As part of Ethan’s batteries not required Christmas he received the Wonderworld Counting Shape Sorter from The Toadstool. I wanted to add this toy to our learning collection as we could use it to work on Ethan’s fine motor skills and learning his colours.
Ethan loved this when he got it on Christmas day but to play with it he just tipped all of the pieces on the floor so I had to work out a way of taking control of the game. Using an old shoe box I made a post box so that Ethan could post the used pieces into the box, therefore giving him clear indication that he has completed the task.
It took a few weeks of playing with the shape sorter for me to be able to gain full control again. Now I can ask Ethan to find a colour, red, green, yellow or orange, and he will post the correct colour into the box. To make the game last longer I do have to hold down some of the pieces otherwise Ethan will put all four pieces into the shoe box at the same time.
At first Ethan found it hard to put the shapes back onto the correct position of the shorter but he is working on it and as I took these photos he put all of the pieces back into place himself.
Incorporating the shoe box into our play really helped focus Ethan’s attention towards the correct way of playing with the shape sorter. When we also started playing it I would remove three of the pieces to post, leaving Ethan with the last piece so that Ethan knew what I expected him to do. I slowly reduced the pieces I posted and increased the pieces he could post. All of these tricks I have been taught by our family support key worker.
I am really looking forward to seeing his progress with all our toys over the next couple of months 🙂 I want to give him a special place on the website to and the tips and tricks from the Family Support Key Worker are invaluable and really give an extra dimension to the toys!