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Find out how to use tips from the ESDM for early social-communication skills important to life-long learning, behavior, and health with your child or with families whom you support in an early childhood learning environment.
Today's Quick Tip shares strategies and activity ideas for finger painting. Discover how to engage children in a fun and creative activity that also supports sensory exploration, fine motor skills, language development, and imagination. Happy playing and learning!
Click the video icon (to the left) for the latest Quick Tip video and here for a list of activity suggestions.
Read monthly research about intervention outcomes for children with or at risk of autism; coaching supports for their families; and/or family-centered, culturally inclusive coaching tools to help early childhood professionals support families. Each monthly article is publicly available for free access.
Main takeaways:
1. Fidelity is crucial in children's capacity to respond and benefit from interventions.
2. Fidelity items deemed less significant might have had fewer chances to be utilized with children, or they may be techniques that are simple to master, which could complicate the assessment of their individual contributions to overall fidelity.
3. The training of therapists and the monitoring of fidelity in early autism interventions are crucial practices that necessitate resources to ensure their successful implementation.
4. Behavioral and developmental components of the ESDM offer complementary contributions to children's learning experiences, rather than being incompatible or redundant.
Click the article (to the right) to read more.
This next Play of the Month comes from a parent whom I want to thank for her request. Apple peels, potato peels, carrot peels, eggshells, carrot tops, or even melon rinds are all wonderful items for sensory play. The scraps of peel and ends of fruits and veggies we throw in the compost or trash offer wonderful sensory opportunities to learn about and explore how different foods feel and smell. Before you throw away fruit and veggie scraps, consider how children might play with them.
You can find below a list of activity ideas and learning goal suggestions with related to ESDM Curriculum Checklist items in parentheses to help you discover what level of play your child or the children and families whom you support in early learning environment enjoy doing.
Pay attention to what children like (or seem curious about) and follow their lead as long as you are a part of the action, too. Remember, the most important thing is for children to have fun doing this with you! Fun means engagement and that excites children's brains and bodies for meaningful learning to happen.
Simple play actions that encourage children to explore, use their senses, and move their bodies:
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Grapefruits, oranges and avocados shells once the fruit is removed can turn into perfect containers for scooping and pouring dried materials like rice, beans, and pasta shells.
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Peels and shells can be placed in a bin or tub of water for children to pick out with tongs, sieves, forks, scoops, or other utensils.
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You can paint, use markers to color, or stamp from ink pads onto peels (hint: lighter color peels are better for showing color).
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You could use cookie cutters to cut shapes out of peels, then make a face, a design or a picture. This lets children smell the food and feel at least one of its textures in a pressure-free activity that’s all about experiencing with the senses.
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Or you could dip food peels in paint or ink and paint or press onto paper to create fun patterns and designs. The knobby tops of zucchini can make star like impressions, the end of a celery bunch can make a rose-like stamp, and apple cores can create different sized circles. The skin of avocados and cantaloupe
rind make really neat textured paint tools, too, and you can cut orange and grapefruit peel into paintbrushes and rakes for even more cool paint tools.
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If you have made shapes out of peels, push a skewer through each of the middles to form a hole and thread the shapes onto string, wool, ribbon, or pipe cleaners. The threaded shapes make great natural decorations, or you could turn them into necklaces or bracelets. Orange and lemon peels work well for this because of their flexibility.
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Use peels to do leaf rubbing. Place a piece of paper over a peel and rub a crayon over the top to reveal the texture and patterns of the peel underneath.
Imaginary play that encourages children to make-believe and role-play:
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Gather a variety of fruit peels (e.g., from bananas, oranges, dragon fruit, watermelon, or even durians!) for children to pick the types of peels they want to use. Stick them together using toothpicks or playdoh can also be used as a good sticky substance to hold peels in place. Encourage children to experiment by exploring the textures of the peels, stacking, poking, or connecting them with toothpicks in any shape or design they imagine. Whether it looks like a real thing or a wacky invention, let their creativity flow, allowing them to build and rebuild freely, exploring new forms and ideas.
- The different shapes and textures of peels can add unique, fun elements to children's artwork. Banana peels can be curly hair, orange peels can be wavy eyebrows, and potato peels can create a mustache or limbs. Gluing them in place adds another step that children can do in the project.
- Turn peels into puppets. Attach peels to popsicle sticks or straws and decorate them with markers, googly eyes, and other craft materials to create characters for puppet shows.
