Madon Wannamaker, 8, of Cranberry Township smiles after playing with a toy Thursday at the Easterseals school in Cranberry. The toy was repaired by Duquesne University's START-Play Hackers club.

CRANBERRY TWP — Two gloves touched together.

A light shone from a BeatBo's belly.

And 8-year-old Madon Wannamaker's face lit up.

The Easterseals Linda Lanham Zeszutek School Program on Rowan Road, for children ages 3 to 8 with autism and multiple disabilities, was filled with amazement, excitement and curiosity Thursday as students and professors from Duquesne University brought repaired and refurbished toys to help the children with motor and cognitive skill development.

The Duquesne visitors were members of the Sitting Together and Reaching To-Play Hackers club, a school organization with the goal of providing children with physical limitation the ability to play with toys, an activity aiding the development of motor, perceptual and cognitive skills.

“If they can't play with toys, they may have defects in problem solving,” said Madison Gregord, a Duquesne physical therapy student. “So getting them to play is kind of a goal of physical therapy.”

The BeatBo, an animatronic toy that plays music and lights up with the press of a button — or the connecting of two gloves, as the START-Play Hackers redesigned it — is boasted by Fisher-Price as aiding in gross motor and sensory development while allowing its users to maintain a sense of curiosity and discovery.

But beyond specific toys, Regina Harbourne, a Duquesne professor of physical therapy, said the simple act of playing and expanding mobility aids that child's ability to understand abstract concepts such as object permanence.

“It's the building of learning about how the world works,” Harbourne said. “We're trying to give them a jump on that.”

While BeatBo was popular with the Easterseals children, it was a push-button car that stole the show for Kyla Sayer, 4, of Wexford, Allegheny County.

The same cause-and-effect principle was at work with Kyla, who would press and hold a button in the center of the car's steering wheel and find herself jetting across the classroom. She also found other ways to manipulate the car, driving in bursts as she repeatedly pressed — but did not hold — the accelerator.That was the goal.“Play is a way to learn responses, like ... when you touch it, this is how it reacts,” said Peggy Pievach, a marketing manager with Easterseals Western and Central Pennsylvania.The START–Play Hackers work with Easterseals to repair broken toys because of the high expense — and often shoddy quality — of toys designed to aid in childhood development, according to Pievach.Students enjoyed the results, gathering around a push-button bubble machine and watching with awe or poking the bubbles.Harbourne said the group, which began around 2015, sees the program as a way to learn about physical therapy and skill development while helping the schools with which it works.When the Duquesne club walked through Easterseals' door with a multitude of toys, the result of their hard work encouraged the children to play and provided the club members with a deeper education on how to help children with multiple needs.

Regina Harbourne, professor of physical therapy at Duquesne University, watches on as Kyla Sayer, 4, of Wexford drives a toy car Thursday at the Easterseals school. The car was repaired by Duquesne's START-Play Hackers, which Harbourne is involved with.