Games and activities are a great way for children with special needs to learn important skills. This book provides inspiration and guidance for special education teachers, teaching assistants, parents and carers on how to use lively and engaging play ideas to foster learning and development. Targeting key skills including listening, self-awareness, movement, creative thinking and relaxation, each game has been developed with the capabilities of children with special needs in mind. The appropriate age group is clearly identified, and possible variations for different abilities are provided. All of the instructions are easy to follow and there are cheerful illustrations throughout. Using music, dance, art, word games and breathing exercises, this book is packed with creative and enjoyable games that make learning fun. This user-friendly activity book will be an ideal resource for use in special education schools, inclusive mainstream classrooms, day-care, residential and respite settings, or at home.

Introducing drama to the learning experience is guaranteed to enrich a child's development, and is an especially effective approach for children with special educational needs, including those with autism spectrum disorders. This practical handbook offers teachers an array of simple and easy-to-implement theatrical techniques that will enhance students' learning and encourage artistic expression. The author demonstrates how dramatic play doesn't have to be restricted to drama lessons and can be applied to a diverse range of school subjects and recreational settings. 'The Little Red Hen', for example, covers themes that are relevant to literacy (rhyming and rhythm), maths (counting seeds), science (discussing farming), and art lessons (designing costumes). Step-by-step lesson plans take teachers through every aspect of running fun and engaging story dramas, including warm ups, movement, songs and props. Handy tips throughout suggest ideas for developing the plays further and ways to adapt them according to the needs of the group. This book will be an essential and comprehensive guide for anyone interested in drama as an educational tool in inclusive or special needs settings.

Praise for the First Edition: 'A warm feeling of positive reassurance and guidance runs throughout the book. [It] offers practical and emotional help, not only to a child's family, but equally to health and educational workers starting out within this field. This book should have a prominent place in every toy and leisure library as well as within childcare agencies.' - Play Matters 'This very useful and readable book provides a wealth of resource ideas to support parents of young children with special needs.' - Downs Syndrome Association (UK) 'This is a very practical book, full of common sense and simple ideas. Although intended for parents this book will also be an invaluable resource for anyone working with children with special needs.' - Let's Play When young children are diagnosed with conditions such as Down Syndrome, autism or other forms of developmental delay, there is much that parents can do to help. This new edition of the award-winning Small Steps Forward includes up-to-date research and practice, providing parents and carers with the information they need and a host of ideas to encourage their child's development. The games and activities use toys and materials which most children will already have, and involve no special preparation. They are also fun to play. Sarah Newman divides skills into six areas - cognitive, linguistic, physical, sensory, social and emotional - for convenient reference. She deals with general issues, such as behaviour management, toilet-training and sleep management, which may be encountered by parents of children with any form of disability - physical, learning or sensory. She also provides an outline of child development so that parents can place their child's progress in context, and gives practical advice on coping with stress of having a child with special needs. This book is an essential guide for parents of young children with developmental disabilities and will also be invaluable to anyone who works with children with special needs.

Children and young people with emotional and behavioural difficulties (EBD) are far more likely to have communication problems than their peers. Exploring the ways in which children's language and emotional development are linked, Melanie Cross considers the reasons why behavioural and communication difficulties often occur together. Identifying the common causes of these problems and the reasons why they often go undetected, she provides practical guidelines for assessing communication skills and the complexities of identifying communication problems in children, including children in public care. She shows how improving children's communication can also improve their behaviour and that speech and language therapy is an important, although often absent, service for children with EBD. With a range of strategies to help children and young people to develop their emotional and communicative skills, this accessible guide is an invaluable resource for speech and language therapists, social workers, teachers and other health professionals working with young people with emotional, behavioural and communication problems.

This lively and imaginative book is being used in homes and schools in over 13 countries to help children learn about music and sound while they develop the ability to listen, concentrate, be creative, improvise, and trust one another. Using audiocassettes or CDs, of popular songs and simple instruments children and adults get to play listening games, concentration games, musical quizzes, trust games, guessing games, and more. The games are not competitive--they encourage and reward children for participation, not for winning. The SmartFunActivity series encourage imagination, social interaction, and self-expression in children. To make the books easy to use, games are marked according to appropriate age levels, length of play time, and group size, using helpful icons. Most games are non-competitive and none require special skills or training. The series is widely used in homes, schools, daycare centers, clubs, and summer camps.

This action-packed compendium offers parents, teachers, and anyone else who works with kids a wide array of ingenious sound and dance activities from a variety of cultures to get kids singing, dancing, listening, interacting, and involved. 101 More Music Games for Children includes games that facilitate musical development, such as sound games, rhythm games, game projects, and card and board games. All of them have simple, clear rules, and they stress excitement, humor, challenge, surprise, and cooperation rather than competition. Whether or not kids are "musical" or play an instrument, these activities can help them: develop musical skills such as spontaneous singing; create, play, and recognize various rhythms; appreciate the structure of sounds; and learn how to play with all kinds of instruments. Like its best-selling predecessor, this book encourages and enhances creative expression, social interaction, family relationships, and kids' budding powers of listening, concentration, and discrimination.