Special Needs Campers Are Having Fun With Toobeez
What started out as a specialty toy, is being used at camps to help campers with special needs have fun while learning.
Wayne, PA (PRWEB) February 28, 2007 -- What started out as a specialty toy, is being used at camps to help campers with special needs have fun while learning. In addition to offering the toy, Toobeez International has teamed up with Candice Donnelly-Knox, OTR/L to produce a new book "Occupational Therapy Activity Workbook."
The book contains 10 different activities that can be used with the campers to help build motor skills, improve communication and teamwork skills, self-esteem, pretend play, following auditory instructions and visual patterns, sensory exploration and sensory integration, motor-planning skills, bilateral-coordination, auditory-processing, auditory-discrimination, improve spatial-awareness skills by strengthening proprioception and kinesthesia, facilitate receptive communication and expressive communication skills, improve right/left discrimination skills and directional concepts, improve tactile-discrimination skills, address self-advocacy skills, support orientation and mobility skills in individuals with visual impairments, sequencing and problem-solving skills by participation in self-correcting activities, promote calm minds and bodies to increase readiness for learning, practice turn-taking skills and improve organizational process of planning, sequencing and time management in order to complete required tasks in a specific time frame. Each activity includes an Activity Plan, Helpful Hints, Activity Challenge, Activity Instructions, Activity Discussion and Processing, Activity Variations, a space for Notes and a Debrief.
The activities were designed to include the use of Toobeez, the ultimate giant construction building system comprised of interlocking tubes and spheres. The tubes can be linked together to create anything imaginable, from a simple cube to a complex structure like an airplane. Some have compared Toobeez to giant Tinker Toys. "Children love Toobeez because it's fascinating to connect, create and build. Therapists and counselors love the product because it lends itself to hours of endless activities that help build cognitive skills such as creative thinking, concentration and problem solving which are all necessary life skills," said Donnelly-Knox.
The open ended nature of Toobeez is why it's so much more than just a play toy. According to John Hamilton, Health and Therapy Market Director for Toobeez, "Toobeez is an innovative product in which activities can be adapted to fit a variety of a camp's needs, from a therapeutic setting to an outdoor camp. Toobeez is very versatile. In one configuration, Toobeez can be a soccer goal. The pieces can then be reconfigured into an adjustable football goalpost or a backstop for baseball or an obstacle course. Counselors can also appreciate their functionality as they can be used to make shelves, cubbies, and shelters for outdoor use. They can also be used for team building exercises and ice breakers, then as sets and props for entertainment. This is a revolutionary system that becomes whatever you need it to be, all it takes is imagination and creativity."
In addition to the occupational therapy book, Toobeez International has also developed books with language arts, math and team building activities.
About Toobeez
Toobeez is the signature product of Connectable Color Tubes (CCT), LLC, a Pennsylvania-based, privately held Limited Liability Corporation founded in 2001 by Joseph A. Donahue. Toobeez is a patented, giant construction building system currently used by corporate trainers in teambuilding programs, educators and healthcare professionals. It was invented as a specialty toy but has become a valuable tool for so many other markets including education, corporate training and team building and youth groups. Toobeez has been awarded the prestigious Teacher's Choice Award from Learning Magazine and Creative Child Magazine's Preferred Choice Award. For more information and for a special offer for camps, please call John Hamilton at 610.902.0907 or 877.TOOBEEZ or visit www.toobeez.com.
About the Author
Candice Donnelly-Knox is a licensed and registered occupational therapist serving the pediatric population in the educational setting. She has experience working with students with a variety of needs such as Autism Spectrum Disorders, ADHD, Cerebral Palsy, developmental delays, Down Syndrome, psychiatric disorders, Sensory Integration Dysfunction, Traumatic Brain Injury and visual impairments. She is also the co-owner of an educational toy store in Pottstown, PA, Brainwaves For Kids, brainwavesforkids.com.
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