Mrs. Gillepsie has assigned you with 1 1/2 hours of study in the field of Counseling and Psychology in preparing to develop your toy project.  Our goal with this project is to create a toy that will be entertaining, stimulating, and safe for all children in the targeted age grouping.  In order to meet this goal of your project, I set before you the following tasks:

1.  Visit the Let's Play website.  You will find the link below.  Please pay special attention to the "Selecting Toys" and "Universal Design" webpages.  After you have reveiwed all information on this site, including all articles and links, please respond to the following statement in at least a 1/2 paged typed paper:

Play is an integral part of the young child's life; it is the medium for early social and academic learning. Infants and toddlers with significant disabilities are often limited in their play skills, resulting in serious difficulties with attainment of developmental skills. During the time when typically developing children are learning that their actions have an effect on their environment, and on individuals within their environment, children with significant physical, sensory and cognitive disabilities are learning that they are limited in their ability to produce action from, and interact with, the environment. The long term effects of these deficits negatively impacts the motivation to continue the attempt at play, interaction and communication. While the need to find options that will promote play and development in this young population of individuals is apparent, innovative intervention ideas have been slow to develop.

2.  For the second part of this assignment, I would ask you to visit the Consumer Product Safety Commission, search for an article on toy safety, select an article, read the article, then summarize the article in at least a 1/2 typed page.  Please provide a detailed summary of the findings presented in the article.  Please be sure to cite your article using MLA.

3.  Before you are released from you 1 1/2 hours of intense study, please see me to discuss your research discoveries and toy design ideas. 

Have fun!!!!