Looking for a new innovative building toy that can grow with your child? I am always looking for new ways to keep my child entertained and learning at the same time. WEDGiTS are fun and challenging, multi-dimensional building sets that can stack and nest together. Early childhood age children are stimulated with the WEE WEDGiTS. Pre-school children quickly learn the relationships between horizontal and vertical with Standard WEDGiTS. Elementary aged kids create everything from lifelike creatures to futuristic spacecraft with mini WEDGiTS. The Imagination Set that grows with your child.
WEDGITS are the versatile, safe, easy to clean, easy to store, construction toy perfect for your therapy practice or simply for fun.
CONSTRUCTIONAL PRAXIS:
WEDGITS are geometrically symmetrical blocks that nest together. They can be built into a variety of shapes and designs. Size of blocks ranges from 1 inch to 6 inches and designs are versatile enough to build intricate designs with older children and adults and simpler shapes with younger children. Three, four, five, and six inch blocks have a center opening, so children with compromised hand use can pick up and move/stack blocks to create fantastic designs. WEDGITS can be utilized to work on all three stages of praxis, Ideation (formulating an idea), Planning (how will I build my idea), and Motor Execution (building the idea).
VISUAL MOTOR INTEGRATION SKILLS:
Building with WEDGITS requires the eyes and hands to work together, motivating visual attention and visual motor control from the builder. Build a model first and work on Design Copy skills, as your client tries to reproduce your design. It’s easy to start simple by grading the amount and sizes of blocks used and increase difficulty as improvement is noted.
BILATERAL COORDINATION:
WEDGITS are a two-handed interactive toy. Most designs/shapes require one hand (non-dominant if established) to stabilize one block, while other blocks are built in or around the first. The variety in sizes can help you grade the amount of work required by the stabilizing hand and can be graded easier for clients with one-sided involvement (brachial plexus injuries, burns, hemiplegia, and other neurological disorders).
HAND STRENGTH:
WEDGITS have a unique feature, the ability to wedge (lock in one piece by wedging smaller pieces on either side). Wedging requires finger strength in the fair to good range with larger pieces easier to wedge than smaller. Amount of strength required can easily be graded by the size of the blocks and amount of wedging required by the design. For those with less than fair hand strength, grading can be easily accomplished by the amount of assistance given.
SEQUENCING:
Copying a design from the design booklet (included) or Color Design Cards (sold separately) will help improve internal organizational skills and sequencing ability. The Color Design Cards specify the level of difficulty of each design. Each card is two-sided with one side in color and the other in black and white to encourage shape and size recognition without the aide of color-coding. Or make your own model and have the client copy from your three dimensional example.
PROBLEM SOLVING:
WEDGITS intrinsically work on problem solving ability, whether you’re making a design of your own idea or copying from a design card. Some designs require the placement of smaller pieces, underneath a larger block, as support. These smaller pieces are not always showing, requiring deductive reasoning skills to determine how to make the design as pictured.
FOLLOWING DIRECTIONS:
WEDGITS are a great way to work on listening skills, math skills, color recognition, and directional concepts (“on top of”, “below”, “next to”, “in front of”, “behind”). Verbally direct the building of your own design or one from the design cards or design booklet. Grade this activity by the amount and type of directions. “Place a large red block on top of one blue block” or “place smallest shape inside largest shape.” Now turn the activity around, have the client articulate to you how to correctly build one of the designs from the design cards.
VISUAL PERCEPTUAL SKILLS:
Copying WEDGITS designs from the design cards or booklet requires the ability to translate a two dimensional picture into a three dimensional sculpture. Now you can work on figure-ground (the ability to pick out one block from a competing background), form consistency (the block stays the same size, no matter its orientation), and visual closure (picking the correct size block, though the block is partially hidden by other blocks) skills.
PRE-WRITING SKILLS:
WEDGITS can assist a child to learn to color in the lines (a pre-requisite to writing between the lines). Place a larger WEDGiTS block on a piece of paper and have the child color inside. Bumping into the sides of the WEDGiTS block provides better feedback as to the boundaries of “inside” making the task more meaningful. Changing the orientation of the block on the paper can assist a child in learning to draw squares and diamonds. Trace a three-inch block orientated as a diamond shape next to a four-inch block with the same orientation, remove blocks and add features to make a fish. Using these blocks with a diagonal orientation can encourage the integration of diagonal lines, necessary to correctly form many letters of the print alphabet.
COOPERATIVE LEARNING:
The more the merrier! WEDGITS are a learning tool that can be utilized both individually and in groups. Have several children building their own designs, while sharing a common pile of WEDGITS or take turns building one of the designs from the design card/booklets each child adding one block. Form teams and have smaller groups build original designs.
SELF ESTEEM:
No matter what the ability level, WEDGITS always turn into something unique and wonderful. Whether a simple or complex design, there is no wrong way to build with WEDGITS!
Connect with WEDGiTS:
CONSTRUCTIONAL PRAXIS:
WEDGITS are geometrically symmetrical blocks that nest together. They can be built into a variety of shapes and designs. Size of blocks ranges from 1 inch to 6 inches and designs are versatile enough to build intricate designs with older children and adults and simpler shapes with younger children. Three, four, five, and six inch blocks have a center opening, so children with compromised hand use can pick up and move/stack blocks to create fantastic designs. WEDGITS can be utilized to work on all three stages of praxis, Ideation (formulating an idea), Planning (how will I build my idea), and Motor Execution (building the idea).
VISUAL MOTOR INTEGRATION SKILLS:
Building with WEDGITS requires the eyes and hands to work together, motivating visual attention and visual motor control from the builder. Build a model first and work on Design Copy skills, as your client tries to reproduce your design. It’s easy to start simple by grading the amount and sizes of blocks used and increase difficulty as improvement is noted.
BILATERAL COORDINATION:
WEDGITS are a two-handed interactive toy. Most designs/shapes require one hand (non-dominant if established) to stabilize one block, while other blocks are built in or around the first. The variety in sizes can help you grade the amount of work required by the stabilizing hand and can be graded easier for clients with one-sided involvement (brachial plexus injuries, burns, hemiplegia, and other neurological disorders).
HAND STRENGTH:
WEDGITS have a unique feature, the ability to wedge (lock in one piece by wedging smaller pieces on either side). Wedging requires finger strength in the fair to good range with larger pieces easier to wedge than smaller. Amount of strength required can easily be graded by the size of the blocks and amount of wedging required by the design. For those with less than fair hand strength, grading can be easily accomplished by the amount of assistance given.
SEQUENCING:
Copying a design from the design booklet (included) or Color Design Cards (sold separately) will help improve internal organizational skills and sequencing ability. The Color Design Cards specify the level of difficulty of each design. Each card is two-sided with one side in color and the other in black and white to encourage shape and size recognition without the aide of color-coding. Or make your own model and have the client copy from your three dimensional example.
PROBLEM SOLVING:
WEDGITS intrinsically work on problem solving ability, whether you’re making a design of your own idea or copying from a design card. Some designs require the placement of smaller pieces, underneath a larger block, as support. These smaller pieces are not always showing, requiring deductive reasoning skills to determine how to make the design as pictured.
FOLLOWING DIRECTIONS:
WEDGITS are a great way to work on listening skills, math skills, color recognition, and directional concepts (“on top of”, “below”, “next to”, “in front of”, “behind”). Verbally direct the building of your own design or one from the design cards or design booklet. Grade this activity by the amount and type of directions. “Place a large red block on top of one blue block” or “place smallest shape inside largest shape.” Now turn the activity around, have the client articulate to you how to correctly build one of the designs from the design cards.
VISUAL PERCEPTUAL SKILLS:
Copying WEDGITS designs from the design cards or booklet requires the ability to translate a two dimensional picture into a three dimensional sculpture. Now you can work on figure-ground (the ability to pick out one block from a competing background), form consistency (the block stays the same size, no matter its orientation), and visual closure (picking the correct size block, though the block is partially hidden by other blocks) skills.
PRE-WRITING SKILLS:
WEDGITS can assist a child to learn to color in the lines (a pre-requisite to writing between the lines). Place a larger WEDGiTS block on a piece of paper and have the child color inside. Bumping into the sides of the WEDGiTS block provides better feedback as to the boundaries of “inside” making the task more meaningful. Changing the orientation of the block on the paper can assist a child in learning to draw squares and diamonds. Trace a three-inch block orientated as a diamond shape next to a four-inch block with the same orientation, remove blocks and add features to make a fish. Using these blocks with a diagonal orientation can encourage the integration of diagonal lines, necessary to correctly form many letters of the print alphabet.
COOPERATIVE LEARNING:
The more the merrier! WEDGITS are a learning tool that can be utilized both individually and in groups. Have several children building their own designs, while sharing a common pile of WEDGITS or take turns building one of the designs from the design card/booklets each child adding one block. Form teams and have smaller groups build original designs.
SELF ESTEEM:
No matter what the ability level, WEDGITS always turn into something unique and wonderful. Whether a simple or complex design, there is no wrong way to build with WEDGITS!
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