Make Nice Flashcards

One tool often used in various speech therapies happens to be flash card type of games. While I have no games to list I thought I would share some ideas on how to make various flash cards without purchasing 3x5 cards.

Option #1
You can buy precut ready to be printed on business cards from almost any office supply store. Usually these are set with what type of template you need on your computer to make sure it prints correctly on the cards. This can get kind of spendy especially if you decide to laminate. (A cheaper way than laminating is appling contact paper.)

Option #2
You can buy a deck of real cards and then purchase mailing labels. These cards happen to be more durable due to their coating and slide far easier than 3x5 cards. In most cases that I have experienced dollar store playing cards don't have that nice coating. (Many times you can get them free or for real cheap if you call a casino and explain what they are for. They do have a hole punched out usually in the middle and so in that regard you might have a sticky spot. A simple way to fix this is by putting a small piece of paper in the center of the mailing labels.) I have found

Option #3
The last option I can come up with is when you make your flashcards if you are using a printer to use a glossy paper like photo paper. You can use many of the Microsoft Templates to get things in the right spot if you're worried about centering things. This too can get spendy but it's an option.

Mr. Buttons the Turtle

One of the tasks some kids have problems with is fine motor skills they need for every day things that most people don't think twice about. One of these important fine motor skills happens to be learning to button. I was inspired by another site and asked one of my friends if one of her sons had issues with this. I decided to try this out to see how well it worked. (Mind you, I had to learn how to do a button hole on my sewing machine so it took a while.)



The Front of Mr. Turtle



The Underside of Mr. Buttons



Anyhow, her son LOVES turtles and so I made this felt turtle that is full of buttons. You must button the arms, legs, head, tail and eyes on as well as his 8 different spotted colors. Each piece is zig-zagged stitched around two pieces of felt. Then I put the button holes on each piece and sewed the buttons in place so the pieces would fit.



Balloon Volleyball

One thing my kids love is balloons which we have to be very careful around with the new baby seeing she just started crawling. Now if your child won't put hte balloon in their mouth a fun game is to play balloon volleyball or keep the balloon off the floor. You and your child track the balloon making sure that you hit it up in the air before it touches the ground. Another option is to blow to make it go higher. How many body parts can you use to keep the balloon up? For more of a challenge you can pass it back and forth over a chair or a couch to get it high enough and far enough to the other person.
There are other things you can use besides laytex balloons to do crafts like this such as juggling scarves. You can't throw them but they're pretty easy to keep up in the air. Sometimes women's scarves work the same way. We have also used a somewhat deflated myler balloon as they don't pop and they don't have laytex in them which can be a huge problem for some kids especially if they're allergic to bandaids as most bandaids, rubbers like elastic all have some form of laytex in them unless otherwise stated.

Make Your Own Ispy Bag

This I Spy Bag is at the Etsy Shop Giggle Junction.
The link to her site is below but this is what the I Spy
Bags look like although the instructions below are
for a simplier style.

I have seen these on Etsy.com where you can buy multiple styles and shapes. This bags have a small viewing window that you can use to find the hidden things inside the bag. To do this toy you must have a sewing machine. If this lady had her Etsy site up I would share that too but since I can't find it I won't be able to until she opens another one.

How to Make An I Spy Bag

Here is an Etsy shop that sells them: Etsy Store: Giggle Junction I am not sure if this seller has the items to find listed on the back but I know some of them on Etsy do so you know you found everything.

Games for SPD Kids

A few games my SPD child LOVES that I will share with you today aren't always the quietest games around but they do involve movement which is what my son craves.

Whac-a-Mole
This game is really simple and your child can play it by himself. The lights on the mole heads light up and you try to hit them. The game keep score of how many moles you hit but watch out because if you hit a mole that is not lit up you loose one point. The settings can be picked of having a 1 or 2 player game as well as two levels of difficulty.

Twister
This game is fun because it requires my son to have balance and to put his body in odd shapes. It is more fun for him with a group. If you don't have this game it's pretty simple to make something that'll work as it is a grid of 4 colors. Each color is in a row and then you just call the color and the placement of a right or left hand or foot.

Humgry Hippos
This game is not okay for kids who put things in their mouths. The sensory input of this game is making the mouths of the hippos open and close to gobble up marbles. I suppose this could also be done with some round candy or cereal maybe but I haven't tried it. It can get kind of noisy with all the hippos trying to eat.