Tearing into a stuffed toy Minion, Grant Parks explained that not every child can play the same way.
Fine motor movements, Parks explained, include the use of muscles in fingers and toes. Children who lack such motor control can have difficulty reaching and manipulating toys.
Parks was volunteering at a “build day” on Saturday for Switched, a project of local nonprofit Pascale’s Pals. Parks is a physical therapy student and employee at the Children’s Therapy Center, which is part of MU’s Women’s and Children’s Hospital.
It was the first of two sessions Saturday where volunteers tore open toys, adapted them and reassembled them to give to children with fine motor impairments.
A common tool used to enable play is a “switch,” a large button that can be connected to electronics through a headphone jack. At the Children’s Therapy Center, they aid skill development and motivate children in therapy sessions.
“It teaches them to be more independent; that if they hit that button then they get what it is that they’re wanting,” he said.
Working for the therapy center two years ago, Switched co-founder Rachel Hughes came across a broken adapted toy. She watched videos to fix it and realized she could adapt normal toys. Soon, she was “switching” toys for five families. The operation grew, and Switched was born. They approached Pascale’s Pals and now have a steady funding source to buy toys, adapt them and give them away for free.
All of the toys Switched adapts are built for interaction: some light up, shake, spin and make sounds.
The build day helped Switched’s volunteers get through the backlog of over 200 toys they collected and train physical and occupational therapy students in new skill sets.
Giving them a chance to play
Braxton Naples, 6, is just one of many children who have benefited from Switched. He has cerebral palsy, doesn’t walk and communicates primarily through eye movements, but he has enough control over his left hand to use a switch.
“We use (switches) so that he can strengthen his ability to learn how things function by using his hands,” his guardian, Kari Kaczan, said.
Switches do more for Braxton than bolster communication. Hughes spends time with Braxton at The Crossing Church and introduced him to the use of switches for play.
Accessible toys, Kaczan said, make a world of difference to Braxton.
“When he’s engaged in something like that, he’s like a totally different kid,” Kaczan said. “He’s just super excited, and he’s just having the time of his life.”
Switched also benefits Milleigh Turner, 5. She also has cerebral palsy.
“She doesn’t have fine motor skills to use her hands, so she pretty much just uses her whole arm to activate the switches,” her mother, Jennifer Turner, said.
Milleigh brings some of her adapted toys to kindergarten so she can have more social experiences.
“The kids are more interested in those toys and will come up to her, help her, play with her,” she said.
Switched toys help Milleigh’s family in another way, too.
“General ‘switch’ toys cost us special needs parents anywhere from $100 to $300. At that price tag, we can’t buy her toys that often,” Jennifer Turner said.
Adapting toys for different abilities
The build day took place in a drab lecture room in MU’s Clark Hall. Everything was gray: chairs, tables, a carpet and walls lined with flat-screen displays. The room typically provides a distraction-free environment for college students to learn.
But on Saturday, the room was colorful.
Tables were covered in arrays of toys and tools ranging from drills to soldering irons, a heated instrument used to combine items together. One table had bright red Tickle Me Elmos while another had plush Minions that played music.
Hughes led the class in adapting the toys and demonstrated how to get inside them. For plush toys, it was as easy as tearing a seam. For hard-shelled plastic toys, participants had to figure out how to open them up.
Bill Janes, an MU occupational therapy assistant professor, said that in his field play is seen as a child’s “occupation.”
“It’s how they grow physically, cognitively and socially,” he said.
He said the philosophy behind adapting toys is part of fitting environments to people’s needs.
Near the end of the session, physical therapy student Shannon Henderson finished her adapted Tickle Me Elmo.
“Most kids will self-select what they’re good at and only do those types of things, but we’re trying to help kids be more confident in the other things they’re not as good at,” Henderson said.
She said that even if her future job doesn’t involve adapting toys, she now knows how to inform families of such services.
Switched will hold another build day on Sept. 29. There will be a giveaway of the adapted toys for families in need on Dec. 8.
