I use Timocco with a few of my patients in our individual sessions. I would like to share with you the work I do with Maya, a seven-year-old girl with significant developmental delays; cognitive difficulties, motor difficulties and severe hypotonia.
Maya loves playing Timocco, I can see that she works hard while playing the different games and is gradually improving. In the bubble game, she is supposed to pop the bubbles that appear on the screen. At first, she moved her hands randomly around the screen without planning. After some repetitions, I could see her improve and start planning. Today, her movements are more planned and accurate.
In games where she has to perform two actions in a row, like collecting the fruit and then putting it in the correct basket, she has difficulties understanding complex commands. However, because Maya is highly motivated and wants to succeed in the game, she tries repeatedly and does not give up. Nowadays, with my mediation, she can play “Falling Fruit” and “Catch the Butterfly”. She is now able to keep her hands over the butterfly and plan her hand movement so that she follows the butterfly’s movement on the screen accurately.
Maya plays easily with her hands separated, but still has difficulties when I set the games to use both hands together. Sometimes I place my hands over hers and we perform the motions simultaneously. At other times, all she needs is for me to demonstrate what to do and she tries playing with her hands together.
It has been a long journey together and we are continuing the work together to improve her abilities. Timocco has helped her improve motor planning, motor accuracy, eye-hand coordination, midline crossing, physical strengthening and cognitive skills like understanding complex commands. We are still using Timocco in our sessions and I hope to continue seeing Maya progress.
Renana Yefet, OT
Magan Halav
Ashdod, Israel
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