28. Week
We have previously discussed the importance of auditory perception for children before starting school, but what about visual perception? By the time children start school, most have reached an optimal level of visual perception, although some may take longer to mature. Developing a good level of visual perception is essential for successfully mastering reading, writing letters, syllables, words, and numbers.
Pre-schoolers should be able to:
Identify basic and complementary colours
Distinguish between similar pictures, identifying differences in size, detail, position, etc.
Locate small details within larger pictures
Identify matching and mismatching pairs of pictures
Assemble puzzles with two or more pieces, following a pattern
Recognize and complete missing parts of a picture
Recall three to four pictures shown to them
Identify which item or picture was given away
As you can see, we have already practiced all these skills at least once. This week, we will be focusing on visual memory, and more.
Video, download and description of exercises
Files:
What do we have there?
We will gather several pairs of identical items such as two balls, two spoons, two cars, etc.
We will arrange the items in a row and have the child observe them. After a period of time, when the child feels comfortable with the order of the items, we will cover them.
The child will then try to place the second pair of items in the same order they were seen a moment ago.
Goal:
Improve the child's visual memory skills.
Knight
Have the child sit on his heels, hands on the ground in front of him (as when we practiced the "cat" exercise).
He then lifts the pan so that it is in the "table" position.
He puts one leg next to his hand and gets down on one knee.
Throw the ball together for a while, the child remains kneeling on one knee.
He then returns his hands to the ground and his foot back to the starting position.
He sits back on his heels and rests.
Rises again to table position and puts the other leg next to the hand to get into position "knight", but with the other leg in front. We're throwing the ball around again.
Goal:
Improve coordination of movement
Improve hand-eye coordination
Strengthen the deep muscles of the trunk
Dotting
Use the attachment. Draw dots by making short, quick movements with your wrist, as if pecking like a bird.
Goal:
Relax the wrists for writing, graphomotor skills.
W-o-r-d
Spelling is mainly for first graders, but you can also try it with a preschooler. But choose only short words (dog, cat, dad, ...). If your child can do this, know that he or she has an excellent level of auditory discrimination. If it's too hard, do it in syllables (two-syllable words). Try again occasionally during the first year at school.
Or try to break the words into letters - say d-o-g, the child says "dog!"
Goal:
Improve auditory perception.
Watch out!
During this activity, we will read a fairy tale and have the child clap every time they hear a pre-determined word. For instance, if the story is about cars, the child will clap every time they hear the word "car". After finishing the story or paragraph, we will ask the child to recall what the story was about by asking leading questions such as the color of the cars or where the characters went.
Goal:
Enhance the child's auditory perception
Improve focus.
Well done! Next week, we'll do exercises for all the important areas at once.