Saturday Star

Mini-groceries sales promotion finds a niche with special-needs educators

- MASEGO PANYANE

IT LASTED for four weeks. South Africans shopped up a storm just so they could get the free mini-groceries at stores across the country.

Other than being a wildly successful sales gimmick, however, these dinky little toys are making a big difference in the lives of special needs children.

Pretoria-based speech/language therapist Nicola Sowah, who helps autistic children, says the minis make learning easier for her young charges: “They help me teach symbolic communicat­ion, as the children match the words or instructio­n with the mini item.”

She began sharing the method with other therapists on her Facebook page, Speech4Afr­ica, and now it has become overwhelmi­ngly popular.

“I normally share ideas with other therapists, parents and educators on my Facebook page, and since I started sharing the visuals, other people have also started using the method.”

Many of Sowah’s patients struggle with communicat­ion. They often cannot speak, but can hear.

She employs Alter native Augmentive Communicat­ion (AAC) tools to help them communicat­e with those around them. The visuals she has created are meant to help children with sequencing and co-ordinating daily activities.

Sowah has created visual charts where she attaches the miniature items to instructio­ns; for example, on how to do a morning bath routine.

While she’s been able to buy some of the items and make use of them in her sessions, she would’ve liked to have more, so she could send them home with her patients.

She began a Facebook campaign to collect as many of the items as possible, as well as to get the retail giant to donate some to her. “While I was sharing these methods, I started a campaign asking Checkers to donate some of these items. While that was happening, people started donating their duplicate items to me as well.”

According to the Shoprite group’s marketing director Neil Schreuder, the company is unable to assist Sowah and others like her, as it has run out of stock.

“The campaign received an overwhelmi­ngly positive response from the public, with many requests having been received from schools, educationa­l therapists, learning groups and individual­s.

“We were unfortunat­ely not able to respond to all of these requests as stocks of the mini collectabl­es ran out quickly. As such, we encouraged the public to swop, trade and donate their minis.”

Schreuder said the group had noted all the feedback received from the public and would incorporat­e it into future campaigns. Samm Higgins from Centurion, Pretoria has seen a marked improvemen­t in her 10-year-old son Deqlan, who has been diagnosed with functionin­g autism. Deqlan, who is currently receiving therapy, is a big fan of the little shop items.

“He loved the little shop collection from the first time they were advertised. He is a keen collector so was very excited to get to use them during therapy, too,” his mother said. “Our therapist used them in various ways. For auditory processing practise, she would mention specific things about a product. Deqlan had to listen to all the descriptio­ns and find the one she was describing.

“For example: ‘It’s orange, you can drink it, it comes in a box’ – the Liqui-Fruit carton.

“He enjoyed this task thoroughly during therapy and at home. It helped him to listen to multiple instructio­ns.

“We also bought the Little store and practiced using the money when buying the products. The therapy was not only effective but incredibly enjoyable too,” said Higgins.

For Sowah, meanwhile, even though she doesn’t have as many mini-groceries as she’d ideally like to have, she’s discovered an incredibly powerful therapeuti­c tool.

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 ??  ?? More than just collectibl­e trinkets, these tiny replicas of real grocery items have proved to be invaluable aids to special-needs therapists.
More than just collectibl­e trinkets, these tiny replicas of real grocery items have proved to be invaluable aids to special-needs therapists.

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