The art of blowing (Part 2)

In our last post about our Art of Blowing, I showed how my son learned to blow bubbles with mouthpiece bubble blowers at 16 month old, even although he has hypotonia (Low muscle tone). Currently, he has gotten the hang of blowing into those simple, circular bubble wands. He is able to blow more complex blowing objects at his 28 month. The blowing objects we added to our art of blowing are: saxoflute, Kazoos, bubble blower and bubble tumbler.

Saxoflute

My mom got this toy for Tommy's 2nd. Birthday. It is a great addition to our play therapy because it combines Eye-hand coordination, building and blowing. Tommy is able to connect up to 4 parts of the saxoflute; and after, he finishes it, he blows it.

"The Saxoflute Toy is the “building” set that comes with 15 unbreakable ABS pieces that kids can put together in many ways to make a totally tubular saxophone! This set includes a special mouthpiece, trumpet end piece, and twisting tubes to create an instrument as unique as the music."

Kazoo
The kazoo is a classic musical instrument that has been used in speech therapist for many years. The best way to teach how to blow a Kazoo is teaching the child the refreshing sound (remember the old Pepsi commercial Aaaahhhh) or the "H" sound for English (the "J" sound for Spanish). As soon the child masters one of these sounds, he or she is ready to blow the kazoo.

Bubble Monkeys Bath Toy by Munchkin

Tommy and I pretend blowing bubbles in the the bathtub. He has gotten the idea of blowing by putting the blower close to his mouth, but his lips muscles need to get stronger to get a complete rounded shape. The most his blows the stronger his lips get.

No-Spill® Bubble Tumbler Minis® by Little Kids

This bubble tumbler is small enough for little hands to hold the tumbler while the kids deep the wand in the soupy solution to make hundreds of bubbles. It is a great toy for eye-hand coordination while the kids have fun trying to make bubbles. Our OT put Tommy to blow through an small wand during her last visit and he was he was able to blow one tiny bubble through a small wand. So, we gave it a try this weekend and he blowed a few bubbles during the first try.

Our art of blowing has been fun! But the most important, it has been through play time without effort. Tommy will graduate from the art of blowing soon. He will graduate when he deeps the wand in the tumbler and blows hundreds of bubbles. I will be ready with my video camera to share it with you when it happens.