Helping Children with Special Needs Maintain Skills During this Summer
- amykdtobik2
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
By Karen Kaplan, MS
It is summertime, and school is out for some children with special needs, so parents might worry that skills could be lost. But I have some meaningful ideas for those parents, using what they readily have available. These ideas can help build new skills or possibly reinforce those learned earlier in the year.
Use those Amazon boxes that arrive on the front porch to teach. Opening and closing them work on fine motor skills. Folding them up for recycling teaches a life skill and continues to work on motor planning. Put smaller boxes inside big ones. Pack boxes with items needing saving. Build a fort with boxes.
Bringing in the summer mail helps, once again, with motor skill development. Adding identifying who the mail is for helps improve reading skills and vocabulary. Cooking builds independent living skills. Teach menu planning and shopping for items, and you will expand results. Vocabulary increases, fine motor skills develop, and problem-solving is practiced.
Window and car washing develop motor and independent living skills.
Putting the garbage cans out works on motor skills and problem-solving. Bringing them in after they are empty doubles the development.
Doing laundry helps with motor planning, problem solving and builds independence.
Folding laundry and putting it away teaches organizational skills, independence, and motor planning.
Walking in the neighborhood is always a good way to improve skills. Build address recognition, count windows and doors, and identify colors on homes. Read vehicle license plates and recognize numbers, letters, and words. Talk about who lives in different houses. Look at gardens and identify types of trees and flowers. They can also greet neighbors they know, which helps strengthen social skills.
Use paper bags to make puppets and put on a puppet show for the family.
Hold a special movie night and make popcorn and special drinks together or independently.
Throw a dance party one night. Motor planning and social skill development are then addressed.
Make a favorite music playlist for down times when they need calming.
Find time to take out all the family games or purchase a few new ones. Game nights could be fun. These teach social skills and build vocabulary comprehension.
Help develop gardening skills. Teach weeding. Teach growing flowers or vegetables. Have them water on a set schedule. Motor development, vocabulary development, and independence are encouraged.
So, you see, many things can be done with what you already have
Karen Kaplan, MS, is a native San Franciscan. She completed her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, in speech pathology and audiology. She minored in special education and obtained her speech therapist and special education credentials in California. Karen worked as a speech therapist for schools for 20 years before opening her own residential and education program for students with autism. She worked in credential programs at Sacramento State University as well as UC Davis and spent 20 years directing private schools for those with autism and similar learning challenges.
Karen founded a non-profit, Offerings, which helps cultures globally to understand those with developmental challenges. For seven years, she founded and facilitated an autism lecture series and resource fair in Northern California. Karen still facilitates an annual Autism Awesomeness event. She is currently consulting, helping families, schools, and centers for children, teens, and adults. Karen has authored three books: Reach Me Teach Me: A Public School Program for the Autistic Child; A Handbook for Teachers and Administrators, On the Yellow Brick Road: My Search for Home and Hope for the Child with Autism, and Typewriting to Heaven… and Back: Conversations with My Dad on Death, Afterlife and Living (which is not about autism but about having important conversations with those we love).
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