It’s Easy To Find Holiday Gifts For Children With Disabilities

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Is there an infant or toddler with disabilities on your holiday gift list?

If so, you might be interested in some advice from Susan Mistrett, director of the Let's Play! project at the University at Buffalo, which uses assistive technologies and interactive strategies to help disabled children to play.

"Like any child, kids with disabilities need toys that are engaging and fun to use, and should be matched to the child's likes and interests," Mistrett says. "At the same time, toys can help move them along to a new developmental stage."

However, children's disabilities can limit how they play.

"These children need a big bang for their buck," she said. "They need more of a response from their toys, more of a reward as they play with them."

The best toys for children with disabilities have most of the following features:

• Sensory appeal, either through light, sound, touch or vibration

• Enough flexibility that they can be used in several ways

• Very defined textures

• Safety and durability

• The ability for volume or speed or other variables to be adjusted

• Large buttons or switches that make them easy to hold and operate

"Families with normally developing children see play as what kids do," said Mistrett, "whereas, unfortunately, for children with disabilities, play is often not determined by the child but tends to be 'put these squares in these holes'" she says. "That's directing, when in fact, you want to be facilitating, you want to create a play environment for the child in which he or she is successful by making toys easy to reach and work. You need to empower the child."

That means toys should be very colorful, with high contrast. They should invite the child to touch them, either because they are smooth, rough or cuddly, or because they vibrate. Also, they should respond to the child's action, whether it be with sound, light or tactile sensation.

"Plenty of conventional toys available at toy stores can be perfectly appropriate for children with disabilities," she says.

Best bets for infants and toddlers that are available at your local toy store include:

• Skwish Rattle by Papa Gepetto. A colorful rattle that is easy to grasp, shake, bang and "squish." Beads, strings and bells invite exploration.

• Toys made by V-Tech. These toys feature buttons to push and recorded answers in the form of songs, responses or other sounds. These are a good place to start to begin to get the child comfortable with interacting with his or her environment and with cause and effect, says Mistrett.

• Dunk'n Clunk by Sassy. This is a clear bucket that comes with vinyl rings and shapes. The top has slots to push the rings through. Because the bucket is clear, children can see the things they put into it, which motivates them to retrieve them.

• Koosch Balls. These come in a variety of shapes and have a unique feel; they encourage touching, throwing and are interesting to look at, feel and even taste.

• Slinky. With its wonderfully strange elasticity, this classic toy is easy to use and encourages connections between child and parent or between two children because they can tug and pull between them. Now available in fluorescent colors, the Slinky also is visually interesting.

• Drums, bells, maracas, almost any easy-to-use musical instrument. A strap with bells on it, for example, can easily be wrapped around a wrist. The advantage here, Mistrett says, is that when the child moves, she or he is the source of the sound.

• Duplos. The big, chunky ones can be stacked easily and can assist the child in moving to the next stage, using them to build. Some have rattles inside them or faces on them. Also, since the big ones can be connected to the smaller pieces, they provide an easy way for a disabled child to play with an older sibling.

Many widely available items can be used to create a safe, comfortable environment in which children can play successfully, she notes. For example, the U-shaped pillow -- widely used to prop infants during feeding -- can be a critical help to these babies by helping to support in an upright position those unable to hold their heads up or sit on their own. Even an ordinary bean-bag chair can be modified to create a sitting space for babies who are unable to sit by themselves.

Trays, benches, overhead gyms with links and hanging toys all can help elevate toys to the level at which the baby can interact easily with them and better experience their environments, gaining a whole new perspective on the world and their bodies. Simple items, like non-slip materials and Velcro, can keep a toy in place.

An extensive collection of resources for families of children with disabilities is available on the UB Let's Play! Web site at http://cosmos.ot.buffalo.edu/letsplay/.