3 Holiday-Themed Bridging Activities
Looking for some fun ways to connect your client’s therapy with the real world over the holidays? Here are 3 holiday-themed bridging activities that you can do with your clients this holiday season.
1. Sharing Wishlists
Memory, Language, Attention
Gift-giving is common during the holiday season. Have your clients share with each other their wishlists. After they share, have them think about what categories of items that each item on their list pertains to. Ask your clients to find other words that describe the items on their list. Have them write descriptions of the items in as much detail as they can provide. If they would like, they can even draw them as well. Ask questions to foster discussion such as “what was a favorite gift you received and have given in your lifetime?, who was it from/to?”.
2. Sharing Recipes
Memory, Verbal Fluency, Executive Functioning
Many people have a favorite holiday recipe. Either from memory or by referencing a recipe that your clients enjoy, have each client talk about their favorite holiday recipe and describe in as much detail as they can how to make it. Ask your clients questions such as “what if I did not have an ingredient, how can I make this with a substitute?”, “how many servings does this yield, how can we double it?”, and “think about when you would have this item, what memories come to mind?”.
3. Building a gingerbread house
Executive Functioning Visual-Spatial Skills, Working Memory
You do not need to physically build a gingerbread house, but it is fun if you can! Have your clients walk you through the steps needed to build the gingerbread house: “what materials do we need?”, “what is the first part of the gingerbread house we should put together?”, “why?”. Help your clients reason out their thought process and then reflect upon the steps you have taken to see whether these actions would be successful. Talk about different approaches to building the gingerbread house. Ask them questions about times they have put together something in their lifetime, how did they approach it?
Bridging activities can be made festive. These are just a few examples of some bridging activities that you can do with your clients this holiday season. These bridging activities can be done remotely by using video-conferencing or group calling.
