Sightless Creations (By Jen Haik)

Category:.Art Smart

Props: Play Doh, blindfold (optional)

Your Role: Coach and model

Directions: Give Play Doh to the child and some to yourself. Model for your child how to create something with the Play Doh while you have your eyes closed. Tell her that you first create a picture in your mind and you pretend that your fingers are your eyes when you are creating. Tell her what you are doing as you progress through your creation. Then allow the child to close her eyes and experience how different it is to try to create without using the sense of sight. Ask the child to form a picture in her head of what she is going to make with her Play Doh. Ask her to describe it to you in as much detail as she can. Tell her to pretend that her fingers are the eyes which she is going to use to make her creation. As she begins to make her creation, ask her to describe what she sees and what her fingers are doing with the Play Doh. Try to elicit as many details as possible. You may wish to take notes about what she is telling you. After the child has completed her work ask her to open her eyes and look at what she created.

Goals for You: To get your child excited about creating with her hands what she imagines in her mind. To get her to do this without using her sense of sight.

Goals for Children: To form images in the mind that the hands will create without using the visual sense. To verbally describe the visual images that she has without using her sense of sight.

Possible Strategy:

What to say Today we are going to make pictures in our minds and create them with our hands without looking. First, you need to close your eyes so that you can see your picture in your mind. Now, when you have your picture, describe it to me. After you have described your picture to me I am going to give you some Play Doh so that you can create it for me. Keep your eyes closed so that your fingers become your eyes and the picture that you want to create stays in your mind.

What to do Encourage your child to keep her eyes closed and focus on the picture in her mind. Try to elicit as detailed a description as possible so as to spar her imagination.

Possible Shaping:

What to say "Can you see with your fingers what you just told me you saw in your mind? Really try to see with your fingers. Feel the shape of what you just made. How does it feel? Can you see it in your mind?"

What to do: Encourage your child to keep trying even if she believes she cannot see what she is making. Make sure that she knows that her creation will not look exactly as she visualized it.

Possible Ending:

What to say: "Great job! See how well your fingers can act as your eyes."

What to do: Ask your child to name her creation. Write that name of the sheet which you used to take notes about your child's description of her work.

Material on this site created by Helane S. Rosenberg, Ph.D. and Yakov M. Epstein, Ph.D. in conjunction with their forthcoming book titled Play for Success. All material on this site is copyrighted and may not be reproduced or cited without written permission of Helane S. Rosenberg, Ph.D.. Dr. Rosenberg is Associate Professor of Education at the Graduate School of Education of Rutgers-The State University, New Brunswick, NJ. Dr. Epstein is Professor of Psychology in the Faculty of Arts and Science of Rutgers-The State University, New Brunswick, NJ. He is also Director of the Center for Mathematics, Science, and Computer Education of Rutgers University.

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