Questions about tactile decorating
Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 04/29/2011 - 5:15pm
Our son is just turning 2 and totally blind. We were trying to come up with some cool ideas to decorate his "new toddler/big boy" room. Although I've scanned the internet, and I've tried to use my imagination, it has only gotten me so far. I was wondering if any of you had any thoughts or suggestions to send my way. Maybe share some of the ways you've decorated your kids' room. Thanks for any suggestions. I greatly appreciate them.
I've done a couple of things in my son's room. On one wall I pinned a large textured quilt. It's very pretty but also very nice to touch. It also kind of muffles sounds in the room so it feels cozier rather than cold and echoey. My son has a small closet with no door so I got a small bead door for it. It makes it so I can't see in the closet (which is nice since it gets so messy in there), but also is a fun thing to touch that makes neat sounds. Another thing we've done is frame my son's art work from school. They make a lot of tactile art pieces at school and I picked up some cheap black wood frames from Target, popped out the glass, and slipped the art work in. Now the art looks really nice and "professional" but he can still touch it because it isn't behind glass.
That's all I can think of. We should try to think of other ways to do tactile decorating. Let me know if you come up with any cool ideas!
Hi! I have an almost 2 year visually impaired son and have been racking my brain trying to come up with a fun way to decorate his room. I really have not been able to find anything on the internet. I like the beaded doorway idea! Were you able to come up with anything else that worked out? I hope the room turned out good for your son!
We've just added a collection of soft pillows and bean bags that my son loves to lay on. He also really loves his pillow pet and pillow pet blanket. We heap them all in the corner and it looks like a nice relaxation area. He likes to lay there after school while I read Dr Seuss books to him. :)
What about some tactile shapes that you cut out of different materials (fake fur, screening, sandpaper, corduroy, silk, mylar...) and attach to the perimeter of his room? You could make braille labels for the different textures. For a visually impaired child try high contrast wall decals. We used whatisblik.com to find some high contrast images and very large images of birds, but the site has more complicated graphics, too. I like the bead curtain idea, and think anything that could incorporate sound would be a hit.
Just found this article on decorating rooms for kids with vision impairments: http://www.cool-kids-rooms.com/Visually-Impaired.html