Sensory Activity: Twister With a Twist

I was planning to save my indoor sensory activity posts for winter, but it's been triple digit heat indexes around here lately and I find myself scrambling for indoor activities just as much as when it's cold.  The only real difference when it's too hot to play outside is that the dog doesn't track snow in on his 473 trips in and out the door begging us to throw the frisbee.

We came up with this game about a year ago, when Bear was a bit too young for formal game play. Rules and taking turns aren't any 3 year old's strong suit anyway (now that he's approaching 5 we've got a whole new problem, because he understands rules and his adorable little autistic head will explode if he thinks you broke one).

Basically, we get out the Twister game and make up our own active options to replace the static ones.  I tried to think of things that worked on his specific motor planning issues and provided some of his favorite sensory inputs.

He was really excited about the spinner and knew all his colors at this point, so it was easy to get him going.

Some of you may recognize the plastic inflatable pool in the background from the Pit Ball Wading Pool sensory activity post. I swear that's not a permanent fixture in my living room.

This one is hopping on one foot down the row of the color on the spinner.

This one is somersaults - he had just learned how to do them and was so proud of himself for going straight down the dot line.

You get the idea - sit on the couch, preferably with a refreshing beverage, and make up ways for the kiddos to wear themselves out on the Twister board.

This may be the actual moment he realized there are hands and feet on the spinner telling him what to do.  No one's been allowed to play silly sensory Twister since : )