Summer fun: Air Hockey!

AIR HOCKEY

Materials needed

Tape	Feather   (the “puck”)
Washable   markers	Cookie   sheet or tray (“playing field”)
Construction   paper	Infant   nasal syringe for each team player

1. Play on the floor or at a table.  If your child is comfortable on the floor, have him lie on his stomach while propping his body up with his forearms. At the table, he should sit in a chair which allows his feet to be flat on the floor. The table top should be slightly above his arms when they are bent at his side.

2. Choose the names of the two teams.  Help your child write the first letter of each team on a piece of construction paper, which will also be your score sheet.

3. On the cookie sheet, which is your playing field, use a washable marker or a long piece of tape to mark off each team’s goal or line to cross for the team to score.  Make sure your child knows where the feather must cross for him to score a point.

4. Each person chooses a nasal syringe which will be used to blow the feather back and forth across the playing field. Place the feather in the middle of the playing field.

5. After someone says “Go”, the players use the nasal syringe to blow the feather back and forth across the playing field until one person scores by crossing the opposite line or goal.

6. When one person scores make a mark or number on the corresponding team’s paper. Play until one team achieves five points.  Remember this is FUN. Do not make it too hard for your child to score a point.

Alternate uses for the infant nasal syringe:

• Use it as a water gun.
• For hand strengthening fill up containers with water
• Add paint or egg dye to cups of water and mix the colored water using the syringes.

Developmental Skills:

Gross Motor: Playing on his stomach while propped on forearms helps strengthen the upper back, neck muscles and shoulders.

Fine Motor: As the child squeezes and releases the nasal syringe, his hand may be strengthened.

Perceptual: As the feather moves back and forth, the child practices eye tracking as well as judging “near and far” distance. Numbers and letters may be learned and written.

Language: Encourage the use of words such as “close to you”, “close to me”, “here it comes”. Social skills such as taking turns and learning to play fair as well as losing and winning are practiced.

Tactile/Kinesthetic: Hand awareness may develop as the hand moves across the playing field.

Exert: Alphabet Soup: Stirring Your Child’s Interest in Letters (www.lynaot.com)

Thoughts about “Screen Time”

I wanted to share with you comments taken from The National Association for the Education of Young Children’s newest postion on “screen time (tv, computer, Iphone, etc.) .  In addition to “visual concerns”, my colleagues and I have also been concerned about the possibility of carpal tunnel syndrome in younger adolescents as it results from repetivite motion as well as the impact of the motions on our children’s grow plates.  Here are those comments from NAEYC:

Suggested recommendations for Screen Time:

—Under age of 2: no screen time

—2 to 5 years of age: One to two hours of TOTAL screen time per day.

Concerns

—Eye fatigue, advancing nearsightedness, eye dryness

—Childhood obesity

—Irregular sleep patterns

—Focus and attention problems

—Impact on socialization/language development

www.Allaboutvision.com recommends 20 (every 20 minutes take a break) 20 (look at an object 20 feet away) 10 (look at that object for 10 seconds) for children to reduce the chance of “computer vision syndrome”.  Check out their website for great tips!

Your thoughts?

Winner!

The winner of my book , Alphabet Soup: Stirring Your Child’s Interest in Letters is Nancy Barth, educational consultant.  Her blog  www.nancybarthtutoring.com has great reviews of children’s books, Ipad apps, and so much more!  Check it out!

Alphabet Soup: Stirring Your child’s Interest in Letters: 76 pages of activities to learn letters in play.  Each activity has a list of the skills your child will encourage as he “plays with a purpose!” More details at www.lynaot.com

Spring Grief: Your Sadness

As parents approach the end of school, you may also experience sadness due to expectations that were not met.  Are you asking:

1. Why did my child not progress as much as I thought he would?

2. What should I have done differently?

3. Why did the teacher not push harder?

4. Why did the long hours of homework, therapy, and frustration not “pay off”?

Making a list of your child’s accomplishments for this semester may help you see his progress!  Try to focus on even little things as they do indicate that your child has moved forward.  Though it may appear that struggles outweigh progress, focus on the accomplishments and praise your child.  He needs your praise and encouragement to keep trying! Please seek professional help if you feel “stuck” with your discouraged feelings or if they turn to anger toward your child.

Other helpful blog from Lyn: Encouragement to Parents: Grief

Spring Sadness: Your Child

As summer rapidly approaches, your child may experience joy about the end of school mixed with sadness.  Promotion to the next grade level is exciting but may cause anxiety about the new teacher and new classmates as well as leaving the familiar teacher.  Be aware of these mixed emotions and help your child work through the anxiety.  Anxiety can look like sadness, irritability, acting out in school. Some things to think about doing before school is out:

1. Visit the new grade level and look at the classrooms, meet the teachers.
2. Help your child write a story about this year’s good and bad times.  Then add his expectations about next year.  For younger children, have them tell you the story.  Note fears and help your child with these. This could be especially important if your child is moving to a different school.
3. Add play dates this summer with children who may be in the same grade level.  If they are not in the same class, they will have a friend at recess.

How have you helped your child with this sadness?

Scissors: Things to Watch for:

When I watch a child using scissors I am checking for the following:

1. Which hand? Is it consistent with his writing hand if older than 4 years of age.  Younger children will switch off hands as they are developing skills needed in two handed tasks such as buttoning, lacing, scissor usage. Many left handers use scissors with their right hand but at times  trouble manipulating the paper with their dominant left hand is seen.

2. 5 years and up: Are they able to stay on the line? Some children with convergence insufficiency have trouble staying on the line.  They always appear to be just barely off the line.  They may also have written letters just barely floating above the line.  Watch out for visual related signs.

3. Is there one side of the shape that is always cut awkwardly or inaccurately?  Why? Is it a visual issue, a visual spatial issue (prefers one side of the body to the other?), or a motor issue with hand dominance or fine motor coordination?

4. Where are scissors placed?  Children with poor trunk control may lean on the table resting on their elbows to use scissors.

5. Does the scissor hand move?  Some children who still have mixed hand dominance after age 5 will hold the scissors in their writing hand but will not move the scissors at all other than opening and closing them.  They depend on the hand holding the paper to do all the work!

6. Can the fingers fit into the handles correctly with the remaining fingers tucked out of the way?  Children who are not able to use the thumb, index, and middle fingers as a unit and the ring and little finger as a unit, often have trouble with using scissors as well as tying shoes!  Encourage “hand division” with activities prior to cutting: placing pegs with thumb, index, and middle finger is an example.

Scissor Suggestions

As we end our series on scissor skills, there are several suggestions I would like to share:

1. For beginners, use a heavier paper than typing paper so the scissors and paper won’t bind creating frustration.  Try cutting play dough, old playing or greeting cards, old folders, drinking straws.  But remember, beginners are snippers, so give them short things to cut in half not long strips!

2. As the beginner advances,  I often have a pair of scissors that I name my alligator.  I also call the child’s scissors his alligator.  We are practicing cutting longer pieces of paper, etc. The child starts on one side of the paper and I start on the other side of the paper advancing faster or slower depending on how well the child is doing with cutting.  I start by saying: “Meet you in the middle! Here comes my alligator!”

3. If the child is having difficulty keeping his wrist sideways and up for scissor usage, tape the piece of paper to a wall, placing the cutting line down the middle of the paper and taping the lateral sides to the wall.  This vertical position requires the hand to be in the correct position.  If there is weakness, start off with shorter pieces of paper.  If a child has a lot of trouble with this, it may be wise to have a therapist look at his hands.

4. Please make sure your child is cutting a circle in the correct direction depending on his hand dominance.  We cut a certain direction because our wrist moves more easily.  Right handers: counter clockwise  Left handers: clockwise

 

Equipment: Scissor Types

If your child has not established a hand dominance, consider using “loop” scissors that do not require finger placement but rather use the whole hand for opening and closing the scissors.  These loop scissors often have spring action which helps with the concept of “open and close” needed for regular scissors. Find these at www.funandfunction.com or www.therapro.com !

If your child is left handed, please purchase left handed scissors.  Many left handers that I know actually use their right hand for scissor usage as they were not given left handed scissors early in education. Check out www.leftyslefthanded.com!

There are wonderful scissors which allow the teacher to place their fingers along side of the child’s fingers to help with teaching the open and close motion! Find these at www.funandfunction.com or www.therapro.com!

For those who like the thumb in a loop, the middle finger in a loop, and the index finger along the blades there are small scissors to allow this method of teaching as well! Find these at www.therapro.com

Ready to Use Scissors?

Because development happens in a sequential fashion, it is important to respect the developmental sequence. This may help avoid frustration on your part (as you ask a child to do something they aren’t ready to do) and on the child’s part (whose nervous system is not ready to do this skill).  Stepping Stones Age Norms From Birth to Age Six by Keith E. Beery and Natasha A. Beery have given us developmental guidelines for scissor usage. Please remember however that each child develops at different rates.  You may have a child that is more advanced or one that is more immature than what is listed below as a guideline. Please work at the child’s developmental age level not his chronological age level to insure success! Make sure the scissors are safe and activities supervised.

2.7 years: Makes small snips with help

3.11 years: Cuts a piece of paper in half on a fairly straight line

4.7 years: Cuts out a big circle

4.11 years: Cuts pre drawn 4 inch square within 1/4 inch of line

4.11 years: Makes a collage of easy shapes after cutting out

5.5 years: Cuts cloth with scissors

5.11 years: Cuts out simple picture following a general outline within 1/4 inch

Psalm 139:14

 

Great Fine Motor Ideas!

There are so many blogs and webpages with great fine motor ideas!  I am listing a few that you might want to further explore.  If I have accidentally left yours out, please leave a comment alerting us to yours!  I would love to know your favorites!

http://prekinders.com/fine-motor-skills/

http://spaghettiboxkids.com/blog

http://www.ot-mom-learning-activities.com

http://pinterest.com/ness/montessori-fine-motor-skills-activities/

http://handsonaswegrow.com/2012/01/30-kids-activities-materials-for-promoting-fine-motor-skills.html

http://www.2teachingmommies.com/

http://nancybarthtutoring.com/