Helium balloon learning and motor skills activity

For our eldest son's recent eighth birthday he declared that he wanted "those balloons that stay up." Instead of just opting for a giant foil figure eight I looked around and found an easy way we could have some educational fun with helium balloons at home.  Many kids with autism can benefit from developing their motor skills, listening skills and team work, so our helium balloon games focused on these.

We played musical balloons, pass the balloons and find the balloons.

Dry Sensory Easter Rabbit Craft Activity

Some kids with autism can be sensitive to wet textures or not like mixing dry and wet textures together but still enjoy being creative.  We had great fun with this craft activity at a local group, Me Too & Co, which supports children with additional needs and their siblings.

Dry Sensory Easter Rabbit

Apart from cutting out rabbit shapes from coloured paper this activity is easy to set up.  Choose some different dry textures in bowls, add glue sticks and pens and let your kids have fun.  At Me Too & Co they had:

• Different coloured felt shapes including ovals, rectangles, squares and triangles
• Cotton wool pleats
• Little pom pom balls
• Feathers and
• Tissue string.

Encouraging fine motor stills

If your child has emerging fine motor skills then this is a great activity. Kids will need to use and develop their pincer grip in order to pick up bits of felt and the little pom poms.  If this is challenging, don't worry they can have an easier time with the feathers and tissue string.  

Pulling the cotton wool pleats apart will encourage bilateral motor skills (using both hands together to achieve an outcome).  By placing the bowls of bits around the child you will also encourage them to cross their mid-line when they reach over to grab items.

Using a glue stick may encourage a classic pencil grip but even if not it will still encourage pre-writing movements while you cover the rabbit with sticky glue.

Encouraging Labelling

Different shapes of felt and the different colours of items give you and opportunity to label shapes and colours.  It's also a good opportunity to label textures such as soft cotton wool, crinkly tissue paper or fluffy feathers.

You can also label using makaton, have a look at the Makaton #wetalkmakaton sign of week for helpful ideas.

Jane had a great time at Me Too & Co and I loved her finished rabbit. 

Links

Our blog - Sensory healthy flapjack recipe

Our blog - Gale winds and low sun: Is this what it is like for my autistic sons?