A new student moved into our district this last spring. He is a three year old boy who is as cute as can be. He makes the cutest vocalizations and will turn towards you when you talk to him. His smiles light up the room and his giggles are infectious.
The second day we worked with him, we had grabbed a bunch of Mylar balloons that someone had left in the hallway. This turned out to be a big success. Our boy loved those balloons and would reach for the balloons and laugh as they hit his body. At one point we wrapped the string from each balloon around a foot and a hand. As he moved the balloons would move, and the giggles would increase.
After our time of playing together, I decided to put together an experience book.
Our student is very impacted with CVI, so I had each page show just one colored balloon.
The balloons were red, green, and blue.
I did add a gold one at the end of the book, along with a page showing all the balloons together. To make the book more of an experience that he would be familiar with, the balloons were made out of the same Mylar colors as the balloons we played with, and I had a string attached to the bottom of each balloon.
I really wanted to expand on the balloon experience. I picked four non-Mylar brightly colored balloons for the last page. Each balloon was attached with Velcro so they could be taken off and played with. Prior to this, I made sure the Velcro wouldn’t affect blowing the balloon up. This way my student could have a multi-sensory experience with more balloons. The balloons can be blown up and made to fly. Dad really likes to blow them up in front of his son, and then let the air out slowly so they make a funny noise. He also likes to have the air come out like a fan on his son over different parts of his body, especially the bottoms of his feet.
The book has been a hit and provided much fun at home in a way that is meaningful and involves multiple sensory modalities.
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