specialist sensory toys for impact and cause and effect play.....advic

[twinthinguk]

We have a very sensory driven child at our setting, we had a vistit today from the educational specalist and she has recommended we aquire some impact play and cause and effect play toys.....

the child has repeatative movement behaviour and his schema is scattering and throwing which makes managing his play a challenge. she said marble run and other resources that show cause and effect would be usefull to support this type of play. I am his key person and am not a senco, so I am hoping that someone here with senco experience can recommend more resourses, i can borrow from the local toy library .

many thanks x

[Guest]

Basically cause and effect toys I would say like toys you have to push a button and something pops up, you turn something and it lights up those kinda things where you have to do something to make something else happen. posting toys are good. Balloons, you blowing up balloon, waiting for child to look at you or encourage to say bigger then you blow.

[Fredbear]

Spinning top, marble run, dance mat, sound toys, push button toys, remote toys, jack in a box, sound books, vtech toys.

[Stargrower]

If you are able to buy resources, have a look at Sense Toys. They have a great selection of cause and effect toys and lots more.

[twinthinguk]

thanks for your replies, great ideas thanks, I will be giving some suggestions to my manager this morning x

[Guest]

Car boot sales are a great place to pick up cause/effect type resources or you could borrow items from one of the younger rooms. I've uploaded some ideas on the resources section, under Making a Positive Contribution/Inclusion. As you can see from the ideas, I go for cheap and cheerful! I'd recommend finding out what TV or film characters the child likes and printing/laminating them as this can be a very effective way of introducing new experiences.

 

Did the specialist say anything about the child's understanding of language? If this is delayed, you'll need to give simple instructions and use lots of visual cues.

 

Good luck!

[twinthinguk]

thank you, i will go off to investigate the resource section......sigh....the little chap was bouncing off the walls today and could not engage with any activity unless he was outside crashing into cars, children, staff ect on his bike.......not a good day at all

and the gp says leave refering him to child development till he is 4!!!!!!!!!!!!! so we advised mum to try the health visitor so hopefully something will happen from that. At the moment we are left sort of in limbo but will carry on doing our best x his development in all other areas is as expected, he can even tell you why he loves rocking and banging his head......" because it feels good" lol

[Guest]

Sorry to hear you had a bad day, I bet you're exhausted. Would mum give you permission to contact the Health Visitor to express your concerns? At the very least I think he should have a hearing test, just to rule that out.

I wonder how long he's been at your setting and what his experiences were before he started with you. Lots of children live in high rise flats where I work so understandably we have lots of racing around on bikes and crashing but it seems this is more than that.

What's his pretend play like or is it difficult to assess because he's always on the move? Does he show an interest in the other children?

I've downloaded some "letting off steam" activities in the resources section under Making a Positive Contribution/Inclusion as well as a booklet which gives information about sensory issues. The booklet mentions autism but please ignore this, it's the explanations that are relevant. Although children on the autism spectrum usually have sensory issues, other children can have them as well.

It sounds like he's a very lucky boy to have a key person who cares as much as you.

[twinthinguk]

Sorry to hear you had a bad day, I bet you're exhausted. Would mum give you permission to contact the Health Visitor to express your concerns? At the very least I think he should have a hearing test, just to rule that out.

I wonder how long he's been at your setting and what his experiences were before he started with you. Lots of children live in high rise flats where I work so understandably we have lots of racing around on bikes and crashing but it seems this is more than that.

What's his pretend play like or is it difficult to assess because he's always on the move? Does he show an interest in the other children?

I've downloaded some "letting off steam" activities in the resources section under Making a Positive Contribution/Inclusion as well as a booklet which gives information about sensory issues. The booklet mentions autism but please ignore this, it's the explanations that are relevant. Although children on the autism spectrum usually have sensory issues, other children can have them as well.

It sounds like he's a very lucky boy to have a key person who cares as much as you.

thank you x he has always banged his head, almost from birth! and uses rocking and banging as a way of comforting himself. he has been with me for a year, I knew fairly early on that he had some strange traits and facinations, his schema is scattering and throwing but is a clever little chap when you can engage him on a good day. i am having a meeting with mum tomorrow and will ask her if I can contact the hv as i think it will take weeks if its done via gp......the inclusion specalist has seen him twice now....both times he did not display any head banging or rocking...and he even had a long chat to the ofsted inspector who could not believe that he was the same child ( she had just spent quite a long time reading his play plan and all the observations i made! lol) x what worries me at the moment is his anger levels are on the up and he displays more aggression than he used to......i am currently using a visual aid for transitions during the session ( one thing he struggles with) and trying to use lots of talk about how he is feeling and his emotions! I will give anything a go if its going to help!