Re: question regarding developmental toys for 16 month old.

[Guest guest]

At 11:24 AM 11/1/00 -0500, you wrote:

>Would anyone have any suggestions for places to shop or specific toys to

>look for that would be especially helpful and stimulating for a profoundly

>deaf 16 month old? Most things I see in the dept. stores are geared toward

>hearing children by rewarding with sounds and music for performing tasks.

Neither of my children had any toys with sounds, music, lights or rewards

at this age. My daughter's favorite toys included books, a toy doll

stroller, a block sorting bucket, bean bags, blocks, small shoulder

bags. She loved to fill things up and dump them out---better yet if the

filled thing could be pushed or carried.

My son had access to more toys at the same age and his favorites included

Hot Wheels, Brio train set, and hammers.

Barbara Handley

[Guest guest]

Actually, I was wondering about a related issue since our 16 month old

daughter will (I expect) get fitted with aids this month (i.e. not

profoundly death, will hear when aided).

I was wondering (since we will likely be going with the AVT approach to

therapy): What would be a good toy for this situation - one that DOES have

sound effects, but with a design that would be appropriate to help a HOH

child develop her listening skills.

Any thoughts?

Regards, Colin

question regarding developmental toys for 16 month old.

Would anyone have any suggestions for places to shop or specific toys to

look for that would be especially helpful and stimulating for a profoundly

deaf 16 month old? Most things I see in the dept. stores are geared toward

hearing children by rewarding with sounds and music for performing tasks.

Obviously we need more lights and visual stimulation. Any suggestions at

all would be helpful. Also has anyone any opinion on the new toddler toy

called Intellitable, I believe made by Fisher Price. Thanks all! Laurie,

Mom to , Levi and Ben

[Guest guest]

You wrote---------

Would anyone have any suggestions for places to shop or specific toys to

look for that would be especially helpful and stimulating for a profoundly

deaf 16 month old? Most things I see in the dept. stores are geared toward

hearing children by rewarding with sounds and music for performing tasks.

Obviously we need more lights and visual stimulation. Any suggestions at

all would be helpful. Also has anyone any opinion on the new toddler toy

called Intellitable, I believe made by Fisher Price. Thanks all! Laurie,

Mom to , Levi and Ben

Response---

I thought I was so smart to only pick toys with visual aspects for my

profoundly deaf daughter when she was little. So what did she do? She picked

up everybody else's toys. My sister gave her things that made noise, because

she was watching what Pearl LIKED, instead of thinking about what she

theoretically should like.

Going back to discussions of kids putting their faces on the vacuum, reminds

me of Pearl leaning her cheek against the speaker of the TV, while trying to

watch out of the corner of her eye.

Now, she is ten, has much better aids, and aided tests in a range more like

moderate HOH. When she hears sounds, she comments on them.

So much for me knowing what is up.

Judith

[Guest guest]

Especially if you're going the AVT route, although I think this would be

helpful for any approach to developing language, I would recommend finding

the book " The New Language of Toys " by Sue Schwartz and Joan E. Heller

, which describes how to use toys to teach communication skills to

children. It also gives lists of toys they recommend using in each

developmental year. So for a 12-24 month old, they list: push and pull toys,

vacuum cleaner, Activity , Pop Up Farm, large boxes, bubbles,

cardboard blocks, indoor slides, puzzles, Peek-a-Boo Stacker, form fitters,

Little People house, a bowling set, among many others, and they tell you how

to use these toys to develop your child's language. They also recommend

books for each age group. I love this book!

mom to 6.5-yr-old boy, severe-profound, aided, CI candidate

(also in Ontario)

From: Colin Chisholm

Actually, I was wondering about a related issue since our 16 month old

daughter will (I expect) get fitted with aids this month (i.e. not

profoundly death, will hear when aided).

I was wondering (since we will likely be going with the AVT approach to

therapy): What would be a good toy for this situation - one that DOES have

sound effects, but with a design that would be appropriate to help a HOH

child develop her listening skills.

[Guest guest]

> " The New Language of Toys " by Sue Schwartz and Joan E. Heller

> , which describes how to use toys to teach communication skills to

> children.

Must be a good book if it was written by the same lady who did " Choices in

Deafness " .

Actually, I was just finishing reading the mail before I gave my two cents

about toys so I'm glad to see you brought it up. I never bought a toy for JD

without thinking first about how I could use it during play to re-inforce

some language skill we were working on. If it wasn't helpful in that, I

wouldn't buy it. When I had a specific target for therapy with JD, I would

try to figure out how to get to that target using toys and games, then I

would go shopping for the toys necessary to help me reach that target. Some

of the toys he got to keep and play with after we got to the target, some

would be put away for later targets, but we always had fun doing our " work " .

;-)

Hugs,

Kay

[Guest guest]

We bought (mild-moderately severe) a couple of toys that had

lights and sounds that corresponded to his actions because the " experts "

told us it was a good idea. He never did much with them. I now think that

real life was a better toy for him-- peek-a-boo or other cause-and-effect

games with a parent, sibling, or pal. One example was for me to show an

exaggerated reaction to a noise that produced. So if he said " ba " I

would do a silly dance or something. In that way he seemed to learn that his

voice produced reactions in others.

I also think real musical instruments like a child sized keyboard or guitar

is good if they can hear at all.

Somehow I no longer trust those " experts " that push these plasticky modern

toys that don't really require any imagination or creativity on the part of

the child.

All that being said, Dragonfly toys (www.dragonfly.com) has some nice toys

for children with special needs.

Good luck to you!

-Daphne

Mom to (HI), Leo (normally hearing)

[Guest guest]

I asked my AV therapist for resources for toys. One was the Super Duper

catalog 1- , the other Childcraft Education Corp 1-.

The first is geared to speech and language materials. Childcraft is general

education infant to grade 3.

Tammy Norman

Mom to Evan 5, 3 1/2 HI , 1 1/2