The heavy duty laminate on the front and back of the spiral-bound book make it a well protected yet portable resource for itinerant therapists such as myself. Its tabbed divisions separate the book into the three major activity areas (gross motor, fine motor, oculomotor) along with a tabs for materials/equipment, construction instructions and an extensive reference section. This exceptional resource also includes a CD-ROM which includes all the activity charts included in the book (all the tabbed sections), making it  easy to print out forms to program sequentially organized activities, document accurate progress monitoring, or keep physical records. 

Ms. Erhardt's resource is very adaptable to all practice arenas. For the school-based therapist who travels between buildings and doesn't always have access to a printer, but rather a copier, the appropriate pages of the book could be copied before leaving the building. The activity forms are packed with developmentally appropriate activities to challenge the gross-, fine- and visual-motor needs for a broad spectrum of pediatric clients.

Although this resource does not have numbered pages, there are about 160 pages of activities which are easily located by the strategically placed tabs dividing the various sections. As a school-based therapist, I started using activities from this resource immediately! The clearly outlined activities were easy to incorporate into treatment planning for implementation with teachers and support staff within the school environment. In other settings, especially clinics, the various therapeutic tasks could easily be done and passed along to parents for home practice. The sequentially outlined activities help to make it a "documentation dream." The activities are also very complementary with other motor programs therapists may be using, such as "Brain Gym" or "Bal-A-Vis-X" training.

As an OT, my favorite section is the fine-motor section, which includes graded activities for carbon paper tasks, auditory memory tasks, directionality maps, card activities, sensory discrimination and much more! This book will definitely become one of your favorite activity resources!

The Visual-Perceptual-Motor Activities Collection by Rhoda Erhardt is available from Erhardt Developmental Products, 2379 Snowshoe Court East, Maplewood, MN 55119 at a cost of $55.00. Web address is http://www.erhardtproducts.com.

About the reviewer:
Trinell S. Bull is a staff therapist with the Central Susquehanna Intermediate Unit in Lewisburg, PA where she services school age children.