Check out these cool toys – there are tons of ways to use Squigz to work on developmental skills with kids!
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When my boys got a box of Squigz for Christmas last year, I knew we had a winner. But I had no idea how many different ways there were to play with these awesome, sticky little toys until I brought them in to use in my occupational therapy sessions.
From heavy work to fine motor skills to visual motor skills and more, the possibilities for these “fun little suckers” are endless! The Squigz Starter Set comes with 24 little silicone suction cup poppers in 8 different shapes and sizes. They stick to each other along with just about any surface you can imagine, making for awesome construction play and other creative play ideas.
Here were some of our favorite ideas…
15 Ways to Play With Squigz
1 || Stick all of the Squigz on the table (or other surface) and have kids pull them off as fast as they can!
This is great for fine motor strengthening, visual motor integration, and gives a little dose of proprioceptive input as kids pull against the suction cups. We used this as a little fine motor warm up at the beginning of our OT sessions.
2 || Stick all of the Squigz on the table (or other surface) and ask kids to pull off a certain color.
This adds a little cognitive element for younger kids (I used this with young preschoolers who were just learning their colors).
3 || Ask kids to pull of a few Squigz in a certain sequence.
This is a great way to up the complexity for older kids – great for sequencing, memory, and fine motor skills!
4 || Stick them all over the table or floor to make an awesome obstacle course for cars, trucks, trains, and other toys!
Challenge kids to weave their toys in and out of the obstacles – great for visual motor integration!
5 || Stick them to each other to make bridges for cars and other toys to go through.
6 || Stick Squigz on the side of a file cabinet, refrigerator, or mounted marker board and work on core strength by having kids pull them off in a kneeling position.
Or, place the Squigz up higher and have kids move from tall kneeling to standing to pull a Squig off and then back to kneeling to place it in a basket or container on the floor.
7 || Stick them on a marker board (large or small, mounted vertically or resting on a table) to make a visual motor obstacle course!
Have kids weave in and out of the Squigz with a dry erase marker.
8 || Stick Squigz on a marker board to make dot-to-dot drawings.
9 || Use them to practice leaving spaces between words when writing.
We practiced writing short sentences on marker boards, sticking Squigz to the marker board in between each word to show how much space to leave.
10 || Use them to practice letter construction by placing one of the Squigz on the marker board as a starting point, indicating where to start forming each letter.
11 || Use Squigz with play dough!
They make great little stamps!
12 || Try a geo board challenge.
Stick several Squigz to the table and see how many rubber bands kids can hook between them before the suction cups pop off! This worked best with the smallest orange Squigz and the kids loved it!
13 || Work on upper extremity strength!
Sticking several Squigz to the floor and having kids positioned on their tummies over a therapy ball or bolster to pull off as many as they can while supporting themselves on one hand!
14 || Make it a relay!
Again, stick Squigz to the floor and have kids run or move on a scooter back and forth to grab them off the floor and then race to another place to put them in a bucket one at a time.
15 || Squigz make awesome fidget toys for circle time and other classroom activities!
So much fun, right? What the heck are you waiting for? Pick up your set of Squigz today! You won’t be disappointed! Do you have Squigz already? What are your favorite ways to play! Leave us a comment below!
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LOVE these ideas especially #3 and #7. Check out my ideas at http://yourtherapysource.com/blog1/2013/08/23/must-see-new-therapy-toy-squigz/
Wow, last week i had never heard of squigs, and now they’ve come up on my feed three times! ! In love! I wonder if I can get these…
Hi Alex! I know! They seem to be everywhere right now! They have definitely become one of my favorite toys and treatment tools at work – you’ll love them!!
I love my squigz! I’m a school based PT and they’re so easy to take with me from school to school and I can use them for so many activities. one of my favorite things to do with them is have my kids stand on an air-ex mat (a squishy balance mat, if you’ve never used one) and squat down to pull a squig off the floor, then stand back up and reeeeeach to put it in a bucket. it’s great for working on balance and core strengthening and I haven’t found a kid yet who doesn’t love it! actually, I do have one student who doesn’t like pulling them off the floor, but he loves it if I stick them to my forehead for him to reach out and pull off. I look like a spaz but it gets him working! The things we do for our kids. :)
Hi Molly! Love your suggestion for using Squigz!! And SO funny that he likes to stick them on your forehead!! We’ll have to try this too! :) Thanks for taking the time to comment! :)
I would like to order some Squigz for my classroom. I teach SPED preschool.
I love using Squigz too! We discovered they also stick to Bosu balls/Therapy balls. For some reason, this is just really fun , funny and playful!
We love our squigz! We take turns trying to see who can throw them and get them to stick on our sliding glass doors – that’s my personal fave ;). I’m not a therapist of any sort, but you could probably have them on a balance ball when they throw to work on core strength (maybe have them pull them off the floor and then try to throw them at a glass door). We also like playing with them in the bath – we put them all over and see which other bath toys will suction to them and hang from the wall. Or try to build a bridge across the tub. I haven’t done this yet, but you could stick one to the floor and use it as a golf ball tee to practice your swing off of?! You could also stick them on a table and have them put kix or some other object on them (fine motor skills?) or take objects off.
So many awesome ideas Anna!! Thanks so much for sharing – we’ll have to add these to the post! :)
Squiggly is my all time favorite toy to use in the clinic! From fine motor warm ups to shoulder stabilization! We use the like skis to propel ourselves on a scooter board! Awesome for bilateral integration! One of my families bought window markers and drew targets on the slider. They throw Squigz like darts! They also make awesome chewies for oral motor seekers and can be washed with hot soapy water so easily! Love, love, love them!!!!
We’ve measured how much the suction power by lifting things. I think it took only two Squigz to lift our plastic slide outside which seemed” BIG.” But cups and lids and plastic containers or plates. But one Squigz hardly weighs much itself! I love these other ideas of an obstacle course and writing and drawing. Thanks for posting!
there are tons of ways to use Quiz to work
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