Week 7

As I went through the reading for class this week: “Toys for Children with Special Needs: You Can See a Lot by Observing” I was reminded of my niece and the summer that I spent as a teaching assistant for students with Autism. The articles’ discussion about the different stages of play, fitting each child individually for toys and the discussion on the current approach of specialists reminded me of these two things.

My niece is currently four years old and from the beginning I have always sought to buy the favorite gift of a holiday. I have learned from this quest that the latest greatest gift on the market does not always equal the favorite. After reading this article I realized that the reason they don’t always hit the mark is because they don’t always match her style. The idea of observing children play and seeing what they are truly into is the exact opposite approach than what the toy market wants toy buyers to take. They want to try to convince you that just because a toy is popular it is going to be right for every child and must be bought. I have also found that while buying her gifts that the ages listed on the side of the boxes often miss the mark. As mentioned in the article, labeling toys by developmental stages would be better than by ages. Often children do not meet up with the ages listed on the box and I think that sometimes toy companies try to stretch a toys marketability by stretching the ages on the box. By doing this they can sell more toys; if one buys a toy for a child at the top or bottom of the age range the child is either developmentally past a toy or not quite ready for it.

As for my experience in the preschool classroom, there we were instructed to help the kids play. All of the students were behind their age developmentally and need to, in some ways, be taught how to pretend. Many of them took objects at their face value rather than thinking outside the box. As teaching assistances we were instructed to help them pretend but I think sometimes it was forced on them. The article suggests giving them the right toys and letting them go on their own. I think the school I worked in was typical of the schools that Mistrett criticized on their approach. There was a mission and a purpose to everything on the staffs’ part and sometimes the students were not allowed to explore. I agree that schools need to have a purpose and that guiding and pushing all students and especially those with special needs but in some respects kids of all abilities need to chance to just be kids. Part of the development through play is kids just exploring and learning through it.