Hi Eleanor

The answer to your problem may well be to make the counters bigger! The Early Learning Centre used to sell (and may well still stock) a simple device, about the size of a 35 mm film canister (remember them?) which was essentially a go/no go gauge for choke hazards. If the toy or whatever wouldn’t fit in the pot it was too big to be a choking hazard as it wouldn’t fit in a toddler’s mouth/throat. From memory anything bigger than about 35 mm diameter wouldn’t fit, and so would be safe.

Another benefit of making the things a bit bigger is that they are harder to conceal in a sticky little hand, or in pocket and so people will be less likely to walk off with them, although you’ll never get the attrition rate down to zero. 


Hope this helps

regards


Richard.

Richard Ellam
L M Interactive
Science Shows and Hands-On Stuff
[log in to unmask]
www.lminteractive.co.uk

On 24 Aug 2015, at 11:35, Eleanor Pulfer <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

Good Morning, 

Apologies if this question has been asked before....

We are planning to develop our exhibition on 'The Dowding System' during the Battle of Britain, where children and their families will be invited to plot an incoming enemy raid on a map of Britain. 

Information from radar about incoming raids was plotted on a Filter Map with different shaped counters, from circles to arrows. The speed to which the incoming raids had to be plotted on the map with the counters gave it the nickname of 'Mad Ludo'. 

Ideally, we'd like to use counters (perhaps magnetic counters) but are worried about the potential risk posed to younger children in the gallery as the counters would be quite small and might be quite inviting to try and eat! 

If anybody has any guidance they would be happy to share on how to reduce this risk, or has experience of using an alternative to counters it would be gratefully received. 

Thank you in advance, 

Eleanor Pulfer
Bentley Priory Museum 


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