Written by Amber Bobnar

Updated on July 15, 2023

Our Lily LightAide Goes to School Competition is now closed and here is the final run down:

• 1st: Ox Ridge Elementary at 678 likes
• 2nd: Ralph Pfluger Elementary at 669 likes
• 3rd: UAH Rise School at 489 likes
• 4th: Loge Elementary School at 343 likes
• 5th: Yakima Public Schools at 97 likes

• The school with the most likes will receive a free LightAide (fully-loaded with all 66 activities)
• The school with the second most likes will receive 50% off a LightAide (fully-loaded with all 66 activities)
• The schools at third and fourth will receive 25% off a LightAide (pre-loaded with original 10 activities)
• The school at fifth will receive 10% off a LightAide (pre-loaded with original 10 activities)

Lily LightAide has visited many families and learned a lot about the kids she’s met, but Lily’s looking to increase her knowledge so of course she wants to go to school!

Would you like Lily LightAide to come visit your school?

The LightAide from Philips and Perkins Products creates a variety of interactive displays of color that support core learning goals and help instill the building blocks of literacy and mathematical concepts in learners with low vision, cognitive disabilities and other special needs.

The LightAide’s 224 bright multicolored LED lights respond to switch interactions from up to four players at a time. It’s preloaded with ten activities (with the option to purchase and download more later – currently up to 66 activities!) that range in level from easy to more complex.

For example, students can work on simple activities designed to encourage visual tracking, taking turns or the understanding of cause and effect… or they can learn letters and numbers or sequencing, matching and organizational skills. You’ll be amazed at all you can do with a board of 224 super-bright lights!

The LightAide is portable and light weight and works with any standard assistive switch. The lights don’t get hot, so it’s safe to touch, and it’s really easy to set up. It’s pretty much ready to go right out of the box!

The LightAide is perfect for kids with Cortical Visual Impairment (CVI) or any child who responds to light play, including children with autism or ADHD. Some teachers are even thinking about using the LightAide as part of their functional vision assessment.

So here’s the question: Is the LightAide right for your school? Would you like Lily to come visit you so you can find out?

Lily LightAide Goes to School!

Perkins Products, Philips and WonderBaby.org are excited to announce a new program that will send Lily LightAide to 6 schools in the US and Canada.

This program is open to:

• Schools in the US or Canada that service children with special needs
• All programs from Early Intervention to High School
• Schools and programs that have Facebook accounts
• A school website is a plus, but not a must

Participating schools will be asked to do the following while Lily LightAide is visiting:

• Use the LightAide during regular sessions with their students
• Take at least three photos of the students with the LightAide
• Take at least one video of the students with the LightAide
• Have release forms signed by the students’ families
• Post pics and video to Facebook where others can see what they are doing with the LightAide
• Post pics and video to their website (if they have one)
• Develop a lesson plan for a unique and interesting way to use the LightAide in their classroom or program

When Lily LightAide has come back from her travels, all 6 lesson plans will be posted to the WonderBaby Facebook page where visitors to the Facebook page will be able to read the details of each lesson plan and see shared photos and videos. Visitors will be asked to “like” the lesson plans they like best (read the program’s official rules).

Our Lily LightAide Goes to School Competition is now closed and here is the final run down:

• 1st: Ox Ridge Elementary at 678 likes
• 2nd: Ralph Pfluger Elementary at 669 likes
• 3rd: UAH Rise School at 489 likes
• 4th: Loge Elementary School at 343 likes
• 5th: Yakima Public Schools at 97 likes

• The school with the most likes will receive a free LightAide (fully-loaded with all 66 activities)
• The school with the second most likes will receive 50% off a LightAide (fully-loaded with all 66 activities)
• The schools at third and fourth will receive 25% off a LightAide (pre-loaded with original 10 activities)
• The school at fifth will receive 10% off a LightAide (pre-loaded with original 10 activities)

Where is Lily LightAide Today?

1. Ralph Pfluger Elementary School: Visited by Lily LightAide February 6th
2. Yakima Public Schools: Visited by Lily LightAide February 17th
3. UAH Rise School: Visited by Lily LightAide March 8th
4. Loge Elementary School: Visited by Lily LightAide March 30th
5. Jessamine Early Learning Village: Visited by Lily LightAide April 6th
6. Ox Ridge Elementary School: Visited by Lily LightAide April 20th

Ralph Pfluger Elementary School: Visited by Lily LightAide on February 6th

School Info: My name is Jessica Ovalle, and I am a proud Life Skills teacher at Pfluger Elementary in Hays CISD. This is my 10th year to teach Life Skills and I love my class! My class is excited to be a part of this wonderful opportunity! I have an amazing class of five boys and girls who are so ready to learn and show everyone what they can do. Their determination is inspiring to me everyday and I believe that having this amazing tool in our classroom will assist them in reaching so many goals as well as being an incentive to communicate.

Not only would this be a tool for my class, but I would like to share the opportunity with the preschool classroom next door. Ms. Tomlinson, our preschool teacher, has students who will eventually be coming up to our Life Skills program and will also greatly benefit from this wonderful product. Between our two classrooms, currently we have eight students ranging from pre- school to 5th grade with Cortical Visual Impairments. These students also have additional diagnoses such as Cerebral Palsy, Mitochondrial Metabolism Disorders, CHARGE Syndrome, Rett Syndrome, and Dandy Walker Syndrome.

With the LightAide we are planning big things!!! For our younger students, we plan to use LightAide to help in teaching beginning switch use in a highly motivating form through cause and effect lessons. We also hope to work on visual skills such as
tracking and social skills such as turn-taking. For our older students, we are excited to incorporate it into teaching numbers, letters, sequencing, and matching skills. The possibilities seem endless!

Learn more about Ralph Pfluger Elementary School on their website, hayscisd.net/Pfluger.cfm, or follow them on their Facebook page.

What is Ralph Pfluger Elementary School doing with the LightAide?

Ralph Pfluger Elementary School LightAide Lesson Plan

It can be difficult to come up with fun, engaging and multi-sensory ways to teach colors to children who are visually impaired. In this lesson plan from Ralph Pfluger Elementary School, the bright lights and movements of the LightAide are paired with textured posters and scented markers to really make the lesson come alive!

Vote for Ralph Pfluger Elementary School by liking their lesson plan on Facebook!

Yakima Public Schools: Visited by Lily LightAide February 17th

School Info: We are Kathy Michielsen and Kina Blackburn. We are both TVI’s for the Yakima School District. Yakima is located in Central Washington State. We are approximately 2 hours from Seattle, 3 hours from Portland and 3 hours from Spokane. Agriculture is the primary economic base—apples, pears, wine grapes, and hops. We have a very large migrant population and a large percentage of our students are on free/reduced lunch. Kina has a BS in Technology and a Master’s degree in Vision Impairments. This is her 5th year as a TVI. This is Kathy’s 4th year as a TVI and 29th year as a SPED teacher.

We currently serve approximately 10 students who have a diagnosis (or characteristics) of CVI, two students with Usher’s 1, a student with CHARGE Syndrome, students with glaucoma, Shaken Baby Syndrome, albinism, ONH and a number of students with multiple disabilities. Our current student population ranges in ages 3 – 18. We have both taken Christine Roman-Lantzy’s CVI training through Washington State School for the Blind – Thank you WSSB! We are thrilled to have the opportunity to use the LightAide with our students and share that opportunity with our Assistive Technology Specialist (Robin Bradford) as we share many of the same students and work closely together. Thank you for the opportunity for us to try this amazing piece of technology.

Learn more about Yakima Public Schools on their website, yakimaschools.org, or follow them on their Facebook page.

What is Yakima Public Schools doing with the LightAide?

Yakima Public Schools LightAide Lesson Plan

Creativity is often part of the job description when you’re working with children who are blind or visually impaired, particularly when teaching concepts that can be very two dimensional. In this lesson plan from Yakima Public Schools, students are introduced to shapes and matching through the bright lights on the LightAide.

Vote for Yakima Public Schools by liking their lesson plan on Facebook!

UAH Rise School: Visited by Lily LightAide March 8th

School info: The UAH Rise School is an integrated early childhood program located on the campus of The University of Alabama in Huntsville. Currently, our school has three classrooms serving children 18 months – 5 years of age. Our program maintains a 50:50 ratio of children with and without special needs and strives to provide a natural learning environment where all students can shine! The UAH Rise School staff is comprised of director Caroline Bradford, three master degree classroom teachers and three classroom teaching assistants, as well as an occupational, physical, music and two speech therapists.

The Lily LightAide will be most beneficial in our two-year-old classroom. Serving children with diagnoses ranging from Cortical Vision Impairment, Cerebral Palsy, Auditory Neuropathy/Dysynchrony, Bilirubin Kernicterus, to Down syndrome, we plan to use this amazing tool to assist in meeting individual goals such as tracking, cause and effect and switch usage. In addition to one-on-one uses, this system will promote turn taking, early literacy and math readiness when employed in group and peer interactions. We are looking forward to the Lily LightAide sharing its light with our children at The UAH Rise School – where special kids shine!

Learn more about the UAH Rise School on their website, uah.edu/rise-school, or follow them on their Facebook page.

What is UAH Rise School doing with the LightAide?

UAH Rise School LightAide Lesson Plan

This lesson plan from UAH Rise School incorporates the Lily LightAide into the 2-year old class’s daily morning circle time routine. During this group instructional time, the students are exposed to both verbal and sign language, social interaction and weather identification. Math readiness skills such as calendar concepts, counting and number recognition are also included in this lesson. The addition of the LightAide device allows students with low vision, cognitive disabilities and other special needs that respond to interactive displays of colored lights participate more independently in the morning circle time activities.

Vote for UAH Rise School by liking their lesson plan on Facebook!

Loge Elementary School: Visited by Lily LightAide March 30th

School Info: My name is Jeanne Lee. I am the Teacher for students who are Blind or Low Vision in Warrick and Gibson Counties, Indiana. I have been teaching in this area for 22 years. I work in five school districts, with students in 15 different schools. My students range from ages 3-22, including all levels of vision loss and varying other disabilities.

Loge Elementary School in Boonville, Indiana, was the school I chose to apply for because it houses two of our special needs preschool classes. The LightAide will be a huge asset to these programs. Even though it will benefit all the students, I will be focusing on one or two students who are visually impaired, both low vision and cortical vision impaired.

I am very excited to be given this opportunity to utilize Lily LightAide to enhance these students’ ability to progress on their individual goals. Thank you WonderBaby and LightAide for this opportunity.

Learn more about Loge Elementary School on their website, warrick.k12.in.us/schools/loge, or follow them on their Facebook page.

What is Loge Elementary School doing with the LightAide?

Loge Elementary School LightAide Lesson Plan

This is a seven-day lesson plan from Loge Elementary School where we spend one day on each color of the rainbow. This lesson uses the bright lights of the LightAide with additional tactile elements.

Vote for Loge Elementary School by liking their lesson plan on Facebook!

Jessamine Early Learning Village: Visited by Lily LightAide April 6th

School Info: The staff and students of Jessamine Early Learning Village in Nicholasville, Kentucky would like to welcome Lily Lightaide and the readers of WonderBaby.org to our spectacular school! The Village educates approximately 950 preschool and kindergarten students of all abilities and exceptionalities across Jessamine County. Teachers, staff, and families work together in partnership to provide each student an inviting place to learn that helps him or her to achieve great things, both academically and socially.

While she visits, we look forward to incorporating Lily Lightaide into our classrooms that have students with visual impairments and other complex needs by providing our kiddos with accessible curriculum activities that encourage positive peer interactions!

Learn more about Jessamine Early Learning Village on their website, jessamine.kyschools.us, or follow them on their Facebook page.

What is Jessamine Early Learning Village doing with the LightAide?

Ox Ridge Elementary School: Visited by Lily LightAide April 20th

School Info: Hello Lily LightAide!! Welcome to Ox Ridge School in beautiful Darien, CT! We are thrilled to have you visit us and plan to keep you VERY busy for the next few weeks. Let me introduce myself. I am Betsy Caridi, the district teacher of the visually impaired. I have been working with children with a variety of visual impairments for 30 years and I am so excited to implement some of my most creative lessons with the use of the LightAide. Here’s the best part… Lily LightAide will find herself in a variety of settings with a variety of staff and students. Although our goal is to meet the unique needs of our student with cortical visual impairment, it will be done with all of her classroom peers! Second grade is a very fun place to learn, and Lily LightAide will fit right in!

Lily, get ready to rock some activities involving reaching, number identification, counting, early literacy, turn taking, and communication! Best of all, sharing these fun activities with second grade friends will be awesome fun and will help all of the students, regardless of their abilities or disabilities, to interact on a level playing field. Learning is great fun, and using this LightAide on a consistent basis will be amazing!!

Learn more about Ox Ridge Elementary School on their website, darienps.org/oxridge/, or follow them on their Facebook page.

What is Ox Ridge Elementary School doing with the LightAide?

Here is a picture of my student’s reaction to her first activity on Lily LightAide. Priceless!!

Ox Ridge School LightAide Lesson Plan

This lesson plan from Ox Ridge Elementary School shows how the LightAide can be used in a second grade classroom to make story time accessible to all the students while also encouraging social interaction amongst peers of various abilities.

Vote for Ox Ridge School by liking their lesson plan on Facebook!

Lily LightAide images by John Kane Studios