Toys of all types can help children develop essential skills, including children born with mental or physical disabilities like autism, multiple sclerosis, Down syndrome and other conditions, but some are more directly applicable than others. For retailers, learning to cater to this “niche” market of parents, grandparents, therapists, educators and anyone who has a child with special needs in their life can turn shoppers searching for developmentally appropriate toys for children with disabilities into some of their most loyal customers.

   Such consumers are a growing market. Approximately 4.2 million children, ages 3 to17, in the United States suffer from some learning disability, according to the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), Hyattsville, Md., and more adults are seeking toys to help mentally or physically challenged children learn basic fine motor, gross, tactile, social, hand/eye and other skills. Advancements in medical technology are continuing to save more children who could not be previously saved, and number of babies born to older and teenage mothers and multiple births have all increased, which leads to greater risk if disability. Also, better diagnostic testing now allows medical professionals to diagnose children as young as 2 to 3 years old with learning disabilities.

   As a medical professional who works daily with children with special needs, Emily Forrest, M.D., a fellow in developmental pediatrics at NYU School of Medicine-Bellevue Medical Center Department of Pediatrics in New York, often recommends that parents find basic toys for these kids, such as ring stackers and shape sorters from infant products producers like Fisher-Price, which help with problem solving and fine motor skills. She also recommends dolls and action figures—which older kids can use for symbolic play—among other toy types.

   In addition, something designed to entertain can also be sued to impart a lesson, Forrest says. “Board games teach rules and turn taking,” she explains. “All children benefit from reading, and being read to,” she adds. “The best toys for most ages are those that encourage learning and foster the parent-child relationship. In general, I recommend that parents buy toys that are appropriate for the developmental level of their child, not their physical age. These toys can be purchased in any toy store. ”

Guidance, counsel

   When choosing the right toy for a child’s need, consumers and retailers alike may often see special needs toys as “special” when, in fact, they are actually most of the toys found in any local toy store. Gertie Balls from Small World Toys are recommended for easy gripping and tactile experiences. Simple wooden puzzles by Melissa & Doug are used to foster concentration and fine motor skills, and Do-A-Dot Art products help with gross motor development. All are products that Brilliant Sky Toys & Books, a group of franchised stores throughout Michigan and Ohio, and Brent Taylor, owner of TreeHouse Toys & Books in Lansing, Mich., recommend to customers looking for playthings for various learning disabilities, a segment responsible for 5 percent of his toy sales.

   Parents are Taylor’s biggest group of customers searching for toys to help their children with various stages of autism and fine-motor challenges. For specific toy suggestions, Taylor uses—and recommends to customers—a list of therapist-rated toys from more than 150 manufacturers developed by the Seattle-based non-profit organization Good to Grow. The organization’s Web site lists toys by company, toy name, disability, skill, age group and approximate price. “People really appreciate having another source of knowledge to back-up their decision making,” he says. “Compiling this type of information is really a great service to the special needs community.”

   Mary Sisson, owner of Vancouver, Wash.-based Kazoodle Toys, has recommended Good to Grow-rated toys since she opened shop in March 2006, and one of the therapists who tests toys at Good to Grow’s Washington Elks Children’s Therapy Program actually lives in town. “Good to Grow is our lifeline for serving customers with special needs,” she says. Sisson also refers to Chicago-based Lekotek, a non-profit that also rates toys via the Web and works with retailers like Toys “R” Us.

   Sisson recommends impulse items from Toysmith like Super Stacking Tops for developing hand-eye coordination; Bilibo, a play seat imported from Switzerland by Kid O that helps develop body strength; Educational Insights’ Play Foam, for its sensory experience; and Snap Bags, Bumpity Blocks and Play Packs cards from The Pencil Grip for a range of abilities.

   Autism continues to be the most prevalent condition among Sisson’s customers, reflecting the condition’s status as the fastest growing developmental disability in the United States, with 10 to17 percent annual growth. Approximately one in 150 births results in an autistic child, according to the Autism Society of America, New York. “Autism has grown progressively over the years and has gained more public recognition,” says Adrian Anthony, president of Anthony Innovations, Tracy, Calif., the company behind the The Touch Game, an interactive game that uses touch and sound to help with fine motor, memory, visualization development, cognitive stimulation, language and literacy. “Autism shows such a wide range of symptoms that multiple types of special needs toys are needed to address individual abilities.”

Play for all

   Anthony works with home school groups and several organizations, including the American occupational Therapy Association and the National Association of the Blind, and sells the game through over 400 retailers. She says more than half of the company’s sales are destined for use with individuals with special needs. The objective of the game is to identify and collect different play pieces matched to playing cards. It can be played by parents or grandparents with kids or older people with special needs, or sued by therapists as a learning assessment tool.

   The game has not yet been rated by Good to Grow or Lekotek. However, Anthony says that her approach is to educate retailers of the game’s benefits in relation to specific conditions; having the game rated is on her to-do list this year. “There are many Web sites and organizations that special needs customers rely on for product recommendations that manufacturers are not aware of,” she says. “Store owners are also key in getting the word out to their customers about products that are beneficial t special needs that may have only been considered for their ‘regular’ customers.”

   Anthony tries to meet with retailers face to face to discuss different special needs applications for the company’s products whenever possible. Some stores have set up demo units and hold game nights to spotlight the products, she says.

   Fanny Wong, president of Fanny’s Playhouse, Plainview, N.Y., is introducing new soft dolls modeled after children with Down syndrome or a handicap and says she has had resistance from some retailers because of the doll’s look and accessories—a wheelchair, walker or seeing eye dog. She understands retailers may not be used to this type of toy and offers samples to retailers before sale so they can first get customer feed back. Wong says that whole her dolls are a bit different, in general, there are many mainstream toys that are therapeutic or that a child with special needs can relate to, something more retailers need to recognize. The Fanny’s Playhouse Fantanimals, rated by Lekotk, are washable plush pieces that can be mixed and matched and fastened together; they are recommended as a good tactile toy to help blind children with touch and feel exercises.

   But helping customers who are looking for products for children with special needs can still be challenging to retailers, because each child’s need is specific, whether it’s wild or severe autism or cerebral palsy. “First, we ask questions like ‘How old is the child? What’s the developmental age? What skills is he or she working on? What kinds of things does the child enjoy?’ then we turn to the Good to Grow list online and find some suggestions,” says Kazoodle’s Sisson. “You need to be sensitive to the person doing the buying. Some are matter-of-fact, some are very emotional, some are clueless about what toys will work with their kids or grandkids and some know a whole lot more than we do.”

   Diana Nielander, president of Lekotek, says that for parents who don’t know much, choosing the right toy can be an uncomfortable experience, especially with so many on the market, so guides can help retailers to educate consumers. “Everything is about perspective,” she says. “You may feel you’ve got many things to choose from, and that’s great, but when you have a child with certain challenges, limited abilities, you are going to try to create subset upon subset of product. If you have 5,000 products and have parents going in that don’t know what to choose, too may can be overwhelming.”

   Savvy retailers, Nielander says, can turn the situation into an opportunity to develop a closer relationship with a customer or community of customers who are looking for special needs toys. “When some one has a challenge, look at it as an opportunity to be successful,” she says. “If you know parents are having a hard time finding the right toys, look at it as opportunity to try to win them over.”

Able, ready

   Lekotek’s Ableplay Rating System features hundreds of toys rated by therapists, then broken down by specific disability, including Sensory (hearing and visual); Cognitive (Down syndrome, mental retardation, fetal alcohol syndrome, hydrocephalus, attention deficit disorder, hyperactivity disorder and other learning disabilities); Communicative (speech and language delay, autism, stuttering); and Physical (such as Multiple Sclerosis, which affects more than 400,000 people in the U.S. and 2.5 million worldwide, according to the Multiple Sclerosis Society, New York.)

   Bnielander says that retailers and manufacturers are becoming more aware of the need for toys for kids with special needs, because people—including those in the toy industry—are talking about it more, particularly given the increase in the cases of autism, and customers are more demanding in their desire for appropriate products. “They are coming into stores saying, ‘How are you going to help me?’ forcing retailers to say ‘How am I going to figure this out?’ it is an opportunity, but as much as it presents an opportunity, it also presents lots of challenges. “

   Lekotek is currently in the process of updating this year’s product submissions, and toys are scheduled to be rated in time for the fourth quarter.

   Preschool toy manufacturer Fisher-Price is also updating its guide of toys for parents of children with special needs, a resource that has been offered for the past five years. The company works with spe4cialists—experts and special needs consultants from nearby medical institutions like SUNY Buffalo—and focus groups with mothers to discuss why play is important, according to Fisher-Price director of child research Kathleen Alfano. “A parent with a child with special needs has some support systems. They have a pediatrician, occupational therapists,” says Alfano of focus group families. “They are very skilled in giving direction for different stages [of conditions] and what types of product is best for them.”

   Among Fisher-Price’s products recommended in the guide are its Shake and Go Car and the Rainforest Jumperoo, which aid movement and help children with mobility issues; and Baby Basketball, for children that are hearing or vision impaired. “If a child has a disability, you want to give that child the best opportunity possible,” Alfano says. “Children with special needs need to play as well as other children, therapy takes up so much time, that they don’t get a chance to play. The need time to investigated, to use their brain and emotional development. Whether it’s a hearing disability, movement, [probems] not so severe to very severe, parents still want playfulness. Parents still want toys that, quote, normal children use.”

   Juliette Mellow, a representative with New York’s Autism Society, says it can be difficult and often expensive to find toys in specialty toy stores if parents don’t know what to look for, but if retailers have good knowledge of suitable products, that makes the decision easier. She adds that the Toys “R” Us recommended list of toys is helpfully to consumers, but something not all retailers have the means to produce—in particular, small specialty stores.