Professional Development
Teaching Activities for Families » Cerebral Palsy/Auditory Problems - Evans Family Story
Activity Based Family Settings - Nine Categories for Learning
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Cars & People
Trucks
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Housekeeping
Towel
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Groom Dress Up
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Tools
Tool Bench
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Feed/Eat
Spoons
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Build Manipulate
Blocks
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Dolls/Animals
Stuffed Animals
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Baby Care
Pillow
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Reading/Writing
Books
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Cars & People
Cars, trucks and people will stimulate your child’s imagination as they guide their truck along a pretend road. Help your child by asking questions such as…Who is driving the truck? Where is the truck going? What does the truck do?
Things you can do to stimulate your child’s imagination:
Give short concise directions like, “Load your truck with rocks, then drive over her and dump them out.”
Simply reading to your child about cars, trucks or people and what they do, how they work… etc. will expand your child’s curiosity.
Point out the different parts of each toy and how they work and what they do.
Point out trucks and cars when in your everyday life as you are driving.
Housekeeping
Child-sized cleaning tools (brooms, dustpans, vacuums, etc…) can be loads of fun for kids. Children love to help and these great toys can instill a love of cleaning into your child. They make your child feel like they are an important part of the household. These tools can become an important part of their development and responsibility. Toys like this develop fine motor skills, help children problem-solve and learn spatial relations.
Things you can do to help your child want to clean up.
Give short concise steps. One at a time. First pick up your toys.
Put on one of the silly songs from Barney or the Wiggles that have to do with clean up. Music can be very inspirational.
Keep their own size tools by their kitchen or toys so they can use the broom or dustpan to clean up after they are done playing.
Grooming – Dress Up
Dressing up can be a rewarding time in play-acting. Pretend play will help you child problem solve, will build language and literacy skills and the ability to sequence. Acting out is a great way for children to channel their emotions and feelings in a harmless way. Dressing up also builds confidence in your child. This is where the child makes sense of the grown-up world.
Things you can do to help your child with Dress Up.
Throw old clothes, shoes, purses, glasses, and hats into a box.
Encourage your children to become something they are not like a princess or a fireman.
Create a make-believe space for your child. Whether it’s a tree house or a play house, a large empty box or a tent. Let your child’s imagination soar.
Tools/Tool Bench
Tools and tool benches are great ways to inspire your children to want to build something. Hitting with a hammer and pretending to drill a hole or playing with a screwdriver all help eye hand coordination and control.
Things you can do to help your child build.
Have toy blocks, hammers, screwdrivers even battery operated drills. All these toys will have your child building something in no time.
An area where they can build like a tool bench or an area where they can hammer and drill makes them feel just like Dad. Creating something.
Feeding/Eating
Children will play for years with a pretend kitchen and food. They can start out just cooking then as they age they can open a restaurant. Play food makes children feel like their parent. Play food helps kids learn about vegetables and meat and how to set a table. There are many social aspects of make believe in the kitchen. They can cook, serve, open a restaurant and clean. Math skills are also learned as children learn to measure and count. Also they watch you cook and make cake batter change into cake and juice becomes popsicles. So they learn how things change from liquid to solid.
Things you can do to help your child in the kitchen:
Help introduce your child to vegetables and how yummy they can be.
Encourage your child to cook for you and serve you. A tea party is a nice way to play directly with your child.
Keep cleaning tools handy with your kitchen so they know cleaning is also a part of kitchen duty.
Build/Manipulate
Having all kinds of blocks and puzzles around your home will your child develop fine motor skills. Fine motor skills is the first development in learning how to write. Puzzles help in learning spatial awareness. Children learn about gravity, stability, weight and balance. Also sorting blocks and
Things you can do to help your child with building and puzzles:
Have many puzzles at different levels. Start out with young children puzzles that have knobs on them and larger pieces. There are many manipulative blocks out there such as Lego, Lincoln Logs, etc… Offer a variety of blocks and puzzles to keep your child’s interest.
Dolls and Animals
Encourage your child in make believe play to expand their imagination and language skills. Acting out with their dolls and stuffed animals gives children the tools to cope with frustration and stress. Children can use their dolls to discover their identity, explore relationships and to learn how to socially interact with others.
Things you can do to help:
Have many stuffed animals in all different shapes and sizes as well as textures. There are many dolls out there that do many different things. Have extras like blanket, bottles and clothes so your child can dress feed and cuddle with their dolls and animals.
Hello/Good-bye
Reading/Writing
Books help in problem solving skills and language development. Reading to your kids takes them to places they may never know and helps them to learn about the world around them. Writing and drawing go hand in hand. Coloring books and blank pages and lot of crayons or markers for kids to draw will develop their fine motor skills over time.
Help your child become a lifelong reader by doing the following
Offer a variety of books for the correct age group of the children.
Make sure there are many subjects offered such as well as different ethnic and cultural backgrounds.
Read often to your children. Invoke different voices and inflections in your voice.
Have a warm and cozy area with lots of blankets and pillows so your child is comfortable.
