Puzzles

Puzzles are great fun and promote motor skills and hand-eye co-ordination (VP-MTS*: 6d, 7a, 11a). There are many puzzles you can purchase, although it’s easy to make your own! All you need to do is print a large (A5/A4) picture of a reinforcing item and cut into randomly shaped pieces. You can laminate the pieces to reuse or you could use them in an Art and craft activity (IP†: 13a. VP-MTS*: 11c). Tailoring it to your clients interest is a great way to increase independent play (IP†: 6b , 9b). You could contrive motivation for the puzzle pieces, or depending on adaptation, other mands e.g., clue/map (if you hidden the pieces in a treasure hunt), or glue (Mand: 1-6M, 8-10M). You could also use the opportunity to tact the picture of the puzzle or hide other targets with each puzzle piece with a paperclip (tact:1-7M). Puzzles are always a good way to naturally generalise intraverbals, for instance “what do you put together? – puzzle” or an intraverbal (IV) around the reinforcing item, for example cake “what do you eat? – Cake” (IV: 6M, 8-10M).

Preceding skills reference to the VB-MAPP Assessment tool:

Sundberg, M. L. (2008) Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessment and Placement Program: The VB-MAPP. Concord, CA: AVB Press.

*VP-MTS: Visual Performance Match-to-Sample. †IP: Independent Play