Play Doh Hide and Seek

                                                          

This activity has been originally taken from one of the most popular and user-friendly guides, the Out of Sync Child Has Fun. I have done a couple of modifications according to own working experience. You may follow the book link to know more about Sensory Activities where there are great fun and learning activities have been described. 

This is a fantastic activity especially for little ones however teens would also enjoy it. It improves motor planning, fine motor skills as well as bilateral coordination (ability to synchronise both right and left sides of the body, for example, making a sandwich or playing throw ball). 

It improves the ability to discriminate objects with and without vision (tactile discrimination), proprioception sensory processing skills, midline crossing, and fine motor control, along with visual perception skills. Mainly it improves sensory awareness in the fingers required to provide information about the grasp of the tools, toys and surface. Reduced sensory awareness will require greater visual monitoring. 

The activity also improves attention span and concentration on the given task, along with hand and intrinsic fingers strength. Feeling, recognising and understanding about physical characteristics of objects (size, shape, density, texture, and weight) is an integral part of tactile discrimination which can be difficult for our kids with sensory issues.

We aim to make their fingers ‘feel’ of different textures in a fun way and improve their learning about various objects even when they are not seeing them! So let’s start!

Activity Requirements:

Play-Doh

Plastic or rubber toys (such as Lego, plastic apple, small-sized ball)

Large and small buttons

Safety pin or hairpin

Different size coins

Rice or Lentil Box 

Container for sorting- Cup or jewellery box

    

Procedure:

1. Wrap the Play-Doh around the toy to make and make sure that it is not completely covered. The child should be able to see the colour of the toy which will work as a clue for her to recognise it easily. Once the toy is covered you may ask the child, “Do you know which toy is it.

2. Once the child is master in the above-mentioned task we can switch to the next level of effort. This time to increase the level of difficulty, pack the toy thicker and leave a small portion unpacked to grade the activity to the next level. Once the toy is packed you may ask the child, to recognise the toy using his fingertips and visual sense. 

3. The further variation could include covering small objects in the Play-doh such as coins, hairpins, beads, buttons and asking the child to feel the shape of the object covered with Play-doh and guess what it could be. These objects can be,

• Different sized buttons
• Safety or hairpins (make sure it does not injure him)
• Different sized coins
• Rubber
• Small Lego pieces
• Pen caps

• Pack these objects fully. Now we can play treasure hunt. Hide the packed things in a box of rice or lentils. Initially, he can recognise and discriminate them without being time farmed or blindfolded. Later, on mastery of task gradation of activity will be great fun and challenge too! 

Activity Gradation:

Time Framed:

The activity can be challenged by grading it according to time. An adult may ask the child to recognise the toy within a set time limit such as 60 seconds or two minutes. Time should be allotted depending on the child’s abilities and needs. It is important to understand that activity should enhance his level of motivation to peruse and complete the given task successfully.

Target should be achievable. The child might lose interest in activity if she is unable to complete the task within the time frame. So make during the first attempt child should be provided sufficient time to complete the activity successfully. This will increase his level of motivation and self-confidence.

Time can be reduced, gradually, say, from 3 minutes to 30 seconds.

Blindfold: 

Once the toy is packed, leaving a small portion as a clue, ask the child whether she would like to do this activity being blindfolded.

If both child and parent think, it will be achievable, to recognise the toy, then go further and blindfold him. The child might take longer than usual time to recognise since his visual sense has been occluded. Parents should encourage her to use his fingertips sliding them around the edges and corners of the toy, to learn about shape, and size of it.

Help her to feel the toy where it is unpacked. This will help in improving tactile recognition and discrimination of the object. On the repeated practice of feeling different shapes, sizes, textures, density and weight (physical characteristics of objects) child’s touch discriminating abilities will improve to the maximal possible extent. At this level, pack the toy completely and thicker to increase the level of challenge.

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Benefits:

· Tactile Discrimination: Playing with different textures which have varying viscosities increase tactile perception, exploration and discriminatory sense as well as visualisation skill along with In-Hand-Manipulations skills which involve translation.
·  Vast Tactile experience = Improvement in Tactile perception + discrimination 
·   Visualisation Skills
·    Body Scheme
·  Speed, Accuracy and Precision 
·  Fine Motor Skills
· Self-Esteem

Sensory Strategies for Handwriting Skills

                                                 
                                                          

              (The following blog contains affiliate links. Thank you for your support)

Lewis is a 5-year old child who has recently joined pre-school. According to his parents he is very active, energetic and friendly boy who likes running in ground, spinning, jumping, watching Doctor Who and talking to everyone. After working with Lewis for a week, his class teacher discovered some unique habits, characteristics and behaviours of him which were as follows:

• While sitting in his chair or writing he slouches without him knowing about it. Likes wandering in the classroom and “always on a go”. He cannot sit for more than 10-12 minutes in his place.
• Doesn’t like playing with Lego or construction toys.
• Easily distracted by background sounds or outside noise (e.g., bird chirping or vehicle passing by)
• Gets confused with letters and numbers while reading and writing
• He is right handed but often uses left hand to write.
• While writing he goes out of space without realising it.

When these observations were discussed with school OT, she strongly recommended him for Sensory Integration assessment as all above stated features were part of sensory difficulties which were interfering in his handwriting, self-care, fine motor skills and day to day activities.

Handwriting is an important functional task for school aged children and primary way to express thoughts, ideas and knowledge, and emotions. Composing stories, expressing own emotions, copying numbers, from the blackboard, completing school assignments, writing formal letters, or applications all needs precise handwriting skill. 

According to Case-smith (1992), children began to draw and scribble on paper as soon as they are able to grasp a writing tool. The development of writing process in early years includes scribbling, drawing lines and circles.

During 7-8 years they learn to use the different functional tool such as

knife and fork, scissors, pencils, zippers, buttons, brooms. They learn to plan and sequence actions which are the important part of motor planning. 

Developing ideas, for building blocks, construction toys, Legos, sand castles, are taken enthusiastically. All these experiences of childhood enable a developing brain to work efficiently and organise incoming sensory information received from different sense organs.

However, for an atypically growing child these opportunities and playful scenarios are sensory challenges. They may experience stress in the case in the course of the day to day tasks related to fine motor, gross motor and handwriting skills.

These children are reluctant to write, easily tired, seen slouching in their chair, their desk is often disorganised, may drop things in hand and may display behavioural issues due to frustration, the anger of not being able to accomplish tasks in hand and other sensory difficulties.

25 Tips for Sensory Smart Classrooms!

                                

                                   

    Classrooms need to be Multisensory for better learning!!

         

A.  Instructions should be simple, clear and short for the child to follow easily.

B.   Be precise and slow while giving instructions. One step at a time since brain’s information processing is slow.

Fidgets 

C.   Encourage the child to learn and practice the task. Practice! Practice! Practice makes a lot of difference.

D.  Keep Fidgets handy! They reduce anxiety levels in different environments and facilitate attention on a task in hand. Use of different magnetic balls, paper clips, blue tac, or mechanical pencils can work well too. Other common fidgets can be giant nut and bolt, key chains, fidgeting fleece bags, finger squeezers, tactile balls (koosh ball): Resource: 

E.   Let child do heavy work activities such as jumping, chair push-ups, wall push-ups, clearing cluttered desk,carrying the heavy bag.

F.   Give verbal instructions with visual demonstrations where ever possible. Showing child how to do activity is better than telling him about it. Demonstrate how to do the obstacle course and then let him perform.

Carrying heavy books has to calm effect

G.   Give extra time in the classroom to complete written work. Teachers need to have patience and calm!

H.  Remove visual distractions from the classroom. All wall decorations, notices should go on the back wall. Whiteboard should be clear (except when teaching!) with a date in the corner.

I.   Use colourful marker pens for teaching particular topic or concept.

J.   Child should sit near to teacher’s desk and in front of a classroom.

K.   Organise child’s desk, textbooks, supplies. Label different folders. This makes a lot of difference.

Supplies should be adequate

L.   Keep the supplies and textbooks in the good amount within a classroom.

M. Introduce and encourage calming music.

N.  Let child submit written assignments rather than hand written since handwriting can be illegible or messy.

O.  Labelling and Categorisation: Use sticky tags for labelling folders such as work done, work to be done, notices, to be read and other labels can be made according to requirements and relevance. It supports the child to distinguish and different folders and binders as well as subjects.

Sticky Notes for Organisation & Labelling

P.    Lighting: Use of Halogen lighting system is considered better than fluorescent lighting system in classrooms.

Q. Homework Print Outs: It is better to post homework on school website so it is easier for parents and kids to understand the given assignments.

R.   Visual Reminders: These can be in the form of picture posters, sticky notes, widgets or coloured writing on the board.

S.  Sensory Diet: A sensory diet is a carefully designed, personalised activity plan that provides sensory input to a person needs to stay focused and organised throughout the day (Occupational Therapist Patricia Wilbarger). It is developed by an Occupational Therapist specifically according to person’s sensory needs and abilities

Credit

T.   Movement Breaks: A child should be given a break for 2-3 minutes’ maximum. This for stress release and reassure that child can re-focus well on topic again. Doing deep Breathing or Stretching exercises can be beneficial. Going to an office to hand over paperwork is one example of movement break.

U.  Pencil Grips: Children respond well to pencil grips as it improves handwriting, legible and provides tactile-proprioceptive feedback. Resource: 

V.   Wobble Cushions: Good for ADHD kids especially. Keeps good posture and maintains focus.Resource:

W.                Ergonomics for Seating:

a.    While sitting on chair hips, knees, and ankle should be perpendicular to each other.

b.   Back should be straight and ninety-degree angle should form at an elbow.

c.    Wrists should be in resting position.

d.   Table and chair should have appropriate height.

e.   The seat back should be angled at 15 degrees.

f.    The child should lean forward with body weight supported by the floor with feet on the ground.

g.   Provide slanting desk or tilt table desktop for achieving ideal reading and writing angles for vision and spine.

h.   Elbow rests prevent straining of shoulders and neck muscles.

i.     Reading angle should be about 60 degrees from horizontal.

j.     Writing angle should be about 10-20 degrees.

X.  Introduce Theraband Stretching exercises or Deep Breathing as a part of Daily morning routine to concentrate well in a classroom.

Y.   Weighted Items: Use of appropriately weighted items should be done within the classroom on discussion with Occupational Therapist. Shoulder, Shoulder and neck weights, lap weights, wrist, ankle weights, snakey weights, weighted scarfs are weighted products for Calming down, reducing impulsivity, hyperactivity, and aggression. Resource