Home Practice - Tangram

What is it?This is a very common game - Tangram - where the child is to use the 7 shapes to make a big picture.  As the child engaging in this game is expected to be within the age of 3 months to 3 years, the big pictures will be shown to the child in colours with the breakdown of the shapes shown.

How to make it yourself
Using a piece of foam, draw out the shapes and cut it out.  Preferably, use different coloured foams to allow easier differentiation.  However, it is important that the size of the shapes must be drawn to almost perfection.

You may find pictures made using the Tangram shapes online for your reference.

What purpose does it serve?
By arranging the pictures in the same arrangement as the worksheets, the child needs to use his Visual-motor skills and fine-motor to pick up and arrange the shapes. 

Visual Spatial-relations skills will also be needed to understand the shape and deciding when to flip it or turn it to fit the worksheet.

As some shapes are similar, Visual Discrimination, which is the ability to notice subtle differences, will be activated to differentiate the size of the shapes, especially the triangles in order to place them in the correct position.

When the child is asked to see the arrangement, he is trained in his Visual Figure-ground, which is the ability to attend to one activity without being distracted by other surrounding activity.
You can make use of the exercise to introduce shapes and colours to the child.

Summary of developmental objectives
Visual-motor, Visual discrimination, Visual figure-ground, Visual Spatial-relations, Fine-motor, Logic, Tactile, Proprioceptive.

Home Practise - Flashcards

What is it?This is a series of flashcards in various topics, including fixed sets of Phonics, Time, and Dots, where the cards are to be flashed in front of the child in a pre-determined order.

How to make it yourself
Using similar size paper (I have used a custom size paper slightly smaller than A5 for maximum comfort to the hands), you can draw or print pictures at one side of the paper, and the words on the other side (for the convenience of reading by the parent). 

For better handling, use slightly thicker paper (almost similar to a thin cardboard) so that it will not be flimsy.

Use crayons or colour pencil or print it out, as markers may seep to the other side of the paper.

Laminate when done for better preservation.

Remember to make a title page.

What purpose does it serve?
When the cards are being flashed to the child, he is trained in his Visual Figure-ground, which is the ability to attend to one activity without being distracted by other surrounding activity.

When cards are flashed quickly, the child will need to up his concentration level and see things quickly.

Cards are arranged in sets, or categories, helping the child to learn to categorise items, and in future, to be able to identify the "Odd one out".

As some cards in the same category may be very similar, Visual Discrimination, which is the ability to notice subtle differences, will be activated to differentiate different cards in the same category.

Summary of developmental objectives
Visual discrimination, Visual figure-ground, Logic, Proprioceptive.

Home Practice - Stringing

What is it?
This is a game where the child has to string the lace through the holes in numeric sequence to make a design for the mask.  The one shown here is for a clown.  There are various other designs available. 

How to make it yourself
The items we carry were purchased.  However, you can get a thick cardboard or plastic materials from the Art shop, cut it in a shape you desire, and use hole puncher to punch out the places where you want the child to string the lace.

What purpose does it serve?
By stringing to make the design, he is making use of his fine-motor skills and visual-motor skills to hold the lace and insert it into the holes.

He also makes use of his Sequential skills to decide on which hole to insert the lace, as there are numbers beside the holes to guide the child.

After finishing the stringing task, the child engages in pretend play, which is important for the social and emotional development of the child, to wear the mask and pretend he is the person/animal. He can also use this to express his affection.

When the child is asked to perform this task of stringing, he is trained in his Visual Figure-ground, which is the ability to attend to one activity without being distracted by other surrounding activity.  This is especially so in this case as this is an activity that takes slightly longer time and visual muscle.

The child may also learn the concept of 'in' and 'out', 'up' and 'down', and 'into' while stringing.  This helps in his language skills.

Summary of developmental objectives
Visual-motor, Visual sequential, Visual Figure-ground, Fine-motor, Social/emotional development, Tactile, Language, Proprioceptive.

Donations in March 2011

It's confirmed.  Red Cross Society had banked in the donation cheque that we submitted for donations collected in the month of March 2011.

Total donation = S$500/-.

Thank you for your kind support.