After nearly two decades of providing direct services to
children with disabilities and their families, the National Lekotek Center has
developed extensive expertise in what makes play successful for children of
varying degrees of abilities.
This very specialized niche has made Lekotek a seasoned resource for the toy
industry.
Realizing the positive change Lekotek can make in play products for children with disabilities, Lekotek has
established a business development department which packages Lekotek’s
expertise in the areas of toys and play and "sells" it to the toy industry as a
way of assisting companies in providing better products for a greater number of
children – children with various levels of abilities.
Over the past 10 years, the National Lekotek Center has been
asked by mass market and specialty toy companies to assist them in the areas of
product development, product evaluation, and materials development to help them
in offering best possible products and services to their customers.
Most recently, the National Lekotek Center has developed AblePlayTM. Toy manufacturers can submit their toys to AblePlay for evaluation in the four disability categories - physical,
sensory, communicative, and cognitive. Each toy is then given a 1-5 star rating for each category, an extensive toy review including play ideas by disability category is developed, and the manufacturer then has the option to
list their toy with a link to a retail site on the AblePlay website for parents and professionals at www.ableplay.org. AblePlay is finally a way for toy manufacturers to reach the special needs market.
Toy manufacturers can learn more about how to become a part of AblePlay at www.ableplayrating.org.
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