Play Sequence and FREE file

 I 've discovered this new blog from a SLP browsing podcasts at iTunes. Her podcasts are short but very informative and one of the episodes caught my attention because is about the stuff I love to research and strive for my son which is: play. This particular one was about play sequence which is very important for kids with Autism. Play skills is something in the field I like to research it never really crossed my mind how imagination, curiosity are things so normal for us but it's such a struggle for kids with autism. And many people have no idea including parents that things have to be really laid out in step by step sequences, it makes them to understand better and it's close to the way they think no matter what age they are. So I decided to start with play-dough play sequence mats. Sometimes people want to start right away with all this play-dough kits and gadgets but the kids have no idea how to use them and end up using play-dough in their mouth or other things.
So I decided to start a collection of play-dough sequence mat and this my first one.

There are about 9 pages and it's FREE. You can download here.

Soon I will see if I start to recording a video on how to use those. 

Thanks

Printable Activities at Home

 I'm back after vacation time and have some time to post again, now that the boy is at school I thought would be nice to talk about activities to do at home so they don't forget their skills or maybe get new ones. Printables are a cheap way and I think adds a lot of diversity.
On Etsy you can find a lot of printable activities  but of course you choose ones adequate to your child's level.
I found these ones at Abbiesolutely Preschool Printable.
Another advantage is because they are printable they are so affordable. Although to use them after printing it is better to laminate I have a laminator but if you don't just 2 or 3 pages don't add that much to pay at the office store.

The first one of fruits is not just good to work as puzzle and shape recognition but also you can work on speech asking them to grab the fruit.
Let's put the banana..where is banana ? can you say ba na na !

The other one works with matching letters which is fun, also if you print double the letters you can create  words (if your child is older). I think for little boys like mine that are obsessed with trains is a good choice.

I will probably do a podcast soon talking more about this topic.

Jana

Sorting Toys

I love sorting, I think it teaches so much for the kids, and there is great options out there. But you have really to take advantage so the toy can last and teach many kinds of sorting. Because many times the toys pretty much just sort colors, but we want much more than that. Also sorting board games can be great activities for speech, because as you sort by repeating the words we make children learn the words and try to speak them.
This particular one in the picture I love it because right now we use for basic things, but later with the boards that comes with we can do more advanced sorting and that's help how even a toy maybe you can think your kid is too old  for it can really work in your advantage.
This one is the Farm sorting center. And is just cure to have this animals, they also come in different sizes so we wil work later on big and small.
They also have the Vehicle sorting center which seems to be fun for later on.

Also I found some good alternatives




The super sorting pie we have as well, and it' s so good at first we started with colors, but now we are going to shares and also starting to practice fine motor skills asking him to pick up the fruits with the holders. It's a excellent toy that will last a lot. Also you can use sorting toys to work with math.

Here is a article on benefits of sorting.

The Importance of Fine Motor Skills

Well there is many articles out there to talk about the importance of fine motor skills, what is Fine Motor Skills, why is so important. I think myself as  a parent is very tricky thing to catch because we don't really think about that when we don't have that problem. We kind of take for granted. So we have to pay attention how our kids grab things or how they do small tasks so we can prevent. Most kids with Autism have some weakness with fine motor development, usually Occupational therapy helps with that and there is a lof things out there that we can do at home to help.

We want to prevent this to happen.

As you can see here my son is grabbing the fish with the wrong finger which he should use the pointer the difficult he has with that reacts in many other things like his inability to point. But it's a constant work and training the brain. We've noticed that one hand is better than other so correction helps and hand over hand and soon he was doing the correct way which made grabbing the fishes easier for him.

here is the correct way

We have to see toys sometimes with other eyes, my husband at first thought this toy is for older kids. But when I see a toy I don't always look for the age level because many times I won't use the toys as it's  suppose to be, which makes the toy have a longer use because right now he does't get the concept of this game in a group but later we can play together, for now this toys I use for color matching, and fine motor skills and visual skills (when turning on the table it goes in a circle motion). Later we can even use for math skills. So this is what I'm learning is to see the potential and if the toy can help him with something because there is many toys out there that really doesn't teach anything and are just noisy.

Other toys that are great for fine motor.

Jana

Learning with Cupcake trays

Here is another simple idea that should not cost you a lot of money, it was brought my Lucas' DI I thought was a good one and at the end if they eat it they have rewards, you can use the colored cheerios like fruit da loops and make color sorting, cut labels for the end of the pin. And do sorting.

How could we step it up if you child already know colors sorting:


- Use this same thing to learn numbers instead of colored backgrounds make it numbers or just ask the child to put one, two and so on.

- Use if for patterning, create a sequence of 3  in the top and ask them to repeat in the bottom.

- Buy other small objects like small tiny cars, animals and so sorting by shapes.

- Work the sensory use dry pasta, beans any that your child has a sensory issue.


Possibilities are endless !

Have fun !

Learning the Cheap Way

This is a great idea and so cheap for a seasonal activity, one of Lucas DI' s (Development Interventionist) brought this and it was so cute. Dollar Store tags buy couple of each and laminate them I have a laminator it was a good investment that I got a long time ago to laminate some pictures. She just laminated the tags in a blank paper than the tags by themselves.Voila you have a matching game.

He is doing excellent now with matching I can see that he develop this skill really well now, in the beginning it was not so easy now it's beautiful to see how he scans the paper and find matches. The same with wood puzzles.
Matching is good for the brain, develop pre requisite for reading and math. Also we work with speech in this game as we can work with any game.
Say the name of characters if the kid is older like Lucas and have speech problems it's important to try to make the child say before giving the tag, if the child is younger you just model saying the name.


I hope you have a great 2012.
Jana

Flour Box - Sensory

Well textures that is something Lucas struggles with, everything that has to do with touching and putting his hands and fingers. We started with a dry curly pasta box, also we have a  bean box and now flour, at first he gagged a lot, cried didn't want to touch it. But that's why it's good to have a OT to show you how to introduce this kind of freighting activity for him.
So to take the pressure out of him we say: Mama is going to play with it. So I started to transfer the fruits from the flour to a empty container and saying the name of the fruits and vegetables. He started to pay attention and got closer, so I asked for help to put the fruits and vegetables back in the flour.
And we kept asking him back and forth well he was very disgusted about it. But the important thing is he did it and I think what counts is to take the pressure out of him.


Tip: Sensory boxes are good for any level, if your child doesn't have any sensory issues it's a great activity for speech and develop even more the sensory of your child.


Jana