Rehabilitation
At Home Rehabilitation Exercises
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4- Sequencing Activities
This game can be played with household objects as described below. If desired, picture story cards can be obtained from several publishers, including
- Proed, Inc., http://www.proedinc.com, 800-897-3202 with the Advanced Descripto-Cards®
- Academic Communication Associates, Inc. at 1-888-758-9558 or http://www.acadcom.com with the Visual Sequencing software program.
- The Speech Bin 1-800-4-SPEECH with Everyday Activities to Sequence®.
LEVEL 1 - Ask the student to tell you 3 steps in a simple activity of daily living (ADL). This involves having to visualize and remember the activity, as well as communicate in a sequential, logical way. Break the activity down into its most basic components.
For example, if the activity you choose is fixing a bowl of cereal:
- Step 1 might be: Get the bowl from the cabinet.
- Step 2 might be: Pour cereal into the bowl.
- Step 3 would be: Pour milk over the cereal.
If the student has difficulty telling you the steps to the activity, have the student go through the physical actions of the activity and discuss it as you go along. Then after the activity is finished, discuss what was done in a step-wise fashion. Progress to more challenging tasks, such as the steps in making a bank deposit. The student must verbally describe the steps in a logical order, which is often more difficult than actually doing the task. This type of task can be used in tandem with the Daily Activities already described, which involves actually doing tasks.
LEVEL 2 - Obtain or make cards with pictures on them that relate 3 scenes in a single story. You can draw pictures or cut out the panels of a Sunday comic from the newspaper. Show the pictured activity set up in the correct sequence. Then shuffle the cards or pictures and have the student put the pictures into sequenced order, describing the pictures and telling the story.
LEVEL 3 - Present a pictured activity in 4 to 5 different pictured steps. After allowing the student to view the correct order for several seconds, mix up the order and ask the student to place the pictures in the correct order.
LEVEL 4 - Scramble 4 to 6 pictures of a story without showing the correct order prior to asking the student to put them back into order.
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