Laying the Foundation
Most people are not familiar with some of our basic every day skills. They are often aren't aware of them because they haven't been explicitly taught, and what seems ingrained is in fact a skill that can taught and practiced. If these skills are inefficient they will require conscious energy when they should be automatic. This can have a serious effect on higher level skills, making them more difficult than they have to be. What follows is a list of basic skills and suggestions for how to practice them.
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| Shape Recognition |
Do line drawings |
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Draw things around you |
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Notice shapes in the environment |
| Direction or Orientation |
Read maps |
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Learn to dance |
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Do aerobics by following an instructor |
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Do line drawings watching for the relationships of the lines |
| Classification and Categorization |
Do jigsaw puzzles, sorting all the pieces into groups before putting them together |
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Sort things into groups |
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Organize your closets or any other mess |
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Sort your emails and word documents |
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Organize your files and desk |
| Environmental Awareness |
Consciously notice things that you wouldn’t normally notice and note them in a notebook and then investigate those things. |
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Find out what function they have and couldthey benefit or not |
| Analysis and Synthesis |
Take things apart and examine them |
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Break down articles into their main ideas |
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Break down task into individual steps |
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Break problems down into individual ideas |
| Abstract Sequencing |
Do mensa puzzles |
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Do Sudoku puzzles |
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Do other brain teasing puzzles |
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Visualize plans you have |
| Concrete Sequencing |
Do hobby activity |
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Build models |
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Learn a new game or sport |
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Learn to play an instrument |
| Motor Integration |
Plan things out before you act |
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Plan projects out in all the steps and procedures and visualize through the project before doing it to be sure that everything is planned thoroughly and well |
| Pattern Recognition |
Consciously note patterns in your life and in the lives of others |
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Watch for patterns in traffic or weather |
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If you play sports, watch for patterns of different players |
| Short-term Memory |
Play the card game “Concentration” |
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Play the card game “Golf” |
| Tracking |
Play the computer game “Tetris” |
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Do a budget and follow it |
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Go to a forest preserve and track an animal (winter is a great time for this because of the snow) |
| Field discrimination |
Do “Where’s Waldo” type puzzles |
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Do “Life Picture Puzzles” |
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