How to Select Battery Operated Toys and Switches

The importance of play for very young children when readying them for technology use cannot be overemphasised. For children who have a physical disability or who are generally uninterested in manipulative toys, battery operated toys that are adapted to work with single switches can be used. Battery operated toys and switches can be the tools for developing play skills with objects and with peers. They also provide children with physical disabilities increased control over the classroom and home environment.

Selecting toys and switches for young pre-school-aged children requires that parents, teachers, and therapists consider several important factors. The most important factor is to become an expert. Make a list of your young child's strengths and needs and choose toys, which meet your child's requirements. Collect information from parent support groups, toy lending libraries, information centres, manufacturers, and through exchanges with other parents, teachers, therapists, and others.

When purchasing battery operated toys, it is important to remember that there are different kinds of toys. It is important to consider a variety of battery operated toys that reflect a range of sensory inputs. For example, toys with flashing and multicoloured lights provide a visual input; tape recorders, musical, and other noisy toys (e.g., animal sounds, sirens) stimulate a young child's auditory senses. Blowing fans and vibrating toys provide tactile and vibro-tactile input. Toys should also provide for a variety of movement patterns: stationary, horizontal, vertical, and circular movement. Examples include a drumming bear, a walking robot, a fireman going up and down a ladder, and a small train or car track sets. Toys should be chosen that could be easily incorporated into play routines, as well as for their motivation and age appropriateness to the individual child.

As with the purchase of toys, the teacher, therapist, and parent should acquire a variety of switches that can be used with children on different developmental levels and physical skills. Finding an appropriate switch or switches that match the child's physical requirements is extremely important. The child must have a reliable motor movement that can consistently activate the toy. As the child becomes more capable, the more reliable motor movements available to activate switches will provide a means of more efficiently interacting with his or her environment. Recent technology has provided a variety of mechanisms for these children to activate toys other than simply using a switch activated by the press of a hand. For example, children can use an eye-blink switch or a puff switch to activate a device. Pressure sensitive switches that require only a minimal amount of movement are now on the market. Voice activation is now also another option.

Once children have a variety of experiences with toys and switches, they are often better prepared to have more successful interactions, not reactions, to the computer. Young children can be trained in many of the skills necessary for successful use of computer and augmentative communication technology without the use of expensive or complicated equipment. Thus, when they are physically and developmentally ready to use the available technology, these children will be able to receive the maximum benefits that technology can make in quality of life and the ability to learn and to become as independent as possible.

Source: Effective Use of Technology with Young Children, Mary L. Wilds, Technical Assistance Center #3, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia; printed in NICHCY News Digest: Assistive Technology, Number 13, 1989.