Manufacturer Name:
Little Tikes
Product Name:
Customer Quote: I have had some of my best meals with my children in this kitchen! -- Mother, Chicago, IL
Product Images:
Sensory Description
The auditory stimulation of the burners and grill serve as reminders to stay on task, increasing attention.
There is an LED light in grill to simulate a real flame.
Sizzle, bubble, and tea kettle sounds are auditorily pleasing.
This kitchen is tactilely interesting to feel for children who are blind or visually impaired.
The sounds of the kitchen help to structure and orient children to appropriate play.
The included accessories resemble real items that children will encounter in real kitchens. This helps children who are visually impaired identify and understand the items.
Skills
Patience can be practiced when children wait until the timer goes off before removing a play meal from the oven.
Children can begin to make connections with the sounds they hear and what is making those sounds.
This auditory identification can take place when listening to the various sounds the kitchen makes.
Tactile differentiation can be targeted as children are presented with a variety of cooking utensils and foods.
This kitchen can help children develop pretend play skills because the subject of cooking and what happens in a kitchen is familiar and concrete to them. It is difficult for children who are visually impaired to pretend something they have never seen or encountered.
Play Ideas
Embellish play with tactilely diverse items, e.g. a small Flokati rug under a child’s feet, real oranges to smell, dried beans and rice to mix in a pot.
Add various extracts into play to incorporate the sense of smell.
Guide children who are visually impaired through this kitchen and its various features so they are familiar with it.
Adaptation Ideas
Add hook and loop fasteners on shelves, utensils, etc. to help maintain desired position.
When play is done, place the items in the same place in this kitchen so a child who is visually impaired can remember and access them easily.
Use words to describe the kitchen and what is occurring to give a child a mental picture of the play.
Take out the batteries to eliminate the sounds if this is too much for a child to process.
Physical Description
The various handles in the kitchen (on the refrigerator, oven, and grill) help children work on different grasping skills.
Most of the play can take place in a seated position.
Counter protrudes past the base of the kitchen allowing for leg and knee room when in a seated position.
Children can stabilize themselves with one hand and play with the other.
There is ample counter space for children to play.
The grill can be pivoted to make it accessible for children who need to play in a stationary position.
Skills
Pincer grasp is used when children grasp the small knobs on the cabinet doors.
This kitchen can help children develop pretend play skills because the subject of cooking and what happens in a kitchen is familiar and concrete to them.
Children strengthen core muscles and increase movement when they squat down to access the oven and refrigerator and reach up for cabinet and microwave.
Children can cruise along the kitchen from the grill to the refrigerator. This works on motor planning, balance, weight shifting, and foot placement.
Two-handed play can take place when preparing a meal in this kitchen.
Patience can be practiced when children wait until the timer goes off before removing a play meal from the oven.
When children stand and play, they are working on muscle strength and endurance.
Children can work on hand transferring when they take an item out of the refrigerator on the right and place it on the grill on the left.
Wrist rotation is used to place cubes in ice cube dispenser, stir pretend stews, hold pots and turn knobs.
Eye-hand coordination is enhanced when children turn the knobs, open cabinets and cook with the pots and pans.
Different types of hand grasps are used to open and close various appliances and cook with the pots and pans.
Play Ideas
Place dried beans in a pot to cook – use refined finger movements to grasp and serve.
Adaptation Ideas
Add hook and loop fasteners to the bottoms of the pans and to the burners, grill plate, microwave, and refrigerator shelf. This can help maintain the desired position of a pot.
Cut an “X” slit into two tennis or racquet balls and place them on the small knobs of the cabinets to make them larger for a whole hand grasp.
Communicative Description
The auditory stimulation of the burners and grill serve as reminders to stay on task, increasing attention.
The kitchen has appliances, such as oven, stove, refrigerator and grill on one side and a protruding counter on the other. Social play and interaction can take place as children talk through the open window.
The kitchen is large enough for more than one child to play with it.
The kitchen includes some accessories to help children begin pretend play.
Skills
Receptive and expressive language opportunities are abundant when cooking in this kitchen.
Patience can be practiced when children wait until the timer goes off before removing a play meal from the oven.
Imaginations are used during play. Children use their imaginations to learn about the world around them. They learn to negotiate, to understand and to problem solve. It helps them “try on different hats” and role play. It helps them act out different outcomes, thus gaining a solid foundation for thinking. It helps them practice skills they have learned and acquire new ones.
*Sharing and teamwork are incorporated into play when children make a meal together.
Action concepts such as in/out, on/off, open/close can be taught during play. Verbally label the action when a child takes the burger off the grill or opens the refrigerator door.
Children learn to use manners when they make or are served a meal at this kitchen. “Please” and “thank you” can be taught and reinforced.
This kitchen can help children develop pretend play skills because the subject of cooking and what happens in a kitchen is familiar and concrete to them.
Play Ideas
Children can pretend they are using their own kitchen in their own house, working in a restaurant, or owning a bake shop.
Play a simple game of peek-a-boo through the open window area of the kitchen.
Talk on the pretend phone and take orders for pizzas. There is a picture of a pizza cooking on the oven door.
Act goofy – when a child gives you something to taste, try reacting in different ways – say how yummy it is and ask for more, make a very sour face and say, “Bleyuck! It needs some sugar!” or take a sip and pretend it is too hot “Oooh Hot! Can you blow on it for me?” Play is as exciting as you make it.
Ask open-ended questions such as, “What kinds of meals can you cook for me?”
Give children a real cookbook, or make one with pictures from magazines, to increase pretend play potential.
Adaptation Ideas
Label each part of the kitchen with a word printed on self-adhesive labels – Refrigerator, Oven, Microwave, Grill, Sink, Cabinet, Counter, Dish Washer, and Stove to help heighten word recognition and site word reading.
Cognitive Description
The auditory stimulation of the burners and grill serves as a reminder to stay on task, increasing attention.
Children learn through modeling and imitation. They can witness what caregivers do in the kitchen and can then replicate that.
This kitchen can help begin dialog about healthy cooking and eating.
Kitchen play is familiar and understandable to children.
Skills
This kitchen can help children develop pretend play skills because the subject of cooking and what happens in a kitchen is familiar and concrete to them.
Children can learn and practice sequential thought patterns as they think through the individual steps to complete a task such as making a hamburger.
Children learn cause and effect concepts when they turn a knob and hear a response, such as water bubbling or a tea kettle whistling. It is further enhanced when children press the ice dispenser and plastic cubes fall into their cup.
Memory and recall skills can be incorporated into play as children take an order, remember what was ordered, then prepare, cook, and serve what was ordered.
Patience can be practiced when children wait until the timer goes off before removing a play meal from the oven.
Problem solving comes into play when children learn what to do if the ice maker jams, how to make the various electronic sounds, how to position their hands to open cabinets and turn knobs, etc.
Cognitive processing takes place during play – this is thinking, learning, retaining, accessing and recalling information that you have learned.
Incorporate math into play; “I want 1 glass of milk and 2 apples. How many things do I want altogether? 1+2=?” Or count how many items are in the refrigerator or how many utensils are used.
Life skills such as washing hands before you cook and cleaning up in kitchen when you are done can be naturally incorporated into play.
Children develop and play with object permanence when an item is placed in the cabinet and the door is closed. Where is the object?
Object recognition can take place as children identify and label the pots, pans and other included accessories.
Action concepts such as in/out, on/off, open/close can be taught during play. Verbally label the action when a child takes the burger off the grill or opens the refrigerator door.
Play Ideas
Include your own pad of paper or Magna Doodle and walk around to take orders from your customers. This can help children practice receptive and expressive language as well as holding a pencil and writing scribbles or real words.
Play hide and seek with an item in this play kitchen. Place it in the microwave or on the grill and have the child find it. This works on memory and recall skills. This also works on physical activity – squat down to look in the oven, reach up high to open the cabinet doors.
Play, “What Doesn’t Belong” by placing a plush animal in the refrigerator or an ice cube on the grill.
Place real Goldfish crackers or Cheerios in a pot to cook. Add math to this activity by counting how many are in the pot.
Adaptation Ideas
Present only a few items to cook with, such as one pot and one piece of pretend food. Gradually increase the number as a child’s ability and frustration levels permit.
DESCRIPTION: Approx. Price: Over $100Box Age Range: 3+ yrs# of Pieces: 11-50Washability: Surface WipeStorability: Directions: Simple Play Locations: Indoor Adjustability: Levels of Play: Five or More LevelsBatteries: Yes – Not Included
Features and Benefits
Realistic Hands-on Approach to Learning Visually Stimulating Wide Age Range Open-ended Can Be Used Independently or w/Others Connects/Assembles Securely Many Accessories Tactilely Stimulating Auditorily Stimulating Durable Provides Pretend Play Opportunities Upright Position for Play Fosters Imagination/Promotes Creativity
Developmental processes promoted
Physical Range of Motion Patience Spatial Relationships e.g. Under, Over, On, Off Reaching/Arm Extension Life Skills Social Interaction Core Strengthening, Trunk Strength, Stability Coordinated Movement Imagination/Pretend Play Problem Solving Finger and Hand Control and Dexterity Eye-Hand Coordination Hand and Finger Grasp Fine Motor Action Concepts e.g. In/Out, Push/Pull, On/Off, Go/Stop Two-Handed Play – Midline Focus and Transferring Object Permanence Cause and Effect Language Development Memory and Recall Auditory Processing Visual Processing Auditory Attention Visual Attention Wrist Rotation Gross Motor Motor Planning Visual Discrimination Creativity Weight Shifting Cooperative Hand Movements Counting/Beginning Math Object Recognition and Identification Bilateral Coordination
