Apparatus for child activity and occupational therapy

An apparatus for developing human motor and mental skills in a user, comprising:

• a plurality of activity assemblies, each having a body and sized to be held in the hand, defining
• a front surface,
• a rear surface,
• a contact surface, each of said activity assemblies replaceably connectable along said contact surface to form a grid of activity assemblies,
• each activity assembly including at least one challenge element having at least one movable part connected to said activity assembly and operative to challenge a mental or motor skill, the challenge met when said movable part is moved in a predetermined direction, and
• at least one activity assembly having a challenge element including
• a panel movably connected to said at least one activity assembly and defining an interior space within said at least one activity assembly that is hidden when said panel is in a closed position, and revealed when said panel is moved to an open position;
• reward means for stimulating the senses of the user, positioned within said interior space, said reward means sensed by the user when said panel is in said open position and said interior space is revealed;
• at least one puzzle, including a movable puzzle part, for posing a challenge to the user to move said movable puzzle part from a first position to a second position;
• blocking means for releasably blocking movement of said panel in connection to said body of the at least one activity assembly, retaining said panel in said closed position when said movable puzzle part is in a first position, and for unblocking movement of said panel and releasing said panel when said movable puzzle part is in a second position, whereby when said panel is opened said reward means for stimulating is revealed, indicating successfully solving the puzzle, and
• at least two of the plurality of activity assemblies challenging skills of differing difficulty relative to each other;
• wherein said activity assemblies are substitutable, removable, rearrangeable and replaceable with other activity assemblies having different challenges, to thereby maintain the interest of the user, or to increase a challenge as a user develops.

An apparatus for aiding in the development of motor and mental skills of a user, comprising:

• at least one activity block sized to be held in the hand of the user, and having a front surface, a rear surface, and a contact surface, for detachably connecting with the contact surface of a second activity block,
• said at least one activity block defining a normally enclosed interior space and a door that is movable between a first position preventing access to said interior space and a second position revealing and providing access to said interior space, said door having an outer surface visible to the user viewing said at least one activity block;
• at least one manually manipulatable movable challenge means mounted on said outer surface of said door and having embodied therein a preselected puzzle that initiates from a first unsolved condition whereupon said door is held in its first position, and a second solved condition whereupon said preselected puzzle is solved and said door is free to move to said second position;
• said at least one manually manipulatable movable challenge means posing a challenge to a user to solve said embodied preselected puzzle by manually manipulating said movable challenge means from its first unsolved condition to a second solved condition;
• reward means for stimulating the senses of the user, positioned within said normally enclosed interior space, said reward means being revealed and sensed by the user when said door is moved to said second position;
• wherein the development of the user's motor and mental skills are aided by manually manipulating said challenge means to find a solution to said preselected puzzle embodied therein;
• and
• wherein a plurality of such like activity blocks with different preselected puzzles can be detachably interconnected in an array of said activity blocks.