Bubble Wrap® wallpaper comforts autistic children, wins top prize

-- Converting Magazine, 2/1/2008

Hannah Haas, a 13-year-old, home-schooled student from Charlotte, NC, wins the Grand Prize in the second annual, nationwide Bubble Wrap® competition for Young Inventors.

Haas’s invention, “Sensory Wallpaper,” uses Bubble Wrap cushioning to create wallpaper that is designed to stimulate, engage and comfort children afflicted with autism. The invention, which combines a textured bubble surface containing large and small bubbles on a calming, blue wallpaper background, edged out more than 1,400 entries received and earned the eighth-grader the competition’s top prize and a $10,000 US savings bond.

In an essay accompanying her invention, Haas explains that children with autism and sensory-processing disorder often find that rubbing their hands on textured surfaces is calming, and that this sensory input gives children with sensory issues an awareness of their own bodies as well as their environment. Haas designed her Sensory Wallpaper “to give children with autism the sensory stimulation they crave built right into their own environment.”

Other winners include:

Second Place Winner ($5,000 US Savings Bond): Nicolette Mann, 13, Christiansburg, VA – “Transformable Bubble Wrap Kite” – A home-schooled eighth-grader who used Bubble Wrap cushioning to create a single kit that enables the easy assembly of multiple flying kites by providing detailed instructions on how to construct different formations, shapes and styles.

Third Place Winner ($3,000 US Savings Bond): Max Wallack, 11, Natick, MA – “Carpal Cushion” – An eighth-grader at the Advanced Math and Science Academy, Max used Bubble Wrap to create an adjustable wrist cushion designed to help alleviate and prevent the symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome experienced by computer users, as well as agricultural and manufacturing workers in foreign and developing nations.