Let’s Play!

Let’s Play!

Home school doesn’t have to be work, work, work! It can be fun and games, too. Fun and games doesn’t necessarily mean not educational either. Toys can be learning! Wonderful, exciting, adventurous toys! But not if our special needs children toss them to the side and play with the box they came in instead. *Sigh* I bet you’ve been there, done that. I know I sure have! So, how do we buy toys that can stimulate and teach our children? What are some things we need to look for? Well, let’s take a look!

Each of our children all have the same types of skills from birth on that they need to work on to function properly as they age and develop. Some have to work harder on particular skills, and maybe some have to use more of one skill to make up for another function that is missing (like in a blind child whose hearing may be increased because of his lack of sight). Those skills include fine motor, gross motor, language, social, tactile, visual, auditory, thinking, language and more. It’s important that we find and use toys that generate thinking and learning in our play time to encourage learning in all of our children, but its especially important with our special needs children as they will need more help in developing certain areas.

I like to buy toys that have multiple uses. Multi-tasking toys, if you will. For instance, gross motor skills use large muscle movement while fine motor skills deal with grasping and your hand-eye coordination. My son’s favorite game has always been Hungry Hungry Hippo. This game is a perfect example of a multi-tasking game. You have to use gross motor skills in slapping the hippo lever to eat the marbles while also using fine motor skills to pick up each individual small marble.

Boy or girl, young or old, I bet most of you have a city play mat with cars and a town, or a railroad table with a train set. These are great multi-tasking toys as they help develop social skills between siblings and friends, as well as providing visual stimulus by keeping the cars on the road. They also encourage creativity and language by providing a reason for our children to use words to express what they are thinking and imagining in their play time.

Puzzles force us to use and develop our fine motor, creativity, thinking, and visual skills. The bigger the better! I love the huge floor puzzles that my kids get down on the floor with and work on together. Together… that’s another skill! Social skills! Anyone with an aspie/autistic child understands the need for learning social skills!

Card and board games are perfect for helping to develop thinking and memory skills. They encourage our children to work together (uhm, social skills again) and help teach everything from colors, to math, to reading, and more. My children currently are in love with the game Wiz Kidz by Discovery Toys. You take two cards — one has a letter and one has creative questions. It’s not a puzzle. It’s not a quiz. It makes you think and it’s fun! Our favorite letter/question combo so far? A body part that starts with the letter “q”. Yeah, we’re still trying to figure an answer to that one out.

And, of course, I can’t forget electronic games. Wii you like to play? I can’t express in enough words the joy Wii has given my family while having fun and teaching all those necessary developmental skills. There is golfing, bowling, tennis, and MORE. It teaches hand-eye coordination. It teaches social skills. It teaches thinking. It teaches visual. It teaches EVERYTHING! I love it!

The toys listed above are a great place to start if you know what category of special needs your child fits into. What if, however, you’ve just got a diagnosis and you have no idea what it means. Perhaps you are feeling lost and don’t have a clue as to what toys would be helpful to YOUR child. There are a few categories to look at to help you at least have a place to start.

Physical Disabilities: these affect the motor systems and can include skeletal, muscle and joint abnormalities which in turn limit an individual’s ability to move, stand, sit, play, reach, and so forth. Cerebral Palsy, Multiple Sclerosis, Spina Bifida are examples of physical disabilities.

Sensory Disabilities: these affect the ability to gather and understand information from the environment through any of the five senses (touch, sight, sound, smell, taste). Some of the diagnosis’ that fit in this category would be hearing and visual impairment as well as Sensory Integration Disorder.

Communicative Disabilities: these affect the ability to communicate verbally due to limited, or altered comprehension and use of language. Autism and Pervasive Delelopment Disorder, stuttering, speech, and other language delays fall into this category.

Cognitive Disabilities: these affect the ability to process information, reason, remember and express emotions. Down syndrome, Attention Deficit Disorder, Attention Hyperactivity Disorder, Bi-polar, Jacobsens Syndrome are examples of what would fall under the cognitive disability category.

If you still aren’t sure which category your child falls under, then call your doctor and ask. They are more than willing to help you understand how to better help your child and you can find a wealth of information on the internet as well. If you do know which category your child falls under, then you can start searching for toys based on that category as well as your own child’s
individual needs.

Several places you can find great guides that will recommend and help you search out toys are:

http://www.lekotek.org/
http://www.ableplay.org/
http://www.toysrus.com/ (look at their toy guide for differently-abled kids)http://www.discoverytoysinc.com/
http://www.specialneedstoys.com/usa/
http://www.adaptivechild.com/index.html

So, now that we know we can have fun while playing, and learn while we are at it, let’s get out there and check out some new toys! Put your lists together now for birthdays and holidays and share your lists with friends and family!

Sallie is an off-again, on-again homeschooling mom to her 4 children, ranging from elementary to high school. In her column “The Square Peg,” she discusses the challenges of homeschooling a child with disabilities and offers insight to those who sometimes feel all alone in a round hole world.

Tags: Encouragement, Extra-Curricular Activities, Family Life, homeschool life, Homeschool Methods, Special Needs

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