Trampoline

Many of our learners love the trampoline so it’s a great way to teach and generalise skills as motivation is high! These will work if it’s a small trampoline and your learner can transition,  or will stop jumping to follow instructions, or if they have a big trampoline that you can get on too. If it is a smaller trampoline and your learner finds it difficult to interrupt this activity, use this for pairing and add songs, or soft toys/pictures of favourite items to make the activity fun. If you can join your learner, please take care! The requests (mands) you can include are, trampoline, zip (if there is a net and zip on, or requests for other items (mand 1-5M). Some learners find it interesting to see items bounce on the trampoline including soft balls or rubber ducks. There is opportunities for requests (mands) for action including up/lift me up, open/close [zip], jump/bounce, stand up, sing, down/put me down, turn around, run, walk, etc. (mand 7M). These could also include adverbs, adjectives or prepositions, e.g., “jump higher”, “put the ducks on the trampoline”, or “run faster”, (mand 13M & 14M). This is also perfect for motor imitation and receptive instructions for a variety of actions, jumping, walking, sitting, lying, crawling, turn around, etc. (MI* 1-5M. LR† 4M, 8M). Also, if you sing songs these can include actions or verbal fill-ins, for example singing ‘five little monkeys’ you can do actions or fill in for “one fell off and bumped his…”. Your learner can touch their head or say or sign head (Intraverbal 6M). An expansion of this activity could be using chalk to draw on the trampoline (you would need to wipe the trampoline with a wet cloth after). You can draw shapes, numbers or letters and ask your learner to jump on a particular item, e.g., “jump on the square” (LR† 11c, 11d, 12M), or ask your learner to copy, trace or draw different items (writing 11a-12M).

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.

*MI—Motor Imitation. LR†: Listener Responding