Talking Crayons Developed To Help Toddlers Learn Colors and Spelling

Blue. Spell it with me. B-L-U-E. That's a talking crayon, one developed to help toddlers learn colours and how to spell.

It talks through a battery-operated plastic base in which it is inserted. The base reads the colour and relates the information. However, six-year-old Rachel Yorke has found another use for the crayon. Because she is blind, the Grade 1 student at Salmon River Elementary School is able to 'see' each of the six colours in the package by using the base.

They're called Dora i-crayons -- 'i' for interactive, which is becoming a norm with many of today's children's toys and learning methods. Many of the tools Rachel uses in school and at home have interactive components so she can sense what she cannot see.

She hugs a Winnie the Pooh bear that talks to her, asking questions for her to answer aloud about his (and her) favourite Pooh characters.

She has learning tools such as colouring pages with raised images for her to fill in areas with her talking crayons. She learned braille as a toddler and now has an older machine at home and a sleeker, more modern one at school to type in Braille, which helps her keep up with her classmates.

But it's the talking crayons that have created the most enjoyment for this youngster since her grandmother Linda Babineau accidentally found them in a Truro department store a couple of weeks ago.

Candace Yorke picks up the story. "I was in Halifax at the IWK Health Centre for an eye checkup with Rachel. My mother took our four-year-old, Kaytlen, shopping and Kaytie saw the crayons and wanted them." She laughs. "Of course, her grandmother gave in, not knowing they talked, but just that her granddaughter wanted them. When we realized they talked, the first thought was how perfect they were for Rachel. Now she can colour without having to ask anyone for help. She has independence when colouring."

Candace says she had attached braille labels to her earlier crayons for Rachel to identify the colours but this had the advantage of the crayons talking to the little girl.

Candace e-mailed International World of Toys in Montreal, which created and patented the crayons a year before, expressing her delight with the product and explaining how Rachel is blind and able to use this wonderful new tool to help her learn.

"I was overwhelmed to hear from Candace," says Laurie Verrelli, president of the company, which has sold more than 300,000 sets of six crayons worldwide since the launch a year ago.

"When we developed this a year or so ago, our aim was to teach toddlers. I was so happy to hear Rachel received such pleasure, and independence, from the crayons. We had never thought that far ahead, that the crayons would help blind children."

She reacted instantly. The next day, an express van pulled up to the Yorke house with a parcel for Rachel: Laurie had sent her a few extra sets of crayons.

"Through Candace, we've started to make contacts with schools to provide them with crayons," says Laurie. The Atlantic Provinces Special Education Authority, which provides education and programs for children and teens who are deaf, deaf and blind, hard of hearing, blind or visually impaired, is one.

Rachel nibbles on an after-school cookie and drinks some milk as she talks about her crayons. "My favourite colour is magenta. I like it. It's a dark colour, but I don't like black and green. I like most of them though," she says of the package that contains red, yellow, blue, green, purple and orange crayons.

Rachel was born sighted, but cataracts, which she had from birth, weren't diagnosed until she was two. By then, she had developed glaucoma and other eye diseases. By four, her vision was gone. She's had various tests and procedures to try to save some sight, but Candace says all hope for that is gone now.

"Rachel is doing awesome," Candace says proudly. "She has a little white cane and boogies around the school very easily. The other kids and all the staff are aware of her and are careful not to move things. If they do, they let Rachel know. They've been wonderful at the school."

Last summer, Rachel took swimming lessons a couple of times a week, attended a summer camp at the school and now takes the bus to school each day. "I don't worry about her. They don't treat her any differently at school, don't baby her. They're protective but push her independence. The best part of her being in regular school is that her peers are learning she is no different than they are. They're learning to accept people with disabilities or differences."

Candace smiles, watching Rachel use her new crayons. "Rachel is like any other kid. She plays with her sisters (Kaytlen and seven-year-old Samantha) and fights with them. She reads her books and we read to her. Rachel is so happy, and that makes her father (Trevor) and me very happy, too."

Created on ... December 05, 2006