Flashlight Games

Joy Manning

Early intervention is all about giving extra help and support to a child that has developmental delays. Every child is different and needs different supports. It’s important to be aware of where the child is developmentally so that you can help in the best way possible.

For today I’m going to primarily focus on kids that are participating in associative play and/or cooperative play.

You can obviously still play with a flashlight with kids who are at stages 1-4 of play, but the play will be different than what I’m going to focus on in this post. For ideas on how to do this activity with a child at stages 1-4, you can find more info in the Flashlight Games Tutorial.

When a child is participating in associative and cooperative play, it generally means that the child is able to have continuous back and forth (circles of communication) interactions with others. They are also at a stage where they can follow some mutli-step directions, and are able to answer some questions.

Most of the activities I’ll be suggesting are on the premise that the child you’re playing with is able to do those things. It’s always important to make sure you’re playing at the right level if you want the most progress. If things are too easy or too difficult you won’t see as much growth.

The first game is a simple game of I-spy. I know that you may or may not live in the United States, and this may not be a familiar game, so I’m going to briefly explain it.

I-Spy

One person thinks about an object in the room and the others have to guess what it is
The first person will say “I spy with my little eye (or light in this game), something…(then the person gives one descriptive word. It could be a color, shape, size, texture, etc.)
Then the other person/people start making guesses by shining their light on objects in the room.
If your child is working on receptive language skills, this game is perfect. If your child is working on recognizing the color green, then make sure that when you play, you spy something green. Then your child has so many opportunities to identify green objects in the room by pointing to them in the room.
If your child is working on expressive language, this is also great. If your child is working on naming colors, then when it’s your child’s turn, you can take the opportunity to guess the wrong things and see if your child will tell you what color it is instead.
This game is also great for
- eye-hand coordination
- working memory
- perception and concept
- attention

Shine A Light Books

Another activity I wanted to share with you are these awesome books. They’re called Shine A Light Books. There are hidden pictures throughout the book that you have to shine a flashlight behind the page to discover what it is. Kids love it, and you can make it a fun interactive game as you read together. I’ll post links at the below so you can find them. These books are great for

Literacy skills
Receptive language
Expressive language
Predicting what comes next
Working memory
Attention

Flashlight Games Tutorial

Once you purchase the Flashlight Games Tutorial and log in, you will have full access to all the content below this section.

Functional Developmental Levels (FDLs): 5-6

This activity is great for kids at an FDL of: 5-6, but can be adapted for stages 1-4

The Functional Developmental Levels (FDL) are based on The PLAY Project and DIR/Floortime

FDL 1: Self Regulation & Shared Attention
FDL 2: Engagement & Relating
FDL 3: Intentionality & Two-Way Communication
FDL 4: Social Problem-Solving & Mood Regulation
FDL 5: Creating Symbols & Using Words & Ideas
FDL 6: Emotional Thinking, Logic & Sense of Reality

Stages of Play: 5-6

This activity is great for kids primarily participating in stages: 5-6, but can be adapted for stages 1-4

The Stages of Play come from Parten’s Stages of Social Play.

Stage 1: Unoccupied Play
Stage 2: Solitary Play
Stage 3: Onlooker Play
Stage 4: Parallel Play
Stage 5: Associative Play
Stage 6: Cooperative Play

Sensory Input: Visual

This activity includes: vestibular and proprioception

Our senses include more than the usual 5 senses. Some kids may seek certain types of sensory input and/or avoid other types.

Visual: Sight
Auditory: Sound
Olfactory: Smell
Oral: Taste (Gustatory) and using the mouth to speak, make sounds, eat, chew, drink, etc.
Tactile: Touch
Vestibular: How we process information about movement, gravity, and balance. We receive this information through the inner ear.
Proprioceptive: How we process information about body position and body parts. We receive this information through our muscles, ligaments, and joints.

Areas of Development: Communication, Cognitive, Executive Functioning, Motor, Social

This activity is good for targeting the following developmental skills: communication, cognitive, executive functioning, motor, social

These are the main areas of child development addressed in the Early Intervention Tutorials

Communication: receptive language, expressive language, listening, two-way communication
Cognitive skills: cause & effect, literacy, math, science, problem solving, perception and concept
Executive functioning: emotional control, flexibility, perseverance, self-monitoring, organization, planning, response inhibition, attention, task initiation, time management, working memory
Motor skills: fine motor, gross motor, perceptual motor
Social-emotional skills: peer interaction, self concept & social role, pretend play, behavior, group activities
Adaptive skills: self-care, personal responsibility

Supplies

Flashlight

Instructions

Go in a semi dark/dark room to play
Play a game of I-Spy with flashlights
The first person says “I spy with my little light something…(give one descriptive word, it could be a color, shape, size, texture, etc.)
The person guessing points to items with their flashlight to make their guess until they get it right