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Easy Toy and Game Adaptations
Printed in Exceptional Parent Magazine, reprinted with permission
(2000) - By implementing a few simple adaptations to their child's playthings, parents can boost their child's self-confidence.
Adaptations can help ensure the child's success with toys and motivate him or her to continue to play. Adaptations allow children the independence to make their own choices and to explore and discover. Further, a simple adaptation can change a frustrating play experience into a pleasurable one.
The key to adaptation is creativity. Think about your child, the toys you own, and the materials to which you have access. Put them all together and the sky is the limit! Many off-the-shelf toys and games can be easily adapted by adding new materials, altering existing features, changing the roles, or setting up the play differently to enhance the experience. Adaptations need not be expensive or high-tech.
Use these ideas as a springboard for more fun and creative ideas. Please remember to keep safety a priority when making adaptations, and use appropriate adult supervision.
Dollhouses
Sometimes tracking down inexpensive materials to enhance your child's playthings seems more challenging than the adaptation itself. Here are some ideas for where to go and what to ask for:
Auto dealers: Car brochures, key rings;
Cleaners: Shirt cardboard, wire hangers;
Beauty shop: Plastic bottles, capes, hair clips;
Fabric shop: Small fabric remnants, ribbons, cardboard tubes, buttons, spools;
Flower shop: Wire, pots, silk flowers, ribbons;
Grocery store: Cardboard boxes, paper bags, butcher paper, Styrofoam™ trays;
Hardware store: Scrap wood, bolts, screws, PVC (poly vinyl chloride) pipe, bubble wrap;
Libraries: Old magazines and books;
Paint store: Wallpaper books, paint sticks, hats, buckets, pain swatches;
Party store: Cards, envelopes;
Shoe stores: Shoe laces, shoe boxes, tissue paper, sticks.
* The National Lekotek Center is a nonprofit organization with a national network of 60 affiliates dedicated to making play accessible for for children with disabilities and provides supportive services for their families. For additional information on toys, play and technology for children with disabilities, please call the Lekotek Toy Resource Helpline at 1-800-366-PLAY, or e-mail at Lekotek@Lekotek.org or visit our web site at www.lekotek.org.
Posted August 14th, 2007
(2000) - By implementing a few simple adaptations to their child's playthings, parents can boost their child's self-confidence.
Adaptations can help ensure the child's success with toys and motivate him or her to continue to play. Adaptations allow children the independence to make their own choices and to explore and discover. Further, a simple adaptation can change a frustrating play experience into a pleasurable one.
The key to adaptation is creativity. Think about your child, the toys you own, and the materials to which you have access. Put them all together and the sky is the limit! Many off-the-shelf toys and games can be easily adapted by adding new materials, altering existing features, changing the roles, or setting up the play differently to enhance the experience. Adaptations need not be expensive or high-tech.
Use these ideas as a springboard for more fun and creative ideas. Please remember to keep safety a priority when making adaptations, and use appropriate adult supervision.
Dollhouses
- Glue or Velcro® the furniture pieces in place so a child can maneuver the dolls without mistakenly "redecorating" the house.
- Take the roof off so children can reach in and move things around.
- To securely attach a dollhouse to a table, use a C-clamp for stability.
- Attach a ring, large bead, or dowel to the end of the pull-string so it is easier to grasp.
- Use masking tape to map out a maze on the floor for the child to follow.
- To use a pull toy on a table top or wheelchair tray, cut the string to make it shorter.
- Velcro® each space and piece to increase stability. Use puff paint or glue to raise lines between spaces.
- Laminate or use clear contact paper to coat flimsy game or boards.
- Feel free to change the game's rules for learning purposes or to reduce frustration.
- Children who have short attention spans can gain a sense of accomplishment by finishing a game. You can fold the board in half and play the game using only half the board, or find another creative way to modify the game to lessen time constraints.
- Make a puppet using a sock and attach Velcro® to add facial features using cotton balls or felt. If the child does not want the sock over his or her hand, the puppet can be pulled over a soft drink bottle.
- Make a small table top puppet stage by cutting the top, bottom, and one side off a cardboard box. To add to the fun, do the puppet show in front of the mirror.
- Make enlarged color copies of playing cards and laminate or mount them on poster board to be cut out.
- Make a card holder out of a clean, Styrofoam™ meat or produce tray. Turn it upside down and make slits for the cards and just slip them in. The top of a two-piece cardboard box can also be used.
- Very carefully, screw in wooden dowels, or glue empty thread spools to the top of puzzle pieces to assist children in lifting the pieces on and off of the base. Attach textures like sand paper, furry fabric, bubble wrap, velvet, or netting to the puzzle base for a tactile experience.
- Add stickers underneath the pieces and make it a memory game; "Can you remember where the dog sticker was?"
- Add magnets to the bottom of the puzzle pieces and assemble on a cookie sheet or the refrigerator, so pieces do not scatter easily if pumped.
- To make blow-up balls easier to grasp, do not fully inflate.
- Velcro new textures onto the exterior of a ball for a tactile experience.
- When playing a bowling game, use bigger balls to increase the opportunity to knock over pins.
- Secure nonstick shelf liner or nonskid carpet material on the seat of ride-ons to keep a child from slipping off.
- To make page turning easier, glue small felt spacers on each page. The felt circles for the bottoms of chair legs, popsicle sticks, or the tabs from notebook dividers can also be glued on pages at varying levels to help children turn pages independently.
- Take off the binding of a book and separate the pages (making sure all pages are numbered first). Laminate, coat in clear contact paper, or place each page in a lock-top plastic bag. Then, punch holes and put the pages in a three-ring binder.
Sometimes tracking down inexpensive materials to enhance your child's playthings seems more challenging than the adaptation itself. Here are some ideas for where to go and what to ask for:
Auto dealers: Car brochures, key rings;
Cleaners: Shirt cardboard, wire hangers;
Beauty shop: Plastic bottles, capes, hair clips;
Fabric shop: Small fabric remnants, ribbons, cardboard tubes, buttons, spools;
Flower shop: Wire, pots, silk flowers, ribbons;
Grocery store: Cardboard boxes, paper bags, butcher paper, Styrofoam™ trays;
Hardware store: Scrap wood, bolts, screws, PVC (poly vinyl chloride) pipe, bubble wrap;
Libraries: Old magazines and books;
Paint store: Wallpaper books, paint sticks, hats, buckets, pain swatches;
Party store: Cards, envelopes;
Shoe stores: Shoe laces, shoe boxes, tissue paper, sticks.
* The National Lekotek Center is a nonprofit organization with a national network of 60 affiliates dedicated to making play accessible for for children with disabilities and provides supportive services for their families. For additional information on toys, play and technology for children with disabilities, please call the Lekotek Toy Resource Helpline at 1-800-366-PLAY, or e-mail at Lekotek@Lekotek.org or visit our web site at www.lekotek.org.
