FamilyConnect Holiday Guide to Toys, Games, and Gadgets for Children Who Are Blind or Visually Impaired

• AccessWorld Holiday Gift Guide 2012: Practical and Fun Gifts for People who are Blind or Visually Impaired—AccessWorld brings you some of the hottest items they've featured in their magazine, as well as other popular gift ideas for that special someone on your list.
• Calling All Gift Ideas—How is it already December...again?!? Yep, it is the holiday season, which means many of us are purchasing presents for our children with visual impairments. Emily blogs about searching high and low for the perfect gifts for her unique child and instead comes up with some options that will work, but may not be absolutely perfect. Share your ideas with other FamilyConnect parents! And also check out What Toy to Buy for My Visually Impaired Kid? from a few years back, which offers some great suggestions and helpful tips for parents who are trying to choose toys as presents for the holidays.
• Toy Guide—AFB collaborated with the Toy Industry Foundation for over a decade creating this guide, Let's Play: A Guide to Toys for Children with Special Needs. All of the toys are tested by dozens of children with vision loss, and we choose the ones that seem to be most popular. The guide indicates whether the toy is considered especially good for children who are blind (B) and children who have low vision (LV).
• Toys R Us Differently Abled Toy Guide—For nearly two decades, Toys R Us has published the annual Toys "R" Us Toy Guide for Differently-Abled Kids, an easy-to-use resource featuring specially selected toys that encourage play for children with physical, cognitive or developmental disabilities.
• Choosing the Best Toys for Your Blind Baby—WonderBaby offers some of their favorite toys as well as some tips on how to choose the best toys for your child.
• Accessible Toys for Blind Children—Holiday gift giving can be a bit more challenging when trying to shop for children with blindness or low vision. Check out these ideas from Sensory Sun for accessible toys, as well as Braille Stocking Stuffers.
• Sharing the Holidays with Your Child Who Is Visually Impaired—For those of us with a child who is visually impaired we not only have to think about organizing our families' activities for the holidays, but also how to include our visually impaired children in a way that will be enjoyable to them. As a mom of one such child, Emily happens to have a few thoughts on this very topic. Important things to remember over the holidays are keeping with tradition, teaching in the moment, adaptation, and time management.
• Choosing Toys and Creating a Play Area for Your Child—this article outlines some of the features to look for in a toy for your infant or toddler, and describes how to set up a safe and stimulating play area for your child.
• Teaching Your Baby to Play With Toys—practical ideas about how to introduce new toys to your child, and help him learn how to play.

• A Self-Proclaimed Gadget Lover—parents of older kids may find gift ideas in this article about a gadget-loving college student

New iPad app created to help families develop their story

Hi friends, 

We all know the importance of families telling their stories as part of their advocacy efforts and most of us have been engaged in helping families learn how to do that. Now there's an iPad app to help.

"Telling Your Story" is a tool that persons with disabilities, family members, and other advocates can use to compose and practice the personal story they'll present to elected public officials or other policymakers at all levels of government when seeking policy changes or increasing awareness about disability issues. The app guides users through the steps, from introducing yourself to identifying the specific issue to the best methods for presenting a compelling personal story. After entering the text of their story, an audio recording feature allows the user to rehearse their story. (How cool is that?!) Users can also select and preview a photo they may wish to include.

To use all the features of this app, an iPad 2 or newer is required.

You can view the app in the iTunes Store at http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/telling-your-story/id541403749