We have all survived the Thanksgiving eating extravaganza. Now it is on to planning for the holiday gift thinking; buying, making (so wonderful to make!), wrapping and giving. Over the years I have learned much about about gift giving and gift getting with children, both as a parent and through the my client/families who who have taught me a great deal. Here are some suggestions:
Stay away from electronic toys, especially for children under 6 years of age. Research is coming out constantly about how these kinds of toys do not foster development and often actually inhibit or narrow developmental pathways. They tend to enhance static or narrow neurological pathways in the brain and they reinforce isolated play.
What can you make? Making small gifts, like ornaments, or baking holiday goodies for neighbors are perfect activities for working on all kinds of RDI objectives across many levels. Making larger gifts that everyone in the family can contribute to and that can be worked on over time are also great. My current favorite is making these blankets as gifts, small ones for kids and larger ones for adults to toss on while watching TV.
Family games,especially ones that can be played without the element of winning or losing. I list a couple below but you can also adapt all kinds of games to make them collaborative rather than competitive. Here are a few of my favorites:
- Story cubes, roll the icon dice and take turns choosing an icon and adding to a story.
- Zeus on the Loose, steal the Zeus figure from other players! Gamewright has many wonderful games.
- Iota, also by Gamewright, a simple match by color, shape or number but as the board gets laid out it becomes more complex.
- Yamodo, a collaborative turn taking game of making up definitions to unheard of words and drawing a picture of it.
- Don’t Break the Ice
Read aloud around the tree, the fireplace, or in front of the TV (with the TV turned off, of course!), or before bed as a family group. These can be books, articles or even smaller items that might provoke thinking and discussion, or exciting chapter books that are ahead of your child’s current reading level and/or of interest to all. Remember the Harry Potter craze? Other suggestions:
- Dave Barry, the humor columnist. He has many books that are collections of his columns, perfect for reading one or two a night and laughing together. He does have an occasional column that is not appropriate for children so screen them first.
- Joke books of all kinds (appropriate to children, of course) can be passed around and family members pick a joke to read.
- Columns from The Ethicist, from the New Yorker Magazine make for great discussion and can be found online.
Tickets to family activities or outings like movies, museums, magic shows, music of all kinds, theater, ……
Wrapping presentsfor others also lends itself to working on RDI objectives.
An, of course,decorating.
Wishing you all warm and engaging holidays of all varieties.
Pat Voytko is an RDI® Consultant, special education
teacher and early intervention provider.
RDI® has become the foundation of all her work as it focuses on the
natural process of developing relationships, which, in turn, supports
social/cognitive development and an improved quality of life.