Toys for Learning and Development

In our last post we offered gift suggestions for teachers. Today we look at two sources for gifts for children with special learning needs. We hope you find these helpful as you do your holiday shopping!

Learning should and can be fun. Even if learning vulnerabilities exists, it is entirely possible to help develop your child’s skills in an engaging, play-based manner. Toys are an interactive, screen free way to develop and hone critical areas of child development. As a teacher, some of my favorite play-based learning materials came from Melissa and Doug and Plan Toys. This article primarily focuses on toys for special education purposes. However, it is important to note that all children will benefit from play-based developmental learning. So, although these resources are deemed effective for students with diverse learning needs, they will also be beneficial for the overall development of all children.

If you are looking to acquire play based learning materials for your home or classroom, the first resource to explore is Melissa and Doug, an award-winning American toy company that offers an array of toys designed for special needs students as well as typically developing children. The toys detailed in their special education section were selected from Melissa and Doug’s traditional toy line by Dr. Melissa Liguori, for parents and special educators to use develop their students’ unique skills. Melissa and Doug offers toys across a number of developmental categories, including, social and emotional, oral, gross and fine motor skills, cognitive skills, speech and language, life skills and sensory awareness. Beyond detailing each toy, each developmental skill category is also explained by Dr. Liguori and tips are offered on how to implement and utilize the resources available. For an even deeper analysis and more robust skill building tips I found that as an educator the Melissa and Doug Special Needs Toy Guide was an invaluable resource.

Your next resource to explore is Plan Toys, another award winning toy company that prides itself on designing green, sustainable and safe wooden toys for young children. On the Plan Toys website you will find listings of toys that promote learning across different key areas of child development. Many of the categories are similar to Melissa and Doug, and unlike the former there isn’t any additional material on how to implement the resources. However, the materials that Plan toys offers that I have found to be valuable are a variety of their toys for concentration, their sign language alphabet tiles, their braille alphabet tiles and their mood memo toy for helping express emotions.

Learning is fun, and it doesn’t have to look like traditional pencil and paper work. There are a variety of resources and methods to promote skill development while playing. Enjoy exploring all the alternative learning materials available.

Gifts Teachers Really Appreciate

Giving holiday or end-of-year gifts to your child’s teacher is certainly not expected in most schools and may actually be prohibited in some public schools, but when you decide you want to show your gratitude to that extra-special teacher, finding the right gift can be tough. For those occasions when the “#1Teacher” mug or ubiquitous apple just won’t cut it, here are some fresh ideas:

Supplies: Too many teachers use their own paychecks to pay for classroom supplies. Put together a box of assorted classroom essentials like dry erase markers, pencils, sticky notes, staples, and packs of binder paper that are sure to go to good use. Or let the teacher choose his own supplies by presenting him with a gift card to an office supply store. Another idea is to set up a donation page and spread the word among other parents in the class. For example, www.adoptaclassroom.org provides a platform for raising tax-deductible donations that teachers can use for classroom supplies and equipment.

Books: If your child’s teacher maintains a classroom library, donate gently used books your child has outgrown. (If not, the school library may appreciate them; ask the librarian.)

Faculty Lounge Treats: If you’ve got several children at the same school, show your appreciation for all of their teachers, as well as for the administrative staff, by sending a supply of high-quality coffee and an assortment of good tea for the teachers’ lounge. Ask someone who works in the office what kind of coffee machine is available to the teachers to ensure you send something they can use. A fruit or vegetable tray or a fruit bouquet is also a generous gesture.

Customized Stamp: Writing his name in every book that belongs in his classroom is a time-consuming chore for your child’s teacher. Save him precious minutes by giving him a self-inking stamp that will allow him to mark books and other classroom supplies with ease. Most office supply stores will allow you to choose from a variety of customize-able stamps.

Donation of Your Time: Tell your child’s teacher that you appreciate all the work she puts in so much that you’d like to put in a little of your own. Many teachers will leap at the chance to involve another pair of adult hands in a big project or experiment. (If you’re artistic, offer to collect the supplies for an art project and lead it yourself.) Another idea is to offer your help with time-consuming tasks like taking down a classroom display of student art and setting up a new one, designing a display bulletin board, or helping pack up the classroom at the end of the year. A very innovative idea is to ask if the school would allow you cover the teacher’s lunch or recess duty or study hall. The time off will give your child’s teacher the chance to squeeze in some grading or simply relax.

Pampering: Time to one’s self is rare for most busy teachers. A gift card to a local spa for a pedicure or a massage is almost always welcome.

A Night on the Town: If you find yourself with tickets to a concert or sporting event you can’t attend, ask the teacher if she’d like to use them before you try to sell them. Many teachers would also appreciate a gift card to a local restaurant.

A Handwritten Note: Most teachers go into teaching because they dream of making a difference in the lives of children. Let your child’s teacher know he succeeded with a letter that tells him just how much you appreciate him. Include a specific memory, like the way you felt when your child, formerly a reluctant reader, couldn’t stop talking about the book the class was reading. A note from your child (act as scribe if she’s too young to write it herself) would be the icing on the cake. For extra credit, send a copy of your letter, and your child’s note, to the principal. This free “gift” is likely to be the one the teacher will treasure most!

Goldie Blox Makes Engineering Accessible for Girls

During her time at Stanford, Debbie Sterling, an engineering student, couldn't help but notice that she and her female peers were vastly outnumbered. Most other women just didn't seem to be interested in engineering, and her classes were dominated by men. Out in the workplace, the statistics were equally grim: Sterling learned that 89% of engineering positions were held by men. Sterling had a hunch that capturing girls’ interest in building through toys that develop spatial skills might lead more girls to become interested in technical fields down the road. She began to do some research and discovered that while boys tend to demonstrate an interest in building things, girls tend to like books and stories. Sterling decided to combine the two ideas, and Goldie Blox was born.

Each Goldie Blox set contains a toolkit and a book starring Goldie, a girl who loves to build. Girls read the book and build along with Goldie as she strives to build a simple machine to help her dog Nacho, who loves to chase his tail. From this basic idea, Goldie (followed by her avid reader) expands on the machine until all of Goldie’s friends are in on the action, too. The story prompts girls to experiment with the included crank and axles as they work to build a belt drive, all brought to life by the fun, zany plot in the book.

Goldie Blox

This Parents’ Choice Award-winning toy, best for girls ages six and up, is available in stores or from the Goldie Blox website. The concept is new and so far there is only one set available, but with publications like The Atlantic, NBC, Forbes, Time, Wired, Parenting, and The Huffington Post covering Goldie, it seems reasonable to look for sequels in which Goldie will put her engineering mind to work in other adventures.

You go, girls!

Storymatic for Creative Writing, Storytelling, and Play

Some kids can’t seem to stem the flow of creative ideas when it comes to storytelling. Others can’t think of a single thing to put into a story. Kids in both categories, as well as everyone in between, will love The Storymatic Kids!, a storytelling game sure to get your creative juices flowing (and flowing and flowing).

Play is simple: Pick a few cards from the box and let your imagination run wild as you create a story. Yellow cards contain characters and blue cards display miscellaneous story elements like settings, situations, or items. There are also wild cards so players can include their own ideas.

Some of the suggestions on the game’s homepage include giving the game to early writers, parents in need of ideas for bedtime stories, teachers of creative writing, and grandparents who want to interact with their grandchildren. But the possibilities are practically endless. Why not tell a group story, in which each person draws a card and uses it to add another few sentences to the story? How about making a comic strip with the ideas on the cards? Wouldn't these be perfect for an evening of improv games?

The game comes with 360 different cards and a booklet containing prompts, specific games, and other suggestions. But The Storymatic is so versatile that there’s really no wrong way to play and no reason to play by any rules except the ones players set themselves.

Various versions of The Storymatic are available at toy stores, from Amazon, or through the company’s homepage.

Images: thestorymatic.com

Holiday Gifts

It’s become a tradition

Our annual poem

Before we adjourn 

To spend holidays at home 

We’ve gifts to distribute 

To students and schools 

Who we know can be helped 

By these wonderful tools

For youngsters who stumble 

With numbers and math 

The “FunWay” book series 

Can help ease their path 

When attention’s the problem 

And kids struggle to cope 

The book Hunter’s Remote

Can help give them hope

For memory issues 

The smartpen is grand 

It records when you write 

To keep lectures at hand

And kids of all ages 

Can find Inspiration

To help them to organize 

Any creation 

What about teachers 

Who need stuff for their class? 

The site Donors Choose

Can help bring that to pass

For City school parents 

In bureaucracy’s maze 

The site InsideSchools 

Can help brighten your days

At the risk of a claim of self-aggrandizement 

We also must note (in a small advertisement) 

That for struggling students 

The best gift of all 

Might just be to click or to give us a call. 

The Yellin Center will be closed for our holiday break from December 26, 2011, re-opening on Tuesday, January 3, 2012. We wish you all a very Merry Christmas, a Happy Hanukkah, and a Happy New Year!

Photo used under Creative Commons by asenat29

A Book on Every Bed

This holiday season will be the second in which advice columnist Amy Dickinson and the Family Reading Partnership team up to spread the joy of reading to children. Their campaign, called “A Book on Every Bed,” encourages parents whose families celebrate Christmas to choose a book for their child, wrap it, and leave it on the foot of the child’s bed to be found on Christmas morning. 

The idea came from Pulitzer prize-winning author David McCullough, who remembers waking up to a book at the foot of his bed each Christmas morning as a child. “I think my love of books began on Christmas mornings long ago, and the love has never gone stale,” McCullough says. His children received Christmas books, too, and they have passed the tradition on to their children.

Dickinson observes, “Parents who raise children surrounded by books and stories give their kids a leg up in life. Children who love books grow up to be good and attentive listeners. And kids who read for pleasure have ready access to heroes.”

This great idea can be adapted for any special occasion (Hanukkah, birthdays, or the first day of a new  school year, for example) and can be a great source of inspiration for children as they begin to associate enjoyable holidays and special events with books. What better way to share the love of reading with a child?

Graduation Gifts

May brings the start of graduation season, and whether you want to celebrate a student moving on from kindergarten or one graduating from law school or medical school -- or those in between -- we have some gift suggestions that can help students as they move on to their next challenges.

For Young Students
Even in this age of digital content, children like to get things addressed to them and delivered by a real, live, mail person.. Magazine subscriptions fill this role, and have the added benefit of coming regularly for a year or more. They give children an opportunity to build their reading skills, enhance their affinities -- such as sports, animals, or science -- and can help them engage with new areas of interest. Some of the magazines we have recommended to young students are ChickaDEE [ages 6-9; puzzles, crafts, animal facts, comics]; Your Big Backyard [ages 3-7; animals, nature, outdoors] and National Geographic for Kids  [ages 6-14].

Graduating  Middle School
Students this age are ready to expand their horizons into the larger world, but still need help shaping their interests. They might enjoy a trip to an event -- a show, a sporting event, an exhibit -- that will both entertain them and help them to spark an interest that they can build on as they get older.

For High School Graduation
As these students move on to college, the demands on their cognitive toolbox will increase substantially. One device that we have found helpful for college students is the Livescribe pen. This enables students to take notes in lectures and then play back the particular section of the lecture by tapping the pen on the relevant key word in a special notebook. It lets students focus on lecture content without concern that they will not take sufficient notes -- and let them take notes without worrying that they missed something the professor is saying.

For College Graduation and Beyond

If your student does not yet have an iPad and if this expensive item is within your budget, it will provide them with a tool for whatever path comes next. If an iPad is more than you would want to spend, another tool that will help them move into adulthood is a subscription to a major daily newspaper. It's a way of keeping them connected to the larger world as they become focused on their future studies or career. Whether they get it via digital device or delivered to their doorstep, it will help make them better informed citizens of the world in which they live.



Some photos used under Creative Commons from yto