Show and Tell: Letter School App

I know that whenever I do show and tell, I always say it's my favorite, but this app really is the favorite of all my students. We do Handwriting Without Tears at my school, so this is nice because it has a mode for Handwriting Without Tears. Another thing I love is that it follows the concept of I do it, we do it, you do it. The graphics are great and engaging for the kids so that they want to keep doing it over and over.

When I use Letter School, I generally have the kids learn the prompts and practice on paper or a chalk board first and then follow it up with the app. It's well worth the $5.  Check it out at www.letterschool.com.

I know that whenever I do show and tell, I always say it's my favorite, but this app really is the favorite of all my students. We do Handwriting Without Tears at my school, so this is nice because it has a mode for Handwriting Without Tears. Another thing I love is that it follows the concept of I do it, we do it, you do it. The graphics are great and engaging for the kids so that they want to keep doing it over and over.

When I use Letter School, I generally have the kids learn the prompts and practice on paper or a chalk board first and then follow it up with the app. It's well worth the $5.  Check it out at www.letterschool.com.

Show And Tell: Hog Wild Poppers

My sister, who is a Pediatric Occupational Therapist, called me one day to tell me about these awesome toys she just got.  They sounded like fun, so I got on amazon, and bought a couple.  They're called Hog Wild Poppers.

Clear Horizons Academy, the school I am going to start teaching at in Fall 2013, asked if I would come and do a pre-writing activity with some of the kids so that they could see my teaching style.  I decided to use the popper toys as a fun activity.

To get ready for the activity, I made some shapes and put them on manila folders.  You could do letters, numbers, word recognition, nouns, verbs, anything you're working on with receptive language really.  If you fold the back part of the folder up, it makes for a nice little stand.

I showed the kids the folders, and I had them trace the shapes with their fingers.  Then I set them up as targets.  I would tell them what shapes to hit, and they would try to hit them with the poppers.  Some kids needed the activity adapted more than others, but it's easy to do.

There's so many different activities you could do with these, and I think it would be fun for kids that are older than preschool as well.

So here are just some of the reasons why these toys are so awesome, and how they can help with child development.

• First, who doesn't love shooting balls across the room.  They're engaging and fun, and can keep the kids attention.
• Color/Shape identification
• Making choices-I had them choose which color ball they wanted, and which animal they wanted to use
• Taking Turns-We took turns shooting the balls
• Fine Motor Strength
• Squeezing the poppers to strengthen hands
• Manipulating small objects (balls) 
• Thumb Opposition
• Squeezing the poppers
• Crossing midline
• Placing objects of the opposite side of the body for them to reach for (some kids had a hard time crossing midline, so I would purposely do a little playful obstruction and make them reach a couple times across midline before I would give them the ball, especially if they would switch hands when I crossed midline)
• Tracing large shapes
• Pinser Grasp
• Picking up the small balls and placing them in the poppers
• Finger Isolation
• Tracing shapes with their pointer finger
• Using one finger to push the ball in place
• Eye-hand coordination
• Hitting a target with the ball using the poppers
• Bilateral Coordination
• Squeezing the poppers with both hands
• Holding the popper with one hand while putting the ball in with the other
• Upper Body Strength
• Laying on their tummies while playing the game
• Motor Sequencing
• Following the sequence of events to hit the targets
• Getting the ball
• Putting it in the popper
• Aiming at a target
• Squeezing the animal to shoot the popper

Some warnings:  

• This toy is not meant for kids under 3, it has small parts.  
• Some kids will look at the toy while squeezing it, it shoots pretty hard, so you'll want to be careful of that.  Especially for kids who don't quite understand cause and effect.

Here's a list of some of the different poppers I found on Amazon.  Hope you have fun!

• Pig
• Cow
• Penguin
• Dog
• Bear
• Dinosaur
• Fish
• Moose
• Panda
• Shark
• Bunny
• Monkey
• Santa Pig
• Pirate
• Noise Making Popper (Dog)
• Orange Monster
• Blue Monster
• Green Monster 1
• Green Monster 2

Joy Mano

Utah PLAY Project Home Consultant

Early Childhood Services for Kids With Autism

My sister, who is a Pediatric Occupational Therapist, called me one day to tell me about these awesome toys she just got.  They sounded like fun, so I got on amazon, and bought a couple.  They're called Hog Wild Poppers.

Clear Horizons Academy, the school I am going to start teaching at in Fall 2013, asked if I would come and do a pre-writing activity with some of the kids so that they could see my teaching style.  I decided to use the popper toys as a fun activity.

To get ready for the activity, I made some shapes and put them on manila folders.  You could do letters, numbers, word recognition, nouns, verbs, anything you're working on with receptive language really.  If you fold the back part of the folder up, it makes for a nice little stand.

I showed the kids the folders, and I had them trace the shapes with their fingers.  Then I set them up as targets.  I would tell them what shapes to hit, and they would try to hit them with the poppers.  Some kids needed the activity adapted more than others, but it's easy to do.

There's so many different activities you could do with these, and I think it would be fun for kids that are older than preschool as well.

So here are just some of the reasons why these toys are so awesome, and how they can help with child development.

• First, who doesn't love shooting balls across the room.  They're engaging and fun, and can keep the kids attention.
• Color/Shape identification
• Making choices-I had them choose which color ball they wanted, and which animal they wanted to use
• Taking Turns-We took turns shooting the balls
• Fine Motor Strength
• Squeezing the poppers to strengthen hands
• Manipulating small objects (balls) 
• Thumb Opposition
• Squeezing the poppers
• Crossing midline
• Placing objects of the opposite side of the body for them to reach for (some kids had a hard time crossing midline, so I would purposely do a little playful obstruction and make them reach a couple times across midline before I would give them the ball, especially if they would switch hands when I crossed midline)
• Tracing large shapes
• Pinser Grasp
• Picking up the small balls and placing them in the poppers
• Finger Isolation
• Tracing shapes with their pointer finger
• Using one finger to push the ball in place
• Eye-hand coordination
• Hitting a target with the ball using the poppers
• Bilateral Coordination
• Squeezing the poppers with both hands
• Holding the popper with one hand while putting the ball in with the other
• Upper Body Strength
• Laying on their tummies while playing the game
• Motor Sequencing
• Following the sequence of events to hit the targets
• Getting the ball
• Putting it in the popper
• Aiming at a target
• Squeezing the animal to shoot the popper

Some warnings:  

• This toy is not meant for kids under 3, it has small parts.  
• Some kids will look at the toy while squeezing it, it shoots pretty hard, so you'll want to be careful of that.  Especially for kids who don't quite understand cause and effect.

Here's a list of some of the different poppers I found on Amazon.  Hope you have fun!

• Pig
• Cow
• Penguin
• Dog
• Bear
• Dinosaur
• Fish
• Moose
• Panda
• Shark
• Bunny
• Monkey
• Santa Pig
• Pirate
• Noise Making Popper (Dog)
• Orange Monster
• Blue Monster
• Green Monster 1
• Green Monster 2

Joy Mano

Utah PLAY Project Home Consultant

Early Childhood Services for Kids With Autism

Show and Tell--Play Food

PLAY FOOD

There are so many reasons why play food is great.  First it's something that the child has hopefully seen and possibly experienced first hand.  We're talking imitation skills here.  Because a child usually has first hand experience watching his mom (or dad) prepare food, he/she is able to have an idea of what to do with this food.  This is where pretend comes in.  First it will just be imitating the motor actions, but then it can turn into thematic play.

This particular food is great because it also incorporates fine motor skills.

So here's my list of things to do with play food in random order (aka, however it comes to my mind)

• Have a picnic
• Feed stuffed animals or puppets
• Play the "like it"/"don't like it" game.  Make funny faces as your child "feeds" you, and over exaggerate when you like it or don't like it.  Then do the same thing with the puppets
• Match the pieces of food that go together
• Match the food to pictures of the food
• Categorize the food
• Cut the food and prepare a meal
• Be a waiter and take the child's order or vice versa
• Make a stew
• Set the table before you eat
• Have a tea party
• Plant the food in a sandbox or sensory table

PLAY FOOD

There are so many reasons why play food is great.  First it's something that the child has hopefully seen and possibly experienced first hand.  We're talking imitation skills here.  Because a child usually has first hand experience watching his mom (or dad) prepare food, he/she is able to have an idea of what to do with this food.  This is where pretend comes in.  First it will just be imitating the motor actions, but then it can turn into thematic play.

This particular food is great because it also incorporates fine motor skills.

So here's my list of things to do with play food in random order (aka, however it comes to my mind)

• Have a picnic
• Feed stuffed animals or puppets
• Play the "like it"/"don't like it" game.  Make funny faces as your child "feeds" you, and over exaggerate when you like it or don't like it.  Then do the same thing with the puppets
• Match the pieces of food that go together
• Match the food to pictures of the food
• Categorize the food
• Cut the food and prepare a meal
• Be a waiter and take the child's order or vice versa
• Make a stew
• Set the table before you eat
• Have a tea party
• Plant the food in a sandbox or sensory table

41 Fine Motor Games/Activities

This week I have been making lists of activities that you can use for an Activity Schedule.  Today I have a list of 41 Fine Motor Activities.  Why did I choose 41?  I have no idea, except for when I was looking for Matching Activities, I stopped at 41.  Guess it's the lucky number for now.  I tried not to duplicate the Matching Activities or the Sorting Activities, so if you want more ideas, check out those posts.  A lot of those activities involve fine motor as well.  Click on the picture to get the amazon info on the product.

Add tweezers/tongs to any activity, and that will give you some good fine motor :)

After you practice unwrapping the candy :) Practice putting in coins.  Or make your own bank with a small box, or an old jar.

This was always a favorite toy of all the kiddos

Draw circles on a paper that they have to mark, or draw bugs that they need to squish with the paint.  You can usually buy bingo paints at the dollar store.

For beginners, have them make one inch snips along a half sheet of paper.  As they get better, they can cut a line across the paper, then a circle.  You can probably find cutting worksheets online as well. 

Your child can be the fruit ninja, just throw this fruit at them and see if they can cut it in midair :)  I would be really impressed if they could do it.  And I would also be impressed if no one got hurt in the process.

You can buy these for only $40! Or, you can make one like I did in the picture below for $1.

Another thing you could do with pompoms is have the child use a spoon to scoop them from one cup to another (you'd need a larger opening than this picture though)

Link the alphabet together, or link simple words together

Have the child hold the magnet wand in one hand, and collect all the disks or balls in the other hand.  Then have them put the objects one at a time in a container like the tootsie roll bank or the home made container you made for $1.  The hand that is putting the objects in the container should be the same hand that is holding all the objects too.

You can work on patterning or sorting colors/shapes

If you want to work on matching, you can take pictures of Mr. Potato Head and they have to match their potato head to the picture.  This would require having more potato head accessories.

Hide little objects in the theraputty, then when the child finds the items, they can put them into a jar

Make a container (or use the tootsie roll bank if it fits) and put the popsicle sticks in the container.  You could also make a container with different colored slots, and they have to put the right color in each slot.

You can trace letters with stickers, or sort colors, or match the stickers to shapes/colors on a paper, or just give them a blank paper and let them make their own design.  Just peeling the sticker off and putting it on a paper is a lot of fine motor skills.

Trace pictures with the wikki stix

Something I like to do with tracing to save paper is I put tracing worksheets or a paper with the child's name on it inside a sheet protector, and then I have them trace with a dry erase marker.  I like to use the skinny markers though, so it's more like holding a crayon or pencil.

10 additional activities ideas (without pictures)

• Zippers-get a zipper board (these are good for practicing latching the zipper like a coat), or little coin purses with zippers.  You can put coins in the coin purses, they can unzip it, and put the coins in a bank.
• Buttons-get a button board or an old button up shirt.  They can put the shirt on a doll, or on themselves.  Bigger buttons are easier to start with.
• Locks with keys.  You can color code the locks with the keys or put pictures, abcs, numbers, etc. to make it easier for them to figure out which key unlocks which lock.
• Clothespins-these are great for everything.  You hang up doll clothes on a clothesline, you can match colors, pictures, letters, numbers, etc. by putting the clothespin on the matching card, or on a paper plate with pictures around it.
• Play-doh - you can give them a picture of something they need to try to make out of play-doh.  You can have them make a snake and then cut it with scissors.  You can have them make the first letter of their name.
• Coloring pages
• Turkey Baster/Eye Dropper - Use one of these to transfer water from one bottle/cup to another.
• Make a fruit loop necklace
• Put toothpicks into a salt shakers
• Make confetti with paper and a hole puncher

Joy Mano
Utah PLAY Project Home Consultant
Early Intervention Treatment for Children With Autism

This week I have been making lists of activities that you can use for an Activity Schedule.  Today I have a list of 41 Fine Motor Activities.  Why did I choose 41?  I have no idea, except for when I was looking for Matching Activities, I stopped at 41.  Guess it's the lucky number for now.  I tried not to duplicate the Matching Activities or the Sorting Activities, so if you want more ideas, check out those posts.  A lot of those activities involve fine motor as well.  Click on the picture to get the amazon info on the product.

Add tweezers/tongs to any activity, and that will give you some good fine motor :)

After you practice unwrapping the candy :) Practice putting in coins.  Or make your own bank with a small box, or an old jar.

This was always a favorite toy of all the kiddos

Draw circles on a paper that they have to mark, or draw bugs that they need to squish with the paint.  You can usually buy bingo paints at the dollar store.

For beginners, have them make one inch snips along a half sheet of paper.  As they get better, they can cut a line across the paper, then a circle.  You can probably find cutting worksheets online as well. 

Your child can be the fruit ninja, just throw this fruit at them and see if they can cut it in midair :)  I would be really impressed if they could do it.  And I would also be impressed if no one got hurt in the process.

You can buy these for only $40! Or, you can make one like I did in the picture below for $1.

Another thing you could do with pompoms is have the child use a spoon to scoop them from one cup to another (you'd need a larger opening than this picture though)

Link the alphabet together, or link simple words together

Have the child hold the magnet wand in one hand, and collect all the disks or balls in the other hand.  Then have them put the objects one at a time in a container like the tootsie roll bank or the home made container you made for $1.  The hand that is putting the objects in the container should be the same hand that is holding all the objects too.

You can work on patterning or sorting colors/shapes

If you want to work on matching, you can take pictures of Mr. Potato Head and they have to match their potato head to the picture.  This would require having more potato head accessories.

Hide little objects in the theraputty, then when the child finds the items, they can put them into a jar

Make a container (or use the tootsie roll bank if it fits) and put the popsicle sticks in the container.  You could also make a container with different colored slots, and they have to put the right color in each slot.

You can trace letters with stickers, or sort colors, or match the stickers to shapes/colors on a paper, or just give them a blank paper and let them make their own design.  Just peeling the sticker off and putting it on a paper is a lot of fine motor skills.

Trace pictures with the wikki stix

Something I like to do with tracing to save paper is I put tracing worksheets or a paper with the child's name on it inside a sheet protector, and then I have them trace with a dry erase marker.  I like to use the skinny markers though, so it's more like holding a crayon or pencil.

10 additional activities ideas (without pictures)

• Zippers-get a zipper board (these are good for practicing latching the zipper like a coat), or little coin purses with zippers.  You can put coins in the coin purses, they can unzip it, and put the coins in a bank.
• Buttons-get a button board or an old button up shirt.  They can put the shirt on a doll, or on themselves.  Bigger buttons are easier to start with.
• Locks with keys.  You can color code the locks with the keys or put pictures, abcs, numbers, etc. to make it easier for them to figure out which key unlocks which lock.
• Clothespins-these are great for everything.  You hang up doll clothes on a clothesline, you can match colors, pictures, letters, numbers, etc. by putting the clothespin on the matching card, or on a paper plate with pictures around it.
• Play-doh - you can give them a picture of something they need to try to make out of play-doh.  You can have them make a snake and then cut it with scissors.  You can have them make the first letter of their name.
• Coloring pages
• Turkey Baster/Eye Dropper - Use one of these to transfer water from one bottle/cup to another.
• Make a fruit loop necklace
• Put toothpicks into a salt shakers
• Make confetti with paper and a hole puncher

Joy Mano
Utah PLAY Project Home Consultant
Early Intervention Treatment for Children With Autism