DIY Cause & Effect Lights for Switch Users

This is a great and inexpensive idea for cause and effect switch lights. These images are from one of our client’s birthday parties. We designed personalized cause and effect lights and mounted them on the tray of her wheelchair. This way she had a completely independent way to tell everyone it was her birthday! Not only did this help build her self confidence, but also so many adults and kids in the school came up to her to speak with her. This increased her social communication and was an overall effective way to promote reciprocal conversation while she used her speech generating device to respond to those coming up to her.

Through Partner Assisted Scanning, she picked out bright pink electrical tape for the project to mount the lights on her chair. The total cost of this was $20. The student already had a Pal Pad purple switch from eSpecial Needs, so we hooked the lights into that.  

Supplies used:

• ‘Happy Birthday’ String Lights (Flying Tiger) $5
• AA Battery Interrupter Ablenet $15

1.  We inserted the battery Interrupter into the + side of the battery switch, and strung the extra wire though the side of the battery pack.

2. We taped down the lights to her chair tray and left the switch port out so that the tray can come off throughout the day as needed.

3. We plugged the Pal Pad in, and success the lights went on!