Rand Wrobel and his wife, Michaele Monaghan, are forming the Lilliworks Active Learning Foundation to increase funding for and spread the word about Active Learning, a technique that uses simple, affordable equipment to help blind children and those with neurological disorders, cerebral palsy and developmental disabilities learn.

By the time the couple found out about Active Learning they were frustrated that their 4-year-old daughter, Miranda, who is visually impaired and has severe cerebral palsy, couldn't play by herself.

"She was totally passive, had to be attended to all the time. If she wasn't on someone's lap she was upset. We had tried everything and nothing was working. She was unresponsive," Wrobel said.

"We were desperate to find something to help her play. With the Active Learning, she is entertained. For her to play for an extended period of time is a huge breakthrough," he added.

The idea, parents said, is to back off and let the children interact with toys and equipment by themselves.

"There's a saying that it takes two people to do Active Learning, one to hold the other one back," said Wrobel, 42.

Developed about 35 years ago by Lilli Nielsen, now 74, to help her four blind siblings, Active Learning encourages children to move on their own by interacting with simple equipment.

The resonance board -- a thin plywood panel -- vibrates with each movement a child makes, while the HOPSA Dress, similar to a swing, supports the child without his or her legs bearing weight.

The Play Tray, filled with marbles and beads and household goodies, is useful because children can make noise and receive tactile stimulation at the same time, parents say.

Wrobel said he plans to import the equipment and is considering producing it locally. The equipment is usually imported from Germany, and in the past parents have had to wait extended periods for delivery.

Wrobel has the support of the Blind Babies Foundation in San Francisco, which has recommended Active Learning to clients for about a decade.

"I think it brings out intrinsic motivation that kids have to learn," said Rebecca Allswang, a home counselor with the foundation in San Francisco.

"Kids who have had a lot of therapists working with them and children who are visually impaired can become passive because they are used to being prompted by someone else. This gives them the opportunity to learn from their own actions."

On a recent visit to Alameda, where she showed a dozen or so parents how to use her equipment, Nielsen said the concept she developed is actually rather simple.

"If you can find surroundings that make a child explore and experience things on their own, then they become curious and active," she said. "The child who is aided by himself will learn."

Parents and grandparents who have used Active Learning with their own offspring agree.

Vicki Carson's 3-year-old grandson, Gabriel, was deprived of oxygen at birth and has extreme brain damage as a result. Carson said Gabriel is hypertonic, meaning his muscles are stiff and toned, and the equipment has helped him relax.

"We can create an environment where he can move in his own way and interact with the environment," she said. "We were told that he would never go to school or even open his eyes, and he will start pre-school soon."