Tactile Rainstick

thingiverse

I designed a rainstick that has a top and bottom cap along with a middle piece. You can put in as many middle pieces as you want to make it as long as desired. These different parts all have threads modeled into them and fit together tightly. There is the possibility to have various textures modeled onto the middle part. I designed one texture and I would like to see how the 3d printing community can come up with other textures for the exterior of the middle piece. The Idea behind the product is that it is a tactile toy for children that are visually impaired. A rainstick is perfect because it is a toy that children can manipulate and there is no right or wrong way to play with it. The toy can act as a pre-brail tool for the children. The concept is that learning to associate the sound produced with the texture of the exterior is less abstract than associating a texture with a letter or word (brail). So therefore, playing with this toy could help strengthen skills that children that are blind will need to learn brail. Printing the rainstick in different materials with different textures will produce various sounds. This way one child can have a few of these rainsticks and all of them establish a different association between a texture and sound. I printed my rainstick in a wood PLA. I am interested to see if anyone has some cool ideas for different textures or materials to use! Video