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Disability Awareness for 5 year olds
Practical ideas for parents who want to help their child's classmates and playmates understand more about their child and his/her special needs.
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Why do they put everything in their mouths?
By: Renata Bursten, Dragonfly Staff
One of the earliest fine moter skill children develop is the skill of "sensation". Sensation is the skill we use to tell the difference between a quarter and a dime by touch without needing to look at the coins.
Cognitively young children have their best sensation descrimination in their mouths. By mouthing objects and then feeling them with their hands, children correlate the sensations from two different sensory input channels.
,This "sensory intgration" helps them to tune up the sensory apparatus in the hands. As the hands become more sensitive, children will need to put things in their mouths less and less.
During this oral stage it is important to offer many textured grasp and handle toys. Dragonfly offers a full collection of well designed and easy to handle toys of this type.
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PLAY Tip
General Developmental Delay: Hanging On With A Developing Grasp!
Children with small hands can wear a Skwish or High Impact Skwish like a bracelet. Children shake their hands, making the beads and bells clack and ring. A good game for children with developing grasps.