Make a child-friendly family scrapbook for the child with special needs. Gather family snapshots and a durable picture album or scrapbook.
Make the Scrapbook Durable
Obviously, it is important to consider the physical needs of the child as well as his maturity level when chooing a scrapbook. Many children benefit from a scrapbook with sturdy, yet flexible pages. The mor child-friendly the book is, the more it will be that the child will feel comfortable using it for its intended purpose.
Kids with Language Difficulties Can Learn to Name Relatives
Create some scrapbook pages with clear photo of relatives. For young children or those with more severe difficulty with language expression, choose only a few photos of the closest family members. Attach one or two pictures per page and label with legible printing.
Older children benefit from immediate family grouping. For example, label a single snapshot of Aunt Jan’s family or place individual pictures of her family on the same page. Next, create a page for Uncle Bill. Continue building the people pages in this manner.
Do not forget the pets! Many children with special needs are drawn to animals. They love the unconditional love of pets. They also appreciate the lack of expected conversation that interaction with people brings.
Kids with Speech and Language Problems Talk about Experiences
Every parent of a child with special needs knows the frustration of asking what happened at school or at a friend’s house, only to get nothing in reply. Choose a few photos that show special family events or gatherings. If the holidays involved a trip to Aunt Jan’s house and the family played laser tag, a few pictures of the outing could be a page in the scrapbook.
The labels for the event pictures could be simple words or phrases. Each label could be a sentence that would serve as a language prompt for the child.
Choosing the correct pictures might mean a selection of three or four pictures in sequence. They could be labeled with sentences beginning with transition words such as first, next, and last.
Another way to choose pictures is to choose funny or interesting things that happened.
A family scrapbook for the child with special needs allows the child to re-experience the events as he shares the pictures with friends. He may also enjoy just looking at the pictures and talking about the experiences with a family member.
Everyone loves photos. Using easily identified photos of recent family experiences is a powerful way to encourage a child with spoken language. It is a natural way to elicit conversation from the child with speech and language concerns.
Lynn Moore - Moore is a freelance writer, experienced special education teacher, and mother of two. She has worked as a developmental therapist for ...
