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AblePlay Rating System™ helps consumers make better toy purchases
National Lekotek Center debuts unique free online resource to identify best products for children with disabilities
| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
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| Contact: |
Betsy Storm, Director of Public Relations |
bstorm@anixter.org |
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| Phone: |
(773) 973-7900, Ext. 243 |
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CHICAGO, IL (October 31, 2005) – With the holiday shopping season fast approaching, a new authoritative resource is available to help ensure success for the millions of parents, grandparents and others who have a simple wish – to see a big smile on the face of the special child for whom they’re purchasing that “perfect” toy. “It‘s quite a challenge to select just the right toy for any child, “ says Diana Nielander, director of National Lekotek Center, which is launching the AblePlay Rating System, a no-cost online resource available at www.ableplay.org by Nov. 7, 2005. A sample of the rating system is seen below.
 “The challenge often is even greater when choosing a toy for a child with a disability,” says Nielander of Lekotek, a division of Anixter Center, a nonprofit organization in Chicago with the mission of assisting people with disabilities to live and work successfully in the community.
Adds Nielander, “A key point is that many toys will work well for kids with disabilities; parents and other toy shoppers simply need to think about a toy’s features and adaptability.” For example, consider a card-matching game that relies on memory and concentration skills. The game may work very well for a child with a developmental disability as long as it is played with a smaller portion of the full set of cards – so that the user can opt to play with, perhaps, five matching card sets instead of 20 sets.
Nielander says, “Toys that are well chosen will play to a child’s strengths, help enhance his or her specific skills and offer the hours of sheer fun that a good plaything should provide.” In addition to an AblePlay rating, every toy on www.ableplay.org will have a comprehensive product review that explains important product features and offers creative and adaptive ideas for play.
The rated toys will include those for children with every kind of disability – cognitive, communicative, physical and sensory. Ratings are awarded on a scale of zero to five stars, with the number of stars representing the depth of accessibility, appropriateness and overall use of a particular item. Initially, information about 75-100 toys and learning products will be posted via the AblePlay Rating System, and that number will continually increase.
In creating the AblePlay Rating System, Lekotek toy and play experts put each toy or learning product through a rigorous evaluation process before calculating a rating and posting it on the AblePlay Web site.
Lekotek has long enjoyed a reputation as an authority on toys and play for children with disabilities, who number 6.2 million in the United States, or 13.2 percent of the population of children in the United States. Betsy Uzzell, who lives in Chicago’s northern suburbs, is the mother of one of these children. Her son, David, is deaf. Although he is now 16, Uzzell recalls the ongoing search for just the right toy to stimulate and work on skills with David; for example, the need to learn to take turns. She observes that most children learn how to take turns by listening to conversational cues, hearing how a conversation naturally goes back and forth between two people. “When your child is deaf,” says Uzzell, “you look for ways to teach that skill through play, which includes something as simple as rolling a ball back and forth. Importantly, “an activity such as rolling a ball paves the way for development of language skills.”
For general guidelines on how to select a toy for a child with a disability, visit http://www.lekotek.org/resources/informationontoys/tentips.html.
The National Lekotek Center provides direct services, support and information to children with special needs and their families in resource and play centers that are found worldwide. Lekotek is a division of Anixter Center, a not-for-profit organization in Chicago that assists individuals with disabilities to live and work in the community. People served by Lekotek include children with a range of disabilities such as Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, sight or hearing loss, developmental disabilities or chronic medical conditions, and their families. Lekotek, based in Chicago, Illinois, is the U.S. headquarters and the administrative and training center for the nationwide network of 36 Lekotek centers in nine states (California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia).
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The mission of the Lester and Rosalie Anixter Center is to assist people with disabilities to live and work successfully in the community. Anixter Center is a leading provider of high-quality vocational, residential and educational options, substance abuse prevention and treatment, and health care. Anixter Center is an advocate for the rights of people with disabilities to be full and equal members of the community.
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