From FOX56: Leveling the playing field — UK students adapt books, toys for children with disabilities
LEXINGTON, Ky. (FOX 56)—Playing is essential to a child’s development, but sometimes, toys and books can be difficult for children with disabilities to use.
“Everyone understands the concept of ‘everyone wants to play with a toy,’ but not everyone can play with a toy or can interact with a book,” Dr. Patrick Kitzman, a professor in the University of Kentucky’s (UK) Department of Physical Therapy, said.
It’s a sad reality that’s the driving force behind Toys with a Purpose: Adapted Toy Lending Program.
UK’s College of Health Sciences and other groups across the university contribute their ideas and efforts to provide free toys to make playtime more inclusive.
“Kids need to be able to play, so all we’re trying to do, as we like to say, is level the playing field to provide the opportunity for all kids to play together,” Kitzman said.
Simply adding knobs to a chunky wooden puzzle, pull tabs to a book, or something a little more advanced—like adding a button to a pitching machine so a little boy can play with his dog—these young innovators rarely get stumped.
“We love a good challenge,” Kitzman said. “There’s times where, yeah, we can’t pull it off, but most of the time, we can find the right person who can pull it off.”
UK’s 4-H program teamed up with Toys with a Purpose two years ago to help fulfill one of its missions of giving back to its communities.
Dr. Chuck Stamper, a UK 4-H extension specialist, said he tells the students working on these toys that what they’re doing is bigger than just controlling a remote-controlled car or flipping through the pages of a book.
“Don’t think about what’s in it for you now, but what legacy are you going to leave for others, and what are you going to share with the world so that it could be a better place?” Stamper said.
He suffers from muscular dystrophy, so when he sees these kids’ faces light up when they get a toy they can actually use, he sees a part of himself.
“I know what it feels like to be able to do things when you find a way to be like the average kid,” Stamper said.
That feeling of joy translates from the hands that alter the toys right down to the little hands that get to play with them.
“The young person that was at one of our sessions went home and told his dad, ‘I didn’t know that I could make a difference in the life of another young person. It feels good to know that I did,'” Stamper said.
Many of these alterations are simple, so Toys with a Purpose is currently working to expand by making a community box to send out that includes the tools to make adaptations. This would spread the mission across Kentucky and maybe even further.
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