WHO WE SERVE
MAKING PLAY POSSIBLE
SWITCHED serves families and kids with various motor and/or visual impairments that impact their ability to play with traditional toys. We do this by providing instructions and help with the adaptation process. We would love to help everyone, however our switched chapters get to develop their own program design and qualification processes. If you, your family, or your patients could benefit from switch toys and you would like to find out how to get started please contact us.
Our Mission
Our mission is to love and support children and families in our community and across the country by creating easier access to switch adapted toys.
OUR PURPOSE
All children learn through play. It is a key part of a child’s development of language, cognition, problem solving and understanding of the world around them and the impact they can have on it. It is what children do most of their time and it is truly important. But not all children have equal access to play. One of the reasons a child may not have access to play is their motor abilities are limited. But there is a solution, adapted toys.
Children with significant motor impairments often require assistive technology to access their environment for social, communication, daily function, and play. These significant motor impairments are caused movement issues including muscle tone abnormalities, synergistic movements, dissociation of extremities, weight bearing, and motor planing all of which impact the child’s ability to control and grade movements. Switch toys are a form of assistive technology used to further develop cognition, language, motor planning, adaptive behavior, and play skills of children with motor impairments that limit their ability to use direct access of communication devices and age appropriate toys.
Currently adapted toys are sold for up to 5 times as much as off the shelf toys with decreased variety of toys available. These adapted switch toys are sold by medical device companies such as ablenet or enabling devices. Insurance does not cover the cost of switch toys and only occasionally covers the cost of switches. The high prices may lead to families not being able to supply their children with a good variety, if any, switch toys. The importance of assistive technology in the development of children with motor impairments leads to a need for better access to switch adapted toys.