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If you had funding provided for 2 hours a week for someone to come in and do whatever ideas you came up with with 2 delayed 8 year old boys what ideas would you come up with? they are very very delayed in just about every area

So far I am thinking art - including painting of whatever great artiest we are looking at that week. - plus some clay work with air dry clay this will take less than 1 hour - the twins have a very short attention span. ( Art is the subject that I drop when we are short of time so it gets dropped a lot) 

 some therapy exercises left from the OT - this will take 10 minutes max

insert other ideas please

I am not paying for this - I have received funding  that will pay the person directly - the person is getting what I think is an excessive amount of $$$ per hour so I want it to  have some actual benefits for the twins, not just respite babysitting activities - 

 

 

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How are their life skills?  They could spend some of the time learning to make a snack or lunch - peeling carrots, spreading butter on bread, measuring wet and dry ingredients, etc.

Honestly, I would have them do whatever subject/activity I most dreaded.  I actually like doing art and science with my kids, so I would keep those.  With my current 8 year old, I would outsource math in a heartbeat...just someone else to sit there and patiently say over and over, "Slow down, you are just guessing.  Now stop and really think before you answer."

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I hardly ever get to art.  that is why I thought of them doing art type things. I like doing science , gardening etc and we have that covered really well

the funding isn't really meant for core curriculum subjects like language or math. they are not even up to the guessing and rushing stage with math. one is still struggling with the concept that a number is a symbol for an amount of objects. and the other thinks himself very clever that he can count blocks that I have helped lay out to get  answers for math problems like 6 +3

food prep is something that we are teaching them. We have an Occupational Therapist helping with daily skills etc

 

Edited by Melissa in Australia
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Those art activities are all part of small-motor activities as well as art appreciation. 

So for older kids who might still need help with those sorts of things: 

Threading beads on a string to make necklaces or a bracelet.  Math can be made part of it:  counting out number of beads.  Adding one color bead to another color bead for a total number of beads.  Looking at shapes of beads. 

Puzzles

Very simple weaving https://theimaginationtree.com/woven-hearts-mobile/

Simple cross-stitch on plastic canvas.  (My boy liked cross-stitching designs like spiders and dinosaurs!) 

Writing on sensory trays (like sand in a tray) to practice letters and numbers

Patterning with legos or blocks.  https://theimaginationtree.com/making-patterns-with-lego-and-egg/

Salt dough or pretzel dough letters and numbers.

Sorting (plastic animals, shells, pebbles, pictures, shapes) into categories

Making sculptures with recycled materials (like paper towel tubes and scrap paper and pipe cleaners etc.)

making collages

 

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32 minutes ago, Melissa in Australia said:

Great idea. if we ever get enough rain to overflow our water tanks I will keep this in mind - until then playing with water is not something we can do

Sand play?  That’s been our substitute for water play during drought.  Hope you get rain soon!

i think it sounds like while the person is in training there’s probably not much specific to their area that’s beneficial so you just need to pick stuff you need worked on.  And to be honest I have some friends for whom I suspect therapy is more much needed baby sitting than anything else.  I have to admit I wonder if NDIS would go further by providing qualified therapists some of the time and nannies to free up the mums to actually do the therapy practice the rest!  Not a criticism of those friends at all just the reality of running a family with multiple special needs.

anyway rant aside I think I’d get her supervising stuff that’s important and can’t be done without supervision but you don’t enjoy yourself.  So if that’s messy craft it’s messy craft.  If it’s reading repetitive stories that’s what she does.  If they need more supervised outdoor play time to develop coordination than you have time to give them get him/her on to that.  There is a coordination program called little grasshoppers or something like that she might be able to run them through.  If you think counting practice is helpful get her doing that.  And if she’s happy to be enthusiastic and research and try stuff let her - she might land on something good.

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32 minutes ago, Ausmumof3 said:

Sand play?  That’s been our substitute for water play during drought.  Hope you get rain soon!

i think it sounds like while the person is in training there’s probably not much specific to their area that’s beneficial so you just need to pick stuff you need worked on.  And to be honest I have some friends for whom I suspect therapy is more much needed baby sitting than anything else.  I have to admit I wonder if NDIS would go further by providing qualified therapists some of the time and nannies to free up the mums to actually do the therapy practice the rest!  Not a criticism of those friends at all just the reality of running a family with multiple special needs.

anyway rant aside I think I’d get her supervising stuff that’s important and can’t be done without supervision but you don’t enjoy yourself.  So if that’s messy craft it’s messy craft.  If it’s reading repetitive stories that’s what she does.  If they need more supervised outdoor play time to develop coordination than you have time to give them get him/her on to that.  There is a coordination program called little grasshoppers or something like that she might be able to run them through.  If you think counting practice is helpful get her doing that.  And if she’s happy to be enthusiastic and research and try stuff let her - she might land on something good.

thanks for the suggestions

 Yes it is NDIS funding

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On 8/4/2019 at 10:00 PM, Melissa in Australia said:

Great idea. if we ever get enough rain to overflow our water tanks I will keep this in mind - until then playing with water is not something we can do

I forgot about that.  Do they have any tactile sensitivities?

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