1. Trina Rison risont@cfbisd.edu trina_rison@yahoo.com Holland…In The Summer Practical Activities to Do With Your Child With Special Needs In the Summer

2. Welcome to Holland I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this...... When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting. After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland." "Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy." But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay. The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place. So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met. It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts. But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy...and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned." And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss. But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things…about Holland. Emily Perl Kingsley 1987

3. Fine Motor (pre-writing activities suggested by OT) Make a Fine Motor Kit or Workstation for your child to complete. Track progress by timing each activity. Cover one hand with a sock or glove to encourage the use of only one hand on appropriate activities. Switch hands. Bottles and Tops - screw and unscrew tops Clothes Pins – to work on pincer grasp use clothes pins that are blank or have letters, numbers, etc on them (incorporate academic skills into this activity like ABC order, sequencing numbers, spelling names and words) Stringing Beads – use a pipe cleaner for more stability - use beads that are blank or have letters, numbers, etc on them (incorporate academic skills into this activity like ABC order, sequencing numbers, spelling names and words)

4. Fine Motor (pre-writing activities) Hungry Tennis Ball – squeeze the tennis ball and put objects inside Lacing Cards – using pre-made cards or make our own by punching holes in thick paper or cardboard Coin/Cube Drop – cut a slit in a lid and have child drop objects in Objects In Putty – hide objects in putty and have child pick/pull them out (tip: make a grid so that your child knows how many to look for) Tongs and Tweezers – use various tongs or tweezers to pick up objects and drop them in a container

5. Readiness/Life Skills (pre-academic skills) Personal Data – modifications: use personal photos instead of icons, start with 1 or 2 items, use color prompts and fade, group information and then gradually split information apart Dot Markers – use Bingo dot markers to color pictures with/without color words http://www.makinglearningfun.com/themepages/ColorWordBingo.htm http://www.makinglearningfun.com/themepages/ColorWordBingo.htm Wikki Stix Tracing – Use Wiki Stix to outline letters, shapes, numbers on a laminated piece of paper. Have child trace in between sticks with a dry erase marker in sequential order. Have child erase for practice as well. Transition from Wikki Stix to outlined letters. Reduce size gradually.

6. Transition from tracing inside Wikki Stix to outlined letters. 2 1 1 2

7. Color Bags – collect bags of different colors, go on a scavenger hunt to look for colored items, have child sort objects by color. Use with Frog Street Color Songs and/or colored icing. Hold up icing on a stick or animal cracker. Child must correctly ID color in order to get icing. Clothes Pin Letters and Numbers – ABC order, sequencing numbers, spelling (from Fine Motor Kit) Coin Sort/Coin Drop – Sort coins, ID coins, match value to coin (from Fine Motor Kit) Readiness/Life Skills (pre-academic skills)

8. Academic Activities Language Arts Letter/Object Box – collect objects that begin with a letter sound, type and cut words. Have child sort objects by beginning sound. Extension: Match object with label or spell word (you can do the same activity with pictures cut out of magazines or printed from the web) Magnetic Letters – sorting, letter ID, capital/lowercase, letter sounds, spelling Picture Cards – picture ID, sight reading, vocabulary use pre-made cards and make your own of your childs preferred items with label, fade picture and increase label size, match word to picture

9. Academic Activities Language Arts Typing – type letter after hearing name or sound, ABC order, sequencing numbers, typing name (use visual and verbal prompts in the beginning)

10. Color Clock – color the number, color the space behind the number with the coordinating color - Have the child slide his/her finger along the hour hand. If it lands in that numbers yard that is the hour they say. Then have them slide his/her finger along the minute hand and touch the minute shown. Touch Math – addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, money www.touchmath.com Academic Activities Math

11. Computer & Technology Mouse Control – Velcro on left button, smaller laptop mouse for small hands, slow the arrow down and make it larger, turn off right click button, use a single button mouse List of Special Education Sites Nancy Young – Irving ISD http://www.irvingisd.net/specialeducation/N ancy's%20web%20picks.htm Download Songs and Rhymeshttp://www.hiyah.net/ Language Arts Activitieshttp://www.literacycenter.net/ Spelling Practicehttp://tenkely.org/Spelling.html http://www.spellingcity.com/ http://spinandspell.com/ Academic K-8http://www.internet4classrooms.com/ Internet Resources

12. Early Childhood and Readiness Materials http://www.hubbardscupboard.org/ Printable Materialshttp://www.worksheetworks.com/ Songs, Games, Social Skills, Communication http://www.do2learn.com/ Reading Activities Onlinehttp://www.literactive.com/Home/roadtore ading.asp Sign Languagehttp://www.lifeprint.com/ http://commtechlab.msu.edu/sites/aslweb/ http://www.aslpro.com/ Internet Browser Developed for Children Living with Autism (appropriate for all children) http://www.zacbrowser.com/ Ms. Risons Links and Resources * Includes link to Studio Movie Grill – Free Special Needs Screenings http://cfbstaff.cfbisd.edu/risont/links.htm Computer & Technology