FREE DIY Wall Sticker download at the bottom of this page. The images are similar to, but not the same as the ones I used for my son from Google.
My son has ASD and I am constantly looking for ways to capitalize on his interests to help him develop. We loved this activity and can’t wait to do more with it.
Benefits:
- Fun!
- Fine Motor Development
- Peeling the stickers and sticking them on the wall – over and over and over again!
- Using scissors to cut out the stickers
- Play skills/Imaginary Play
- Opportunities for Speech “therapy”
- Engagement- join your child in their play to encourage Joint Attention.
(For more on Joint Attention and it’s importance when it comes to Autism, you can read my post here.)
Sweet Boy is in his Space Phase again. We bought him these space wall decals when they went on sale on Amazon one day and he LOVED them. Problem is, it “only” has the 8 planets plus the Sun. I wanted to see if I could add to his collection (Betelgeuse, Pollux, Dwarf Planets etc.)
Solution? Canva, my laminator, and some double sided tape!
Actually, I didn’t have double sided tape, but i DID have cat training tape. It’s supposed to come off your furniture without damaging it and it worked so well on our walls.
Disclaimer: I have not tried this with real double sided tape yet….!
How to make your own DIY Wall Stickers
- Find the images you want to use (from your camera roll, google etc). We googled planets, and Sweet Boy got involved in choosing the images he wanted.
- Import into Canva:
- Use the Background Remover tool in Canva. If you do not have Canva pro you will have to use a different (free) program. From what I understand, there are quite a few out there.
TIP: Be sure to crop your image so that it is tight on the part you actually want before removing the background.
- Print and laminate.
- Cut out your stickers
- Use cat training tape (I used this one). I put a few small squares, evenly distributed, on the back of my stickers.
And you’re done! My boy has literally spent hours at the wall rearranging them, resticking them and just playing with them.
What I loved about this:
Fine Motor Skills:
I have been wracking my brain to think of ways to encourage him to practice using scissors and to entice him into playing with stickers.
With Numberblocks being one of his primary interests, I created this Numberblocks Dot Marker/Sticker Worksheet. However, he spent much more time on this sticker activity.
He even WANTED to use scissors to cut the planets out! I helped him initially, and by day 2, he was cutting circles almost independently. I was thrilled!
Communication
We were able to create an environment where we got to play together and create together. The situation gave him lots of opportunities or chose between two things, to make requests, to practice words like, “cut”, “stick”, “tape”, “it’s stuck”, “don’t want”, “this one” and much more.
Play Skills:
I added an astronaut and a rocket on Day 2 and he went to town. He counted down, did a blast off, used words like “take off”, landed on the moon and so much more.
The best part about this, is you can adapt this to suit any interest your child has!
What does your child love? Numbers? Letters? Trains? The possibilities are endless…