FM.D.37 PLACES LARGE RINGS ON A STICK
This activity teaches a different kind of reaching and aiming. It can be taught once the child has mastered FM.B.30 (pulls rings off a stick).
Note that many commercially available ring-on-stick sets have a stick which is too high, requiring the child to reach up and over – a harder skill. The stick should come no higher than the child’s chest-height when it is placed on a firm surface in front of him. If necessary, cut the stick down to about 10 cm, or make your own set with a piece of dowelling.
How to Assess
Materials: A short stick (about 10 cm tall) on a base.
Method: Place the base in front of your child, and demonstrate the putting action. Give him a ring and direct him to ‘put’. He should not have to reach through more than about 5 cm.
Score plus if your child moves the ring across the stick and drops it on. He should do this 3 times.
How to Teach
This skill can be taught in 3 steps.
- Releases a ring onto a stick when guided to hold hand above. Guide your child’s hand above the stick, and say ‘Put’. If he does not release, use the stroking action described in FM.D.36.
- Reaches the ring towards the stick and drops it on, when helped to grasp the ring at the correct angle. The problem here is frequently not so much arriving at the right place, as holding the ring at the right angle. Before your child aims towards the stick, make sure that it is positioned in his hand horizontally to the table.
- Places a ring on the stick without help, as in the main objective. Now he must aim and position the ring himself.
In all steps, remember to practise with each hand.
For some reason, this activity has become something of a bugbear to many teachers and parents involved in early intervention programs. It seems that many children just don’t like this task, or is it that they sense the hesitance of their teachers? One mistake we have seen is that children are asked to put on ring after ring in unbroken succession, without the chance to really play with the materials. Let your child explore them, both within and outside special teaching times. You can create an exciting effect by making the rings twirl around the stick. The ideas below may also help to combine learning this skill with fun. But if your child continues to dislike this (or any other) activity, substitute another putting activity which achieves the same goal of coordinating hand and eye.
Playtime and Round-the-house Activities
Use your arm, with forefinger extended, as the ‘stick’. Use a broom handle at a slight angle and watch the rings slide down to the floor. Egg rings make a lovely clatter on a piece of metal pipe. Drop coits over a stake in the garden.
Remembering and Extending
There are many commercially available toys which incorporate this skill, at many levels of difficulty. Once your child has mastered the loose-fitting rings, look for toys with the challenge of a tighter fit or a taller stick. Let your child hang things on hooks too. If he enjoys his tea-set, perhaps you could fix a row of cup hooks in his play corner.