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Toys for Talking - At Home with Spike the Fine Motor Hedgehog!
- Patria Lincoln Posted On Mar 18, 2020 | STEM
Learning Resource's Spike the Fine Motor Hedgehog isn't just adorable, it's another great toy for facilitating both fine motor and speech and language development. With this toy, children are encouraged to build counting, sorting and color identification skills. Another plus...this simple toy is quick to pick up, as the quills can be stowed away within the hedgehog's body and it can be easily wiped clean. 
@my_sensorium
What does Spike the Fine Motor Hedgehog include?
- 2 piece hedgehog
- 12 peg shaped quills
How do you use Spike the Fine Motor Hedgehog?
Spike the Fine Motor Hedgehog has lost his quills! Children can take turns putting the hedgehog's peg shaped quills into his back and then pulling them right back out. In addition to all of the speech and language skills listed below, this toy can help children build:- Fine motor skills
- Counting skills: Have your child practice counting each quills or placing them in numerical order. There are numbers on each quill!
- Sorting skills: Practice sorting the quills by color or make it even more complex by having your child sort them into warm vs. cool color categories
Where can I find Spike the Fine Motor Hedgehog?
You can find it on Amazon HERE.How can you use Spike the Fine Motor Hedgehog to encourage speech and language development?
For receptive language development:
- Following directions: Build your child's ability to follow directions by telling them which quill to put in or take out (Examples: "put the red quill in!" or "take the purple quill out!").
- Understanding spatial concepts (in/on/off/out): Work on these early developing spatial concepts by having your child take the quills out of the hedgehog, put the quills on the hedgehogs back and in the hedgehog's body. You could have even more fun by pretending the hedgehog lost all of his quills and hide them around the house! Have your child look for the quills and talk about where they found them (Examples: under the couch, in the sink, behind the bookshelf).
- Understanding quantitative concepts (all/none, more/less, most/least, one/all): Count the quills with your child and take turns placing the quills in the hedgehog's back with your child. Talk about whether you or the hedgehog have most of the quills (or who has the least amount of quills.)
@my_sensoriumFor expressive language development:
- Labeling colors: This hedgehog's colorful quills are a perfect way to help your child learn their colors! Label each color while your child is playing with the different colored quills. Bring in other toys that are the same colors as the quills and sort them so your child can generalize the color names to other items! (*Side note-Children begin to recognize colors at around 18 months and continue to develop this skill through 2 years of age. By three years of age, your child should be able to label at least one color).
- Requesting: Hold the quills so that your child must request in order to get one. Whether they have a little bit of language or a lot of language, you can work on requesting in the following ways:
- If your child's not yet talking: Ask your child "who want's it?" and have your child gesture place their hand on their chest to gesture for "Me!" If they don't gesture independently, take their hand to help them perform the gesture and say "me." Children learn best through our models!
- If your child only has a little bit of language: Encourage your child to use one word to request. Have them use words like "me," "more" or even "quill" to ask you for each quill.
- If your child has some phrases: Support your child's use of phrases to request by working on "I want" phrases. First, model these phrases for your child by asking your child for the quills by saying, "I want quill" or "I want red." Then encourage your child to do the same!
- If your child is perfecting their language: Work on grammatically correct questions with your child. Have your child ask for each quill by saying, "can I have a quill?" or "may I have the red quill?"
For play development:
- Functional use of objects: Your child can practice demonstrating the functional use of objects, by putting the quills in and then taking them out.
- Pretend play: Inspire your child to be creative in their play. Pretend that the hedgehog has lost all of his quills in a forest. Imagine that the hedgehog has found his way to a farm and needs the farm animals to help him get them back. Don't be afraid to get silly!
For social language development:
- Turn taking: Take turns putting the quills in Spike the Fine Motor Hedgehog with your child. Pause before it's your turn, and see if your child will tell you that it's your turn to put a quill in!
- Joint attention: Build joint attention while holding up the quills, putting the quills in or taking them out. See if your child will look at you, look at the quill, and then back at you. This joint attention, or shared interest, is an important early milestone of language development.
- Asking questions: Model appropriate questioning during play by asking your child questions like, "What color do you like?" or "Where do you think we should look for the quills?" Encourage them to ask you questions back!
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Scissor Skills for Tiny Tots!
While development isn’t always linear, we often see a general progression as outlined and the underlying skills are very important in achieving these skills.
Trace Ace Scissors has been a great addition to my therapy toolbox. With my little preschool students, we had fun learning to use a stencil. Mini crayons help reinforce proper pencil grasp as they color, stencils help incorporate the use of the two hands together, and we used cardstock paper so that it would provide more resistance and help stabilize the paper as they cut with the spring loaded scissors.
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Scissor Skills for Tiny Tots!
“Be Careful! Scissors are DANGEROUS!” or something along those lines is what parents usually shout when they see their little ones holding scissors in their hands. While I don’t disagree with the statement by any means, I want to share all of the ways scissor skills are so important for development, as well as all of the fun ways we can incorporate underlying scissor skills into everyday play…even for the youngest of our learners!
Using scissors efficiently requires a lot of motor planning, coordination, and dexterity. Before a student can successfully use scissors, there are many underlying skills that can be worked on and strengthened so that we can set up the student for optimal success. There are so many ways that we can interact and play with our kiddo’s to help develop the many different motor control areas!
Grasp/Release:
Activities that promote opening and closing of the hands and fingers such as using tongs, tweezers, clips, squeezing, etc.Two-handed Coordination:
Activities that promote the use of both hands together such as tearing paper and peeling and sticking stickers.Hand and Finger Strengthening:
Dough, putty, tweezers, tongs, spray bottles, stress ball squeezes, etc.Visual Skills:
Activities that promote active and intentional use of the visual system such as eye-spy, hidden pictures, following targets with eyes (rolling a ball and following eyes, marble tower, etc)When introducing scissors for the first time, spring loaded scissors are extremely helpful and can ease the introduction. The spring mechanism will “bounce” back the blades to reduce the amount of strength and coordination required, therefore, allowing kiddos who do not quite have the strength or coordination to still be able to cut! The best part is that once they outgrow the spring, you can “turn it off” and use them as normal scissors.
As a School-Based Occupational Therapy Assistant (COTA/L), we are often checking out the progression of scissor use in kiddo’s and here is a general milestone timeline that we use as reference.Starting at/around:
25-26 months
We like to see kiddos snipping with scissors in one place37-38 months
Cut a piece of paper in half41-42 months
Cut out a 5” line within ½” of the target49-50 months
Cut a 3” circle within ¼” of the target for 3/4th of the circle53-54 months
Cut out a 3” square within ¼” of the line While development isn’t always linear, we often see a general progression as outlined and the underlying skills are very important in achieving these skills.Here are some fun tips and hacks to help your little ones practice their scissor skills:
- Start with “snipping”. practicing small snips will help promote practice, as well as success! We want our kiddo’s to feel like they are successfully cutting and expecting them to open/close and move forward can be tricky at first.
- Using a more restrictive paper such as cardstock or thicker paper can help with control (much easier to hold the paper steady than flimsy paper or thin material). You can also steady the paper for them to reduce the amount of work and coordination.
- Along with restrictive paper, you can also use restrictive materials such as dough, putty, straws, paper plates, index cards, etc.
- Teaching “thumbs up” when holding the scissors by placing a small sticker or Washi tape to remind them which side is up – tell them to make sure they can see their sticker.
- When teaching the forward motion aspect, make it fun! Pretend like the scissors are alligators, trains, cars, etc and have them cut across a path or road.
Trace Ace Scissors has been a great addition to my therapy toolbox. With my little preschool students, we had fun learning to use a stencil. Mini crayons help reinforce proper pencil grasp as they color, stencils help incorporate the use of the two hands together, and we used cardstock paper so that it would provide more resistance and help stabilize the paper as they cut with the spring loaded scissors.
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