How to make disabled aides in developing countries.

Working overseas in a developing country is always challenging whether you are haggling for resources to build a centre to stay on budget for a project or the car breaking down in the middle of nowhere - you have to learn to think on your feet.

Whilst working in Cambodia and Vietnam I spent a vast amount of time trying to find ways of making and adapting equipment which we would be able to find so easily in the developed world. Whether I was trying to fix wheelchairs, improve the level of care the children received or attempting to make toys to help with therapy sessions, everyday was a struggle.

During the month of October I'm going to share some of my ideas, solutions, books, websites and resources to help aid workers, families and therapists from across the world. This week I’m going to focus on making toys and sensory boxes for sensory therapy. 

Sensory bottles 

Pinterest has been my go to place for making sensory bottles for the last two years. Although it has been filled with endless experiments of making sensory bottles in a classroom in Cambodia, the office in Vietnam and many other places! I have finally found the winning solution.

What will you will need? 

Water bottle
Water
Glitter glue (or PVC glitter and glitter)
Glitter
Jewels/Sequins/Buttons etc 

Super glue


How to make it:

Fill the water water bottle up to roughly ⅔
Add a bottle of glitter glue and some extra glitter
Add the jewels,sequins, buttons etc
Finally superglue the top so it doesn’t go everywhere!

Sensory dens 

Ideally every centre will have a sensory room where the children can receive therapy or a place for them to relax. Sadly not every centre has enough space or resources to build a sensory room. In some centres we created ‘sensory dens’ which was a makeshift version! Here are some ideas which we used.

What will you need?

Material
Cardboard/paper

Fairy lights
Cushions
Paint/colouring pencils/felt tips
Art and crafts materials - glitter, sequins, material etc

How to make it: 

Drape the material to make a tent like shape.
Decorate the tent to the children’s need i.e including fairy lights, mobiles and sensory boxes to include for the session.

Sensory boxes

Each box can be designed to each child's or adult's need whether the box can be used to improve fine motor skills, autism or dementia there are lots of possibilities.

Autism Space sensory box:

You can adjust each box to the individual need whether you need a box based around a sense, learning tool each box can be changed!

What will you need?

Black beans or grey sand
Astronauts
Pebbles
Planets made from bouncy balls or cut out circles from cardboard
Stars (glow in the dark if you can source them)

How to make it:

Put it all in the box and create space!

Touchy feely dementia sensory box:

Boxes
Bowl of cold porridge
Ball of cotton wool
Sponge
Polystyrene balls
Banana
Football

How to make it:

With this box you can make a hole in each of the boxes, place the objects in the box and pass the box to the patient to put their hand in and try to guess what the objects are.


Fine motor skill box:

Four small boxes
Paint (green, yellow, red,blue)
Buttons (green, yellow, red,blue)

How to make it:

Paint the boxes the four colours and ask the individual to match the buttons to the box.

These boxes and bottles can be adapted for each person's need but they are cheap and easy to make. There are so many markets across the developing world where you can buy arts and craft materials and are so much fun to make. Enjoy!