The Toy Queen - Getting to Know Our New Guest Blogger Keri Wilmot
Today we have an interview with The Toy Queen, Keri Wilmot, an Occupational Therapist with the North Shore Children’s Hospital in Salem, MA. Keri has a website called The Toy Queen where she does amazing video reviews of toys that can be used for child development. Toy Whimsy is so pleased to announce that Keri will be joining us as regular guest blogger who will review toys, and talk about how they can be used to develop new skills for all children. We are excited to bring Keri's vast experience, developmental knowledge and unique perspective as a children's therapist to Toy Whimsy. Check out one of her great video reviews here, and then keep reading for an interview with Keri.
The Traditional Toy Whimsy First Question: What was your favorite toy as a child?
As a child, my favorite toys were my Cabbage Patch Kid baby dolls. I enjoyed dressing them up, as well as playing school and house. I guess I have always been the nurturing type, but would have never believed that the use of toys would have ever become so prominent in my daily life.
Where are you from?
I was raised in North Andover, Massachusetts, which is a town roughly one half hour north of the city of Boston, until I left to attend Quinnipiac University in Hamden, CT, where I received my undergraduate degree in occupational therapy. After graduation I spent a few years working as a pediatric therapist for a contract agency that provided school based OT and early intervention services to multiple towns throughout Eastern Connecticut. After missing my family, I returned to Massachusetts to continue my career. My husband and I currently reside in Haverhill, Massachusetts, which is a neighboring town to North Andover, minutes from the southeastern border of New Hampshire.
Where do you work?
I am currently employed by North Shore Children’s Hospital in Salem, MA as a staff occupational therapist in the pediatric outpatient rehabilitation department. My full time work includes occupational therapy evaluation and treatment to children ages newborn through their teenage years, on both outpatient and school based levels. My current specialties include working with children who have a variety of delays and disabilities including prematurity, sensory processing dysfunction, feeding disorders and fine motor delays. I also work as a private contract therapist providing preschool occupational therapy evaluations to children transitioning into the public school system from early intervention.
What kind of credentials do you hold that you would like to share with us?
I am a registered occupational therapist by the National Board for Certification of Occupational Therapy (NBCOT) and licensed by the state of Massachusetts to practice as an occupational therapist. After three years of practice as an occupational therapist, in the Massachusetts Early Intervention system, I received my certification as a Certified Early Intervention Specialist (CEIS). I am trained in the Wilbarger Therapressure Protocol and the Vital Links therapeutic listening programs, which are specialty interventions approved for children with sensory processing dysfunction.
Why are you called the Toy Queen?
The name Toy Queen started initially as the name created for me by my husband, incidentally as a joke, in relation to myself and the multiple bins of toys and games to use in therapy that I had collected, several years before we had even met. However, the name evolved more when my husband began to notice that I had a natural knack for choosing toys and games for children’s’ gifts that were always enjoyed by the children and appreciated by their parents for their developmental attributes. In an effort to assist all parents with identifying toys helpful to any child’s development the concept of the “Toy Queen” was born.
Give us a little peek into your daily routine at your job?
One thing I love about my job is that though the structure of each day is the same, what happens from start to finish can be entirely different and completely unpredictable. During the academic year, two days per week I work for the hospital in a public school district amongst elementary and middle schools, as a school based therapist, completing evaluations, writing educational plans and attending meetings for children in the school system. After school I return to the hospital outpatient clinic and typically work individually with two to three children on an hourly basis, promoting their developmental skills and proving home program suggestions to their parents. During these individual treatment sessions, 3-4 toys and games are incorporated into the session to promote skills related to goals to enhance fine motor and sensory motor skills.
Two full days per week I work entirely in the outpatient clinic doing evaluations, treatment (as described above) and working collaboratively with other disciplines (neonatologists, nurse practitioners, neuropsychologists, speech language pathologists and physical therapists). I also participate in two specialty clinics one that evaluates children who have feeding delays, the other provides developmental follow-up to children who are graduates of the special care nursery.
What types of toys do you look for when you are looking for toys for your work?
Considering that I work with such a diverse age group, when purchasing toys for work I cherish a toy that “a child can grow with.” I tend to be a fan of toys and games where I may be able to modify the directions to use them with younger children, but where I may be able to add another component such as incorporating the use of a kitchen gadget or tweezers/tongs that makes the game more challenging to target different skills with older children. I believe toys are an investment and I am always hopeful that a child and their family can enjoy the same toy for a long time, as they work on developing a variety of different skills. For work, I also tend to look for toys that can be sanitized easily as we are always cautious regarding the spreading of germs.
What inspired you to do the job you do?
As a high school student I often babysat for a lot of children in the neighborhood, and one child especially who had been diagnosed with Autism. I always expressed an interest in wanting to work with children and thought about becoming a teacher. Though at the time I did not know occupational therapists worked with children, my mother who is a nurse knew about OT, and encouraged me to find out more about the profession. Coincidentally, during my senior year of high school, the public school system integrated preschool program was housed in the same building and was looking for volunteers. I volunteered in the preschool program every day during my lunch and study periods assisting the teachers with children with disabilities in their classroom. It was there that I met the occupational therapist and learned more about what OT could do to promote a child’s skills. It is for this same preschool that I now provide occupational therapy evaluations as a contract therapist. It is amazing to me how the world has come full circle.
What is the toy you turn to most in your job?
This is the hardest question for me to answer, again because of the large age group of children I service. Some of the most versatile “toys” I have used are playdoh and theraputty (a putty that comes in a variety of resistances and is similar in concept to playdoh, but more geared for older children). Depending on the different tools you incorporate into the playdoh (scissors, tweezers, cookie cutters, alphabet stamps), its uses can repeatedly change and is enjoyed by all age groups.
What is the most unlikely toy that you have used in your job?
As children can be an unpredictable challenge, I could design a great treatment plan, but there are some days not even the best toys can motivate a child to participate. The most unlikely toy I have ever used was a Pokemon toy a child had brought to therapy in which we created our own games. As the child was working on developing strength, balance and imitating motor actions, I arranged his Pokemon toy in different positions that he then was encouraged to copy with his own body movements. We then worked on fine motor imitation by drawing this character on an easel where he copied the design with a marker to facilitate upper body strength and a developing pencil grasp pattern.
What kind of advice do you have for parents who are shopping for a toy for their kids?
When purchasing toys I always encourage parents to buy a toy that may be slightly above a child’s age group or developmental skill level that they can grow into over the course of a few months to get the most for their money.
What is the best part of your job?
The best part of my job is sharing with children and their parents the success of achieving goals, and seeing the excitement when they accomplish a new skill. The fact that as therapists we accomplish these skills through incorporating playing with toys is really a dream come true.
What is the hardest part of your job?
The hardest part of my job is after completing an evaluation, having to tell parents their child has delays in which therapy is required. It is also challenging when working with a family when the child may have complex medical needs and is seeing a variety of specialists in search of a diagnosis. It is always emotionally difficult being present as a team member when a child is diagnosed with a chronic or life long disability.
Where do you keep all the toys that you have collected for your job?
I keep all the toys organized and sorted by categories (i.e. books, puzzles, infant toys, toddler toys, preschool toys, manipulatives, art supplies, etc.) in covered bins on shelving in my basement. I have tote bags that I use to then put together a bag for the day based on the children that I’m seeing, and what their individual goals are. We have similar systems available in the clinic utilizing cabinets and bins to keep everything organized and easy to find.
I always encourage parents to organize the toys they have at home and place toys in/out of the playroom rotation. Too many toys in one location can make it challenging for children to attend to one toy for any length of time if the playroom is cluttered and they can easily become bored when the same toys are available day after day.
What would you like to tell toy companies that you think you understand better than they do?
Due to my vast knowledge of childhood development, I believe I have the ability to creatively play with a toy that far exceeds the basic instructions or directions included on the box. Toys themselves can advance developmental skills, but there are even more skills that can be enhanced when you are not afraid to “think outside the box” and try to incorporate multiple developmental concepts at the same time.
--Keri Wilmont with Laura McMullan
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