As you could read some posts ago, each activity I plan have some major and many minor goals, addressing different areas at the same time.
The first activity I present here is called "Cause and Effect". The procedure is: the horse just will show the desired effect (start or stop moving) if the child shows the asked behavior.
Changing the gait of the horse will increase the joint attention of the child. The most used gait transitions are: walk-stop, stop-walk, walk-trot.
Depending on the field and pre-defined goals for each client we should ask the child to make one of the following behaviors:
-The child must say "go" to the horse start walking - this must increase the communicative intention, or address other goals. If the said expression is not good enough, the horse will not move - there will be no effect!!
-We can adapt it asking other forms: "start", "go <horse name>!".
-This is a good activity to promote oral motor skills - asking the child to make tongue snaps.
Every these examples must be applied after modeling it to the child.
This activity is particularly good to individuals with pervasive develop,entail disorders (eg autism). Some of these children doesn't tolerate a static horse. So it is a good motivation to teach other forms of start moving.
To non-verbal children they can do this activity striking their legs to promote the movement of the horse.
We can break the routine and doesn't move the horse, even though the child shows the desired behavior - it promotes joint attention and is funny to observe the effect!!
