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University Students Collaborate On Designing Prototype Toys For Children With Disabilities

By Steve Tawa

PHILADLEPHIA (CBS) -- Students from two universities, with different disciplines, teamed up to create prototype toys specifically designed for children with physical limitations.

They made their pitches at the Gershman Hall "Y" Auditorium on South Broad Street.

Thomas Jefferson University Occupational Therapy students and University of the Arts Industrial Design students broke into 12 teams, and each was given a fictional narrative about a child with a traumatic injury or born with a disability.

"They have to design a prototype, which is called a chunky monkey. It doesn't have to work, per se, but they have to talk the way in which it works. The end goal is to make things for children with disabilities, and allow them to participate in play just like an enabled child," said Jefferson Assistant Professor Kim Mollo.

After completing a three-week design intensive, they customized toys or games, like the team which built a backpack jetpack, for an eight-year-old boy with muscular dystrophy, who has access to the family's backyard in-ground pool.

OT student Bess Lender says they wanted it to be fun.

"We obviously thought about flotation and safety automatically, but we wanted to make sure that it was something an eight-year-old boy would not be embarrassed to use."

Her classmate, Mandy Gilkey, is also in the Entry Level Master's Program at Jefferson.

"We came up with a Spiderman theme, that goes with one of the occupational therapy themes of play, which is obviously an important part of a child's experience."

The teams had 10 minutes each to present their design to a panel of university professors.

 

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