Therapeutic intervention with an adapted toy.

This article was accepted/or publication January ]2, ]988. Children with multiple disabilities miss opportunities to participate in the "primary activity of the young child"-play (Mack, Lindquist, & Parham, 1982, p, 366), These children are not free to immerse themselves in the simple joy of playing with toys, a process that helps them discover themselves, probe their surroundings, and relate to playmates (Copeland & Golden, 1979), This lack of active exploration may further complicate their physical development, as well as delay mental, emotional, and social maturation (Bobath, 1984; Lindquist, Mack, & Parham, 1982), Toys are powerful tools for the development of sensory, motor, and perceptual skills. They also can be used to motivate children to practice their newly discovered abilities (Darbyshire, 1980; Lederman, 1986). Battery-operated toys are now being adapted by occupational therapists to make purposeful, stimulating activity accessible to disabled children (Burkhart, 1985a, 1985b), On/off controls such as large surface/low-pressure touch, sip and puff, mercury tilt, and grip switches, along with proportional joystick devices, offer a child an opportunity to interact with a toy that may be eqUipped with seemingly unmanageable controls. Skills developed from play with adapted toys may serve the future functional, academic, and vocational needs of children with multiple disabilities. This play activity may be used as preliminary training for interaction with augmentative communication deVices, the navigation of electric wheelchairs, the operation of environmental control devices, and access to computers in the home, classroom, business office, and community, The follOWing presents the use of a radio-controlled toy truck adapted to encourage the development of head and neck control, purposeful movement ofthe upper extremities, and performance of reaction time tasks by a 6-year-old boy with cerebral palsy. Competence in achieving the sensory, motor, and decision-making skills to operate this adapted toy will facilitate his interaction with more sophisticated deVices, such as communication aids, environmental control systems, and computer-based eqUipment. Details on the modification of the toy are presented to encourage similar work and stimulate ideas for adapting toys in ways other than providing simple on/off controls,