Developmental Objectives

Each activity developed and implemented by Hope Horizon mentors is intended to be meaningful from both a relationship and a cognition standpoint.  Each child's skill level in each area is carefully assessed and identified as not present, emerging, developing, or advancing.  Drawing from years of educational experience, we've developed simple games and activities that focus on helping each child meet relationship based and cognitive objectives including the following:

Relationship Objectives

Eye Gaze-The ability to reference the gaze of another individual to obtain needed information (ie. the location of an object)

Imitation-The ability to mimic the actions of another individual, ultimately in a meaningful/interactive way (as observed while playing "patty cake" or singing simple nursery rhymes)

Stimulus Tolerance-The ability to tolerate physical and emotional stimuli without becoming physically or emotionally dis-regulated (ie. physical touch or eye contact)

Emotional Referencing-The ability to look to another individual for information on emotional states (ie. identifying an individuals emotions using nonverbal facial cues)

Mentor Engagement-The ability to engage with an experienced "mentor" figure (ie. a parent or therapist) in a meaningful and interactive way

Functional Engagement--The ability to engage socially in order to get one's needs met (ie. requesting help from a caregiver)

Emotional Engagement--The ability to engage in emotional reciprocity, both with mentors and with peers (the give and take aspects of a relationship)

Self Regulation--The ability to reduce the intensity of emotion-based behaviors (ie. deep breathing to calm down when angry)

Emotional Fluency--The ability to identify emotions, both those the individual is experiencing and those observed in other individuals (ie. Identifying why taking a toy makes a peer upset)

Peer Engagement--The ability to initiate and maintain meaningful peer interactions (ie. pretend play)

Cognitive Objectives

Problem Solving--The ability to identify a goal and logistically break the problem down into manageable pieces (ie. figuring out how to reach a toy on a high shelf)

Phonological Skills--The ability to recognize letters and sounds and use them purposefully (ie. reading comprehension)

Fine Motor Skills--The ability to develop and use motor skills requiring functional use of the hands or fingers (ie. feeding self with a spoon or fork, correctly holding a pencil, or using tweezers to move objects from one container to another)

Gross Motor Skills--The ability to develop and use non-locomotor and locomotor skills (ie. running, jumping, crawling)

Numerical Awareness--The ability to recognize numbers and numerical equations and use them purposefully (ie. developing one-to-one correspondence)  

Spatial Awareness--The ability to move within the environment while being aware of boundaries and the space an individual is occupying (ie. maintaining one's own space during group movement activities)

Self Help Skills--The ability to use existing skills to meet needs without the assistance of another individual (ie. independent toileting, getting a drink of water without help)

Receptive Language--The ability to label objects and communicate using non-verbal cues (ie. pointing, picture cards)

Expressive Language--The ability to express one's self verbally with meaningful interactions (ie. verbally naming objects or individuals)

Research Skills--The ability to identify an interest, formulate a question or theory, and develop the means in which to find answers (the general scientific process)