Speed Stacks Competitor

Product Description

Social/Emotional 4

Skills

• Social Interaction opportunities arise with competition, relay races, or team stacking. A child can stack with one arm linked to another person where they take turns stacking. Relay races encourage teamwork and a social atmosphere of encouragement. Competing with another child encourages turn-taking and verbalization about speed, and comparisons.
• Patience is needed to form words in conversation and to wait for others to finish speaking. This skill is practiced when children work on and learn the skills necessary in Sport Stacking - starting slowly, following the flow, and waiting for others in a relay.
• Turn taking can occur when one Speed Stacks set is shared and one child watches and waits for her turn.

Play Ideas

• Have two children link arms and have one child stack with his/her free left hand while the other stacks with his/her free right hand to create a stack.
• Use relay races as a chance to verbalize encouragements and improve self-esteem, as well as have conversations about a common topic.
• Have one child teach or explain to another how to stack. Each child will be working on receptive and expressive skills in turn.

Adaptation Ideas

• This set can be used independently or with others by playing as teams, by taking turns, or playing against someone else who has a Speed Stacks set.
• Different difficulty levels of game play are available depending on the child’s ability. Game variations such as teamwork, relay races, and one-on-one challenges as well as playing against oneself are options. Additional levels of play from beginner (building stacks of three) to more advanced (doing a stack of ten), to doing a whole rotation of threes, three-six-three- and one-ten-one are also options.
• Speed Stacks is open-ended when used independently and without reference to instructions. The child can use this set to build or make up his or her own game.
• Children’s self-esteem grows as they complete a tower, compete in a relay with others, beat their speed, or create a game or structure on their own.

Cognitive 4

Skills

• Action concepts are all practiced and verbalized receptively and expressively when using this set in practice or competition. Stacking on and off, the cups going up and down, nesting them in and taking them out and stopping and starting the timer are all opportunities for a child to learn concepts in a hands-on fashion.
• Stacking is self-correcting because if the stack is “not right” it will fall; this encourages children to be precise, take their time, and learn about spatial relations and coordination.
• Problem solving skills are used when figuring out how to stack (the cups must be close together, the upper row(s) must sit in between the lower stack), how to increase speed, or simply how to build or make up a game on their own.
• Memory and recall is practiced when learning and completing sport stacking routines. 
• Spatial relationships e.g. over, under, on, off are all used when stacking cups, and can be verbalized when taught to the child or having the child teach someone else.

Play Ideas

• Play a shell game, using two or more cups. Hide a ball or a small (non-chokeable) toy under one cup and have the child find it. Mix the cups up as the child progresses to see if the child can follow where the ball or toy is.
• Play a memory game by setting up cups in a 3 x 4 block. Put sets of two matching items under cups and have the child pick up cups to find matching items.
• Have one child or adult build a tower or set up cups in a design and have another child copy from memory, as the design or tower is built, or while looking at the design or tower.

Adaptation Ideas

• Have a more experienced peer teach, or learn to stack and teach a child slowly, visually or hand-over-hand how to stack.
• Have children learn one smaller stack and build up to the larger stacks and rotations of stacks as they gain proficiency.
• Create a stack map, much like the maps used when someone wants to learn dance steps at home. Put circles where cups should be placed and use an L and R to indicate which hand should place them. This may help a child learn concretely and in smaller, clearer steps.

Physical 3

Skills

• Bilateral coordination is practiced when stacking is done as instructed on paper and the DVD. Both hands/arms are used in stacking from left to right and starting with the left or right hand and alternating as the child builds the stack.
• Eye-hand coordination is utilized and practiced when stacking, and especially challenged as the child increases the speed of the stacking. The child must monitor visually how they are set up, and where they are placing cups. Coordination is also necessary when fitting the timer into the mat.
• Two-handed play at midline is practiced as the child stacks the cups in front of where he or she is standing. The child’s hands are also at midline at the start and end of the stacking when using the timer; the child must have both hands on the timer at the same time to start and to end the timing.
• Spatial relationships e.g. over, under, on, off are all used when stacking cups, and can be verbalized when taught to the child or having the child teach someone else.
• Motor planning is used and practiced with the right-left-right pattern of stacking cups with left and right hands. The child must also plan out and use his motor skills to stack a pyramid and take it back down.

Play Ideas

• Have a child with a physical disability simply nest cups from one pile to another and incorporate the timer. Have the child nest cups from left to right top up, then from left to right top down, and then left to right starting with the stack top up to a new top down pile and vice versa. This will still work on skills while not frustrating the child with the cups falling if her coordination skills are challenged.
• Play a shell game, using two or more cups. Hide a ball or a small (non-chokeable) toy under one cup and have the child find it. Mix them up as the child progresses to see if the child can follow where the ball or toy is.
• Play a memory game by setting up cups in a 3 x 4 block. Put sets of two matching items under cups and have the child pick up cups to find matching items.

Adaptation Ideas

• Use a non-skid pad instead of the mat to hold the cups and keep them from slipping
• Have child stack with cups top up in a row with cups top down on top of them (so they are top to top instead of top to bottom.