We would like to present you our initiative Let’s play together, which has been launched last year by La Casa di Sabbia. The project aims to offer children with severe disabilities toys adapted to their needs, in order to grant families the possibility to play and have fun with their children, in a perspective of inclusion and normality.
We cherish very much this initiative because all children must have the opportunity to play, even when this is difficult.
Despite playing represents a privileged channel for all children to explore the outside world (establish interpersonal relationships, develop moto and cognitive skills, experience different roles, as well as discover their own creativity), for disabled children the recreational activities are very often focus on therapeutic purpose only.
Toys specifically designed for children with special needs are, in general, very expensive (prices between 70€ and 800€), consequently families often cannot afford them. Furthermore, on the market, there are not so many toys easily adaptable to special needs, in particular by those who have poor technical skills to operate with buttons.
Our project intends to adapt available toys by introducing radio-controlled mechanisms that, through a simplified use of buttons, can activate sound or brightness effects. We are also focused on research and test phases for more complex projects.
The special toys are offered in use “free of charge” to families with disabled children, and we are planning to cooperate with libraries and/or health care public services to create a distribution and exchange network for our special toys.
Have a look to this video, where Hervé successfully managed to turn his birthday candles off, thanks to the bubble shooter! We have used the adapted toy without soap liquid, which was a brilliant idea of Hervé’s dad!
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How to benefit from the Initiative
To access our initiative and receive the adapted toys and possibly the buttons, please :
- Contact us through La Casa di Sabbia website page
- We will send you the application form with the request for a speech therapist or neuropsychiatrist’s report that should be duly filled in and signed
- Signature of data protection authorisation under Regulation 679/2016 is also needed
Here you can see little Aurora playing with the adapted machine track.
State of Play of the Initiative
At the present, the Association has the following “special toys” available:
- Frog bubble shooter
- Track with Penguins and Unicorns
- Various tracks with cars (Ferrari, Cars, Mini, Super Mario Kart, Paw Patrol, etc.)
- Unicorn that walks, neighs and lights up
- Multicolor lamp
- Various soft toys that walk, jump, emit noises and sounds.
How to help with Let’s play together
The project was supported by a fundraiser on the HelperBit platform and currently by the Rotary Club of Aosta.
If you would like to donate for Let’s play together project, you can visit our website page How to support us and choose between bank transfer, PayPal, Satispay or credit card indicating “Let’s play together”.
Research and Development initiative
Let’s play together has moved the first steps through the mobilization of individual skills and professionalism. Special thanks to Ing. Cristina D’Arienzo (Technical Manager of Saint-Vincent municipal project “BiblioT – Robotics in Library”) and the Institute of Technical and Professional High School Education (ISILTP) in Verres, which had made available the creativity, energy and skills of its 5th Class students of electronic, electronical engineering and teachers.
At the initiate is taking part also the municipal library of Saint-Vincent (Region Aosta Valley in Italy) which has shown interest in hosting an exhibition of our first toys.