Who doesn’t love some good old-fashioned Potato Head play? He is timeless and a well-used item in my #playbasedlearning inventory. After 17 yeas of practice, Mr. Potato Head has worked on more speech, language, and learning goals than I care to count... He is one of my "go-to" toys, so it only made sense that when it came time to work on #wholebodylistening in therapy, Mr. Potato Head was on standby.
If you haven’t already discovered the amazing products offered over at www.socialthinking.com, (I have no financial connection, I just REALLY love their products) I encourage you to take a look. After listening carefully to the We Thinkers Whole Body Listening book and exploring Whole Body Listening Larry at Home, it was time for our social communication kids to put their knowledge to the test! What better way to reinforce new skills than by explaining them to someone else? And isn’t play the best form of learning? Enter Mr. Potato Head.... a “blank potato” just waiting to be put back together.
Part by part, Mr. Potato Head moved from being “blank potato” to a “full potato”. As students carefully selected and placed each part, they explained to Mr. Potato how he could now be a better listener just by using his parts the right way. As students explained that “listening with your whole body means that your mouth is quiet” and “listening with your heart means showing that something is important to you”, we were certain that the books had done their part in teaching some very important social concepts. And we had some fun along the way... :)
#socialthinking #socialcommunication #socialskills #pediatricslp #wholebodylistening #amyoconnellslp #playbasedslp #learningthroughplay