Stick to Sticky Notes: How OTs Can Cut Down on Therapy Equipment

By Lanie Hafferly, MS, OTR/L
Occupational Therapist

For all my SATC friends out there, this one’s for you. I am a minimalist at heart, but many of the OTs out there know that is a conflict of interest. We LOVE our stuff. I love my stuff so much that I carry around a large utility crate to take to my patients’ homes. As it began to get cumbersome, I asked myself “Is there one item I could fit in my pocket that I can treat multiple diagnoses with?” Enter the sticky note. 

Here are just a few ways I’ve used sticky notes to cut down on what I have to bring to every patient appointment. 

1. Functional Mobility

My favorite sticky note game is the scavenger hunt. I place the sticky note at various heights in my patient’s home/ facility so they have to find and reach for them. I have also graded this up to include working memory by writing a word on each sticky note that forms a sentence my patients have to remember at the end.  This will help improve their overall safety navigating their home!

You can use this activity to work on scanning, reaching, bending, attention, navigation, searching, finding and working memory required during functional mobility. 

2. Shoulder ROM

I place the sticky notes on a wall and have the patient reach for them. It seems basic, but I frequently use PNF patterns to require the patient to cross midline, overhead placement to behind their back for shoulder flexion, extension and trunk rotation, or outside of their BOS measured by their current functional reach measurement. 

You can grade this by position from sitting to standing to standing on an airex. I will also increase the challenge by writing numbers, providing math problems, and instructing them to grab the sticky note with the answer to challenge cognition. 

3. Balance

This is my own little version of Dance Dance Revolution where I use different colors of sticky notes or number them and have the patient step to a sequence.  Nothing wrong with a fun way to improve dynamic balance for reducing risk of falls during home-management tasks!

4. Motor Planning

I use the sticky notes as visual targets for big movements, either on the floor for large steps or on the table or wall for large arm movements. 

For dressing, I place them on shoes to help motor plan reaching down to touch toes, behind back for pulling up pants, and if someone has an inattention on the side they have difficulty attending to. 

5. Transfers

I use the sticky notes as visual cues on the floor as “stepping stones” to help motor plan a large J turn, where I want them to step in and out the shower or foot placement for a tub transfer bench. 

I have also placed one sticky note on the center of the walker and matched it to another sticky note on the wall for where I want the patient to “park” their walker prior to sitting on the toilet, bed, etc.

6. Vision

I stick the note to a pen and use it for oculomotor ROM, convergence, fixation, tracking, saccades, and scanning. You can also grade up a balance exercise by pairing it with these visual exercises.

7. Cognition

My favorite activity is to instruct the patient to make a clock with the numbered sticky notes on the wall in front of them. I also have them numbered and scrambled and ask the patient to put them in order, lettered and scrambled and ask them to make a word, or use different colors for sorting. 

Sometimes, post-its are a great first start to help our patients with cognitive deficits locate items throughout their homes while completing functional tasks.  Can’t find your toothpaste? Check out that cabinet with the bright green post-it directing you!

8. Hand Dexterity

Just peeling the sticky notes off the pad and placing them somewhere is a great exercise for tip to tip pinch. I have also created a game like Rockband where I call out a color and they hit it with the corresponding finger working on finger isolation. 

You can also grade this up to a listening/working memory game with a sequence of numbers/colors or challenge attention with use of a metronome.

For those of you asking, “But Lanie, what about the environment?” To you I say, the Post-its do in fact stick twice, sometimes more if you’re diligent. And when my patients ask if I can bring back my crate of endless toys, my answer is: