Working on cognitive skills

My clients are familiar with the animal pictures I hang up on  the indoor arena walls. So I completely hid one picture behind the snowman decoration and asked them to guess which one was hiding. If they couldn't remember which picture was missing, I would show part of the picture. This works on the visual perceptual skill called "visual form constancy". This is the ability to recognize a shape even when it is rotated, partially hidden, bigger or smaller than usual or a different color. It is a skill occupational therapists often test for. 

After guessing what is behind the snow man I show them the full monkey picture.

I have a smaller version of each animal picture- I call the "baby" attached to the back of the larger "mommy" or "daddy" picture. In the video you will see me handing the picture with the mommy side showing so that the 2 year old has to remember to turn it over to see where to attach the smaller picture. This works on visual memory and object permanence-remembering something that is not visible.

 

 

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