Playgroup!

Thomas attends a playgroup at the Western Pennsylvania School for Blind Children (WPSBC) and tomorrow is his second session. The play groups let Tom socialize with other visually impaired children his age by participating in directed play. The sessions are run by a Teacher of the Visually Impaired and a Speech/Language Pathologist.

Tom waiting patiently for playgroup to begin

We missed the first session due to his last Glaucoma surgery but Thomas has tons of fun at the second session. They are so innovative in their play!

They had an actual drainpipe attached to a board that allowed the children to act out "the Itsy Bitsy Spider." The kids got to pick a little pom-pom "spider" to use in the game. The kids took turns using a communication device that is basically one big button the kids can press to hear a recorded message. The message told the child how far their spider should go up the drainpipe.

We used a rain stick toy to simulate the rain sound and they had a yellow paper plate with shiny yellow paper in the middle for the sun. The kids were able to experience every element of the story!

I can't wait to see what we do tomorrow! The playgroup is a part of WPSBC's Toddler Program. I had Thomas evaluated by the Toddler Program earlier this year and found it incredibly helpful.