Spatial Orientation and Obstacle Navigation
Spatial orientation refers to how a child mentally organizes the physical environment around them -- both their body's relation to other objects and objects' relation to other. Obstacle navigation refers to a child's ability to map a path around an object. Proper spatial orientation helps them to move from one place to another, judge distances, and properly fill containers; proper obstacle navigation allows safe and effective movement through the environment.
Interventions
Obstacle Course
You can do this with infants as well as very young toddlers as long as you adjust the obstacles to their ability level. For this activity, you can set up an obstacle course (with foam blocks, pillows, blankets, balls, stuffed animals, furniture, blocks, etc.) and simply play in it, or (for older children) you can hide objects (Cheerios, easter eggs, stuffed animals, fruit snacks, etc.) around the obstacle course and have the child find them. To emphasize the spatial navigation component of this, include objects that they have to go over, under, around, and through, as well as objects they can move and reshape (such as a pile of blankets) to bypass.
To incorporate sequencing, include obstacles that require more than one step to navigate (for example, a pile of blankets requires 1) compressing the blankets to solidify it; 2) climbing over the blankets). To incorporate memory (for older kids), tell them the objects they need to find (e.g. three easter eggs) without providing them with a list. You can also do this to incorporate counting. To increase the complexity of the counting as well as add vocabulary skills, hide multiple numbers of multiple different items in the obstacle course. For infants, incorporate counting, vocabulary, and sequencing by narrating what they’re doing (“Wow! First, we had to smush the blankets, and then we had to climb over them!”, “This block staircase has three stairs in it!”, etc.). If the obstacle course is small and makes it difficult for you to perform anything on it, you can incorporate imitation by having a stuffy perform the activities before the child. You can also incorporate theory of mind by having the stuffy perform the activities after the child and asking the child to point to or demonstrate what the stuffy should do.
Serving Customers
This activity can be done in a make-believe grocery, house, restaurant, or similar setting. Who serves the customers and who is the customer will depend on the child’s age and skill level. In this activity, the customers will have baskets and want particular items. The spatial orientation and navigation component is involved in filling up the baskets or dishes to the appropriate level, as well as navigating through the environment to deliver the items to the customers. If the child is the customer and you are the server, you may want to include several other stuffies to play along. Give each person a dish or item and say a simple greeting, such as, “Hello! I’m here to fill your dishes today!” and proceed to fill each person’s dish. For infants, take care to narrate your thought process (this incorporates theory of mind as well) (for example, “Elephant’s dish is already full, so I’m not going to give him any more!”).
If the child is the server, you can be a customer along with other stuffies (depending on the complexity level you’re looking for). You can also tell the child as they’re filling it, “Thank you so much! Please stop when it’s full.” or other requests to pay attention to the container volume. If the customer playscheme is too complex, you can also downgrade the activity simply by playing with filling items (“Let’s fill up elephant’s basket! Oh, now it’s full!”).
This activity can be used as a sorting and matching activity as well — give each stuffy a different colored container and give the child a variety of different colored items, and then sort the items for each color into each bin. You can increase the complexity of the sorting and matching by using more abstract categories and vocabulary words (“Giraffe only wants vegetables.” “Penguin doesn’t like sharp things.” “Whale likes blue things and black things.”). Discussing the likes and dislikes of the stuffies and encouraging the child to make decisions based on these preferences also exercises theory of mind.
To incorporate memory, ask the child to fill two orders simultaneously (have them work from one bucket, so they have to switch back and forth between the orders they’re filling; e.g., yellow to Giraffe, blue to Whale, yellow and another yellow to Giraffe, another blue to Whale, etc.). To incorporate vocabulary, use items with names the child is new to or hasn’t learned yet. To incorporate sequencing, have the stuffies request their orders filled in steps (“Llama wants the black ones and then the green ones.”). To incorporate counting, have the orders contain numbers of things (“The Okapi wants three orange and three yellow.”).
Bowling
This activity works best for toddlers and older infants who can move a ball. The children do not have to be able to stand; if you place them on the same surface that the bowling pins are on, they will be able to roll it towards the pins without walking or crawling. In this activity, the child will push a ball towards a group of pins in order to knock it down. The pins could be pre-made bowling pins from a playset or they could be paper towel rolls, plastic water bottles, shampoo containers, or otherwise.
For infants, you may need to hold them in your lap and roll the ball together, narrating the process and the explanation (for this reason, it may be helpful to do this intervention with a partner, so that they can readjust the pins without you removing the child from your lap every time). Incorporating hand-over-hand guidance will also particularly increase their exposure to the sequence of movement. For older toddlers, you can demonstrate the movement and them ask them to repeat it (this also works on imitation). If the child accidentally tosses the ball instead of pushes it, you can also encourage them to spread their legs and set the ball between them, so that they can push it straight forward and not over their legs.
This activity also incorporates spatial orientation and navigation. You can incorporate sorting and matching by having several different groups of pins and several different balls that correspond to each group (e.g. a blue ball and blue pin group; a purple set of the same; etc). To incorporate counting, you can count the pins remaining or the pins knocked down. To incorporate vocabulary, color each pin differently and name which colors are left standing and which ones fell down.
Other Interventions
emphasize a different skill, but still incorporate this one!
Finger Painting
In this activity, you’ll be painting the child’s hands or fingers and pressing them onto paper to make shapes and patterns. This could be a shape (like a butterfly, giraffe, etc.), a design (rainbow of hand- or fingerprints), or it could simply be free play. The sequencing focus comes from the child experiencing paint being placed on their hand, their hand being put on the paper, and the paper having a colored shape on it after they’ve touched it. Older toddlers could also paint your hands and place your hands on the paper; this gives them greater exposure to the sequence that produces the final effect.
This activity involves some spatial orientation, but to increase its demand in the activity, you can trace shapes on the paper beforehand and tell the child to fill in the shapes (or narrate that you are doing so as you guide the child hand-over-hand to fill them in). To incorporate vocabulary, you can paint their hands different colors or do different shapes and objectives with the patterns. To incorporate counting, you can press their hands to the paper a certain number of times, create a certain number of shapes, or even brush the paintbrush over their hands as you count the strokes aloud. To incorporate imitation, you can take turns filling in one of the shapes with colored hands. To incorporate sorting and matching, you can pre-draw shapes and color in a small, but visible, portion of it ahead of time and guide the child to matching their handprints to the right colored shape.
Building a Block Tower
In this activity, you and your child can build block towers with a certain number of blocks. You can count the blocks as you add them, count the blocks in the tower once it’s assembled, or count the available blocks before assembling. This activity is a good fit especially for infants. Other materials that can be used instead of blocks include pillows, Cheerios or fruit snacks, stuffed animals, plastic Tupperware, and so on.
This activity also incorporates spatial orientation and sequencing. To incorporate vocabulary, describe the colors of the blocks and the types of towers you’re making (“This one’s really tall!”, “This one’s really long.”, etc). To incorporate memory, give the child a list of two or more kinds of blocks to assemble at once (“Can you do a purple and then a blue one?”; this also exercises sequencing). To incorporate imitation, build a tower first, then give the child the same kinds of blocks and have them copy yours. To incorporate sorting and matching, you can make several different towers categorized by color or shape.
Jumping Jack Rabbit Game
Jumping Jack is a game for young children that can be purchased online. To play, each player spins a wheel that tells them the number of carrots they can pull out from the hill that the rabbit puppet stands on. Players take turns pulling carrots out until a spring is triggered and the rabbit puppet is launched into the air. In this activity, you can take turns with the child spinning the wheel and pulling out the designated number of carrots. This activity may be more challenging for young infants, and you may need to provide hand-over-hand guidance to them.
This activity also incorporates sequencing (first spin the wheel, then pull the carrots) and memory (to follow the rules). It also touches on imitation, supposing that you demonstrate the rules of the game to the child by playing first. To incorporate spatial navigation, place the rabbit at one end of the room and the spinner on the other end, and place small obstacles between the two. To incorporate vocabulary, take care to narrate what the spinner is, what the carrots are, and describe what the rabbit does as it jumps. To incorporate sorting and matching, the game comes with small buckets for each player, so you can tell the child that one of these is their bucket, and the carrots they pull have to go into their bucket rather than someone else’s.
Ants on a Log
This activity involves making snacks, so check your child’s allergy restrictions before beginning. Ants on a log are typically snacks like celery with peanut butter and raisins. Substitutions for celery include graham crackers, apple slices, or strips of bread; substitutions for peanut butter include cream cheese, sunflower butter, jelly, nutella, goat cheese; substitutions for raisins include berries, chocolate chips, M&Ms, diced fruit, and chopped nuts.
To create ants on a log with the child, spread peanut butter on the celery stick, and then add raisins to the top. For counting, count each raisin as you place it on. You can also make multiple celery sticks to count beyond 10.
This activity also integrates some vocabulary (food names, number names), imitation (demonstrating the process first), and sequencing (creating the snack in order). You can incorporate sorting and matching by making multiple logs and adding a different topping to each one (a raisin on one, a berry on another) and have the child put the appropriate toppings on each one. To incorporate memory, tell the child you will put raisins on one and m&ms on the other (without putting any on) and have the child put them on, starting from the beginning, themselves.
Puzzle Board
Many simple puzzles for infants and toddlers have pieces printed identically to their places in the puzzle board. These can be used for matching games because of the one-to-one correlation between the piece and its place.
To use peg puzzles in interventions, you could place the pieces on the surface outside the puzzle board, scatter them throughout the room, or mix them together in a bin. You may need to demonstrate the first step for the child so that they understand. Then, hand a piece to the child, asking, “Where does this one go?”
This activity draws upon some sequencing in that it requires identifying, matching, and placing the object. To incorporate spatial orientation and navigation, place the pieces around the room and encourage the child to go get them. This activity also incorporates some elements of spatial orientation because each puzzle piece, and its corresponding slot, differs in shape from the others. To incorporate vocabulary, substitute pronouns (“this piece”) for the names of the items (“the triangle”, “the turtle”, etc.). To incorporate memory, you can draw from the vocabulary words and ask them to point to the piece or the slot that corresponds to the word (“which one is the circle?”). To incorporate counting, use numbered puzzles (numbers 1-10) or count the pieces as the child fills them in (“one piece, two pieces, three pieces…”). To incorporate imitation, demonstrate the activity for the child first, having them copy your actions after you do each one (e.g., put the circle in, take it out, hand it to the child, have them put it in, etc.).
Stuffy Snacks
For this activity, you can use stuffed animals as categories for snack sorting. With infants, you may need to narrate most of the sorting and rationale; with older toddlers, they may be able to do some with you.
Choose the number of stuffed animals you’d like and assign a category to each one. Simple categories for this are color and shape (“the whale is shaped like a circle; the penguin is shaped like an oval”), but if the child’s ability level can approach other categories (“cat only eats foods she needs a fork for”), it can work with the activity as well. Color is typically the most intuitive, though.
Each stuffy should get a bucket or container that corresponds to the category they belong to (whale should have a blue container; giraffe should have a yellow one; etc). Collect various items that belong to each category and mix them into one container. If the child is very young, sit with the container in front of you and pull out items individually. Describe what object it is, what category it belongs to, and where it should go (“look, this is a green spoon! Meerkat likes green things, so I’m going to put this in Meerkat’s box.”). If the child is an older toddler, have him or her sort the objects themselves, taking care to verbally affirm their decisions and rationales (“that’s right, Tiger gets the pink LEGO because she likes pink things!”).
This activity also incorporates sequencing, theory of mind (especially if you make the stuffies say what things they like or don’t like, as well as make them react when they get a wrong item), memory, and vocabulary (if you describe the items, categories, and animals repeatedly). To incorporate counting, you can either count the items as the child goes along (“put two in the whale’s bucket”) or count the contents of each stuffy’s bucket at the end (“hyena has seven LEGOs and baby doll has five!”). To incorporate imitation, show the child one step and have them repeat it after you (pull an item out, narrate your decision, place it in the bucket, hand the bucket to the child, and say “your turn!”).
Sticker by Color
For this activity, you can use simple sticker-by-color books or you can use more complex sticker-by-number books and pre-color the number slots for the child. For infants, you can guide them hand-over-hand to place stickers onto the proper colors, explaining the rationale while doing so. For older toddlers, you can hand them the stickers and ask them questions guiding them to proper placement.
For infants, pull a sticker off and place it to the child’s hand. Hold their hand gently and say, “we have a pink sticker! Let’s find where to put the pink sticker.” Then, move their hand to the spot for the pink sticker and place it on, explaining, “this is pink, too, so let’s put our pink sticker here!”. You can repeat this until the picture is done. If the child is between infant and toddler, you can also let them try themselves. For older toddlers, hand them a sticker and say, “Here’s a pink sticker! Where does the pink sticker go?”, offering verbal prompts and corrective questions as needed.
This activity also incorporates sequencing and vocabulary, as well as imitation. It also incorporates spatial orientation due to the differing shapes of the stickers, and you can increase the spatial demand of the activity by placing the sticker sheet elsewhere in the room and telling the child to navigate to it (this works more for older toddlers). To integrate counting, you can ask the child how many [color] of stickers are on the sticker sheet or on the worksheet, or you can hand them two stickers at once (“here are two yellow stickers! Where do these go?”; this also incorporates increased memory work).
Feed The ____
Fill in the blank with whatever the child is interested in! It could be dump trucks, ghosts, whales, an ambulance, a bakery, or anything else. I’ll use ghosts for the description, but insert the name of whatever you choose in its stead. This activity involves putting pom-poms, crumpled paper, buttons, Froot Loops, or other items of different colors into the ghost to feed it. This activity exercises a lot of vocabulary (colors or other descriptors), but you can work its memory component by making rules about what the ghost can or can’t eat (for example, they can eat pom-poms but not buttons, or, to increase the difficulty, all pom-poms and all buttons except the purple buttons).
You can mix the colors or items together in a group bin or you can separate them out. Once you have your ghost (a bucket, box, paper cup, etc. decorated appropriately), set it somewhere in the room and tell the child what can and can’t be fed to it. If they feed the ghost something wrong, have fun with it and make the ghost run away, shake its head, pretend to jump back, etc., as long as it doesn’t scare the child. Once the ghost has been filled, the child can knock it over or flip it upside down to dump out the contents.
To incorporate other skills into this, have the child count a certain number of items (3 pom-poms; more advanced: 3 pom-poms and 2 buttons) (counting); place the ghost at the far end of the room and position obstacles (pillows, a house slide, yoga balls) between the child and it (spatial navigation); play Follow The Leader and have the child parrot how and with which items you fill the ghost (imitation); collaboratively make a list of what the ghost wants and fill it in that order (sequencing); make multiple smaller ghosts of different colors and fill each with items of the corresponding color (sorting and matching); and discuss what the ghost like and doesn’t like to decide what to give it (theory of mind).
Animal Imitation
In this activity, you and your child will imitate animals based on a deck of cards. You can use a random animal generator online, picture cards with animal names on them, pictures of animals, or you can write animal names yourself on blank cards. For each animal, ask your child to walk like that animal, make a noise like it, or otherwise act like it (swinging an elephant trunk, slithering like a snake, swimming like a spider). Though the vocabulary focus exercises some memory components, you can also strengthen it with the child in reverse. You can say, “let’s act like a snake! Does a snake slither like this [demonstrate] or fly like this [demonstrate]?”
To incorporate other skills, perform the action for the child first (for imitation; this can be especially helpful if they’re younger); ask them to complete a whole action the animal might do, such as retrieving and eating a banana from a tree (sequencing); for older toddlers, setting up different habitats (ocean, jungle, tundra, etc.) to go to and act in (sorting and matching; to incorporate spatial navigation, place obstacles in the path to each habitat as well; to incorporate theory of mind, ask them or explain why the animal they chose wouldn’t like the other habitats).
Simon Says
In this activity, you and your child will be copying each other. Simon Says typically uses the rule that if a command does not follow “Simon Says,” the command does not apply and anyone who follows it is out, but this may be too complex for some children, so feel free to drop it as your child’s level requires.
To play, sit with the child where you can both see each other. If the child lacks expressive speech, you can give the commands. Say simple tasks like “Simon says touch your knees!” and “Simon says pat your head!”. The child may need help to do the activities, so you can also guide the child hand-over-hand to carry out some of the tasks, narrating what you’re doing and making them do as you go along.
To increase the vocabulary used in this game, you can play with toys, snacks, or other items (“Simon says pick up the blue ball.”). This activity also exercises vocabulary by referencing parts of the body. To integrate counting, you can add numeric values to your commands (“Simon says clap three times.”). To integrate sequencing, you can give commands with two or more steps (using toys may be helpful for this; “Simon says build a block tower.”). To integrate memory, you can give two or more commands at once (“Simon says clap your hands and pat your belly.”). To integrate theory of mind, narrate what you want before giving a command (“Hmm… I want to pat my head. Simon says pat your head.”) or have a stuffed animal join the game, making the stuffed animal express its own opinions, displeasure, and enjoyment of the commands (“I don’t want to pat my head!”, “I like clapping my hands!”, etc.). To increase navigation, give commands that involve interacting with items in space (“Simon says climb on that couch.”, “Simon says run to that wall.”, etc.).
Follow the Leader
This activity is similar to Simon Says, but it requires more attention and imitation because it lacks descriptors. In Follow the Leader, the child will sit near you and copy what you do, but you do not describe what the child should do. You may need to do a few introductory rounds in which you describe to the child that they should copy you and what you’re doing (“I’m clapping my hands! Can you clap your hands?”). After a few rounds, say, “great job! Keep copying me!”. Use facial expressions to communicate when things change and when they’ve correctly adjusted their behavior, but don’t describe to them what they should do.
To integrate sequencing and memory, do an activity that has multiple components (and then repeat it several times so the child has time to catch on) (touching your head, then clapping your hands once; sticking out your tongue, then blinking twice; etc.). To integrate counting, do a move multiple times (clapping three times, patting your head four times, etc.). To integrate navigation, do a move that requires interacting with space (lifting a pillow over your head, putting items in a container, walking to a wall, etc). To integrate theory of mind, you can use a stuffy to narrate its opinions and preferences about the activities, just like in the Simon Says game.
Songs with Hand Motions
This activity uses nursery rhymes with hand motions to facilitate imitation. Pick a nursery rhyme with hand motions to sing to and show the child. After you’ve shown it to the child, encourage them to do it (“Can you try?”) and provide hand-over-hand guidance if needed. Once you show the child the motions a few times, say, “Let’s do it again! Copy me!” and do the song and motions in front of them, prompting the child to imitate you. After they’ve gotten the motions correct, you can say, “Now let’s do it together!” and do it jointly. You may need to repeat this process for each line of the song rather than the whole song at the time, depending on your child’s ability.
Some nursery rhymes with hand motions you can use are The Itsy-Bitsy Spider; Hands, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes; Father Abraham; Rock-a-Bye Baby; The Wheels on the Bus; Baa, Baa, Black Sheep; Baby Shark; If You’re Happy and You Know It; and so on.
This activity also exercises sequencing, memory, and vocabulary. Depending on the song and hand motions, it may also exercise counting and spatial navigation. There is some theory of mind present in this activity, but you can increase it by adding an uncooperative stuffed animal and asking the child to show the stuffy how to do the motions, reassuring the stuffy, or telling the stuffy that it will be fun and they can like it yourself.
Stuffed Animal Role-Playing
This activity focuses on helping toddlers interact with agents that have different feelings than their own. You can do this with older toddlers by playing bakery, house, hospital, grocery store, or so on. To role-play in a setting, the agents can act things out in front of the child or they can act with the child. For example, one agent can take the other agent’s toy / cookie / groceries / etc, and the other agent can act sad. Alternatively, one agent can want what the child has and act sad that they do not have it. When an agent expresses displeasure with a situation, you can tell the child, “look, they’re sad! Maybe they’re sad that *they* don’t have a cookie. Can you help them?” To downgrade the activity, act out the normal stuffy’s response and share with the sad stuffy, saying “this stuffy thinks the other stuffy is sad because he wants a cookie, so he’s sharing one with him to help him feel better!” To upgrade the activity and increase the theory of mind needed, you can instead say, “look, they’re sad! I wonder why they are sad. Can you help them?” (and, depending upon their response, say, “that’s a good idea! Maybe they’re sad because *they* didn’t get a cookie; or “hmm, the stuffy didn’t like that. Maybe they’re sad because they didn’t get a cookie! What should we do?).
To integrate imitation to this activity, after demonstrating the two-stuffy interaction to the child, give the child the normal stuffy and keep the sad stuffy for yourself. When the sad stuffy takes the other stuffy’s toy/cookie/item, encourage the child to act with the normal stuffy as you did.
To alter this activity for younger infants, you can play this game during snack time. Typically, downgrading activities for infants requires significantly more narration and explanation to target the skills in the activity. For this, you can make a stuffy try to take the snacks, act sad when the child gets them and they don’t, or make the stuffy ask the child directly for some snacks. Narrate to the child, “look, the stuffy’s acting sad. Maybe he’s sad because he didn’t get a Cheerio. Can you give him a Cheerio?” or “look, the stuffy is trying to take your snacks! Maybe it’s because he wants one. Can we give one to him?”
You can integrate counting, vocabulary, and sequencing by modifying the thing the stuffy wants or the process required to give it to him. The stuffy could want different items at the store or bakery in different rounds of the game, could want several numbers of items or an assortment of different numbers of different items, or want something that requires several steps to make (for example, if the stuffy wants a peanut butter sandwich, the other stuffy could make one for him). You can also integrate spatial orientation and navigation by having the stuffy ask for a certain container to be filled (filling a cup with Cheerios, for example). You can integrate sorting and matching by having the puppet say that it wants something because it matches itself (for example, “I want the blue cup because I’m blue, too!”).