[blindkid] Fun Seated quiet activities

[Richard Holloway]

Kendra's long-standing favorite is to have mobile sound. She loves her victor reader, but also enjoys an ipod, including listening to her older sister playing games on an ipod touch (she likes the sound effects). She has several small digital recorders and she records everything you can imagine on them. (Not that what she always records is entirely appropriate, enough said...) She likes toys and dolls that make noise, but especially ones that she has more control over and her favorites-- you guessed it-- often record little bits of sound. She has a hand-held toy that records 8 or 10 seconds of sound and then lets you "warp"it-- in this case meaning you can adjust the speed and pitch of playback. Easy to use, a button or two and one speed / pitch knob you twist about a half-turm.

One of the things I do professionally is work work with all sorts of equipment which includes audio production gear. She enjoys dealing with a lot of expensive, complicated gear, but interestingly, she seems to enjoy as much or more, using the $6 or $7 sound warping-toy, or the $20 pocket recorder from office max. Clearly, most of these things make sound which could be a distraction in some situations, but many of them also let you use headphones. That can go two ways-- he may hate them or love them, but if he takes to them you may find you have to pry them off at some point. Also, if he objects to headphones, you may try different ones. Some kids can't abide ear-buds but like open-air headphones. Kendra tends to like full-covering headphones with foam surrounds when she's really into something because it sounds better. Those also block out more background sounds. That can be good in a noisy area or frustrating when you want to get your child's attention from across the room...

Sound things are also very useful in a car on a long trip. If you think about it, a long car ride is boring enough if you can see, but take away the visual component and imagine trying to be entertained for an hour (or 5 or 10) in the car without exploding. In fact, I find that is pretty much the same challenge in asking a bind child to sit and be calm & quiet somewhere. A sighted kid might get bored too, but odds are there are more things to offer some entertainment (or at least distraction) if there are items of visual interest.

The sound toys are still important for her now, but these toys are less critical since she's taken to using a briallenote most of her waking hours. The braille note lets her read or write most anything she can think of or want to access. Oh, and did I mention that the braillenote has a built-in audio recorder and radio receiver as well as not only speakers, but a headphone jack too...

Richard



On Sep 23, 2010, at 9:39 AM, Marie wrote:

> Hey guys,
> Can you give some ideas of what your kids like to do/activities you plan when you need them to sit quietly in a public place?
> 
> Jack is developmentally between 3 and 5. His fine motor skills are not great and he still has some textural sensitivity so he is not a fan of play-doh, modeling clay, or the squishy styrofoam bead stuff. 
> 
> Thanks in advance,
> 
> Marie (mother of Jack born May 2005)
> See glimpses of life with my determined son who is developing in his own way at his own time at http://allaccesspasstojack.blogspot.com 
> Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
> 
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