One of our therapists has this toy which is great. I had never seen it before but its a Red Rover Game. He comes with a back pack full of plastic bones that are decorated with a number, color, letter and/or shape. It talks to you with its pre-programmed game which is on the loud side (just as a warning) and the child can ‘feed’ the bone to the dog. You can play the pre-programmed games which can work on following directions and listening for instructions or you can make up your own games.
What’s great about this is that just like my ‘old’ favorite toy, the Parents brand shape sorter, you can work on so many skills at once.
Gross Motor:
- Squatting to pick up the bone
- Standing on tip toes to pick up the bone
- Jumping up to reach for the bone
- Traversing across the room to get the bone by crawling, animal walking, jumping, walking, running, hopping, skipping, knee walking, rolling, tip toe walking, heel walking
- You can also use the bones to encourage repetitions of activities such as walking across a balance beam to get a bone and then walking back to feed the dog, or going up and down stairs or transitioning from the floor to standing
- You can use a chart to make the symbols on the bones mean something and have them face down so when they pick up a bone they have to do the activity that corresponds to the letter, number, color and/or shape. By having the kiddo help come up with the list of activities you get them actively involved and you’d be surprised at how they pick the activities you are actually working on.
Fine Motor:
- Kids can work on grasping to pick the bone up off of different surfaces
- Bilateral coordination to stabilize the dog while trying to feed it. If they don’t stabilize the dog could fall over!!
- Hand strength to get the bone into the mouth. For kids that are a little weaker you could provide some hand over hand to assist.
- Accuracy in getting the bone lined up and into the slot. The kiddo will have to work on manipulating the object so that it is lined up correctly (similar to a shape sorter)
- Just as in the gross motor section you can use it for repetitions of tasks
- You can use it for ‘reward’ or breaks in your sessions. For example, if a child finishes an activity they can feed the dog a bone!
Visual:
- Letter, number, color and/or shape recognition
Has anyone else ever used this game? What variations did you use?