Talking plush novelty toy and interactive story book for teaching a reader desired behavioral patterns to protect oneself from sexual predators

• US 8,277,221 B2
• Filed: 08/16/2005
• Issued: 10/02/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/15/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Justin Clarke Gomez Tagle, Legal Representative
• Original Assignee: Justin Clarke Gomez Tagle, Legal Representative
• Inventors: Damron, Celeste, Irvine, Cynthia, Irvine, Cecile
• Primary Examiner(s): Fernstrom, Kurt
• Application Number:
  US11/205,539
• Publication Number:
  US 20060127866A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,604 Days
• Field of Search: 434/155, 434/169, 434/178, 434/236, 434/308, 434/317, 446/297
• US Class Current: 434/236
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 5/062 Combinations of audio and printed presentations, e.g. magnetically striped cards, talking books, magnetic tapes with printed texts thereon

Abstract

A portable talking toy having an audio signal producer is provided with an educational book, which contains indiciums noted on at least one of the pages that are the same words or phrases uttered by the talking toy. The book has a plurality of numbered pages containing parts of a story. The story is used to teaching desired behavioral and psychological patterns that will aid the reader in learning how to self protect from sexual predators. The talking toy is provided with a pressure switch in the form of a button attached externally to the toy causing a sound to be emitted from the electronic voice box stored inside the toy. It will may have memory capable of storing and emitting words and sounds/words associated with indiciums noted in the story book and a microphone device for providing audible signals that enable sound, including music stored with each specific sound as background. The specific words communicate messages related to desired behavioral patterns. The books will contain multiple illustrations and indicium prompts indicating when the reader should press the button on the toy to hear the word or sound. Interaction between the characters in said book is purposed to encourage self-awareness in a reader encouraging him/her to pull cord or press the button on the toy thereby reinforcing the learning of the desired behavioral patterns.

Claims

1. An educational toy adapted to teach children comprising

(a) a soft plush toy comprising a body portion, extremity portions, a head portion, and an interior portion;

(b) an access portion on the exterior of said body portion;

(c) an audio device portion within said interior portion comprising an audible signal generator which emits audible sounds from within the toy;

(d) an actuator attached to the exterior of said body portion which is configured to activate said audible signal generator,

(e) a cover section on the exterior portion of said body portion comprising an access door and a latch which is configured to provide access to said interior portion; and

(f) an interactive story book comprising a cover and a plurality of pages having indicia thereon, where the pages comprise a plurality of instructional cues instructing the reader to activate the actuator on the soft plush toy;

wherein the audio device portion of the soft plush toy is configured to store audio messages in a sequential order such that audio messages in an order corresponding to the indicia of the book are generated in response to repeated activations of the actuator.

2. The educational toy of claim 1, wherein said actuator is a button.

3. The educational toy of claim 1, wherein said actuator is a pull ring.

4. The educational toy of claim 1, wherein said audio device portion further comprises:

(a) a power source;

(b) a speaker device;

(c) an oscillator;

(d) a voice chip;

(e) a microcontroller and

(f) memory configured to store data including words, phrases, animal noises, and background music.

5. The educational toy of claim 1, wherein the soft plush toy represents a character in a story depicted in the book.

6. The educational toy of claim 1, wherein at least some of the the audio messages produced by the soft plush toy correspond to messages printed in the book.

7. The educational toy of claim 1, wherein the indicia on the pages of said book comprise text and illustrations.

8. The educational toy of claim 1, further comprising a series of books, where each book comprises a cover and a plurality of pages having indicia thereon, the pages comprising a plurality of instructional cues instructing the reader to activate the actuator on the soft plush toy.

9. The educational toy of claim 8, wherein the books comprise stories which are configured to be used by children of different age groups.