Classroom Equipment Spotlight: Slant Boards

If you are a school-based OT, you have probably seen slant boards before. If you are a special education teacher, you may have also seen or used these trusty tools in your classroom, in collaboration with your OT! If you are a parent or guardian of a child in school, you may be unfamiliar with slant boards - which is why this post is here.

Parents and guardians of children who receive OT in schools can benefit from learning more and knowing about what tools their child may use at school to support their educational performance. Additionally, if parents want to incorporate strategies at home to support their children with their school goals, many of these tools can be used at home!

So, let's dive in. A slant board looks exactly how it sounds - a board-like device that is slanted. Slant boards are meant to be used on a desk or table during writing and reading tasks.

Slant boards help support reading, writing, & coloring tasks in the following ways:

• Elevating writing and reading material closer to the eyes, which decreases visual strain and eye muscle exertion.

• Providing a stable surface to rest the forearm when writing or coloring, which promotes better hand and finger function when utilizing writing implements.

• Providing an angle that promotes wrist extension when coloring and writing, which is needed for the fingers to develop better grasping skills and fine motor coordination with writing implements. This is important for all handwriting skills development!

• Working as a clipboard that can be placed on its side into a vertical position to place reading or copying material into a vertical position for easier near-point copying skills participation.

• When placed on its side to stand vertically, a slant board can serve as a nice way to reduce visual distractions in the classroom environment, essentially creating a "study carrel" divider right at your child's desk.

Slant boards come in many different styles, but the most common ones are plastic, lightweight, and portable. If you think your child would benefit from use of a slant board at home, speak to your child's OT about it. Slant boards can commonly be found these days out on the online marketplace such as Amazon.