Pre-braille
Prints in playdough
Take the brick and squash the dough!
Treasure Hunt
What’s hidden in the sand?
Activity details
Dive in and dig with your hands! What are you going to find: a pearl, a shell, a brick?!
Goals
To discover new tactile experiences.
To develop tactile exploration.
The adult prepares
-
10 random bricks
-
1 large bin filled with sand (or rice)
-
cups and spoons
-
1 bowl
Hide the 10 bricks in the bin.
The children play
1
Tell the child to ‘search the beach’ for 10 treasures buried in the sand.
2
Ask them to place each treasure, one at a time in the bowl.
Offer the children a free-play session with cups and spoons: filling, dumping, pouring and
transferring the sand and the bricks.
Facilitation tips
-
Choose an appropriate, dry, bin filler: some textures are more pleasant than others.
Many children with visual impairment have touch aversion – reluctance to touch wet, damp, or greasy materials or materials that leave residue on their hands.
Rice or semolina are easier to accept for children who are tactually defensive. -
Ensure the children understand what is meant by ‘filling’, ‘dumping’, ‘pouring’ and ‘transferring’
before the free play session. -
Add other types of bricks and objects (and explain that only LEGO Braille Bricks are treasures).
-
Peer play: children share the bin and cooperate to find the treasures, or one hides and the other finds.
-
Children under 4 years old can do this activity with DUPLO. It’s important to develop grasp-and-release and to work on touch aversion issues as early as possible.
