Why Books And Crayons Are So Important

It’s never too early to read to your child. I know how hard it is to read to a young child that has a hard time sitting still for a few minutes, but I cannot emphasize reading enough to any family regardless of their situation. Reading to a young child can be hard; reading to a child on the spectrum with sensory issues can be even harder. Some children are just flipping the pages as fast as they can, some are ripping the pages, and I’m sure there’s a few trying to eat the pages (here I am referring to my neurotypical two year old hee hee). But reading pays off big time in the long run. The trick is finding something that works for your child. Sometimes it the topic, sometimes it’s the illustrations; sometimes you don’t know why your child will attend to one book and not the other. My suggestion is to find what your child is in to. I mean, what they just can’t do without. For the child on the spectrum you may have to open your mind a little and broaden your horizons to the fact that the ‘something’ your child ‘can’t do without’ could be light switches, doors, water, anything really. So your bedtime story might be a very cool manual about how to install a sliding glass door. But there are ways to make your own unique books with a camera and paper. 

 

You might also consider the fact that the books you are picking out to read with your child aren’t holding his or her attention because of the illustrations. Books with real photographs work best with young children and certainly with children on the spectrum. I have found a few that my children have really latched on to have had the best photographs and they are usually very detailed photographs as well. One of our favorite series have been the Scholastic books that have real photos and will usually have one or two sentences per page about any subject, water, animals, science, planets, pretty much anything you can think of. The other series that I always recommend are the Welcome Book series. Talk about amazing books, especially for your feeding aversion kids. Topics in these series are usually about the sequence of how something is made or done. For example, there are books about From Grapes to Raisins, Apples to Applesauce, or something like From Seed to Pumpkin. All wonderful books and there are tons of different titles and subjects, even some about money. They have amazing photographs, and have a little more sentence wise than the beginning Scholastic books do. 

 

Reading to our children is basically the first exposure our children have to the world of literacy and reading is such a fun way to connect with your child, any child. Just last week, we realized how much reading to Ewan has paid off. He wrote his name last week. Completely out of nowhere. We haven’t pushed this kind of stuff with Ewan because I kind of feel like when you’re ready, you’re ready and you can’t always push that. So it was a big shock for us when last Sunday, Ewan walked in and said, ‘Hey, I spelled Ewan!’ Since that day, he has had an intense interest in writing letters and words and has been practicing left and right. We have several different kinds of chalkboards, dry erase boards, paper, markers, crayon, and chalk and Ewan has been experimenting with all of them. Besides reading to your child, providing plenty of access to these kinds of materials subtly encourages your child to play with them without the ‘Time to work on those writing skills’ kind of attitude. Scribbling, drawing, ripping up paper, cutting paper, and yes, even tearing paper, gives children exposure to materials that will someday form the basis of reading and writing. So encourage your child to play with books, play with crayons, and to read with you as often as possible!

 

For more information about some of the books I mention, check out The Autism Life.com Amazon store for some recommendations and links to these books and more!

 

Also, for those children with AAC devices, don’t count out early literacy skills and using an Augmentative and Alternative Communication system. Ewan is using his Dynavox to experiment with letters and making words by using his keyboard and is using this in conjunction with our home computer and Microsoft Word. He and his siblings are practicing all these skills together, each learning something from the experience!

 

Here are some great links to websites that discuss early literacy skills with young children and with children who use AAC devices and strategies: