Help Your Child on the Cheap

If you're as found at browsing occupational therapy catalogs as I am, you know how many cool tools there are out there for children with special needs, and how incredibly costly they can be. There will always be times when you'll want to make that investment, or hope that the school will help your child's teachers and therapists make it. But if you scrounge around the house a little bit, you may find things that can make therapeutic accommodations in your child's day without breaking the bank, and do a little recycling to boot. See what you can do with:

Broken crayons. If your child has trouble modifying how hard he presses with those colored sticks of wax, you're likely to have boxes full of broke ones. Don't toss them. Your child may actually do better holding a half-crayon in a fist than a whole crayon with a pencil grasp. Peel the paper from the broken bit enough that it will still color, sharpen it if your child likes crayons to have a point, and there's still lots of life to be had. (You can also melt them down into bigger chunky crayons, in single or multi colors.)

Stubby pencils. Some family members may find these undesirable, but if you have a child who struggles with pencil grip, a short pencil may be just the thing. Save the stubby ones for that child, and top them off with a new cool eraser or pencil topper. If you've got a ton of chewed and erasereless pencils at full length, you can always break them to make them shorter, and cover the break with that slip-on eraser.

Tennis balls. Does your child make noise in his dinner-table or desk chair -- bouncing the legs up and down, or scraping them loudly to get in and out? Instead of constantly complaining and correcting, do what some teachers do with desk chairs -- cut an X in a tennis ball, and slip it over the leg ends. Less noise, and less nagging, for the price of some worn-out balls that have lost their bounce.

Old shirts. My son's rough on T-shirts, chewing the collars and hems until they're misshapen and crusty, and spilling food down the front. They're often too disreputable to wear in public after a few wearings, but find a second life as pajama tops. Also, as pool cover-ups, art smocks, and mud-play wear. It's nice to have something we don't have to worry about getting drooled on or wet or dirty, and otherwise sound garments get to be of use.

Stuffed animals. If your house is like mine, you have several hundred excess stuffed animals, and more coming with every holiday. Sacrifice a nice floppy one to your child's need for something heavy and calming by slitting the critter open (gut and paws) and inserting a goodly portion of curtain weights (available at sewing stores -- or just toss in some loose nuts and bolts from the toolbench, or a couple of old locks). Sew it back up and, voila! A weighted animal, for way less than the ones in therapy catalogs. If you're particularly handy with a needle and thread, you could sew a couple of straps on the thing and make it a weighted "backpack."

Used backpacks. Not so handy? Use an old backpack as a weighted backpack. Fill an outside pocket with curtain weights or other heavy junk and sew the zipper down. Then use that pack to tote supplies when your child goes to stressful spots like the doctor or church. Used backpacks also make good storage solutions for collecting lots of little toys into one tote-able package.

Laundry baskets. Also fine for storage are laundry baskets, which can move from the laundry room to bedrooms when their busted handles make them inappropriate for toting. We keep one on the floor of my son's room so he can toss all his treasured car magazines in it at night to clear a path, without actually having to put them away someplace out of his site.

Cardboard boxes: Spend money on one of those fancy mini-carrels that blocks out distractions while your child is doing homework? No need. Cut the top and bottom and one side out of a cardboard shipping-size box, and you've got a nice three-panel folded cardboard piece to prop up as needed. Let your child decorate it with markers and stickers.

Aquarium tubing: If you've got some on hand for the fishies, cut off a necklace-length piece for your chew-crazy child to gnaw on. Tie it around her neck or wrist, and maybe you won't have so many of those messed-up T-shirts to save.

Blanket: Use a blanket, an afghan or even a big beach towel to make your child into a burrito for some calming proprioceptive input. A blanket folded into quarters can also make a good improvised weighted blanket.

Straws: That package of cheap straws in the cupboard is like therapy in a box. Have your child suck up yogurt or pudding with a straw, or blow light objects across a table with one, to work on the oral-motor skills the speech therapist probably addresses at school. Straws are also not bad emergency chewies for a kid who has to be always gnawing.

Rice: Put some small toys in the bottom of a bin, fill it up with uncooked rice, and let your child dig in and search to his heart's content. This is a calming and organizing activity for a lot of kids ... although the mess you have to clean up later probably won't leave you feeling so calm.

What budget equipment have you created? Share in the comments, and check the About Parenting Special Needs Blog Carnival on August 1 for more money-saving tips. This post will be my submission.

Read more: Special Needs News | Make Your Own Therapy Tools and Toys | Ten Special-Needs School Tools

_{Photo by Terri Mauro}