FM.B.28 POKES AT HOLES IN A PEGBOARD IN IMITATION

This exercise will help your child learn to isolate his index finger – an important step in the development of a mature grasp. It leads on to pointing activities too.

How to Assess

Materials: A pegboard with holes at least 1 cm in diameter.

Method: Demonstrate by poking your finger into the holes. Make a game of it. Direct your child to have a turn.

Score plus if your child isolates his forefinger and pokes it into a hole.

How to Teach

You will need holes of all kinds (pegboards, peg-in-hole toys, egg cartons with holes punched in them, boxes with holes and so on).

Demonstration is the most useful teaching technique here. Play a ‘finger gone’ game. You can also physically help your child by tilting his wrist so that the other fingers are held up out of the way. Say ‘Point’.

Playtime and Round-the-house Activities

Try plug holes, holes in sand, the hole in a doll that has lost an arm or leg, the holes in a toy (or real) telephone dial, any holes that won’t result in a stuck finger!

Remembering and Extending

Once your child can isolate a finger in this way, you can help him to point to objects or to pictures in books. He will use pointing in Receptive Language exercises, and as a way of communicating with others before he learns to talk.