In a previous post about Christmas toys for autistic children, I mentioned that Mattel’s Fijit Friends was one of the 2011 season’s hot toys. Here I’ll delve deeper into what makes Fijit a good choice for autistic kids even though it’s a mass market toy, as well as behaviors you might want to avoid when incorporating Fijit into your child’s play time. Fijit is available at any large toy retailer such as Amazon.
There are a lot of customer reviews that talk about personal experiences with Fijit, but in this post I’ll link the personal experiences with insights from scientific research to provide a more holistic view of why Fijit is good.
Great things about Fijit include:
- A unique rubbery skin that promotes tactile exploration and safety
- Extensive use of nonverbal communication such as music and dancing
- Bright colors and facial expressions that might allow it to be incorporated in teaching sessions
- Looks cute and not human
Some not so great things about Fijit are:
- Its price—at $50-$60 it’s expensive compared to most other toys
- Some minor issues with its voice command understanding [Continue Reading…]