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Disability Awareness for 5 year olds
Practical ideas for parents who want to help their child's classmates and playmates understand more about their child and his/her special needs.
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Crystal Drop Ball: Sensory Integration and Balance
By: Renata Bursten, Dragonfly Staff
Try sitting the child cross-legged on a ball. Hold their hips firmly, and slowly roll the ball from the center out in the forward directions on a gentle angle. Watch to see how (and if) the child compensates for the new angle of their trunk. We want to see the chin tip back towards level with the floor. This signifies the understanding that "upright" is not always determined by the position of the hips relative to the floor, but rather is cued by the relation of the inner ears to the floor. Prompt the child to "sit up straight" both with verbal and demonstrative cues. Once the rolling forward is mastered, work on backwards, side-to-side, and in a gentle circular motion. The see-through ball adds extra fun!
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PLAY Tip
Eight In A Row: Developing Pre-Reading Skills
Before a child can learn to read, there are essential "pre-reading" skills that a child must master. Three of the most important are sequencing, left-right progression, and time progression (before and after). All can be explored and practiced with Eight In A Row. The puzzles show scenes that are familiar to most children. There is a child making a painting and a child getting up in the morning. Each piece has only one place to fit it onto the next piece, so children with delayed fine motor skills can usually manage the puzzle-fitting with a minimum of frustration.