Lights, camera, action it's time for social skills.

Over the years a few of our children have had the opportunity to participate in community theater and most recently one of our daughters has been playing the part of an "orphan" in the production "Annie".  Theater has been such an amazing opportunity for all of our children and especially helpful for the ones with special needs effecting their social abilities.  To many of us, with or without special needs, the thought of acting, of standing in front of an audience, playing a role, speaking lines and wearing a costume is far from our comfort zone.

Social interactions can be difficult for some and it's easier when you know what you're supposed to say and know what the expectation is.  In acting out small scenes, they learn appropriate responses to certain social situations and get to try out various scenarios without embarrassing themself or offending anyone else.  They also get to witness first hand how people react to inappropriate responses and understand the reasoning behind their reactions. This was a huge lesson for our daughter as she was able to memorize everyone's lines in the play and if they didn't remember or say their lines fast enough, for her liking she would say them, then give them a look, like what's wrong with you?  Working with an entire cast, she learned that the whole show was not about her and how well she knew everybodies lines.  During theater people must work together to accomplish a common goal.  They learn how to communicate, how to look at another person while speaking and how to convey a positive message through their body language.  Acting gives people a means of escape; they learn how to express themselves in a variety of ways.  Basically, acting is all about learning social skills.  These social skills are practiced in rehearsal and then put on display during the actual performance.  For example, a child learns to speak up so that others can hear him or her.  They must have conversations with others and do so in a socially appropriate manner.  These are all life skills that they can then take to everyday life.

With theater and musicals also comes a lot of singing which teaches children how to articulate and project their voices.  When our daughter started theater she had no trouble projecting her voice in fact she felt that she needed to be the loudest and drown out everyone else, no matter how bad her voice sounded from the strain of yelling.  With time, practice and some singing lessons she has become a great singer that can sing well with others.

Physical coordination has also been a challenge for our daughter and with practice she has increased her ability to use gestures to convey a message, move around the stage in a natural manner and even dance some basic steps within the plays choreography.

If your child struggles with their social abilities I would strongly reccomend looking into theater as a means of improving some skills. We were fortunate to find a community club that could accomodate us however some communities also have programs specially designed for people with special needs.

Time to Roll and other Culinary Delights - French toast roll ups

All 7 of the children in our youngest sibling group have extreme delays which means lots and lots of therapy and work on their part, to help them manage different aspects of their lives.  Over the years they have had weekly therapy sessions and their homeschool day includes practicing their current goals but the number one thing I have found that helps is finding a way to include their interests into the therapy goals.  With the 7, we have been working on functional skills to help with dressing themselves and various daily life skills.  I frequently look for ideas that will incorporate many skills, that the kids hopefully will enjoy and not realize they are working on skills.....I really don't want them thinking their lives have been one big therapy session.

Cooking is a favoured activity for the children so quite often we use this as a means to work on their therapy goals and school at the same time.  Today we worked on fine motor skills, sequencing, following directions, reading math, feeding therapy, etc.

We made French Toast Roll Ups and the possibilities are endless with these.  We made them with a therapeutic goal but they are good and can be made by anyone, even my 4 year old "made" his own lunch.

1. Decide how many roll ups you would like and then cut the crust off of the desired number of slices of bread. 

 2.  With a rolling pin, flatten the bread.

3. Spread your desired topping on the flattened bread.  We used cheese slices on some and cinnamon/sugar spread on others.  Nutella or peanut butter and jam would also be good. 

4.Roll flattened bread with desired topping, jelly roll style.

5.  Dip rolls into a mixture of egg and milk.

6.  In frying pan cook the rolls until toasted on all sides.  

7.  Serve with sryup or sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar.  

The kids and I had so much fun making these and they have been telling everyone they can that they made themselves cinnamon buns for lunch.

Life skills as play

We have been adding "life skill bins" to our home school curriculum.  Many of my children have limited abilities and it takes them a long time to learn various skills so it is important to teach them practical life skills early.  Most recently we added a "laundry life skill bin" - we purchased 2 small laundry baskets from the dollar store and labeled one "lights" and the other "darks".

 We then included 12 pairs of socks, 6 white pairs and 6 black pairs and also a clothes line and clothes pegs.  To aid with the imaginative play we also made a washing machine out of a cardboard box.

During life skill class we practice sorting the socks, darks and lights.  We also hang them on the clothes line with the clothes pegs which is working on our pincher grasp and coordination.

 Matching the socks into pairs and rolling them together is another skill we are working on.

While "playing laundry" we also practice our counting, expand our language skills and have a lot of fun.  Our laundry bin also has a folding option with multiple coloured face clothes for sorting, hanging and folding.  Once these 2 options are mastered, outgrown clothing will be added for practice and eventually the kids will take over doing the laundry....hopefully, years down the road.  We also reinforce their sorting skills every time they change clothing by having laundry hampers marked "lights" and "darks" for their dirty clothing and the adult changing them oversees the laundry being put in the correct hamper.

Stay tune for more life skill bins.

Life Skills Scavenger Challenge

Our summer boredom buster today was a "life skills scavenger hunt".  I spent a bit of time researching "scavenger hunts" and found quite the range of things people scavenge.  Wanting the kids to have fun and practice various community life skills I came up with my own list of ideas.  Some of the challenges were serious skill practice and others were thrown in for fun.

During the week, I talked up the scavenger hunt to build interest and excitement (and maybe a touch of nervousness) I would give examples from the various "hunts" I had researched not ever revealing what they were going to be doing.  I assigned points for each completed task with the life skill tasks having much higher values and told them there would be prizes, as an encouragement to take on all the challenges.  One challenge was to "sing a song in public" and their Dad jokingly threw in his thoughts, saying "they would loose points if the public didn't enjoy their singing."

This scavenger hunt was a lot of fun and really helped build confidence in the participants while  doing the challenges.  They were able to work together on the learning challenges and just be crazy doing the fun stuff. Each person had a camera to document each challenge and came back with some fun pictures to include in their summer memories.  If you need something to break up the monotony of summer edit our "scavenger hunt" to fit with your community and goals then go have an afternoon of inexpensive fun.

Working myself out of a job

It seems today that so many children are raised with their parents doing everything for them.  When my children arrived at college they were shocked to learn that their roommates do not know how to cook a meal, wash their clothing, make an appointment, etc.  Some of their friends even had their parents doing their college assignments for them.  I feel as parents,  it is our job to teach children these skills and many more.  When parenting any child I feel we are doing them a disservice if we don't start teaching them these skills as early as possible.  With children with special needs it may take a very very long time for these skills to be mastered so we need time on our side, so start early.  The more that a child is able to do the less you have to do for them as an adult.  This may be the difference for an individual with special needs being fully dependent to semi independent.

Start teaching life skills, as early as possible, as it takes longer for individuals with special needs to master skills.  Young children have a desire to do what the adults in their lives are doing so take advantage of that. In our family we do not "hold" the children back if they haven't mastered one skill but want to try another. If the skill they are wanting to try is to difficult then we break it down to smaller parts. For example we have a few that are not able to dress themselves however they are able to sort their dirty laundry.  Some aren't able to bath themselves but do wash "some" dishes. By attempting these different life skills the child is building new strengths that will hopefully help in mastering the deficits in their other skills.  I feel learning these skills are like "practical" therapy that will bring our children further in life.

 We have laundry baskets for dark and light colored clothing just outside of the bedrooms and have the children put their dirty clothing in the baskets.  Our 2 year old is able to put his clothing in the basket, he doesn't sort but has mastered putting his dirty clothing in the basket (and then pulling it out and doing it over and over because it is fun to him).  Building his coordination and strength. As the children get older they are able to sort their laundry between dark and light. Color recognition  When they show an interest (want to help) in using the washing machines and dryers we encourage that.  Have them put the clothing in or take it out.Gross motor/heavy work.  Show them how to turn the machine on.  We have a chart on our machine with step by step directions how to turn on the machine.  We have put color coded stickers on the machine so they can independently turn on the machine.  following directions, color matching, fine motor skills.  

When it comes to washing dishes we fill up 2 sinks and only work on dishes that are safe for them to handle.  They will wash the dishes and then pass them to us to "rinse/re wash".  While working on this we are labeling items and chatting.  fine motor skills, speech, sensory.  Putting cutlery away is similar in concept to a shape sorter which works great and is practical for an older child.  At meal times we teach them how to set the table and encourage them to clear their own dishes.  We have a picture of a place setting that the children will take from spot to spot at the table and then lay out the cutlery.  fine motor, matching

As with all activities, you need to ensure what you are having your child do, is safe for their abilities but encourage your child to help and learn new skills.   Spend the time now "working yourself out a job"  it will be more work for you teaching them but in the long run your child will be better off.