The stair runner: a fun shoe gift for long periods of playing and discovering fun
Author: Weekend care
for children with disabilities
For our first sleepover weekend, Tanja asked us if we wanted to test rainbow stair runners as shoe gifts. That sounded like music to our ears! Extra nice was the message that the children could also take a stair runner home with them after the weekend. We tested the stair runners together with two children aged five and six with autism, and they were a huge hit! What makes the stair runner such a nice shoe gift?
1. The diversity. We all know the stair runner from the past and our first image was the colored spiral that 'runs' down the stairs. However, the children soon showed that they wanted to discover the stair runners in all sorts of other ways:
-Stretch this far between your hands
-Hold the stair runner with one hand and let it dangle
-Wrap yourself with the stair runner
-Each hold one side of the stair runner and then let it slide back inward
-Feeling and discovering with your hands and mouth
2. Stimulating the senses. The flexibility and mobility of the sturdy plastic ensured that the children loved to wiggle it between their fingers and explore the material with their mouths. Where they initially played actively with the material, the stair runners were sought out again in the evening to relax on the couch.
3. Long playing fun. The children who tested with us have a relatively short attention span for activities and playing with play materials. The stair runners were played with for a longer period of time. We also noticed that the children immediately sought them out again in the morning after a night's sleep.
To take into account
The stair runner can't be used on every staircase. When the steps are too wide or the staircase is round, it won't work. But as described, there are plenty of fun alternatives to think of with the stair runner!
When the ends of the stair runner get tangled together or when two stair runners get tangled together, they are very difficult to separate again. For our target group, this was difficult to understand and frustration arose when they could not be separated immediately. By keeping a few spare stair runners on hand, the fun can be extended.
The children who tested for us like to feel and hold firmly, which caused the stair runner to quickly lose its shape. However, this did not make the game any less fun and they continued to play happily.
Our final assessment: The stair runner is a very nice shoe gift for long-lasting fun of playing and discovering.
