Volunteers from Engineering Good, a local non-profit organisation (NPO) that seeks to empower disadvantaged communities through humanitarian engineering, conducted a three-hour toy hacking workshop at SPD Ability Centre for a volunteer and 10 of our Building Bridges EIPIC Centre staff from SPD Ability Centre, SPD@Tampines and SPD@Jurong.

Participants were taught how to construct their own accessibility switches that can be used on off-the-shelf toys for easy activation by children who, due to poor motor control, may have difficulty operating regular switches. The objective of the workshop was to equip participants with simple toy modification skills so that they are able to enhance play for their young clients.

Participants applied basic concepts of electrical circuits and also got to try their hand at wire stripping, soldering and assembling a switch from off-the-shelf materials such as clothes pegs.

One participant remarked: “It was very useful and interesting to learn how to DIY the toys using the various tools given to us.”

Another staff commented that it “was useful learning to connect various parts together and knowing the use of each component”.

A switch-adapted toy will allow the child to play independently and learn through play. Not only does it restore joy in playing, it also encourages movement and improvement of motor skills.

Engineering Good’s executive director, Ms Hannah Leong, said: “Children with special needs should not miss out on the joy of playing with toys because they have difficulty operating small buttons.”

The NPO also presented each centre with their own toolbox consisting of tools such as a soldering iron, soldering iron stand, scissors, wire stripper, long nose plier, screwdriver and a plug adaptor.

Thank you Engineering Good for such a fun and interactive hands-on workshop!