Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Sword Activity to Develop Visual Motor Skills and Bilateral Coordination during Hippotherapy

I bought this sword at the dollar store. They are sold in different lengths so you can purchase and adapt according to the child's needs. I cut rectangular pieces that fit over the sword tip so that it can be used like a ring stack. I try to have the children orient the shapes to fit easily over the sword with the longer sides matching, although as you will see in this video they mananged to get some shapes on even when not correctly positioned. (this can be fixed by having shapes with smaller openings....but then it would require greater motor control)

I placed the shapes inside the pocket that I sewed on top a towel so that they have to pull them out. First I introduce this activity with the towel in front of them, then to make it more challenging I place the towel behind the child so that he or she needs to reach behind to pull the shapes out of the pocket. Swords are fun toys since kids are familiar with them from watching movies and they seem to motivate more than the usual ring stack does-and they get to practice using both hands together.

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