Yup, you read that right. Scanning for trolls.

Getting a young student to be interested in scanning is easiest when they do not even know they are doing it.

During school when I was an intern working with adults I observed a lesson where the O&M set up different colored post-its in hallways on walls and doors in tricky places that would encourage the student to scan up, down, and all around. You can place the targets in places that are appropriate to the student’s height that will facilitate vertical, horizontal, or a combination of both types of scanning. The student had vision in only one eye, and the goal of the lesson was to get the student used to turning his head to observe his entire environment.

I always remembered this lesson because even with the adults, it was really fun.

I incorporated the same idea into a lesson with one of my young students. I set up the post-its in a hallway on the walls and doors of his home, and told him the post-its were trolls trying to take over the house.

To say he loved this activity is an understatement. He even took it a step further and declared me the Troll Queen. As he scanned up and down the walls, each time he found a post-it he stuck it on me and I would say, “Ewwww troll drool!”

Since he got so excited this caused him to miss a few of the targets.  I would prompt him by asking, “Oh, you looked way down there, now where do you need to look?” and he would reply, “Up!” (or vise versa) and find the ones he missed.

And that is how I ended up looking like this while stomping around saying, “I am the troll queen!!” and “There is troll drool all over me!”