I am all about thinking ‘outside of the box.’ As a Special Education teacher, I am continuously looking for ways to motivate my students, as well as provide them with any accommodations and/or supports that may help them.
A couple of years ago, I started to wonder what impact Pinball Play would have with Autistic students. It just seemed to me that the combination of lights, angles, and overall logistics of the game, would be appealing. I started to wonder if I could use Pinball Play to help aid peer interactions, motivation, and overall behavior. After I completed a few Google searches, I found out that this was indeed something others had already looked into.
Where would I Find a Machine?
The more I thought of this idea, the more that I was intrigued about the value a Pinball machine could bring to my students. I knew there would be people who would think the children wouldn’t be completing as much work in my room as they should, but I was sure I could put those worries to rest. My administrator was on board as soon as I pitched my idea. The next hurdle was to look for possible grants to fund a machine for my classroom.
I went back to Google to begin my search for grants that would fit my unique project. With the help of a colleague, I was able to contact an organization called Project Pinball.
Project Pinball
Project Pinball is a non-profit organization that places pinball machines into Ronald McDonald Houses and Assisted Living facilities. There machines provide therapeutic play to those who need it most. They were intrigued with the idea of helping place a machine in a Special Education elementary classroom. After a couple of discussions, we made plans and set up a time for a machine dedication in my room!
The Anticipated Arrival of School Days!
It wasn’t long and Daniel Spolar, Project Pinball’s Senior Founder and Director, arrived at my classroom in Michigan all the way from his headquarters in Florida. He brought along his Marketing Specialist, Taj, and together they placed School Days in the classroom.
The Pinball machine was an instant hit with students and staff. There was an abundance of visitors during the initial time period of when the machine arrived. It wasn’t long and a Leader Board was created to keep track of scores.
Case Study
During my initial conversations with Daniel, we discussed the possibility of conducting a Case Study to track the impact the machine had with the students. I was all for the idea and data was collected during the initial months of having the machine in the room.
I did have some concerns with noise level and the amount of distractions the machine may cause throughout the day. After just a few days with the Pinball machine in my room, I was pleasantly surprised that both of those concerns were not a problem. The machine is an older style and the sounds are not as high pitched as I anticipated. Also, Daniel placed the volume setting on low to help with this.
The machine itself has become a part of our classroom ‘make-up.’ Because of this, students are able to complete certain types of work while the machine is in use. If we are conducting a reading lesson, or any type of assessments, Pinball is ‘closed’ at that time.
The completed Case Study can be found here. I had hypothesized that the area where I would see the most impact would be shortening the time when a student needed to regroup before returning to their general education setting. While that was definitely a benefit to the Pinball Play, the area that was positively affected the most was the peer interactions between students. It was so exciting for me to see a student that did not interact often with peers, discussing Pinball strategy as they walked together down the hallway. I also heard from classroom teachers stories of how students that had played Pinball together in my room were now interacting in math groups and out at recess.
A Year in Review
We have had the Pinball machine in our classroom for an entire year now. It was recently picked up by Daniel and his team for maintenance, but will be returning to the classroom this next month. Daniel, and everyone at Project Pinball, have been amazing partners as we work to provide supports for students with Special Needs. I appreciate all of the support they have given me. With their assistance, we have been able to add another resource to the classroom to help build positive peer interactions.
Helpful Links from this Blog Post:
** If you are able to do so, please visit Daniel’s website and check it out. Project Pinball is doing great things!
Goals for Today:
- Play Basketball with My Kids
- Read 2 Chapters in my Book
- Work on the Outline of my next Children’s Chapter Book
One response to “Pinball in the Classroom – Positively Impacting Student Behavior Through Pinball Play”
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR SUPPORT, ASHLEY!!! Partnering with you on this project and learning how pinball is helping your kiddos has made our hearts soar❤️🤍💛