GASTON COUNTY, N.C. – Forestview High School senior Foster Rouse has spent a lot of time playing with toys.

“This is just something I went on YouTube and I searched a couple of videos…and there’s really not a whole lot on adaptive toys," he says.

Since January, Rouse has been creating adaptive toys for children with special needs and disabilities in Gaston County.

“These kind of toys teach kids cause and effect skills, and we sometimes take that for granted but that’s a really really important process," he says.

The idea to do this all came from Libby Riley, who works for the school district as a speech language pathologist

“I just pitched the idea to Foster," she says. "I said, 'this is what we do and this is how we use them…this is how we use the toys…we definitely have a shortage of them.'”

And soon Rouse got to work.

He decided to create these toys as part of his Eagle Scout project.

Originally, he was going to make 25 toys, but soon realized he could make and gift the district’s Exceptional Children Department with over 60 toys.

“To be able to use those toys to facilitate communication, language…joy... just to smile," he says. "Parents want to see their kids smile. Parents want to know that their kids are loved and that they are having a good time while they are learning and these toys provide us that opportunity.”

This project took a lot of time and work, but the end results is something a child can enjoy.

“These kind of toys…they’re really going to put a smile on these kids face, because they already put a smile on mine," Rouse says.

Rouse says it cost him $2,000 to create these toys but he was able to apply for the Teens Changing Gaston County grant that funded half of his project.