Educating special needs children about shapes and hardware

An apparatus to educate a special needs child about shapes and hardware comprising:

• a) a working platform having three boards that each have a unique face, said boards being hinged together with piano hinges to form a three-fold unit, one of said boards having an inner groove, so that a free end of another board can fit into the inner groove to make the three boards assume a triangular configuration that can be folded flat for storage or opened to have a triangular cross section, said three faces including:
• i) a first face having colored areas with shaped openings in the colored areas, said shaped openings in said first face including round openings, square openings and triangular openings located in said first face in respective ones of said colored areas,
• ii) a second face having threaded openings, including openings equipped with bolts and openings to receive screws, and also including openings to receive pegs, and
• iii) a third face having an assortment of locks, including a deadbolt, a keylock, a chain lock and a hinged door closed by a hook and eye lock, said hinged door covering a celebratory logo, which becomes visible to the child when he or she is successful in unhooking said hook and eye and opening said door,
• b) a first collection of pegs, each peg shaped and sized to be received in a shaped opening and having color that matches the color of the area in which its corresponding opening is located,
• c) a collection of threaded shafts shaped to be received in the threaded openings including screws to permit a child to thread screws into the second face to learn to insert screws into a surface, and
• d) a collection of nuts to permit a child to thread nuts on to bolts to learn to associate nuts and bolts,
• e) a second collection of pegs and a collection of elastic bands to permit a child to insert pegs from said second collection into openings in said second face and stretch elastic bands between inserted pegs of said second collection
• f) a closeable box having internal compartments for separately holding said collections of pegs, nuts, elastic bands and threaded shafts, said internal compartments being colored to indicate to the child the compartment to store the pegs so that the peg and compartment colors match,
• g) a carton sized to contain said working platform in a folded condition and said closeable box with the collection of pegs, and collection of threaded shafts therein, said carton having a closeable and lockable lid,
• whereby a child can learn to associate shapes by matching pegs to shaped openings, to associate threaded fasteners by matching threaded shafts to threaded openings and to learn to recognize and operate locks.

A method of educating a special needs child about shapes and hardware comprising:

• assembling a working platform to sequentially show the child three faces, a first face having colored areas with shaped openings in the colored areas, a second face having threaded openings, and a third face having an assortment of locks,
• providing the child a collection of colored pegs shaped and sized to be received in the shaped openings and encouraging the child to place the pegs into corresponding openings in the first face;
• providing the child a collection of threaded fasteners having threaded shafts shaped to be received in the threaded openings and encouraging the child to place the threaded shafts into corresponding openings in the second face;
• and
• encouraging the child to manipulate the locks on the third face to open and close the locks;
• whereby a child learns to associate shapes by matching pegs to shaped openings, to associate threaded fasteners by matching threaded shafts to threaded openings, and to learn to recognize and operate locks and
• wherein assembling the platform includes unfolding three boards each having one of the three faces to form a triangular cross section.

A method of educating a special needs child about shapes and hardware comprising:

• assembling a working platform to sequentially show the child three faces, a first face having colored areas with openings shaped as round openings, triangular openings and square openings in the colored areas, a second face having threaded openings, and a third face having an assortment of locks, including unfolding three boards each having one of the three faces to form a triangular cross section and inserting a free end of one of the boards into an inner groove of another board to make the three boards assume a triangular configuration,
• providing the child a collection of colored pegs shaped and sized to be received in the shaped openings and encouraging the child to place the pegs into corresponding openings in the first face, including encouraging the child to insert round pegs into round openings, square pegs into square openings and triangular pegs into triangular openings, and including pointing out that the openings to receive the pegs are each located in respective ones of the colored areas so that the colored areas and pegs have matching colors,
• providing the child with a collection of threaded bolts and encouraging the child to insert the threaded bolts into the threaded openings in the second face, providing the child a collection of threaded nuts and encouraging the child to thread nuts on to the bolts to learn to associate the nuts and the bolts,
• providing the child with a collection of threaded screws
• encouraging the child to thread screws into the second face to learn to insert the screws into a surface,
• encouraging the child to insert pegs into openings in the first face, providing the child a collection of elastic bands and encouraging the child to stretch elastic bands between the inserted pegs,
• encouraging the child to manipulate the locks on the third face to open and close the locks, including encouragement to open a hook and eye that close a hinged door and encouragement to open the hinged door and thereby expose a celebratory logo when the child is successful in unhooking the hook and eye and opening the door,
• encouraging the child to store the pegs in a closeable box having colored internal compartments for separately holding the collections of colored pegs so that the pegs and compartment colors match, and
• encouraging the child to pack the working platform and closeable box into a carton,
• whereby a child learns to associate shapes by matching pegs to shaped openings, to associate threaded fasteners by matching threaded shafts to threaded openings and to learn to recognize and operate locks.