Concepts - Rough/Smooth Box

Many children benefit from learning by physical touch - we call this tactile learning. By giving our lessons the extra dimension of touch, we help our children to really solidify new concepts.

I created a sensory box to teach the concepts "rough" and "smooth" and I want to share with you how EASY and fun it was to put together.

Here's the box.....

I picked up the box and all of the items in it from the DollarTree. The total cost was around $12. I didn't know exactly what I would find when I first got started.  I basically just walked up and down each aisle at DollarTree touching every single thing that looked like it might work. Here's what I ended up with:

-"velcro" style hair rollers
-smooth hair rollers
-glass pebbles
-sand paper
-hair brush
-compact mirror (my friends with Autism especially love this one)
-styrofoam balls
-shower sponge
-pot scrubber
-shells
-lint brush
-a very VERY dull cheese grater (Don't worry... I actually tried to see if it would scratch me.. it wasn't sharp enough. True dollar store quality, folks. I only use these items 1 on 1 with clients so the activity is already highly supervised.)

I also added my own piece of poster board, another piece of poster board with pebbles glued on, and a plastic comb. Voila! That's the box.

 I'm going to share with you how I use this box to teach concepts. Don't miss my next post!

Kayla Fontenot, M.S. CCC-SLP