skills:

Grasping: Various sizes of beads promote different grasps. Larger beads often promote the "3-jaw chuck" grasp, similar to holding a large pencil or marker. Smaller beads encourage children to use their pincer grasp, thus strengthening the small muscles of their hands.

In-hand manipulation skills: Many components of making a beaded craft increase strength and coordination in the small hand and finger muscles. For example, picking a bead up from the beading tray, and then manipulating it in one's hand until it is pinched between your thumb and finger, involves translation, shift and rotation movements of the bead within the hand.

Visual Perceptual Skills:

Visual Discrimination, Scanning, Visual Memory: The child must be able to remember the beading pattern to determine the bead they want to use. Once they know what bead they want, visual discrimination assists them in selecting the bead that fits their mental image of the desired bead. Finally, the child must scan across many different beads before finding the desired bead.

Visual Motor Skills:

Eye-Hand coordination: Threading beads onto a string involves bilateral coordination of the child's hands, and requires their eyes and hands to work together.

Cognitive Skills:

Overall Developmental Benefits of Beading:

Planning: What style of necklace does the child want to make? What pattern will they choose? Where are all the materials needed to complete this beading activity? By answering these questions, the child develops his/her planning and problem-solving skills.

Math Skills: How long will my necklace, bracelet, or keychain need to be? How many beads do I need to complete this project? How can I create and maintain this beading pattern? Encouraging children to think through these functional math problems is a motivating way to improve academic skills in this area.

Social Skills

Beading Parties promote sharing and cooperation, as children choose beads and complete their projects in a group setting.

* Improved fine motor, visual perceptual, visual motor and cognitive skills

* Improved dressing skills (especially clothing fasteners, like buttons and zippers)

* Improved pencil grasp and pencil control during colouring and writing activities

* Improved visual perception and better planning often help a child to become more organized (e.g. Where is that sock? Where did I put my pencil case or favourite toy? Do I have everything I need to complete my homework?)

* And last but not least, Beading can provide a sense of accomplishment in completing a project that offers freedom of self-expression and camaraderie with other party-goers. This sense of "Occupational Fulfillment" can contribute to improved self-esteem.

**In other words, Beading is just plain FUN, and FUN is good for kids!!**

Accommodations for Children with Special Needs:

Beading can still be a special and fun party activity for some children with special needs.

For children with difficulty using their hands and fingers, try:

1) Using larger beads that have larger holes.

2) Wrapping stiff tape around the end of the beading string, to crate a long "shoelace" style tip that may be easier to push through beads.

3) Work with an assistant- one person can hold the string, and the other can put the beads on the string.

4) Children with severe physical difficulties may still be able to direct how they wish their necklace to be made. Every effort to honour their wishes by allowing them to participate as much as possible will provide them with a successful experience.

5) Provide comfortable seating, with child's feet touching floor, or supported on footstool, sitting at appropriately sized chair and table.

For children with Visual Impairments, try the following accommodations:

1) Use large, brightly coloured , textured beads, and brightly coloured or textured string (e.g. fuzzy yarn).

2) Place beads on background of contrasting colour (e.g. light or coloured beads on black paper, and dark beads on light paper).