A House for EVERYbody - Activity Instructions

Tune In

Take a picture walk through ‘Come Over To My House’ as a reminder of the adjustments in each household. “We are going to look for all the ways the families made their homes more suitable for their family members”. Children might point out

ramps for walkers/wheelchairs
flashing doorbell
use of Auslan/texting/writing messages
headphones to block out excessive noise
braille
assistance dog
stools and stepladders
prosthetic limbs.

Find Out

Go on a discovery walk and take a look around your room/yard/early learning centre with the children. Look for things in the building that are inclusive (e.g. ramps, automatic doors, braille on security keypads) and things that may be inhibiting for people with varying disabilities (e.g. high door handles/gates, stairs, sign-in procedures requiring visual cues).

“Let’s go on a hunt for all of the things around our (early learning centre/kindergarten/daycare) that would help people the people we met in the book. Also, keep your eye out for things that might be difficult for these people.”

As children identify each inclusive or inhibiting feature, have a discussion about who in the community may be affected. For example

People who are in a wheelchair or have a walker will benefit from ramps. People can be in wheelchairs for lots of reasons. Mei Li in the story has Cerebral Palsy so uses both a wheelchair and a walker to help her. Ramps will also help people with prams or small children who are learning to walk.
The braille on the security keypad might help people who are blind. Some blind people cannot see at all, but some people can see a little bit, maybe light and dark or blurry shapes. They might have an assistance dog that is trained to help them get places safely, and then they might use braille to feel the numbers on the keypad.
Automatic doors help everyone, whether you’re in a wheelchair or you just have full hands. Are we allowed to use the big green button that opens the door for us? Yeah, we can! Accessibility features help everyone.

You could also discuss with the children things they have in their house to help them. Maybe they have a step to reach the bathroom or kitchen counters. Maybe they have a special small toilet seat so they don’t fall in! Maybe they have a night light to help them go to the toilet at night. It isn’t just people with disabilities who benefit from accessibility modifications, they can help everyone.

Take Action

Invite children to assist you in making a doll house more inclusive. Use the book ‘Come Over To My House’ and your own (early learning centre/kindergarten/daycare) discovery walk as reference for adjustments that could be made.

Provide the support and scaffolding required, however, allow the children time to problem solve how they could add adjustments using things around the room and construction materials.

Children could be placed into smaller groups to work together to create one adjustment, allowing the entire dollhouse to be a collaborative project for the larger group.