Activities on the trail

I decided to have fun today while working on tactile or touch discrimination. I put two toy animals in each of 6 bottles that I hung from branches. I work with one 3year old who loves to guess what is in containers so she was really excited when I  showed her the 2 animals and then asked her to feel inside and pull out the one I named with her eyes closed. She did this while in positions:

• kneeling
• standing on top of horse
• on her belly over barrel of horse
• long leg sitting while facing backwards (her legs were next to each other across the horse's back)
• posting (standing with feet in stirrups)
• reaching while facing sideways

I was very impressed because she usually resists holding the prone position and she held this position briefly again  while using another toy and almost dismounted by herself from this position.   In addition, this little girl independently found the bottles hanging from the branches and pulled the reins to stop near them.

The little girl in the photo is  a bit over 2 years old and I am working on having her follow simple directions and imitate movements such as clapping and as shown in the video making the turtle jump. She was able to place the animals in and out of the bottle.   Notice how she made the turtle jump after the magic words "make the turtle jump and then we will GO".

The next video shows her finishing up rolling the ball as I counted the squeaks. I realized as she did this that I should catch it on video. 

The last video shows a different 2 year old kneeling while reaching to pull the rings in the bottle. She loved this and did it about 15 times before I realized that I should make a video. I have a longer version but am sharing the one edited to not show her face. She can also do this while standing on top of the horse.

Q&A with Barbara A. Smith, MS, OTR/L, Occupational Therapist at Challenge Unlimited/Ironstone Therapies in Andover, Massachusetts

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