Paper, Pencil and Paper Clip Challenge

ready for the challenge

Felice at the Dabbling Speechie is hosting a linky party based on the grad school professor adage that you can do treatment with anything, even just if it’s just paper, pencil and/or paperclip.  While it is fun to bring in lots of bells and whistles, I agree, that’s all they are.  It’s the therapist and the evidence based practice being used that makes change.  Here’s my entry.

Years ago my household hosted an oragami phase.  Little creatures of all sorts covered available flat surfaces and the thin paper squares seemd to be everywhere.  (As an aside, there are some beautiful oragami paper designs out there–metallics, watercolored, etc.)

Since then, I’ve found that lots of kids are captivated by oragami.  It’s a little like magic (or maybe balloon animals).  A few folds and–voila–a cute little animal.

Paper linky frog

It’s a great activity to work on following directions and my favorite foldable, a frog, is a great treatment tool after it’s made.  All you need is an index card or even a full sheet of paper (the cardstock is harder to fold, but works better).

I won’t go into a full tutorial here, but you can check this out.

This little guy actually hops.  Just push down on his bottom and he’ll move forward. You can have him hop across a line of written words for artic.

You can work on prepositions and verb tenses–He hopped across the table.  He will hop under the chair.  He is hopping on the floor.

It’s a great activity for kids with pragmatic goals who can either teach a class or peer how to make their own or to become the resident “expert” and provide an assortment to pass out.

And I don’t need to tell you it’s an excellent ice-breaker with a slow to warm up child, plus it’s inexpensive enough to send home.

Wondering what others are doing with limited resources?  Hop on over to the Dabbling Speechie blog to check out the rest of the linky party.  In the meantime, leave a comment below letting me know your thoughts on oragami.  Fun or too tough to even contemplate?

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This Post Has 8 Comments

  1. Lisa E.

    I had a 2nd grade boy with autism last year, and one of his obsessions was folding paper. Rather than treating it as a negative, I turned it into a positive by letting him earn a chance to make a fold. We started with simple things, and each time he took 5 turns without whining and with giving his best effort, he got to make a fold. Once he realized that the quicker he took his turns, the more folds he could make, and the more folds he made, the more quickly he had a finished project, we really started to make progress! We advanced throughout the year to making paper airplanes, and he got a chance to fly them once a week out on the playground or in an empty hallway. I found a fairly inexpensive book of origami paper and a paper airplane book at Barnes and Noble, and it was definitely worth the investment!

    1. admin

      I’m also a big fan of paper airplanes! Love the way you’ve incorporated his interests into therapy 🙂

  2. Annie Doyle

    I love origami!! Many years ago I took a class at the Museum of Natural History in NYC! I used to make teeny-tiny models, folding them with tweezers.
    I was able to establish a relationship with a middle school boy several years back using Golden Venture Origami. Golden Venture Origami is three dimensional and began with a group of refugees on a boat called the Golden Venture. Very interesting story I’m sure your older students would enjoy! Thanks for the trip down Memory Ln.

    1. admin

      What a fascinating story! I can’t imagine having the patience for tweezer folding 😉 Kim

  3. Felice Clark

    This is so great! Now, I need to learn how to make origami. I can definitely see my kiddos loving this.

    1. admin

      Start slow! It’s a fun craft but I’m amazed at how elaborate (aka impossible for me) some of the designs can get! Kim

  4. Cindy

    I used to do lots of origami activities, at home not so much at school. I have had a few students over the years who were really into origami. Your post reminded me of when I was a poor college student. I used to decorate our Christmas tree with origami. I still have some of those ornaments. It’d be fun to read a book like “Frog & Toad Together” & then make origami frogs.

    1. admin

      Cindy, I love this idea! Thanks so much for sharing! Kim

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The views expressed in this blog are my own and are intended to inspire other speech-language pathologists in their own practice. If you are a parent, teacher or other educator, these ideas are not intended to take the place of treatment by a certified clinician. Read full disclaimer here.