Hi!

I'm thinking about getting my son Jack started with pin trading. I can see pros and cons to trying this.

I'd like to hear from you: does your child enjoy it? Why? Do you have any tips to share? Have you experienced a down-side?

Some background on my son:
Jack will be celebrating his 8th b-day at WDW this spring. He has moderate cp and epilepsy. He has very low muscle tone in his mouth, so he uses a g-tube for nutrition and a speech-generating device to speak.

Jack is very social and enjoys interacting with everyone. This can be frustrating for him because he is hard to understand. He just got a super-sophisticated new talker and is learning to use it. I'm hoping that using it for pin trading and autographs at WDW will be great motivation.

My concern is the "closure" aspect to pin-trading. Jack has difficulty transitioning from one activity to another, especially if he's involved in something he likes a lot. He doesn't pick up on the social cues when an interaction is "over." I'm concerned that I may "create a monster" by introducing pin trading into the mix. He really enjoyed collecting autographs last year, but characters are few and far between compared to CMs with lanyards! I'm worried Jack will fixate on pin training and not enjoy everything else around him!

Do you think I should make a picture schedule and practice at home?

Also, do you think Ebay is the best way to get a lot of pins on the cheap? I don't think Jack will be attached to the pins at all--it's going to be about the interaction for him!

As always, thanks for all your input!

Tess
Poly 07
Poly 08