The following activities have been

divided into the five senses for ease of

categorisation.

Some activities cross two or more sense areas i.e. vision & hearing or
touch & hearing. All activities given are also linked to the skill areas
mentioned above. Mostly five skill area links are given, which relate to
different levels of ability. This does not mean that these are the only skill
areas, which could possibly developed using the given activity. You may
wish to identify individual ones for your patient/pupil/child etc.

Where the term ’vocabulary’ is used, this relates to the use of signs,
symbols, photographs or line drawings as appropriate as well as spoken
language. One of the main themes within this document is the
development of the individual’s expressive & receptive language abilities.
They are developing communication skills or the foundations for
communication skills within the safety of the MSR, which will benefit
them outside of it.

‘My Many Coloured Days’ can be If you are working within the national curriculum the ideas/ activities
could be linked with different curriculum areas, although this has not
used in a very atmospheric & interactive manner. The
been included in the scope of this document.

following text is designed to offer extension activity

These are all suggestions; please feel free to adapt & extend these
ideas for the story, which can be based within the
activities to meet the needs/interests of the individual you are working
sensory room or another environment. These ideas will
with.

contribute to the development of the following skill

areas:

Be creative & have fun with..

Early Communication Activities
Early Concept Formation Encouraging
Vision

Awareness to Sound
1. General visual awareness.

Encouraging Early Understanding
2. Fixation, tracking, accommodation etc.

Attention Control & Listening Skills

3. Matching

Turn taking
4. Sorting

Joint attention
5. Discrimination

6. Sequencing

Play
To develop solitary play
Hearing

To develop onlooker play

1. General Auditory awareness

To develop parallel play
 2. Auditory Discrimination

To develop social play

3. Sound Location

To encourage looking, listening, smell & taste

4. Auditory Sequencing

To promote motor skills
 5. Sound location

To understand cause & effect
 6. Sound tracking

To follow sequences & patterns



Touch

Development of verbal comprehension of


1. Tactile Awareness

First verbal labels


2. Tactile Discrimination - hard, soft, rough & smooth

Action words

3. Proprioception

Object Functions

Prepositions

Movement
Attributes i.e. size, length, height, weight, sound,
1. Motor Skills (fine/gross)

colour etc

2. Vestibular

Emotions

3. Proprioception



Development of Expressive Language

Memory

Tone of voice

First words
 1. Everyday activities


Two word combinations
 2. Visual memory - Colours and objects

Three word combinations

3. Auditory memory - naming colours

Visual Skills - work with the following general goals or experiences:

To be aware of other people

To understand emotions

To encourage visual awareness

To reduce light sensitivity

To encourage visual tracking and other visual skills

To encourage reaching skills

To develop understanding of cause & effect

To develop hand eye co-ordination and other body awareness

To identify preferences within the room

To develop attention & concentration skills

To develop attention span

To develop concentration and focus skills

To develop comprehension/expression of language i.e. requesting objects/

requesting ‘more’

To understand simple or complex instructions

To co-operate in a shared activity

Visual Skills Ideas - targets with a colour focus

To develop an understanding of different colours - light, dark, hues and

contrasts

To hear the names of colours

To encourage visual awareness of contrasting colours

To encourage visual tracking

To develop colour matching skills - find the same as

To develop colour naming skills - which colour begins with r?

To develop sequencing skills - alphabetical order - light to dark - happy or

sad colours

To request repetition of an activity i.e. ‘more’/’again’

To request a turn

To extend vocabulary development i.e. think of things which are blue, swim
under water- see coloured days scavenger hunt

To develop understanding of object labels: have access to cards which are

the same as coloured images on an iPad or book. The teacher requests ‘who
can give me or point to or look at the…?’

Coloured torches/flashlights. Use the colours used in the story. The

torches could be made with sweet or candy wrappers. In the UK ‘Quality
Street’ are best.

Colour app for the iPad or just coloured cards or objects. This will help to
develop comprehension/expression of language i.e. requesting objects/
requesting ‘more’ and to understand simple instructions and to co-operate
in a shared activity.

Shapes app for the iPad or tablet, Using an app with different coloured
shapes.

To develop an understanding of big and small

To develop an understanding of number - how many sides

To develop an understanding of different shapes

To develop shape matching skills


To develop shape naming skills

Faces app on a iPad or tablet or with a projector depicting emotions.

You could just use the camera on the iPad

To develop awareness of faces

To develop visual attention to faces

To develop and understanding of different faces


To develop face matching skills - to a name or the same face

To understand faces and emotions 

To use appropriate vocabulary to describe feelings

To develop visual attention choosing the correct image to develop listening &
attention skills

Hearing Skills - work with the following general goals or

experiences:

To develop awareness of sound

To develop sound location

To develop sound tracking

To develop sound discrimination

To develop auditory sequencing

To develop sound picture links


To request repetition of an activity

To request a turn

To listen for your name

To develop reaching skills with sound location - touch the one that makes
this sound

To develop cause & effect through use of switches to request a turn (e.g.
bubble tube switch for colour change) or to operate the iPad

To develop appropriate use of vocabulary to describe emotions.


To co-operate in a shared activity

Using MP3, CD or sound effects (free on the BBC) on an iPad or phone

or survival blankets/musical instruments you could produce the different
animal or environmental noises from the story.

Decide what colour sounds are by collecting musical instruments or

sound makers of any kind and ask the learner to match the sounds to
colours. Can they choose the correct instrument from their selection to
match the colours on the page of the book? Happy sounds and unhappy
sounds could be decided. You could use the iPad app 'Thumb Jam'

What do emotions sound like? draw on paper or an iPad the emotions/

feelings you have used with the learner in the story, make a recording of
all the sounds of these emotions you can. There are lots of sound
recording apps for iPads and Android devices.

To encourage the child to match the sound to the correct visual

image on screen, projector, tablet or a PC screen

To develop comprehension/expression of language i.e. requesting

objects/ requesting ‘more’

To develop matching skills: she has a lotto board of same images &
places a counter on the learners board which matches the projected
images

To develop understanding of object labels: have access to cards which
are the same as images on a projection wheel, teacher requests ‘who can
give me the...?’

To use appropriate vocabulary to describe feelings

Matching sounds. Collect 2 sets of musical instruments or sound

makers, one for you one for the child. Hide your set form the child.
Choose one instrument & let the child listen but not see the instrument.
Can they choose the correct instrument from their selection & make the
same sound? Can the learner say/indicate whether the sounds were the
same or different? Happy sounds and unhappy sounds could be decided.

To develop listening skills


To develop auditory discrimination

To develop auditory sequencing

To develop attention skills

To develop vocabulary knowledge, use of ‘same’/’different’

Taste & Smell - Remember to check that the child can take the
food/liquid texture you are going to offer! If in doubt leave it out! Talk
with your SLT for further advice.

To develop taste differentiation

To experience different textures

To experience bitter, sweet, sour, salt and Unami (savoury)

To experience and discriminate warm and cold

To encourage oral movement and muscle control

To encourage movement of the lips and tounge

Collect as many different foods of the same colour as possible and

taste them

Can the child understand action words i.e. ‘give’, ‘taste’ in context?

How does the food feel?

Could you introduce pictures/symbols to represent their descriptions?

Can the child describe how the food tastes?

Could you introduce pictures/symbols to represent their descriptions?

Have a poll of what learners like and dislike which food/drink?

Use symbols/picture/ text for like/dislike. Ask each child to vote like/
dislike for each item offered.

Would the learner like to request ‘more’ of a liked food? Develop

requesting skills in a manner appropriate for each learner, ie smiling,
pointing, signing, using a symbol, developing spoken language from
simple e.g. ‘more’ to more complex language skills i.e. ‘I’d like more ...
please.’

Develop/refine rejection skills. Saying ‘no’ by mistakenly offering a she

the food he/she has just identified as being ‘disliked.’ When you realise
your mistake, encourage the child to reject the food in a manner
appropriate to the child i.e. grimace, looking away, pushing the food
away, indicating ‘no’ by using a symbol, using their voice to say ‘no’ or
to support other communicative acts i.e. grimacing. Clarify the child
communication eg by saying ‘No? You told me that clearly!’

Can the child match the picture/symbol to the correct food item?

Can the child describe how the food smells?

Could you introduce pictures/symbols to represent their descriptions?

Smell something offered wearing a blindfold/with eyes closed & guess

what it is?

Have a poll of which children like and dislike the smell of which food/
drink? Use symbols/picture/text for like/dislike. Ask each child to vote
like/dislike for each item offered.

Would the child like to request to smell ‘again’ a liked food? Develop
their requesting skills in a manner appropriate for each child, i.e. smiling,
pointing, signing, using a symbol, developing spoken language from
simple e.g. ‘again’ to more complex language skills i.e. ‘I’d like to smell x
again.’

Develop/refine rejection skills i.e. saying ‘no’ by mistakenly offering a

child the food he/she has just identified as being ‘disliked.’ When you
realise your mistake, encourage the child to reject the food in a manner
appropriate to the child i.e. grimace, looking away, pushing the food
away, indicating ‘no’ by using a symbol, using their voice to say ‘no’ or
to support other communicative acts i.e. grimacing. Clarify the child’s
communication eg by saying ‘No? You told me that clearly!’

Make a food wheel for the projector; can the child match the object to
the projected image?

Touch to develop tactile and colour matching skills

Tactual experiences can be provided through:

Coloured objects such as toys or clothes

Touching a bubble tube as it changes colour

Touching warm and cool and decide the colour

Can the child tolerate reaching out or the feeling of contrasting

textures?

Can the child indicate preference for different textures i.e. by facial
expression, use of symbols?

Can the child describe what they are feeling ie hard, soft, rough etc?
For example with food


Make food pictures to feel i.e. collage using dried pulses/pasta etc.

Can the child tolerate reaching out & feeling textures?


Can the child indicate preference for different textures ie by facial
expression, use of symbols?

To request ‘more’ of an object

To develop choice making skills

To develop attention & concentration skills

Pasta necklaces/strings.

To make choices to colour the pasta


To develop vocabulary relating to colour

To sequence coloured pasta onto the string To develop manual dexterity
to thread pasta To request support to thread pasta

So telling a story is about much more than getting from the front to
the back of the book in the shortest time possible. Like all sensory
approaches its how you get there.

Written by Richard Hirstwood (2019)