Use your iPad to control switch toys: Switchamajig!

Wouldn't it be great if your child or students could control switch-operated toys with the iPad?

Phil at PAW Solutions has come up with a very clever switch interface that works with your iPad. It allows children to control up to SIX switches or actions through one screen. Can you imagine the possibilities for fun play? It even lets your child steer...how cool is that!

Since so many of you have children who use iPads, I thought Phil's amazing app would have real interest. Be sure to check out the video he has provided. Here's his story...and a special discount for Adapting Creatively readers at the end!

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Thanks to Rose-Marie for inviting me to tell you how my own creative adapting turned into a new business.

I used to adapt toys back in college, so it was a bit surreal when I starting doing it for my own son, Jackson [editor's note: you will adore the clip of Jackson at the end of the video. Don't miss it!]. I wasn't trying to do a good deed or show off (although my wife was far more impressed than anyone in college ever was.) All that really mattered was that my little guy needed to have fun.

Having fun. Isn't that what being a kid is all about? My childhood memories are of running with the dog, building with Legos, and kicking a soccer ball around. My medical appointments were mercifully rare and tinged with anxiety and terror over the inevitable vaccination. But Jackson's childhood revolves around the medical profession: PT, OT, SLP, and flavors of MD I wish I'd never learned about. More interventions, assessments, and adaptations than I'd like, but letting nature take its course just isn't going to work, not for Jackson.

Once we did find time to play, we needed something to play with. I didn't like most switch-adapted toys; pressing one button was great for cause-and-effect, but Jackson needed more imaginative play. So we bought two switches and adapted a two-button RC truck. Jackson liked it. With two switches, he could drive it all over the living room. He took special delight in crashing it into the couch.

We also looked for creative solutions to help Jackson communicate. We convinced relatives to give him an iPad for his second birthday. Now you may think that a two year-old with disabilities would have trouble using such an advanced piece of technology, and you'd be right. He loved that it made fun noises and showed cool pictures as he rubbed his food-encrusted fingers over the touch screen, but he didn't seem to understand that he was in control of it. His frustration would build. And build. And build until we declared “no more iPad.” Then he would scream as only a two year-old can.

I decided to make the iPad control his truck, and built a box that received commands from the iPad and worked like four switches. The iPad shows buttons that, when touched, activate a toy. Suddenly all sorts of new toys were available to Jackson, from RC construction vehicles to flying fish balloons (I like remote controlled toys because they are designed to be fun when pressing buttons.) I showed it to Jackson's therapists and teachers, and from their reactions decided I was on to something. I decided to turn my project into a product, and recently started selling it as the Switchamajig Controller.

Along the way, I found new uses for Switchamajig. There's an RC car that needs someone to hold down two buttons to turn, and the RC fish balloon's tail control requires toggling between two switches. Even with the iPad, Jackson couldn't control either one, so I added special buttons that he can press to steer the car

or make the fish swim.

The Switchamajig includes a free iPad app for operating up to 6 switches
from a single iPad. This allows kids to determine a lot of movement for their toys.

 

I've spent my career in silicon valley working on cool technology. But there's nothing cooler than unlocking some of the joy of childhood for my son and other children with disabilities. Nothing prepared me for a product demo with a giggling child and a mother choking back tears. Now I'm looking for ways to make Switchamajig push aside more obstacles for more people. Have any ideas? Let me know with a comment or email me at info@switchamajig.com.

Play on!

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Phil has generously offered a $50 discount if you order using the coupon code "adaptingcreatively." Thanks Phil!

Note:  We don't own an iPad or a Switchamajig, so I have no personal experience with either. I thought this switch interface and Phil's story of how he came to create it might be of interest to many of you.

                                        --Rose-Marie

Adapting Simple Battery-Powered Toys: A Tutorial

Since it’s the holiday season and many parents are looking to find gifts for their children, I thought today would be perfect to share a quick tutorial on adapting simple battery-powered toys. Roll up your sleeves, grab your toy catalog and tools, and let’s get started!

Select a battery-operated toy

Before we start, you need to pay attention to differences in the way battery-powered toys operate. Some have simple circuits…a basic exterior on/off switch…that can easily be interrupted. These are what we are going to talk about here.

Some sample toys that work well:

The dog walks and barks when the child presses the switch.
Pressing a switch causes bubbles to stream out of the wheel.

Drop beads in the center container, press the switch,
and the threader automatically strings beads onto
string or elastic thread. A fun way for your child to
make jewelry for herself or for gifts!

Make fun and easy art with a paint spinner!

Other toys have fancy internal switches that are activated by pressure, often located in the hands, feet, ears, tummy. This last category is much more complex to adapt, so I’m not going to dig into that one today (but I will give you links at the end if you feel especially crafty!).

Round up a switch

You’ll also need a switch. A simple switch, such as a Jelly Bean, will activate the toy as long as it is pressed. Most single message output switches can also be used in this same way if you attach a speaker cable to it. How fun is it to call your puppy (“Here, puppy puppy!") and have him walk to you!

Buy or make a battery interrupter

In addition to a simple switch toy and a switch to activate it, you’ll need a battery interrupter. These can be purchased for about $13 US from Ablenet, Enabling Devices , EnableMart and other sources.

You can also make your own; see:

http://www.ataccess.org/pdf/Adaptingtoy.pdf (sturdy, uses a copper wafer)

http://www.deafblindresources.org/devices/batteryinterrupter.pdf (perhaps a bit more delicate, uses a plastic disk and tin foil)

Other tools (you probably already own)

Other than that, you just need a notching file and perhaps a screwdriver to remove the battery door.

Clockwise: screwdrivers, utility knife and files, battery interrupters

You're ready to adapt your toy

Slide the copper plate (or foil disk) between the negative end of one of the batteries and the spring contact.

The red arrow points to the plate inserted at the negative end of the battery

To avoid crimping the wire leading from the toy, you will want to notch the battery door. Locate a corner near the spring contact. If the plastic is soft, you may be able to cut off a corner using a utility knife. Typically, though, you will need to rasp away a triangle of plastic using a notching file. I try to remove the plastic from a corner whenever possible, as this is simplest.

Notice the notch at the lower left. It is just large enough to allow the
battery interrupter cord to move freely, without being pinched in the
battery door.

Now, plug the male end of the switch wire into the female jack of the battery interrupter, turn the toy on (it shouldn’t be doing anything at this point!) and it’s time to play! When your child presses the switch, the toy should activate.

Playing with your child

One comment on directing your child to “hit the switch…” Avoid that phrase at all costs! Instead, focus on the result of hitting the switch. “Make it go!” or “Blow me some bubbles!” are much more conversational and real-world and just a lot more fun. Sorry, I couldn’t help myself.

That was easy, now, wasn't it? I'll admit, with the advance of fancy internal switches, it's gotten harder to find simple toys to adapt. But they do exist if you shop around. Have fun!

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As promised, here are links to instructions for hardwiring complex switch-activated toys:

http://www.smasupport.com/hardwiring-toys.htm

http://www.adaptableminds.com/adaptingtoys.html

http://www.glenallen-sch.vic.edu.au/instructions/adapting-simple-switch-toys.pdf

http://scienceshareware.com/bobthebuilder.htm

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You might also be interested in:
Building Communication through Play
Playtime Communication Book and GIVEAWAY!

Playtime Communication Book...and GIVEAWAY!

After posting last week about how we can help our kids build communication skills during play, I thought you might want to see a sample vocabulary notebook. Today I’ll show you some example pages and talk you through building play vocabulary at home.

My sample activity is a “baby book” I made years ago as a gift for my daughter and the new baby Annabelle doll Santa brought her. In keeping with the play theme, I used special paper printed with nursery items and made an “intro” page for pictures and the baby’s “birth” information. We want this to be fun and tickle the imagination! What kind of fun, theme-oriented storage could you use for your child’s favorite play activity?

I began by brainstorming all the activities my daughter might want to do with her doll. Hmmmm, what do other little girls do with their dolls? They feed them, rock them to sleep, change their outfits, give them pretend baths, play imaginary games with their babies…the list goes on and on!

Then, with one major activity in mind at a time, I began to think about the sort of things a little girl might need to help her baby (a diaper, a dress, a bottle, a blanket) and the actions she would carry out on her own (snuggle, feed, lather, etc.). Those would become the words my daughter would use to direct me to help her act out with her doll. Of course, we need to know how baby is feeling, so there are lots of feeling choices, and comments and questions a junior mama would say to her doll, such as commenting about baby’s dirty diaper being “stinky” or telling her baby “sh-h-h,” time to “settle down.” Baby, why are you “crying?” Do you want to “read [a] story?”

Next came time to make symbols. When I made this sample, I wasn’t yet using colored borders; sorry about that! My daughter typically needs loose symbols, so I cut out individual symbols after they were cold-laminated (no fear of edges peeling with cold laminate). Hook-side Velcro went on the backs.  

To keep the symbols organized, I printed labeled grids on sheets of the pretty nursery paper, slid them into plastic page protectors, and stuck loop-side Velcro on the squares. This makes it easy to put the symbols back where they belong and see right away if any are missing (check your socks, your sweater, the dolly’s outfit…it’s probably stuck to one of those).

So, what if your little one doesn’t play with dolls? In a nutshell, you would simply go through these same steps to create a vocabulary notebook for your child’s favorite playtime activity:

1) Think about how typically-developing children carry out the play activity. What situations do they create? What things do they say? What motions do they make?

2) For each main category, brainstorm a list of words that includes:

·        Things needed in the activity (car, road, stop sign…)

·        Actions that happen during the play (race, drive, crash, stop…)

·        Feelings the players have (mad my car got hit, excited I won the race…)

·        Comments (and sound effects!) that fit the scenarios (I won! Good race, Lightning!, Oh no, Vrooom!!!)

·        Questions related to the play (Race again? Ready? Need gas?)

3) Make your symbols and a creative, playful way to store them that inspires the imagination. A simple frame of activity-related clipart can dress up plain storage pages and a clever cover will help your child identify the communication book when it’s time to play.

Keep in mind that your child will not be able to use all this new vocabulary at once! It takes repeated exposure during play, especially if the vocabulary words are not used across his day. But you can use them expressively to model the conversation skills you hope your child will one day master. Trust your child; he is taking in more than meets the eye!

Now, for the GIVEAWAY! If you know a little girl (or little ones in a classroom) who would love a way to be able to communicate with and about her doll, head over to the Doll Play Communication Book Giveaway page for your chance to win the sample notebook from this post. This might just be the ideal giveaway for you!

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Other posts related to this topic:
Building Communication Through Play
Getting Ready for Non-Verbal Communication
Eye Gaze Techniques

Building Communication Through Play

Who doesn’t love to play? It’s nature’s way of making learning fun! Kids with severe speech and motor issues need to play just as much as the next kid. In fact, since they may not be able to access play activities by themselves, it’s that much more important for us to provide opportunities for play.

Photo courtesy of drewnew at Flickr Creative Commons

Smart therapists have known the value of play for a long time. My daughter had the world’s absolute BEST physical therapist from the time she was three until just last year. Mr. Tom is magic. He could turn hamstring stretches into a delightful rowing trip across a mountain lake. The tilt board might be a bucking bronco or a spaceship dodging meteors. His fantastic games transformed work into play and physical therapy became a highlight in my little girl’s week.

We can follow Mr. Tom’s lead by creating play in our children’s days. An imaginary story line can turn dull routines into an adventure; it can distract a child’s mind from discomfort. It doesn’t hurt mom or dad to take a walk on this lighter side either. Take it from a mom who tends to be a wee bit too serious at times…

Play is the work of children. In play, they work out social patterns. They exercise their minds and their muscles. They discover scientific principles. They develop language.

It is language development we want to look at today. Those story lines Mr. Tom used exposed my daughter to rich language. Regardless of a child’s expressive ability, she needs to be filled up with wonderful words. I hang tight to the hope that one day my child will have a means of self-expression (just look at how rapidly technology is advancing to accept unconventional forms of input). When that day comes, she will already have in her possession a powerful vocabulary. We need to fill, fill, fill…through talk, through reading, through play.

We also need to give our kids an abundance of opportunities to express themselves. Play is a chance for them to try out vocabulary and language structure. There just isn’t a lot of opportunity for rich expression during some of the mundane tasks that fill our kids’ days. Taking medicine, changing a diaper, and brushing teeth just don’t pull in many colorful words. But play…wow! Think of all the rich words that come as cars and trucks race along a carpet roadway. The play kitchen is ripe with actions and descriptions of smells and temperatures. There are play sets for Little People on the farm, in a doll house, on a bus, in a school that lend themselves to tremendous vocabulary.

Photo courtesy of John-Morgan at Flickr Creative Commons

Children who lack the physical skills to act out the play themselves may learn to direct the play. They can tell you what to do, how to move the characters, what dolly needs. When my daughter was preschool age, she and I spent countless hours on the floor acting out play with Little People (we owned way too many sets, but they were purchases I could justify as being “therapeutic,” right?). She loved caring for her favorite dolls by telling me what to bring her for them or what songs to sing them at naptime. These were activities she would have done for herself if she had been physically able; instead, she developed a large vocabulary to let me know how I could help her act out the play. Because it kept her in charge and involved, she didn’t seem to mind me acting as her hands.

The only down side to this was the time it took me. Playtime was a commitment, as was the prep time for creating the vocabulary symbol cards. But I look at it as an investment in my child’s development. Is there any more important use of my time than spending it with my children? Besides, it gave me an excuse to act like a kid.

Those of you whose children might be interested in directing play with dolls will want to keep checking back. Over the next few days, I am posting a giveaway for a symbol notebook for doll play. Stay tuned…

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you living in the United States!

Rose-Marie

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You might also like:
Playtime Communication Book...and GIVEAWAY!