Weighted vests made by University of Wisconsin-Stout students are making a difference to students in one Minnesota school district.
UW-Stout students in the Garment Production and Engineering class taught by Sheri Marnell, program director with the apparel design and development program, made 50 weighted vests last spring and donated them to the West St. Paul-Mendota Heights-Eagan Area Schools in Minnesota for special needs students.
The vests, in various sizes, have special interior pockets in which weights can be added.
“Added weights to some areas of the body can have a calming effect,” said Jenn Veenendall, occupational therapist with the school district. “It’s good for people with anxiety. We definitely do see it helps, some students more than others.”
Students have been using the vests this school year. They wear them for about 20 minutes, Veenendall said.
Buying the vests would have been expensive, $50 to $100 per vest, Veenendall said. “Public schools don’t have a lot of budget to get extras like this,” Veenendall said.
UW-Stout students researched the topic, came up with the design and then produced the vests as part of the class, Marnell said. There were 21 students in the class.
Each vest has 10 to 12 interior pockets, depending on size, for the half-pound weights, which are made from play sand. Vests usually are weighted with 5 to 10 percent of a child’s weight.
Putting the pockets on the interior allows students to fit in better with their peers because no one sees the weights, Marnell said.
“They look like regular vests,” Veenendall said.
“The most challenging part was creating an idea and a design to hold the weights,” said Megan Vande Walle, 23, a senior from Appleton.
Students in the class made sure the vests were fashionable but also functional so children wearing them could move and participate in school activities, said Kalli Smith, 23, a senior from Anoka, Minn.
“The vests help students stay calm,” Smith said. “It is like a big hug. We wanted to make sure to give them a good quality product that would hold up under use and look nice for them to wear.”
Each vest was embroidered with the school’s logo, Smith said.
One aspect of the design students had to plan for was sizing. Adding weight changes the fit on children, Vande Walle said.
Marnell wants her students to pick meaningful projects that also provide a challenge and educational opportunity, which the vests did, teaching students how to design and manufacture a product.
The students also helped decide what project they wanted to complete.
“I believe it’s important, if possible, for students to have significant input in what project they want to do,” Marnell said.
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Photos
UW-Stout apparel design and development students Kalli Smith, left, and Megan Vande Walle display weighted vests they helped make for a Minnesota school district. The special vests, also seen in the background on the mannequin, help young students who have anxiety.
Sheri Marnell
