How To Upgrade A Peg Board Activity

Peg Boards - Good or Bad?

One the main goals we strive to achieve as clinicians is to choose functional activities for our patients to engage in.  Pegboards and cones have been a more controversial topic in the past few years, especially in occupational therapy. I read an interesting article by Glen Gillen, EdD, OTR, FAOTA a few months ago and it truly made me rethink how I treated my patients.  If you would like to know what article I am referencing, DM us on @thenoteninjas on Instagram!

With that being said, I still believe a pegboard is a useful tool that can be used to promote fine motor coordination skills and also visual perceptual skills.

How to Upgrade

Here are some ideas for you to upgrade a regular pegboard activity:

• Draw different patterns on boards and have patient input pegs following pattern
• Cue to input pegs by color
• Have patient stand on balance pad
• Attached pegboard to wall at greater than arms length to promote functional reach and reach outside base of support
• Hide pegs in theraputty and have patients remove pegs from putty before inputting into board
• Upgrade sitting to standing position
• Raise surface height of peg board to promote shoulder flexion
• Place peg board laterally to promote trunk rotation

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