LEGO Thanksgiving Turkey

Each year LEGO puts out a limited number of special holiday edition sets. There are only three places I have ever found them: The official LEGO site, Target stores in the holiday candy section, and Amazon. Shop early, they sell out fast. You can often find some of the retired sets at Amazon at greatly inflated prices. I like to pick up the smaller sets for therapy. They are inexpensive and can be used year after year for a fun holiday or seasonal activity.

I am a HUGE fan of LEGOs and have blogged about them multiple times. To avoid the risk of boring my regular readers, I am adding a link here of my opinion of the value of construction sets, which include LEGOs. LEGOs are the "toy" I recommend most in my practice. Check out my opinion here. 

 Building Skills With Construction Toys.

To see a list of fall-themed games, click here.

Try this with any LEGO set:

• Give a few minutes to examine the pieces at the beginning so that the person can examine the different shapes and how they snap together.
• Set the piece(s) for each step in front of the beginner until he has gotten used to identifying pieces. 
• Turn pieces on the table so that they can't be picked up by the child in the correct orientation. Ask him to turn each piece in-hand after picking it up.
• Place a piece in the individual's palm, or at the base of the fingers, in the incorrect orientation and ask him to bring it to the fingertips and turn it in-hand for placement.
• Give the beginner one piece at a time while building and point to the piece on the guide to show where it should go.
• Ask the child to pick up the model and hold it in one hand while adding pieces with the other hand so that both hands works together while adding pieces (instead of adding pieces while the model is on the table).
• Show the child how to hold the model with the non-dominant hand while "pinching" the new part on with the dominant hand.
• Place the pieces for each step on the non-dominant side so that the individual will have to cross midline to pick them up. Instruct him not to lean to the side as he reaches across.
• Ask "what is different" at each new step in the instruction guide to focus on where the new parts will go.
• Keep the unused pieces in a pile so that the child will have to search for each needed piece. Turn some of the pieces upside down or half cover them so they will look different from the picture.
• Advise the child to hold the model in the same orientation as the one in the picture to aid in orienting pieces.
• Catch mistakes as they happen, as an incorrectly placed piece may throw off the rest of the project. Tell the individual that his model does not look exactly like the picture and see if he can identify the mistake and correct it on his own before jumping in to help. 
• Work on thinking skills, problem solving, following directions, sequencing, visual discrimination, visual closure, visual form constancy, spatial relations, visual memory, figure ground, eye-hand coordination, in-hand manipulation, manual dexterity, precise fine motor control, hand arch strength and support, separation of sides of hand, using two hands together, finger strength, play and leisure exploration and participation
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•  In the bag: 52 pieces, step-by-step instruction sheet