Cabbage Patch Playtime Friends with Special Needs is $19.95. | ZOOM |

        Whether you had a play room with a thousand toys or a cupboard with a half dozen, most adults recall one favorite toy — a doll, a building set, a magical airplane — that was intrinsic to their childhood.

        Kids with disabilities have the same need for special playthings, but until recent years, the possibilities for toys that worked were far fewer than the options for their nondisabled playmates.

        As toymakers focus more on designs that address varied learning styles, stimulate all senses, and reflect the real world, the result is a wonderful range of toys that will enchant and enlighten kids with various disabilities.

        Toy stores this year offer plenty of options for your favorite child, but narrowing the field with some guidelines can help.

RESOURCES

Most major toy companies now host Web sites and toll-free numbers.   • Type the name of a toy company in your browser, and chances are that you'll get a response. For toll-free product or customer service numbers, call (800) 555-1212.   • The National Lekotek Center has a network of 60 affiliates nationwide dedicated to making play accessible to kids with disabilities. Learn more by calling the Lekotek Resource Helpline at (800) 366-7529 or visiting www.lekotek.org.         • The 2001 edition of the Oppenheim Toy Portfolio is a comprehensive guide to toys for every age and interest group, including the organizations annual SNAP (Special Needs Adaptable Products) awards. Order the book online from Amazon.com for $10.99, or visit the Oppenheim Web site, www.toyportfolio.com.         • The American Foundation for the Blind and the American Toy Institute have produced an excellent collaborative Guide to Toys for Children who are Blind or Visually Impaired which can be order, free, in either print or audiocassette by calling AFB at (800) 232-5463. The guide is also available at www.afb.org or www.toy-tma.org.

        Manufacturers' suggested age ranges should be taken into consideration, but of greater importance is the aptitude and developmental ability of the individual child.

        Choose toys that will encourage a tactually defensive child to touch, a hearing-impaired child to respond to visual stimuli, a verbally delayed child to pretend and interact. Avoid toys that require abilities that are limited.

        A puzzle with 500 tiny pieces is not a good choice for a child with limited hand function. A “talking” toy that demands response to a visual display will only frustrate a child who is blind.

        Here are some ideas that hold particular promise for kids with special needs this year.
       

Dolls

               • This year's new Barbie models include the Sign Language Barbie, which includes a pack of American Sign Language cards to encourage all kids to learn another style of communication.

        • Cabbage Patch Playtime Friends with Special Needs ($19.95) give little girls who use elbow crutches, leg braces or a wheelchair a doll who looks more like them, as well as providing children without disabilities with a doll to expand their awareness of diversity.

        • Pleasant Company, whose exquisitely made American Girl dolls have been capturing little girls' hearts for more than a decade, offers a wheelchair accessory ($28) with authentic detail to fit either the Today Doll or any of her historic counterparts.

        • For younger children, the new Check-Up Ernie (Fisher-Price $24.99) gives children who visit doctors often a chance to treat their favorite Sesame Street character as the patient, while he “talks” to them about his “good heart” and boo-boos in the process.
       

Baby toys

               • Roll Around Tower (Tomy; $24.99) offers lots of what all babies need — sound, color, and motion — and includes 10 balls for enhancing fine motor skills.

        • The Little Lessons Rooster (Eden; $12) can be hung in a crib or held in the lap, and involves all the senses. Wings that crinkle, rings that clack, and bumpy feet to chew on make this toy an endless source of play.

        • A toy that can either be held independently or fastened with suction cup to a highchair or wheelchair table, the Fascination Station (Sassy Inc.; $9.50) is a miniature Ferris wheel rattle that will encourage an understanding of cause and effect.
       

Educational toys

              

        • VTech's Alphabet Apple ($17.99) is a toy that teaches letters and sounds with bright pictures, melodies, and interactive play.

        • Frigits Deluxe (Think of It; $29.99) is a hot seller this year that challenges all children to devise patterns for the magnetic chutes, wheels, and spinners through which marbles can drop into a catchbox. Intended for refrigerator doors, this toy provides a child in a wheelchair with a creative outlet for play at a convenient height.

        • Jammin' Draw (Fisher-Price; $29.99) is an ingenious use of technology to appeal to kids' artistic talents. Kids compose music as they draw, choosing musical styles and saving recordings of their compositions. Jammin' draw includes drawing sheets and markers, but any pencil or crayon will work, too.

        • Bendos (Kid Galaxy; $6 and up) provide a new twist on pretending and imaginative play. Posable action figures can be bent in all conceivable positions to do the action they represent. Doctors, construction workers, water skiers, and football players — name any profession, sport, or community worker and there's probably a Bendo to represent him or her and an accompanying vehicle to add realism to the fun.

        • Odyssey Globe II, (Leap Frog; $129) which received an Oppenheim Platinum Award for special needs adaptable products this year, is an innovative way to teach kids about geography. Playing alone, a sensor pen touching any locale on the globe will be rewarded with spoken information about the capital, money, language and music of the country. With a friend, the globe can be placed in quiz mode, stimulating attention through vision and hearing — and a bit of competition!
       

Outdoor toys

               • Sports Fun Inc.'s Giant 12' Play Tunnel ($29.99) or Scoot-A-Roo ($39.99) help kids with sensory or developmental disabilities develop gross motor skills. The 22-inch diameter tunnel gives kids a chance to crawl and explore indoors or out and folds to less than five inches for storage. The kid-sized scooter has wide wheels and a removable handle that turns it into a skateboard. (Don't forget to buy an accompanying helmet.)

        • Playhut's Wiggly Worm Tunnel ($25) is a smaller, five-foot tunnel with happy face and feelers on top to encourage reluctant crawlers.

        • Radio Flyer's Walker Wagon ($50) carries toys and steadies children while learning to walk and explore the environment.
       

Classic toys

               • The old Etch A Sketch is still around, but its new version, the Zooper Sounds Etch A Sketch (Ohio Art Company; $19.99) adds sound surprises to the fun as the knobs are turned and the drawing takes shape.

        • The classic Sit 'n Spin now has music and lights, too. Music 'n Lights Sit 'n Spin (Playskool; $19.99) encourages movement for one or two children.

        Other classics that lend themselves well to children with disabilities include modeling clay, drawing materials, yo-yos, Slinky, and jump ropes (try Wonder Grip Jump Rope, Strombecker Corp., with extra soft grip handles for $2.99.)

        Toys are the tools of learning and development for children with or without disabilities. Wherever your budget and inclinations lead, remember that disabled kids, just like their nondisabled siblings and friends, may surprise you and find the empty box the most intriguing toy in the room.
       

MATTEL AWARDED
               The National Lekotek Center honored Mattel Inc. with a Commitment to Excellence Award at its 16th annual conference held in Skokie, Ill., in September. The center recognized the toy company's continuing effort to promote understanding of all abilities with its products.

        Share a Smile Becky, ($23) introduced in 1997, was the company's first Barbie doll with a disability, packaged with a pink racing wheelchair.

        A later edition featured Becky preparing for the 2000 Paralympics, with racing chair, helmet, and medal.

        E-mail dkendrick@enquirer.com. Read past Deborah Kendrick columns.

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