Playtime Tips!

By engaging in play, children are able to explore their environment, learn how things work and expand their imagination.  As children with special needs often have limited play skills, it is crucial that we spend the time teaching them to have fun and successful play experiences.  Let's Play! Projects is an assistive technology center supported by the U.S. Department of Education and are dedicated to helping children with special needs to "communicate and interact with well-designed and adapted play materials".  They have created a website in partnership with Fisher-Price that focuses on helping families select toys that their children will love and learn from.  They break down play for children with special needs into the following 3 stages: experience, discovery and expanding imagination.  Recommendations for types of toys and play routines are based on the level of assistance a child needs during play. 

Check it out!

 http://www.fisher-price.com/us/special_needs/

PECS Resources

The following websites are great resources for downloading free picture symbols, visual schedules/supports and Boardmaker files and activities. 

 

http://trainland.tripod.com/pecs.htm

http://teachers.ocps.net/atteam/page18.html

http://www.angelfire.com/pa5/as/boardmakerfiles.html

Book of the Month

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?
By Bill Martin Jr and Eric Carle

"Predictable books make use of rhyme, repetition of words, phrases, sentences and refrains, and such patterns as cumulative structure, repeated scenes, familiar cultural sequences, interlocking structure and turn-around plots. These stories invite children to make predictions or guesses about words, phrases, sentences, events and characters that could come next in the story."
-Mary Jett Simpson

Read a book with repetitive words and phrases over and over to your child. Point to the pictures and add gestures to increase your child's understanding of the language. After being exposed to the book a number of times, your child can join in and help "read" the story by supplying the repetitive word, phrase or gesture through out the book.
Example: Pause for your child to verbalize "me" when you read the phrase "I see a red bird looking at ____".

Did you know? Food Aversions

Did you know that there are a growing number of speech-language pathologists who are trained to treat children with aversions to eating or to certain types of foods? A qualified feeding therapist should be able to tell you if your child is simply a "picky eater" or does indeed fall into the category of a "problem feeder". You can begin making mealtime a more positive experience for your child by implementing the following strategies:

• Create a relaxing environment at mealtime (turn down lights, eliminate loud noise, play soothing music)
• Use the same place for all meals
• Follow the same schedule for meals (or as close as possible)
• Involve child in preparation, serving and clean up of meal
• Allow your child to play with, touch and explore food
• Reinforce any positive interaction your child has with food
• Verbally praise and encourage your child through out mealtime
  

Reference:

Toomey, Kay A. (2002). When Children Won't Eat: The SOS Approach to Feeding