How I introduced stitching to Addu...

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From childhood Addu was struggling to do simple fine motor activities. So I was working step by step and I helped him learn many skills. Stitching is one of them. I will share how I started doing that. We still have a long way to go.

Prerequisite for stitching is lacing. I bought some lacing boards and made him practise using them for a long time. He was not able to follow the sequence when it was introduced and he was trying to complete it by putting in some holes randomly. Then I gave verbal prompts to explain, slowly I faded verbal prompts and then provided gestural prompts and then by consistent practice I faded all prompts and he started following the sequence. If you don't have a lacing board,you can take a cardboard piece and punch holes to form a square, circle etc and can use it with thread that you are using for beading or you can use shoe laces. 

After that I bought an embroidery set and started with straight lines. I drew sleeping lines with a sketch pen on the cloth and gave it to him. I understood that giving dots will be better than giving lines bcz he was not able to measure the size of each stich.Then I started giving dots in the form of standing line, sleeping line, zig zags and curves. Initially  I was providing verbal prompts and physical prompts to help him. I did not force him to do it for an extended period of time. Initially he was able to do it only for 3 to 5 minutes. Gradually I increased the timing with consistent practice and step by step I faded the physical prompts and gestural prompts. Now Addu can do it independently!!!




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