Skill: Visual Perception

How the brain makes sense of what the eyes see. This skill helps children solve puzzles, recognize shapes, and tell the difference between similar letters like ‘b’ and ‘d’ or ‘p’ and ‘q’.

Potato Counter

For this activity you could use different types of fruit and vegetables. If the child has difficulty completing the activity with potatoes, you can use a softer fruit like bananas.

Cover a strip of thick cardboard or card, and draw boxes like those shown in the picture.

Cut small potatoes into halves and quarters so that they can stand without rocking or tipping.

Place one potato wedge on every box and number each box.

Now your child can stick in the right number of toothpicks into each potato.

For grading: Use random numbers instead of numbers in a sequence.

Ribbon Sorter

Tape some ribbon around each cup. Use different ribbon colors for each paper cup.

Cut a few pieces of each color of ribbon.

Put the ribbon pieces in the container.

Ask the child to sort the pieces of ribbon, using the first three digits (thumb, pointer, and middle finger) and put the ribbons into the right container.

For grading: ask the child to use tweezers for picking up the ribbons and dropping each to the right cup.

Tic Tac Write

Make a tic-tac-toe board using the markers, crayons, or pen.

Let the child choose a letter (focus on the letters that are difficult for the child to form).

Play the tic-tac-toe game, taking turns, writing the letters the child chose and making sure the child forms the letters correctly and places them inside the lines you drew.

For grading, make the tic-tac-toe board boxes in smaller or bigger size.

Ball Bopp

Have the child lie on the floor in prone.

Give the child a ball.

Begin by rolling the big therapy ball across the floor in front of the child.

The object of the game is for the child to roll her ball and hit the moving therapy ball.

As the child becomes successful, decrease the size of both balls.

Grading Option

varying the size of either the therapist or student rolled the ball, varying the speed of the therapist rolled ball or changing the distance between the child and the ball. The position can be varied as well.

Spaghetti Stringing

Using a paper cup, a styrofoam plate, or a piece of play dough, instruct the child to place the spaghetti vertically.

Provide the child with cheerios or beads and have him string the small objects onto the spaghetti.

If using different color beads or cheerios, you can have the child either sort the items into the different color groups or work on patterns (e.g. yellow-red-yellow-red…)