Did Jackson actually make his turkey?

If you’re Facebook friends with me, then you’ve already seen a picture of the best turkey ever:

Josh and I found this in Jackson’s diaper bag this weekend. Since we don’t usually take him to therapy (Jackson’s grandparents take him to therapy at the Perlman Center), we occasionally find fun things in his bag, like the best turkey ever.

My first thought was, “Did Jackson actually make the turkey?” Jackson doesn’t use his hands to grab things yet, so it would be hard for him to place the feathers on the turkey. But the more I looked at the turkey, the more I thought that it was definitely possible for him to have made it.

Josh and I saw Jackson’s occupational therapist today and I asked her if Jackson made the turkey. She said that Jackson did, in fact, make the turkey. So, how did he make it?

Jackson is good at playing with cause and effect toys, like switches. Switches come in all different sizes This is a Big Mack Communicator Switch:

We have one at home. We can record our voices on the switch (i.e. “I love my Mommy!” or “My Daddy is the best!”), so whenever Jackson hits the big red button, our voices play. Hence, cause (hit the button) and effect (it makes noise). Jackson loves his switch and he’s really good at hitting it to make it make noise.

Switches can also be hooked up to toys. If a child doesn’t use his hands, then he most likely can’t play with many toys. However, if you hook up a switch to a battery-operated toy, the toy will play or make noise when you hit the switch. For example, if you have an Elmo doll who sings when you press a button in his foot, you can hook up the switch to the batteries and Elmo will sing when you hit the switch instead of the button. Follow me?

How does this relate to the best turkey ever? I’m getting to that.

Jackson’s therapists let him pick out the feathers (Jackson will sometimes make choices. If you show him two toys, he can look with his eyes to tell you which one he wants to play with). After he picked out the feathers, they hooked up the switch to a fan. Jackson hit the switch, which turned on the fan, which blew the feathers onto the turkey. Voila, the best turkey ever is created!

I was so excited to learn that Jackson actually made the best turkey ever. I now know what it’s like to be a proud parent of your kid’s artwork. The best turkey ever is hanging on our frig and I don’t have any plans to take it down.