This is how I use the Fisher-Price Oreo Matchin’ Middles game in therapy.
It is a great shape game that is also a matching game. I call this my cookie game. I have to remind the kids that when I say we’re gonna play The Cookie Game, that these are not real cookies. We do not eat them.
SET UP
First, I set the game up. I have the kids take the lid off the container because it’s a little hard. Some kids will try to do everything with one hand, but they need two hands to get the lid off. It’s important that they use two hands together. The Working Hand and the Helper Hand. Using hands together, breathing, motor movement, it’s all connected. It all helps your speech production. Using two hands together helps with that motor planning part. I tell them, “Remember, one hand holds, one hand pulls, and you really have to pull hard.”
When the container is open, I say, “You can dump them all out. It’s going to be noisy.” I have some kids who hold their ears because they don’t like the noise. “If it’s too noisy, then you know what? We can just take them out one-by-one, and put them on the table.” If they don’t mind the noise, dump them out because dumping is a very early skill.
We see some of the cookies have come apart and that’s okay, I tell them. We’re going to take them apart. And my rule is when we take them apart, brown side goes in the box, white side stays out of the box.
As we take them apart, I repeat: “Brown side in the box. White side out of the box. Brown side in the box. White side out of the box.” I say this through the whole process because I know if I don’t, they’re likely to put all the cookies in the box. When that happens I say, “Uh-oh. Do you see some white cookies in there? Oh, there it is. Remember, white side stays out of the box.”
I’ve done this with as young as three, and, you need to really reinforce that. I reinforce by saying: “Look, white on the table, brown in the box.” So once we get them all out, we’re going to put them in rows. We’re going to count them just to make sure we’ve got them all. We should have twelve cookies.
As I deal them out to play the matching game, I count out: “One for you, one for me. Two for you, two for me. Three for you, three for me. Four for you. four for me. Five for you, five for me. Six for you, six for me.” I put them in a row for them, placing them left to right, and a row for me.
If I am playing the Cookie Game for the first time with a student, I make sure they know their shapes. They might or they might not. So I go through the shapes, and I make them say them with me. Rectangle and reinforce those syllables. Square. The Plus sign. Sometimes kids will say, oh, that looks like an x. I say, that’s right. We can call it an x or a cross because an x would be a letter, the cross would be the shape. Heart. I make sure the shapes are oriented correctly for the child so that they they have that proper view of them. Pentagon. Flower. Circle. Star. Oval. Diamond, or some times we say rhombus. Moon or crescent shape. Triangle.
If I’m just doing a basic matching game without incorporating any sounds, we’re just working on shapes, following directions, basic vocabulary.
THE GAME
We’re going to select a cookie to look for a match. Put your hand in the box, but my rule is you can only pick one cookie. And sometimes I prompt them to feel that shape with their fingers. See if you can figure out what shape it is. “Reach in the box and pick a cookie. Let’s see, you got a rectangle. So we find the rectangle match from among the cookies in front of you, and using two hands together, put the two cookies together, and then set the completed cookie to the side.”
On my turn, I’m feeling the shape. “I think it’s a star,” and I’m right so we look for the matching star among the cookies in front of me, and put the two cookies together. And when we’re putting the cookies together, I reinforce those motor skills, I don’t let them just slide the cookie on top of the other. I say, “Remember, two hands together. One cookie you hold in your right hand. The other cookie goes in your left hand and I don’t want it in the palm of your hand. I want you to hold it with your fingers and you gotta turn until it fits together.” Then we put our completed cookie to the side.
So what happens when you don’t have the match in your group of cookies? Well, I play it two different ways. So let’s see. I’m gonna pick one, I picked an X or a Cross. Uh-oh. I don’t have it in the cookies in front of me. And sometimes I wait to see if the student will say, I have it.
If they don’t say anything, I’ll ask, “Do you have it? Let’s look. Do you have one that looks the same as this one?” And if they do, if we’re playing the nice game of I Give You Your Shape, You Give Me My Shape, then I would give it to them. Sometimes kids are a little more competitive and they say, oh, you didn’t get your shape. You have to put it back.
When we’re all done with all twelve cookies, we count our cookies. In this case, we start by counting your cookies: one, two, three, four, five, six. I say, oh, look at this. Our piles are the same. So if you have six cookies, and our piles are the same, how many cookies do I have? Don’t count them. Think about it. It’s a great thinking activity. Sometimes kids have a little trouble and they’ll start counting them.
And I’ll say, okay. Now let’s try that again. You got six. Our piles are the same. So if we got the same number, remember you got six. How many did I get? Six. So it’s a great thinking activity. It doesn’t take any extra time.
INCORPORATING SOUNDS
Now, if I’m working with a child on sounds, I incorporate my therapy cards into the game. Before you may pick your cookie, we’ll do our word. I draw a card showing a V-word (for example), and the student will say the word with correct sound production. The cards have words with the target sound in the initial, medial, and final positions. “The card I drew is Beehive. This has our V at the end of the word. Two syllables. Beehive.” I ask them to use the word in a sentence. And it could be a simple carrier phrase such as: I see a beehive.
As they become more proficient, the sentence could be: The bees live in a beehive, or maybe they develop their own sentence. I could ask what do the bees like to do or what do they do with the beehive. They live in a beehive.
As they get more proficient, I might hide my next picture and I will describe the item in the picture, give them clues as to what it is. “I picked a type of machine. This is something that’s in my house. I plug it in. It goes, vroom, vroom, vroom, vroom, and it picks up dirt off my carpet and off my floor. It is loud.” Hopefully, they get vacuum cleaner.
If they can’t, I might say, “Do you need another clue? Do you need a choice?” And if they ask for a choice, I usually try to put it as the first choice because kids tend to pick the last thing mentioned. I want them to think. “Am I talking about a vacuum cleaner or a blender?”
If they say vacuum cleaner, I say that’s right because I said you use it to pick up dirt from the floor and the carpet. It makes a loud noise. It goes vroom, vroom, vroom. If they say blender, I will say, “Let’s think about that clue. I said I use it on the floor or the carpet and it picks up dirt. Do I do that with a blender? No. So it can’t be a blender.” Then I’m gonna give them the choices again. Is it a vacuum cleaner or a blender?
Hopefully, they pick the right choice. That’s how I can get language into this.
So I’m doing a lot of things with this Cookie game. We’re following directions. We’re labeling shapes. We’re matching shapes. We’re labeling sounds. We’re producing sounds. We’re doing sentences. We’re describing, and we’re doing a little counting math.
And when we’re all done, we count the cookies as we put them into the box. And I’ll say, “We’re going to count all of the cookies one at a time.” As we put them in the box: one, two, three, et cetera. So that’s how I use a simple, fun cookie Shape Matching game to include some articulation, language, and vocabulary.