St. Patrick’s Day is right around the corner!

As with any holiday, it provides us with some great opportunities to get creative with EIBI and ABA techniques.  Here are some great ways to mix a little Luck O’ the Irish in with your daily routine:

-Read a Book

Reading a book can help with sound correspondence, sequencing and comprehension. Literacy and letter recognition are key components of success with ABA therapy.

“The Night Before St. Patrick’s Day” by Natasha Wing and illustrated by Amy Wummer is a wonderful place to start.  This is the story of two children (Tim and Maureen) who stay up late the night before St. Patrick’s Day setting traps to catch a leprechaun.  The next morning, as their mom is preparing green eggs for St. Patrick’s Day, they are shocked to find that they actually caught a real-life leprechaun. Now all they need is a Pot O’ Gold!

-Make Some Art

Creative art projects are a great way to help your student work on fine motor skills, creative expression, following direction, and if done in a group environment, they can be a great way to further social skill development.

This easy to set up shamrock project is a great way to work on all of those skills! Cut out some construction paper shamrocks and cover one side with glue from a glue stick.  Take some sheets of green construction paper, rip off small pieces and crumple them up and cover your shamrock in green.  You’ll get a beautiful piece of art, and your child will love the sensory activity of tearing the paper.

-Have a Lucky Charms Hunt

There are wonderful activities that touch on math and sorting skills.  If you can find activities that incorporate skills like counting with matching and sorting, your students will benefit in multiple ways from a single activity!

Our little treasure hunt will sharpen all of those skills at once.  Give each child a bag of Lucky Charms cereal and a sheet that has columns for each of the various kinds of marshmallows (you’re probably reciting the commercials in your head as you read this!).  Have each child sort all of the marshmallows from the cereal first, then count how many of each type of marshmallow was in the bag.

Peak Potential Therapy is all about helping our students learn and play with ABA therapy. Discrete trial therapy is not the only way to work with students on the autism spectrum.  We’d love to see you at our center.  Contact us today to see what programs might be a good fit for your child, and have a great St. Patty’s Day!