Friday, 15 June 2012

Adaptable Toy Activity

The toy I decided best fits this activity is the Shapes and Sharing Picnic basket:
















Adapted Toys for Children with Physical, Sensory, Cognitive Disabilities
In Store Activity
Acadia University 5173 Activity

Directions:  In pairs find 2 toys in the store and evaluate that toy for a child with a disability.  Use the Able Play example description to fill in the designated areas.  We’ll visit the toy evaluations next Saturday.

Evaluator names:____Jeff Hunter ____________________________________________________
Store: ________Toys R Us _________________________________________________________

Disability Category:              Rating:  **** or * stars
Physical                                    ___***___
Sensory                                    __***____
Communicative             ***______
Cognitive                                  ____***__

Toy Company:
Price:                                        _24.99_____
Box Age Range:                       __6-36 months ____
# Pieces:                                   ___14___
Washability:                              ___yes ___
Storability:                                __in the picnic basket____
Directions:                                __included ____
Play Locations:             ___anywhere ___
Adjustability:                             ______
Levels of Play:              ______
Batteries:                                  ___2 AA___

Description general:
The LeapFrog “Shapes & Sharing Picnic Basket” helps small children explore shapes, colors, manners and more! Over 30 audio responses encourage pretend play, and the 14-piece set helps children build motor skills as they sort, match, stack, empty and fill the picnic basket  


APPLICATIONS FOR CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES
Physical          Rating: ****or*

Description


The picnic set includes several small plastic pieces comprised of types of food and utensils/dishes. All pieces are stored in the basket and it is easily stored.  




Skills





The pieces are colorful and easy to pick up. Suitable for students with fine motor skill issues as the toy encourages them to sort, stack and match the items  

Play Ideas





Practice picking up and sorting the play pieces. Set up place settings for a pretend picnic.
Adaptation Ideas





Excellent activity for those students with fine motor challenges- just the simple practice of picking up and placing the pieces in the basket promotes hand and eye coordination  

Attach Velcro pieces to the food /utensils to keep them in place.
Place labels on food/utensil pieces




Sensory           Rating: ****or*

Description
The colorful nature of the basket and the smaller pieces provides opportunity for children to discern different colours and to match pieces based on these colours.   

The pieces are small and very easily picked up.

Play is open ended- no right or wrong way to play



Skills





Hand eye coordination
Colour recognition
Recall
Visual recognition of food/picnic pieces
Auditory processing
Play Ideas





Food and utensil recognition
 Play matching games with the food and utensil pieces

Adaptation Ideas






For visually impaired children, the verbal prompts provided by the talking picnic basket would allow them respond to questions and learn simple social rules. Practice shape recognition by picking up pieces    

Those with auditory impairments- questions and prompts could be written or communicated using ASL 




Communicative          Rating: ****or*

Description

Talking picnic basket reinforces concepts regarding sorting, matching.
Children can play independently or with someone else
Encourages role playing and pretend play  




Skills





Active listening
Patience
Memory
Application of rules
Enhance vocabulary skills
Play Ideas





Take turns responding to the prompts and questions posed by the basket

Act out picnic setting and social etiquette associated with this.

Play “find it” games using food/utensil pieces
Adaptation Ideas





Reinforce receptive and expressive communication by responding to questions.




Cognitive        Rating: ****or*

Description
Play pieces are recognizable and have a practical component to them- identifying food, utensils.






Skills





Children identify colors and shapes using food/utensil pieces

Practice printing/writing skills identifying food and utensil pieces
Play Ideas





Create new phrase and questions to use with the picnic basket
Adaptation Ideas










FEATURES AND BENEFITS          CHECK IF APPROPRIATE

X
Durable
X
High Contrasting Colours
X
Tactilely Stimulating
X
Visually Stimulating

Wide Age Range
X
Inviting Due to Uniqueness
X
Open-ended
X
Innovative
X
High quality

Detailed
X
Hands on Approach to learning
X
Easy to grasp/hold

One-piece unit

Upright position for play

Other:


DEVELOPMENTAL PROCESSES PROMOTED

X
Visual attention
X
Visual tracking
X
Visual processing
X
Memory and recall

Cause and effect
X
Action concepts: in/out, push/pull, on/off, go/stop
X
Fine motor
X
Eye-hand coordination
X
Problem solving
X
Finger and hand control and dexterity
X
Physical range of motion
X
Deliberate finger movements

Precision

Directionality

Wrist rotation
X
Hand and finger grasp

Pointing, one isolated finger
X
Motor planning
X
Self esteem
X
Manual dexterity
X
Sequential thought
X
Reaching

Strategic thinking
X
Turn taking
X
Patience
X
Spatial relationships – over, under, on, off
X
Reaching/arm extension
X
Functional finger movement and exploration
X
Coordinated movement
X
Sorting and classification
X
Early Literacy
X
Texture Discrimination

Object Permanence
X
Tactile Discrimination
X
Problem Solving

Directionality
X
Cooperative Hand Movement

Letter Recognition
X
Life Skills

Pre-Literacy
X
Social Interaction

Foot Placement

Weight Shifting

Core Strengthening – Trunk Strengthening
X
Colour Recognition and Identification

Word Recognition
X
Number concepts
X
Visual Acuity








No comments:

Post a Comment