Five Facts That Bode Well for Toy Industry
Here are five trends that bode well for the toy industry and offer opportunities for Children with Special Needs:
1. The increased use of technology in play products offers both adults and children with special needs the ability to use, enjoy, learn and grow through many of these new technological innovations.
2. There is a powerful trend to promote physical activities through everything from the Wii, to incorporating and encouraging physical movement in more toys and games. Why? Because according to the World Health Organization, obesity is now the No. 1 health problem for children and those with special needs carry an even higher risk factor.
3. Toys and play products are now delivering at record levels real developmental benefits — mental, physical or social. Inventors, educators and engineers continue to amaze consumers with the creative ways they can structure toys and games to help children learn and grow.
4. Play products are bridging the gap between therapy and play and professionals are realizing there are toys out there that offer therapeutic goals quietly embedded in the play processes they promote.
5. Manufacturers are blending their creativity with current research (from brain development to innovative therapy) and delivering products that are cutting-edge, age appropriate and developmentally challenging.
Congratulations to all the engineers, creative and product development people, and both professional and kitchen-table inventors out there who strive to offer all children, including those with special needs, fun and exciting toys and play products that improve their lives.
2 comments February 3, 2009
Technology & Kids – Good, Bad or Both?
I was just reading today about all the great new assistive technology and how it’s helping people who have hearing or visual disabilities.
“Some companies, such as Microsoft, already have a foothold in workplace assistive technologies, and they’re now expanding into new scenarios.
Others came to the assistive technology market by accident—having realized their products were life-changers for the disabled at play. Either way, they’ve all had a hand in opening the market for technologies that are making life more playful and productive for people with disabilities.”
But I have also been hearing a lot of buzz about the dangers technology can present when children fall into abusive or obsessive use.
“In a decade working with the Sunshine Coast school system, “I saw hundreds of kids with technology addictions, behavior problems, developmental delays and social difficulties,” she says in a phone interview. Many spent hours a day in front of screens.”
What is the answer? Is technology good, bad or neither? Is it more like, say – cars. You could go on all day about the incredible benefits cars offer to our way of life or instead focus on the injuries and lives lost to accidents and abuses.
Like so many things, technology has its dark-side and even the smartest among us can fall prey to a touch of addictive. (Heck, Barack Obama is having a hard time with the Secret Service’s ban on blackberries!)
I am hearing cries out there that screen time and technology for kids is dangerous and possibly harmful. But who would want to remove our children’s ability to be one click away from a wealth of information and a global community. Tough call.
Perhaps, like cars, our young children’s interaction with technology needs a high degree of parental involvement. After all, you would never just throw the car keys to your kid hoping he figures it out, learns to navigate and buckles up before taking it for a spin.
Add comment January 22, 2009
Author explores Animals, Autism and Einstein
While recently driving around doing errands, I heard an interesting segment on National Public Radio. The host was interviewing a woman named Temple Grandin about her newly released book, “Animals Make Us Human.” I did not catch the first part of the interview, but the second half did not contain very many questions relating to animals. In fact, the interviewer kept asking questions about autism. I wondered what Ms. Grandin’s expertise was to speak so articulately about this condition. It wasn’t until the end that I realized Ms. Grandin herself was autistic. I later learned that she is a well-known spokesperson in the disability community, but before this I was unaware of her.
When I got home I went to one of my favorite websites (you could call it an addiction) amazon.com, to check her out. Well, she has authored or co-authored not just one book, but ten! She is a Ph.D, a scientist, a designer and an expert in the handling and designing of livestock facilities. Her books run the gamut from autism, animals, and social norms to human nature. Quite a list of accomplishments by anyone’s standards! Here are two quotes that give you a taste of what I read:
Temple Grandin is autistic, a woman who thinks, feels, and experiences the world in ways that are incomprehensible to the rest of us
In this unprecedented book, Grandin delivers a report from the country of autism. Writing from the dual perspectives of a scientist and an autistic person, she tells us how that country is experienced by its inhabitants and how she managed to breach its boundaries to function in the outside world. What emerges in Thinking in Pictures is the document of an extraordinary human being, one who, in gracefully and lucidly bridging the gulf between her condition and our own, sheds light on the riddle of our common identity.
What I enjoyed the most while listening to her interview was her unique perspective. Her sense of honesty and humility was refreshing and quite frankly I liked the fact that her viewpoint challenged the typical paradigms of conventional thought. This perhaps explains how she came to a scientific and logical conclusion in her new book that dogs, cats, horses, cows and zoo animals — among other creatures — possess an emotional system akin to that of humans.
At the end of the interview I not only wanted to read a few of her books, but it also left me with a great sense of hope. It left me realizing that one of the reasons autism is so hard to deal with is that it represents unconventional thinking and a viewpoint of the world shaped through a different lens – one that is fascinating to look through and broadens one’s perspective.
As a final note, in the interview Ms. Grandin stated that according to the clinical definition of autism used today, Einstein would have been categorized as autistic. She used his personal letters recalling his early childhood development as the source for this determination.
Grandin to me presents a way of thinking unbridled by conventional thoughts and norms. Starting off a new year, I intend to get my mind (in addition to my body) in better shape by stretching it and pushing its limits. I think reading a few of those books by Temple Grandin would do just that. I’ll start with, “Animals Make Us Human.” I’m sure my sidekick/shadow Winnie (terrier with an attitude), and maybe even Einstein, would approve.
2 comments January 15, 2009
Time Out for Saturday Night Live
Being funny all the time is hard work. But it is worth it because we all need laughter to give some balance to our lives and minimize the stress. In fact, laughter is actually beneficial to us humans in a whole series of ways.
But Saturday Night Live’s depiction on their December 13th program of the Governor of New York may have been funny for some, but it was also inappropriate. Good humor, first of all, carries with it an element of truth buried in the satire. When we connect this element it hits a cords and our funny bone at the same time.
I categorize the kind of humor used in the Governor Paterson skit as “playground humor” because it strikes at a very immature element of human nature – one that profits from putting a person or a class of people down to garner a superior laugh or two. Humor of this sort is the kind of thing a teacher would reprimand another child for saying or acting out on the playground at recess.
Sadly this skit made Governor Paterson of New York, who happens to be blind, also appear to be incapable. That is where they lost any element of truth. In so doing it became more than just a putdown of a public servant but an entire group of people who have visual disabilities as well.
Come on guys, there is enough valid stuff out there to use as a take off point for funny material. You don’t need to make things up to gets laughs. Truth can be much funnier that fiction – to bad the writers and producers at SNL couldn’t see that.
If I were their teacher, I would give them a time out and make them think about that for awhile, maybe in a dark room with the lights out.
2 comments January 7, 2009
Need Santa More than Ever
This year we need the concept of Santa more than ever. Despite your beliefs, the idea of some beneficent entity watching over us and finding each of us deserving of a present, a symbol of joy and goodness — well, that is really sort of nice. The image of him placing our gift under the boughs of a beautiful, decorated tree feels kind of good during these uncertain times (especially when you are from Illinois like me!)
Anyway, I wanted to share with you my favorite experts from what I believe to be the consummate description of the Santa concept. It is from a piece written in 1897 (and those were tough times for some also!) It was written by an editor of the NEW YORK SUN in response to a little girl named Virginia, sending a letter to the editor asking, … “is there a Santa Clause.”
Here are my favorite quotes:
“…how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence.”
“The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see.”
“You may tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond.”
“No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.”
On behalf of AblePlay and all of us here toiling in our little workshops and working with children with special needs, we say –“You Go Santa Claus!” Keep pushing toys, play and the power of imagination. This world can use a dose of old-fashioned good, wonder and magic. Happy Holidays to all and to all a good night!
1 comment December 18, 2008
Finding Value in All Things this Holiday Season
Initial reports are that consumers are, “making a list, checking it twice,” this holiday season. That means that shoppers are becoming very targeted in their purchases. According to PLAYTHINGS magazine, the Friday after Thanksgiving was busy, but most of the 73.6 million people buying were focused on “doorbuster” sales. In other words, people were only buying those items that were a real VALUE.
Although we are all concerned about the economic downturn, there are perhaps a few positive outcomes from it. To quote my friend, Lynn, “If you lose, don’t lose the lesson.” And here’s what I think one economic lesson is. As a society we should become more focused on value rather than volume. Conspicuous consumption leads to not respecting what we have. It reminds me of scenes I have unfortunately witnessed of kids frantically ripping open one present only to toss it aside and move to the next one. Where is the magic and wonder in that!
I have tried to put this into effect with all my purchases this year, by thinking about what each and every item will contribute to my life, or if a gift, what it might contribute to the person I give it to. If I struggle to answer this question, I don’t buy it.
To editorialize a bit, that is really what www.ableplay.org is all about. It offers new, exciting, current, off-the-shelf toys that provide real value. In addition to a product’s obvious “play value,” Ableplay helps give a far more worthwhile gift. These toys help children develop the skills they need in life. That’s really what the website is all about – where to find great play products and how to use them to help children with special needs develop cognitive, sensory, communicative or physical skills.
So my themes this year are to shop for value, value the things I have, cherish and value the people in my life and finally to make buying decisions with a keen eye to what these purchases will really contribute to me and those I care about.
Add comment December 5, 2008
Giving Thanks More Important Than Ever This Year
As people sit down to their Thanksgiving dinners this year, they may be bringing with them a mind full of worries and concerns about the economy and its impact, real or potential, on their lives.
Although it seems a difficult time for thanks I would argue it is perhaps the best time to look around with a grateful heart. Thanksgiving, more than any other holiday, asks us to focus on the half-full portion of the glass and to whisper a thought of gratitude before raising it to our lips.
Here is a poem I came across by an unknown author that shares that sentiment and seems so relevant at this time.
Be Thankful
Be thankful that you don’t already have everything you desire,
If you did, what would there be to look forward to?
Be thankful when you don’t know something
For it gives you the opportunity to learn.
Be thankful for the difficult times.
During those times you grow.
Be thankful for your limitations
Because they give you opportunities for improvement.
Be thankful for each new challenge
Because it will build your strength and character.
Be thankful for your mistakes
They will teach you valuable lessons.
Be thankful when you’re tired and weary
Because it means you’ve made a difference.
It is easy to be thankful for the good things.
A life of rich fulfillment comes to those who are
also thankful for the setbacks.
GRATITUDE can turn a negative into a positive.
Find a way to be thankful for your troubles
and they can become your blessings.
Happy Thanksgiving!
1 comment November 20, 2008
Learn and Care about Obama Policy for People with Disabilities
Presidential candidate Barack Obama and his team took the time to write a comprehensive document of his policy positions for Persons with Disabilities. Now that he will be assuming the role of president come January, we, as people interested in these issues, should take a good long look at them.
Reviewing these policies gives us a very clear indication of what President-elect Obama aspires to accomplish for people with disabilities. But intention is just the first step towards accomplishment. If you are a realist like me, after reviewing this lengthy laundry list, you can see there’s a lot of work to do. No president can move these mountains alone and perhaps we can begin by asking ourselves some questions.
Which of these policies take priority and are closest to our heart?
Can you imagine how these changes would impact people’s lives?
What role might we play in keeping these issues alive and active?
President-elect Obama summaries his position as striving to, “ … provide Americans with disabilities with the greatest possible access to the same opportunities as those without disabilities.” And he focuses on four key categories: education, discrimination, employment and independence. Here’s the top line:
(1) Providing Americans with disabilities the educational opportunities they need to succeed:
Fully Funding the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
Early Intervention for Children with Disabilities
Support Universal Screening
Support Vocational Rehabilitation Programs
Provide College Opportunities for High School Graduates with Disabilities
Authorize a Comprehensive Study of Students with Disabilities and Transition to Work and Higher Education
(2) Ending discrimination and promoting equal opportunity:
Restoring the Americans with Disabilities Act
Appointing Judges and Justices Who Respect Laws Designed to Protect People with Disabilities
Increasing Funding for Enforcement
Supporting the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act
Guaranteeing Health Care Coverage
Improving Mental Health Care
(3) Increasing the employment rate of workers with disabilities:
Increasing Executive Branch Hiring of Workers with Disabilities
Effectively Implementing Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act
Providing Private-Sector Employers with Resources to Accommodate Employees with Disabilities
Encouraging Private-Sector Employers to Use Existing Tax Benefits to Hire More Workers with Disabilities
Establishing a National Commission on People with Disabilities, Employment, and Social Security
Supporting Small Businesses Owned by People with Disabilities
Assuring Workers with Disabilities and Family Caregivers Get the Flexibility at Work They Need
(4) Supporting independent, community-based living for Americans with disabilities:
Assuring the Rights Affirmed in Olmstead v. L.C.
Supporting the Community Choice Act and Direct Care Workers
Supporting the CLASS Act
Streamline the Social Security Approval Process
Protect Voting Rights
Amending the Medicare “Homebound” Rule
Investing in Assistive Technologies
Protecting the Safety of Individuals with Special Needs
Supporting Americans Living with Autism Spectrum Disorders
Strengthen VA Specialty Care
Congratulations you made it through the entire list and now you can take a breath. Pretty ambitious don’t you think, but I for one choose to believe, “Change Can Happen!”
Here’s the full plan.
Add comment November 13, 2008
The Power of Language
Now that the elections are over, I feel like I need to take a break from all the dialogue, language, speeches, news articles and countless words that have been uttered by candidates these last few months.
In thinking about all that was written and said, I could not help but reflect on the power of language and how important it is in our lives. Children sometimes struggle to take those first steps towards the world of communicating, a world that consists of two very different skill sets – that of formulating words that express what we want … and that of being able to listen and understand what the other person is trying to convey.
Only after that is mastered can children learn how to blend and weave these two skills into a conversation – a real give and take. That’s when things get interesting. To quote Oliver Wendell Holmes:
“Language is the blood of the soul into which thoughts run and out of which they grow.”
Once the verbal art of language has been achieved, we can humbly venture into the world of written language.
Children with special needs can sometimes struggle with the challenges of conquering both the spoken aspects as well as the written elements of language.
Here at AblePlay we put a great deal of emphasis on helping children with disabilities to use toys to help achieve language skills. The information on our website touches on so many solutions to address the goal of helping children communicate. We believe a great motivator for children to conquer language is through play. Let me share just a few play items and how they can help children work on this important stage of development.
Bee Bop Band by Parents
• Use the instruments to represent feelings; have a child play out the way they feel. This is one way for a child to communicate feelings they may not be able to verbally explain.
• Children can pretend play with the insect instruments, encourage them to communicate with the sounds as well as words.
• Have 2 children sit together and take turns playing a rhythm. Have one child play, and the other reply once they have finished their “tune”. This kind of turn-taking introduces the idea of conversation: listening (receptive language) and replying (expressive language).
Dbd Play Pack – Social Skills for Small Groups by The Pencil Grip, Inc.
• Communication and appropriate interaction is encouraged that will help children learn conversation etiquette. An example is in the “Object Memory” activity. Children are given a short period of time to look at objects in a box. Then the box is taken away and they go around the circle verbally identifying objects they remember. Listening to others, waiting for your turn and responding are all worked on. Another activity is “Story Build” where children take turns to verbally add to a story.
Fridge Phonics™ Magnetic Letter Set by LeapFrog Enterprises, Inc.
• Receptive language is practiced as children are verbally given the instructions of the activities.
• Receptive and expressive languages are incorporated into activities such as “Telephone Charades” where children are lined up in a row and take turns acting out an object or whispering the name of the object to the next person.
So let the joy of play help your children work on these important skills and learn the power and the potential that language can bring to their lives.
And I’ll end this blog with another reference to the elections with a great quote on language from a man whose job it was to work with words — the well known newscaster of the 1950’s, Edward R. Murrow.
“Our major obligation is not to mistake slogan for solutions.”
Perhaps you will agree now that the elections are over, we need less language and more solutions.
Add comment November 6, 2008
