Rehabilitation
At Home Rehabilitation Exercises
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5- Puzzles
LEVEL 1 - Puzzles can be obtained from retail stores or teachers’ resource/supply stores. You can also make puzzles by taking a page from a magazine and cutting it into pieces. To make the pieces firm, paste the picture on posterboard and then cut the picture into pieces. Initially, use puzzles with just a few pieces. Start out by doing a puzzle together as a joint activity. Ask the student to put one piece in at a time for his/her turn and progress toward the student working independently.
LEVEL 2 - Use 10 to 15 piece puzzles. Let the student see the picture of the intended finished puzzle to “go by”.
LEVEL 3 - Use 25 to 50 piece puzzles.
LEVEL 4 - Use puzzles with 100 pieces.
LEVEL 5 - Increase the number of pieces as warranted by the student’s progress. If possible, introduce 250, 500, and 1000 piece puzzles as a family activity. Leave the puzzle up for several days and work on it a bit each day. Introduce the idea of organizing how the puzzle is to be completed, such as locating all border pieces, selecting and separating pieces of similar color, and separating oddly shaped pieces.
Taken from Tasks for Home-Based Cognitive Stimulation Program, the Traumatic Brain Injury Model System at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Dept. of P M & R, Birmingham, AL. © 1998-2003 University of Alabama at Birmingham