By Karen Kaplan
As I strolled in my neighborhood yesterday, I saw a mom and her two daughters sitting at a stand on the corner. As I moved closer, I saw a painted sign: “Cool Off with Our Lemonade.”
Dog walkers, baby strollers, and cyclists took a few moments to stop and engage.
Wow, what a great socialization idea and a wonderful way to connect with neighbors. So many other thoughts entered my mind as well. As a speech therapist and special education teacher, I thought about all the skill sets that might be developed in creating, implementing, and cleaning up a stand such as this.
Skill sets developed:
Problem-solving: Choose the day and time of the event, plan the setup, locate all the furniture, tools, and supplies needed, and decide on the cost of a cup of cold, yummy lemonade.
Fine motor and motor planning: Write a list of the ingredients you need at the store. Open boxes, cans, or jars, dump, stir, pour, and move chairs and tables. Laying out a tablecloth works on motor skills. Making a sign and putting it up also works on motor skills. Squeezing lemons and picking out seeds is a great task.
Vocabulary development: What is a stand? What does it mean to pour, stir, open, put on, take off, give change, etc.?
Conversation: Offer greetings and say thank you and goodbye at the end. Ask questions like, "Do you want a small or large cup?" Tell them how much each cost and maybe ask where they live.
Math: You may be working on measuring when making the lemonade. How much water, lemons, and teaspoons or cups of sugar are needed? Reading: You might have them read a recipe. Identifying money is a math skill. Making change involves adding and subtracting.
Additional benefits:
Building a lemonade stand with your child develops a positive bond.
Including siblings in the plan develops collaboration and teamwork.
Cleaning up afterward builds on everything above. (Motor, problem-solving, verb understanding, responsibility, collaboration)
Afterward, have a conversation with them, asking them to tell you what they learned, what they enjoyed, and what was challenging. This will develop memory skills and create understanding.
Taking pictures of building the stand, working in the stand, and cleaning up can offer visuals for a conversation.
Karen Kaplan, MS, is a native San Franciscan. She completed her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, in speech pathology and audiology. She minored in special education and obtained her speech therapist and special education credentials in California. Karen worked as a speech therapist for schools for 20 years before opening her own residential and education program for students with autism. She worked in credential programs at Sacramento State University as well as UC Davis and spent 20 years directing private schools for those with autism and similar learning challenges.
Karen founded a non-profit, Offerings, which helps cultures globally to understand those with developmental challenges. For seven years, she founded and facilitated an autism lecture series and resource fair in Northern California. Karen still facilitates an annual Autism Awesomeness event. She is currently consulting, helping families, schools, and centers for children, teens, and adults. Karen has authored three books: Reach Me Teach Me: A Public School Program for the Autistic Child; A Handbook for Teachers and Administrators, On the Yellow Brick Road: My Search for Home and Hope for the Child with Autism, and Typewriting to Heaven… and Back: Conversations with My Dad on Death, Afterlife and Living (which is not about autism but about having important conversations with those we love).
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