What is it?

Story Massage is a programme for use both at school and home that combines the benefits of positive touch with the fun and creativity of words, be it a story, a song or a rhyme.

The Science

Numerous studies have linked positive physical touch with the release of a hormone called Oxytocin –also known as the ‘Cuddle Hormone”. Increased levels of Oxytocin can promote feelings of calm, trust and bonding between the giver and receiver of the massage. We use Story Massage in school usually after periods of heightened activity in order to establish a calm atmosphere, and also with individual children who may be having a tricky time and need an activity that both comforts and reassures them. At home, Story Massage would be especially effective during quiet times – say after dinner- and before bed.

How it works

At the core of the programme are ten key massage moves- known as ‘strokes’- which can be adapted and utilised in many ways and combined with a story told verbally, to create a multi-sensory experience. Once these strokes are learned each can be assigned to words in a story, with limitless possibilities. For example, the Circle Stroke involves drawing a circle on the child’s back (or another part of their body that is accessible and appropriate).  This circle could represent the sun in ‘You are my Sunshine’, a roundabout in stories about journeys, or even more abstract ideas like being lost or being unable to make a decision. The only limit is your imagination! Prior to starting, be sure to ask the child’s permission to perform the massage on them. For non-verbal children be alert to any signs that they do not want or are no longer enjoying the massage.

A multi-sensory approach

Story Massage offers an opportunity for children of all abilities to engage with story-telling. In Story Massage sessions, children are not required to follow along with a story visually- following pictures or words- meaning sessions are rewarding and engaging for visually impaired children. Touch-evasive children are able to focus on the auditory element of the story-telling if they do not want to be touched, and conversely; children who have a hearing impairment can focus on the touch alone to tell the story. The accessibility of the Story Massage Programme for all children means that it is a session that is often enjoyed as a whole class, a rare opportunity to have all of our children learning and working alongside each other.

Benefits

• Story Massage requires no props or materials, you simply need your hands. Therefore it can be done anywhere with little preparation.
• The massage can be performed anywhere on the body, not just the back, making it great for children with limited mobility or who don’t enjoy contact on certain areas.
• The massage improves calmness, concentration and social skills.
• Can help with communication and building respect and positive relationships.

Give it a go!

Included in this blog is an example of a massage story ‘Incy Wincy Spider’ for you to try at home. There are also videos uploaded regularly to Tapestry and the Story Massage Programme You Tube and Vimeo channels showing different massage stories which you can follow along with at home. If you require any more information or would like to be sent some materials to help you start using the Story Massage Programme at home please get in touch!

 

Incy Wincy Spider for Cherry Garden

What is Heuristic Play?

Heuristic play is a term developed by child psychologist Elinor Goldschmeid in the early 1980s. It describes the activity of babies and children as they play with and explore the properties of objects. Heuristic play is rooted in young children’s natural curiosity and can be used to encourage the exploration of many early maths concepts such as: number, shape, size movement and position.

Objects to use- Gathering objects

Heuristic play should include sets of the same item, preferably a large number of each item. These can be stored in bags or containers between sessions. It is useful to label the bags to help with sorting and tidying at the end of the sessions.

Object used can be everyday objects that you collect, or can be purpose bought. They should be made of natural materials wherever possible and include a range of shapes, sizes and textures.

Here is a list of some objects that we often use:

Corks
Metal jar lids
Pinecones
Wooden pegs
Curtain rings
Bottle tops
Cotton reels
Wooden disks
Bamboo pieces
Pebbles

As well as the objects, you will need some containers and larger objects to add to the creative possibilities, for example:

Cardboard tubes
Tins and metal bowls
A mug tree
Muffin tray

Heuristic play should be supervised by an adult as some items have the potential to be unsafe if not well supervised.

Play!

All the objects can be used for a wide range of mathematical opportunities as the children explore different actions such as: stacking, threading, rolling, making sounds, gathering, filling, dropping, balancing, knocking down and combining.
The objects provide sensory experiences, developing an understanding of texture, shape and size. Children will often repeat their favourite actions, making sounds as they drop items into tins or stacking to make tall towers. They will have lots of opportunity for developing their hand-eye coordination and fine motors skills as they play. In higher level Heuristic Play, children may start to count, order and sort items. Above all the session should be fun and creative, the only limit is your imagination!

The role of the adult: During a heuristic play session, it is important for the adult to observe the actions of the child to see what they are able to do and which actions they enjoy engaging in. As with all play activities, it is best to follow the lead of the child, adding to their ideas rather than trying to suggest your own. The adult can gently start to extend the play by modelling similar actions or adding an extra step to the action of the child; over time, the child may take an interest and join in with the adult’s modified actions.

Heuristic Play is also a fantastic opportunity for the adult to model key language by commenting on their own or the child’s actions using keywords, for example saying ‘In!’ every time a child drops an object into a tin and ‘Out!’ when they pour everything back out again. In this way, the child will develop their understanding of these mathematical words.

Tidy up!

At Cherry Garden, we implement Heuristic Play as part of our Maths sessions. At the end, it’s time to tidy up! Sometimes this can be a big job, but this is an important part of the children’s learning, as we can see them helping to pick up the objects to work on their motor skills, and some may start to sort and match the items, helping to put them in the correct bags.

Benefits

Elinor Goldschmeid, Heuristic Play developer, acknowledges the capacity of young children to pay attention, maintain concentration and be involved. Heuristic play gives children the opportunity to make their own discoveries in an environment where they may develop different ways of exploring properties of objects and be creative in the way they combine objects together. It is an effective way of encouraging children to explore artefacts from the world around them and to develop their thinking skills.

Resources:

This video gives you some examples of how we use Heuristic Play at Cherry Garden School, and how you could also use this at home.

References:

Goldschmied, E. 8: Jackson, S. (1994).

What is the MOVE Programme?

The MOVE Programme is for children who find sitting, standing or walking challenging, with the aim of making the world around them more accessible and a place where they have opportunities to make choices. The programme is not a therapy technique and as such, gives equal worth to every person involved in working with the children. We have been using MOVE at Cherry Garden since 2012, and we currently have two trainers in school, Simon and Kelly. A high proportion of the staff team are trained to a ‘Senior Practitioner’ level.

How does it work?

The programme is built around creating goals which can be working on collaboratively between home, school and anyone else who has a regular involvement in the children’s life. At Cherry Garden, all of the children who use the programme have a MOVE goal incorporated into their Individual Education Plan (IEP). We then break this goal down into three smaller goals, which the class team can work on throughout the school day and can also be practiced at home.

When can you use MOVE?

MOVE is intended to be a regular part of the child’s day and not an add-on or an extra subject. At Cherry Garden, we try to ensure the children are working towards their MOVE goals as often as is possible. For example, a child who has a goal to sit on a conventional chair could practice this at lunchtime, sitting with their peers at the table, as well as joining in with small group work such as a Music lesson or playing in a water tray outside.

Below is a video tracking one of our MOVE users, Ibrahim, through his first year at Cherry Garden and the progress he made towards his goal of being able to walk with two sticks in order to play more freely with his peers.

For more information go to: https://www.enhamtrust.org.uk/what-is-move.

The opportunities for learning in the outdoor environment are plentiful and the natural environment is always an engaging and motivating space for exploring and communicating. Many of our pupils gain a sense of calm when working in the outdoor environment and they are also able to build their confidence through creative and imaginative play opportunities.

How to set up your mud kitchen or natural messy tray

At Cherry Garden School, we have outdoor learning spaces available throughout the school day and always have some sand, mud or water play available to explore. There are opportunities to work on every area of the curriculum through play with natural objects and natural messy play trays. 

A mud kitchen or natural messy play area can be as simple or complex as you like. You can have hours of fun with just a few containers and kitchen tools, a big bucket of mud and a tap, or you might like to get a purpose built play kitchen.

It is important that there is enough space for the number of children you have to play without being crowded and that there are plenty of containers, pots and tools available to prevent frustration around waiting for resources. A water source is also very useful, particularly for getting cleaned up afterwards, but other than that you can let your creativity run wild! Pinterest has plenty of ideas if you are looking for inspiration.

It is a good idea to have a wide range of tools, containers and loose objects available in the area to facilitate creative play, choice-making and problem-solving. These need to be well organised, and we also label our resources with symbols to assist the pupils in finding and sorting things themselves.

It can be useful to set out a few objects ready in the mud kitchen or messy tray as in ‘invitation to play’ and to support those pupils who struggle to get started on an activity by themselves. Having numbers, letters or topic related objects available to add to the play can also be really useful as the play develops. Chatboards or the child’s personalised communication resources are essential to make sure that they are able to request and comment effectively with other children and adults.

How to be a good assistant.

 During free-play, the adult can be a great play partner by following the child’s lead and facilitating their requests. It is best to spend some time observing the play of the child, so that you can understand what it is that they are enjoying and how they are responding to the things available. When the adult joins in with the child’s play, we often find that parallel play is one of the best strategies to use, playing alongside, rather than risking putting the child off by taking too much control. Commenting on what you or the child is doing rather than using lots of questioning also makes the play more enjoyable and often leads to the best results.  Over time, the child may gradually start to copy or use the vocabulary you are modelling in their own play or start to take an interest in your actions and try something similar. Taking the child’s own actions one step further in your interactions can encourage them to stretch themselves and try something new.

Another good way of encouraging development could be by introducing a new tool, container or texture into the play. For example, getting a bucket of water that could be mixed with the mud, or offering a pot with holes in and exploring the problem-solving of filling it up. This can be a good way of extending a child who engages in repetitive actions or always uses the same tools. Most important of all is that the adult also has fun! If you play with a new item in an exciting and engaging way, they may be persuaded to try it themselves. 

Activity ideas.

There are so many great mud, sand and water play ideas available to keep things interesting and motivating. We have gathered a selection of our favourites here:

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/cherrygardenschool/mud-kitchen-and-natural-play-ideas/

Resources: