Race to the Roof

 

Exercise visual/visual perceptual skills as you race to the roof for the win.

Exercise visual/visual perceptual skills as you race through the house, from the basement apartment to the attic skylight, for the win.

The game board holds four levels, each with four rooms (16 rooms total). You will put the rooms in randomly each time you play, so the game board will look different each time. Each room card will show a different room (living room, kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, etc.) and lots of items that you may see in that room. Items in the pictures will be smaller than the pictures on the cards. They may be in different orientations and part of an item may be hidden. At the bottom of the room cards are several empty circles and one red circle. When the cards are placed side by side in the game board these circles create a path. Follow this path as you move across, forward and/or backward on your turn. Here is an example:

Setting up the board.

 

Chance (item) cards each show one item, such as a bucket, lamp, balloon, rabbit, hat and teapot. These are the items you will be searching for throughout the house. I suppose after you play the game a few times, if you have a decent memory, you will remember right where these items are. That's OK, you'll still have to move to the location (like Chutes and Ladders), which is a big part of the game.

 

The bucket is partially hidden by the shelf in the picture. Most items are NOT partially hidden.

Object:

Be the first player to make it to the skylight in the attic at the very top of the board.

Set Up:

Place the house-shaped game board in the middle of the players. Arrange the 16 rooms in the house randomly. Players each pick a pawn and line them up near the black arrow at the bottom left of the board. Place the die near the board. Shuffle the chance cards and place them in a pile, face-down, near the board.

Play:

Players take turns. First player throws the die and moves ahead the number of spaces indicated on the die. Other players follow suit. If any player throws a six on his turn, he does not advance six spaces but instead takes the top chance card off the pile. Whatever picture is on the card is the item the player needs to find on the game board. All players can help him look. When the item is found, the player moves to the red circle in the path of that room. You may be lucky and move forward, or not so lucky and have to move backward. Continue playing until someone reaches the attic skylight and wins. 

Game in play.

 

Try this:

• Skip the game. Work on items that might be found in a particular room of the house. Let the individual study one card. Then turn the card over and see how many items they can remember.
• Place the room cards randomly on the table. Ask the individual to look for one item on a chance card after another until they have found them all. If looking at 16 room cards is too many, start with fewer and add more in as the individual's skills improve. Just make sure that you look ahead of time and know which item card goes with each room card (several of the rooms will have more than one item).
• Stack the item cards in a pile and pick the top one off the pile without disturbing the other cards or knocking the pile over.
• Cup the hand and hold it in this position while shaking the die. If the individual has trouble cupping the hand, place a ball in the hand to shape it and ask the individual to keep the hand in that position as you remove the ball and add the die. Try to keep the hand in that position a little longer by counting to 10 or singing a verse of Home on the Range as the individual shakes the die.
• Hold the room cards in the non-dominant hand and take them one at a time with the dominant hand to place on the board as you set up. 
• Work on visual discrimination, figure ground, visual form constancy, visual closure, visual scanning, visual memory, eye-hand coordination, palmar arch development, manual dexterity, executive functioning skills, socialization skills, process skills, play and leisure exploration and participation
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• In the box: House-shaped game board, 16 room cards, 20 chance cards, 1 die, 4 pawns 

Pixy Cubes

Pixy Cubes - 124 colorful patterns

 Pixy Cubes offers a lot of fun in the therapy setting and kids have responded well to it. These cubes are solid and brightly colored (blue, green, red, yellow) and each side of a cube has a different design or color combination. The colors are part of the cube, not a sticker that will fall off. Designs on the cubes include 2-color 1/4 circle, solid color, 2-color diagonals, and 4-color triangles. I love almost any game with small dice sized cubes so that I can include cupping the hand and in-hand manipulation, and this one does not disappoint. 

 

4 patterns per side. On the left, there is a grid printed over the squares. On the right there is no grid.

This game includes 4-cube designs printed on a grid, 16-cube designs printed on a grid, and 16-cube designs not printed on a grid. You can grade the activity by using the cards in that order. By the time you get to the 16 cube side with no grid, you will have to be able to mentally separate the squares.

All cards are printed front and back. The small cards have 1 pattern on each side and the large cards have 4 patterns on each side. This is a total of 20 patterns on the small cards and 104 patterns on the large cards. The large cards are too small to build on top of, although I did go to Staples and enlarge the cards on their color copier so that they are the correct size to build on for those who have trouble building in a free space. I like this game for spatial orientation as 12 of the cubes will always have to be placed in specific directions (the other four are solid colors).

The box is metal and the lid does not stay on very tightly and so I just put a rubber band around mine.

Try this:

• Separate out and sort the cubes to the correct sides for the individual if you want to decrease the difficulty or concentrate on another aspect, such as spatially orienting the cubes or hand skills.
• Ask the individual to turn one cube at a time, in his fingers and using only one hand, to find the correct side of each cube for placement.
• Study a 4 cube design, then turn it over and build it from memory.
• Ask the individual to cup the hands and shake the cubes before starting. If he has trouble cupping the hand, place a small ball in the palm and ask him to curl the fingers. Ask him to hold that position as you remove and ball. Add the cubes and ask him to shake and throw. Use all the cubes that apply to the design, then pick up the remainder and shake again. Continue these steps until the image is complete.
• Cover all but the line you are working on if using the card without a grid and the individual is having trouble "seeing" each cube. If the individual gets stuck, I will even cover the whole design except the one cube.
• Place the cubes for a design on the table so that the wrong side is up, requiring the individual to pick up and rotate each cube in-hand, in the fingertips to place.
• Place a cube in the individual's palm. Ask him to bring it to the fingertips and rotate for placement using only that hand.
• Start by placing the cubes directly on top of the 4-cube cards and then move to creating the design next to the card.
• Ask the individual to cup the hand and place one cube at a time in the hand. How many can he hold? Try the other hand, try to hold one more.
• Place several cubes in the individual's non-dominant hand while putting the game away. Have him hold his hand in this cupped position as he removes the cubes one at a time to place in the box. Next switch hands.
• Clean up by picking up one cube at a time and squirreling it in the palm. How many can you hold without dropping any? Try again for one more. Put cubes away in the box by the handfuls.
• Work on in-hand manipulation, manual dexterity, distal finger control, palmar arch development, in-hand manipulation, fine motor precision, visual discrimination, visual memory, figure ground, spatial relations, visual closure, visual form constancy, visual scanning, sequencing, process skills, executive functioning skills, play and leisure exploration and participation

In the box: 16 brightly colored cubes, 10 small design cards, 13 large design cards

If you would like to purchase this game or just want more information, click on the image below.