For normal children, flashcards are used for vocabulary building and developing recognition and reading skills.However, the flash cards are often held by the teachers for show-and-say activity which reflects teacher dominance and tendency to just finish the activity at teacher's own pace.
In a clinical study by this blogger with dysgraphic child revealed (age= 6 years, Grade one in normal school) that use of dice with three letters and associated visual symbols for objects beginning with those letters had many advantages with better bonding between the teachers had more therapeutic gains and cognitive gains as compared the use of flash cards.
The activity afforded the following benefits
More child's control and participation in the activity
Self-pacing
-multi-sensory involvement
-fun element
-multi-modal communication possibilities
occasions for the following coordination skills
-eye-hand coordination
-brain-movement coordination
-self-awareness through decrease in the speed of associative learning as compared to flash cards
Inclusion of fine motor skills
-Soft holding grasp of dice
-Random throw to activate fine motor muscles
-Index finger pointing and placing stancesAlso, it was observed that speed of recognition and speaking-back became 1.5 times more as revealed by a parallel comparison test. With the use of phonics even it afforded occasions for early speech therapy.
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