It seems that OTs and educators are always looking for new tasks and activities to try with our students, if anything just to find something new and novel for them to do instead of the same things over and over. Plus, I always love to look for find a good bargain! Most toys are geared toward typically developing kids, and parents/educators may not know how they can also be used for their kids who may not be typically developing. Before school started this year, I happened upon some clearance items at Michael's http://www.michaels.com/, and I found some felt activity boards for $4 a piece:
So, of course I bought 2... I was very happy that I found a dinosaur one, because that is a special interest of several of my students with ASD!
Now, how can I use these with some of my students in a way that promotes some learning and engagement and addresses what I am needing to work on with them?? It's kind of like doing an "activity analysis" like some of us had to do back in the college days when we were learning about choosing appropriate tasks for our "clients." What are we wanting to achieve, and how can this particular activity accomplish that? Well, here are some ideas and ways that I came up with that I can use these boards with my little friends:
1. Take a picture of a board that you have assembled, provide your student with that visual (follow the picture on the iPad or print out a visual for them), and have them replicate it themselves on the board (save yourself some time and make several visual scenes, laminate them, and keep them to use repeatedly). :
This promotes imitation, motor planning (choosing the correct pieces, knowing where to place them), sequencing (placing the items in the correct order if they over lap), eye hand coordination and visual motor integration (picking up the pieces, looking at the visual and then placing the piece on the board), fine motor skills (picking up the felt from the table top to place on the board), etc. You can make the task fairly simple (just use a few pieces) or more difficult (add more pieces to the picture).
2. You can add some learning of concepts and more advanced motor planning to this activity by giving specific directions for your student/child to follow...
-place the volcano on the right side of the board
-place the triceratops in the middle of the board
-place the pterodactyl in the upper left corner of the board
3. For kids who have more limited cognition or who are working on motor control, position the board on a vertical plane and have them reach forward and place the felt anywhere on the board to work on active grasp/release, reaching and placing, grading their movement/motor control, etc. This can also be done on a desk or table top.
4. Let the kids be creative and build their own scene. Have them tell you about their picture when they are done. Or, have them make a scene, take a picture of it with an iPad and let them have YOU reassemble it from the visual (they love the reversal of roles, trust me!).
With a little bit of thought, you can make adaptations or make pretty much any toy or activity applicable for a given situation. If you have something fun and are not sure how to make it applicable to your child or student, ask your OT or another team member for ideas on ways to do so.
Want to find yourself a felt activity board? Here is a link to several kinds on Amazon.com:
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