Practicing Using a Braille Square

• The child counts 1-3 down the left side of the muffin pan and 4-6 down the right side. I glued in rubber circles inside the pan to indicate the number in order for the child to learn the feeling represented as braille dots.
• The child places the balls in order 1-6. Once he’s mastered that skill, challenge him by asking him to hand back the balls in a random order (eg. ask for number 4, then 6, then 2, until done).

Fine Motor Development

• In order to motivate the child with various sounds, we used bells and plastic pieces for these activities.
• For the first activity, the child picks up the bell and presses it into the hole of the container. The hole is a bit smaller than the bell which promotes fine motor strength.
• The second activity requires refined motor skills and a firmer pincer grasp in order to slide the object into a narrow slot.
• Once the child is done placing all items into the container, he celebrates by shaking the container creating music.

Peg Stacking

• For this activity, we used thin crooked pegs 6” long that are placed in a piece of wood.
• A variety of shapes allow the child to feel and distinguish their differences.
• As a challenge we asked the child to select a certain shape and place it on a peg.
• This activity promotes fine motor, pincer grasp, lateral movements and muscle development.

Racing Beans

• One or two children can do this activity together by placing beans on the ramp to have a race.
• The beans make a rattling sound which helps the child with visual impairment to listen and locate the bean that is racing down the track.
• This activity promotes social play, fine motor development, turn taking and language development, for example, passing pieces to one another, talking about the race, which bean is faster and cheering each other on.

Practice Scooping

• Three different types of spoons/scoops are offered for the child to have a choice.
• The cup is held in one hand and the scoop in the other. Rocks are used to provide weight so that he can feel when he has an item in the spoon. He scoops out a rock and guides it into the cup. If he misses the small tray is underneath to catch the rock.
• Foam inserts are placed into plastic tray to reduce the noise level of falling rocks.
• This activity promotes self-feeding skills.

Tweezer Activity

• Containers on the tray are taped down with clear packing tape. Each of the short containers is filled with a number of small objects.
• Tweezers are used to pick up small objects to be placed in the taller jar.
• This activity fosters lateral movements, right to left and back and forth.
• This activity promotes the use of descriptive words such as soft, hard, fluffy and smooth. It also works as a hand and arm strengthening activity.

Twisting Off Lids

• Different sizes and diameters of containers with lids are provided for this activity.
• The child is encouraged to practice twisting off lids and unclipping Tupperware.
• By placing toys inside the containers, the child is tempted to open the lids. A child with visual impairment can shake the containers in order to hear if there is an item inside and guess what it could be based on the sound.
• If lids are difficult to open, it encourages the child to use language to ask for help, either from the teaching team or another child.
• This activity encourages coordination, social play and language development.

Most items purchased at the dollar store or recycled in the program

Carrie-Lynne Glason, RECE
Preschool Teacher
Carleton Heights Child Care Centre
A program of Andrew Fleck Children’s Services