Though there are plenty available in toy stores however you can always create your own custom toy by any regular item that you may buy from the market. The blue ball that you are seeing in the picture above is recycled to make a meaningful play item for a kid with visual impairment. It came with the very popular chocolate candy name gems. I am sure most of you will know that. You can put some small hard stuff inside and close it tight to make it a sound ball. You can have more than one such ball and make them sound distinct by adding different materials to produce different sounds. Such as rice, kidney beans, cereals, small pebbles and many more. This will offer a nice sensory play activity for your kid. This is just one example. If you think and look around, you will find many spare and recyclable things that you can use to make meaningful play items for your growing kid with a disability.
Similarly, the picture on the top left is of a shaker that is made out of a small plastic water bottle and the top right picture is of a student who is playing with the shaker.
To make a shaker, I added kidney beans and millets in the each bottle. Hence, both the shaker produced different sounds. I painted them to give it a nice look. You can use your own creativity to make it look more nice and appealing. Some of you may think that why do we need to invest so much of our time and energy in designing something that the child with blindness may never see. Well, design is an important aspect because we are living in a world where all are sighted and everywhere around is so colourful. And just because my child cannot see does not mean that I will take away all such opportunities from him/her. Many like siblings, family members, neighbours, friends, school mates and people from the larger community are looking at our kids. So why do they have to play with something that looks boring, dirty or may be ugly. Therefore, make toys attractive. So that others also share their interest to play with. This will help boost confidence in our kids, help make friends and socialize.
Note: if your child or student has low vision, then don’t forget to use contrast and designs or animation of their choices.
To make a shaker, I added kidney beans and millets in the each bottle. Hence, both the shaker produced different sounds. I painted them to give it a nice look. You can use your own creativity to make it look more nice and appealing. Some of you may think that why do we need to invest so much of our time and energy in designing something that the child with blindness may never see. Well, design is an important aspect because we are living in a world where all are sighted and everywhere around is so colourful. And just because my child cannot see does not mean that I will take away all such opportunities from him/her. Many like siblings, family members, neighbours, friends, school mates and people from the larger community are looking at our kids. So why do they have to play with something that looks boring, dirty or may be ugly. Therefore, make toys attractive. So that others also share their interest to play with. This will help boost confidence in our kids, help make friends and socialize.
Note: if your child or student has low vision, then don’t forget to use contrast and designs or animation of their choices.