Products For Children With Special Needs

 Posted on January 06, 2010 in Social Security Disability

In the spirit of the holiday season, this post attempts to answer a very unique question sent in by Jennifer from Boston regarding shopping for children with special needs. She asked, "Do you know of any kind of rating system that can make it easier for me to know what gifts to buy a very young girl with autism?"

To answer Jennifer's question, the National Lekotek Center has created what they call the AblePlay rating system for individuals with special needs. There are so many toys out there that it can be daunting to try to find the right one even for your own child. To help parents, special educators, therapists and others make the most informed toy purchase, AblePlay has created a rating system that measures each toy's cognitive, sensory, communications, and physical ability level. You can go on the AblePlay website and create a toy search based on the special needs and abilities of the child. To answer Jennifer's specific question, when I conducted a search for toys for children with autism, several games came up including: Milton Bradley's Candy Land, Melissa & Doug Locks & Latches Board, Fundex What's in Ned's Head?, and many others. AblePlay is a great tool that can be used to pair up each child's ability with the appropriate toy.