Reading Tip #1

If you have a special needs child that loves to read, congratulations! My son loved to read as a young toddler, in fact he was infatuated with it. But as he sank into the world of Autism (around age 2 1/2 -3) he lost his language and his love for reading. The world became a puzzle to him and he no longer understood what we said. It's been a rough road the past four years, trying to get him to understand and appreciate language.

One of the things we struggle with is how to motivate him to read. I've discovered an easy way to entreat him. I make the books we read - any book we read - interactive. That is, I find something to use to get him physically involved in the book. In order to better explain this concept, I've posted an example.

Let's take a look at the book, "Rain" by Robert Kalan. This book is one of my personal favorites because it's so simple and easy to work with. My kids have loved it as well. You can find it in your local library or buy a paperback version for about $7.



This book's theme is about colors. I gathered some unifix cubes I happened to have in a rainbow of colors. If you didn't have blocks you could use colored paper or beads or buttons.


Then I set the book out on the floor and we read it. Each time the book mentions a color, we look for it in the picture and match a colored block to it.

It becomes an easy "hide and seek" game.

At the end we made a rainbow out of the blocks.

Try it and let me know if it works for you too! Have any other great ideas to encourage reading? Leave me a comment!