Parenting or teaching children with special needs comes with challenges and blessings. Having relevant resources can arm you with the information and tools you need to be able to better meet the needs of your child or students.Though I’ve found many excellent resources over the years that have taught me so much and helped me better help and advocate for my children, the thing I’ve found that is the best resource of all is actually parents of other children with special needs.
Those parents have pointed me to specialists, listened to me, shared their experiences with me, walked in my shoes and lived to tell the story, laughed with me, cried with me, and given me hope when I felt there was none. They understand in a way that no one else can.
While no other resource can offer that, today, I’m excited to share with you some special needs resources that will arm you with more tools to help your child or students.
Great Special Needs Resources:
Basics of Fine Motor Skills
Fine motor skills are a key developmental skill. This book explores how gross motor, visual motor, and sensory processing skills affect this development. Learn what red flags to watch for and get activity ideas for all types of fine motor development based on your child’s skill and ability levels.
This book is a wonderful resource for parents, teachers, and therapists.
Sensory Processing Explained, A Handbook for Parents and Teachers
In Sensory Processing Explained, discover…
- easy to understand sensory information that you can share with parents and educators to help explain a child’s behaviour
- how to explain sensory processing to those who just don’t get it
- what calming techniques and strategies can work during a sensory meltdown
- sensory ideas you can easily replicate at home
- how teachers can accommodate kids with sensory processing challenges
- strategies and activities that can be used with an entire classroom
- information on all eight sensory systems and how they can affect behaviours (plus strategies and activities that can help with regulation)
- just figuring out where to begin if you feel a child could be struggling with sensory processing
Plus get informational printables that make it easy to share about sensory processing with families, clients, or co-workers.
This book will forever change how you view your child’s sensory responses.
More Calm in the Chaos Special Needs Printable Planner
This printable planner was designed with moms of special needs kids in mind (by a mom of special needs children). It includes everything a regular planner would but also includes what moms like this need:
- appointment log
- appointments at a glance
- mileage and expense tracker
- medication and supplement list
- IEP meeting notes
- sensory triggers log
- behaviour tracking log
- and more!
Integrated Movement Warm-Up Activities
The Integrated Movement Warm Up Activities PDF from Integrated Learning Strategies is an excellent resource for parents, therapists, and teachers. One of the things I especially like is that they include actual photos of the activities in action as well as instructions, making it easy to follow and understand.
Creating Connections with Autistic & Hyperlexic Children Using Their Interests and Passions
If you are parenting a child with autism or hyperlexia, this ebook will inspire you to use your child’s interests and passions as a way to connect with them and teach them new skills.
It includes:
- worksheets that will help you identify your child’s interests and strengths and target skills
- prompts to help you come up with the connections you’d like to make with your child
- suggestions on how to adapt different interests to work on skills such as math, sensory, fine motor, and literacy
Having the right resources can make a big difference.