4 Ways to Make Reading Fun for Special Needs Kids

Activities like reading can do a lot to engage a child’s brain by stimulating their imagination, boosting their cognitive thinking, and critical problem-solving skills, as well as teaching them how to be empathetic or how to understand abstract ideas. Reading can be a challenge for parents of children with learning disabilities and other special needs, and the benefits of reading can be challenging as well. Like any kid with reading, or other activities, it helps to find out what works best for your child and what methods may help engage them to read, encourage them to improve their skills, and to get the most out of the experience overall.

Make it Interactive

Many kids with special needs, especially those on the spectrum, use their brains to understand the world around them in different ways. By stimulating more of your child’s senses in a more visual and tactile manner can help reading come alive for them and engage them in ways that just reading alone may not be able to. Alternatively, some kids respond more to certain types of stimulation than others, too. For instance, some kids may be audible learners and others may be visual learners. Try to appeal to what makes the most sense for them.

Certain activities can be more than just fun interactive things to do in addition to or in conjunction with reading, but they can help play to the particular strengths of kids with special needs. Provide a child with ADHD who learns best by moving by making a game out of it. For a child with Down Syndrome who loves imitating the world around them, recreate stories and scenes with stuffed animals or puppets for an audience of family members.

Find Common Ground

Many kids tend to fixate on certain topics, characters, or things whether they be a character from a cartoon or movie, a hobby like trains, or they may be hyper-focused on a particular subject like outer space. These interests can influence what kinds of toys and activities your child likes to seek out and enjoy, but it can also help you find books that might interest them too.  Identify what appeals to your child on other levels – what kind of toys or activities do they generally enjoy? What are their favorite shows and movies? Looking for books about these things or books that feature certain topics, events, or other features can be what draws your child into reading. If there is a book about something they like and already engage with, reading about it can be another thing they can enjoy as well.

Relevant Struggles

Kids with special needs may struggle with reaching milestones at certain ages, and reading may be one of them. Finding a book that helps kids with these struggles, whether it is a book that helps teach them to read or about a particular subject like potty training or riding a bike, will engage them in new and creative ways. Stories of another child going through the same struggle as them can make children feel empowered and less alone but also more inclined to reading. Reading is an essential life skill, but it can also open kids up to learning new things about the world around them, but most importantly themselves. Books about other topics, subjects and ideas can be helpful, but a book that resonates with your child on a more personal level may be the thing that really gets them hooked on reading or helps them feel more comfortable with themselves.

Finding Role Models

Kids with special needs may struggle with issues revolving around self-image and their own self-confidence, so in addition to finding books about similar struggles, you can also find books about famous people with learning disabilities and other handicaps. This can help kids realize that they can accomplish anything, too, and that their special need or disability does not limit them as much as other people may say they do. You can look for books about people like author, political activist, and lecturer Helen Keller (deaf and blind), Noble Prize-winning geneticist Carol Greider (learning disabilities), film director Steven Spielberg (ADHD), and animal scientist Temple Grandin (autistic spectrum disorder).

How to Keep Advanced Readers Engaged and Learning

Reading has proven to be beneficial for children of all ages, especially when it comes to academic performance and problem solving. Kids who read are more likely to understand abstract concepts, empathize with others, and think outside the box. Keeping kids interested in reading can be quite tricky, especially if your child happens to be an advanced reader. Just because a child is good at reading does not mean that they won’t get bored. While other children struggle with reading, advanced readers may find themselves bored or uninterested in books because they are ahead of the curve. As a parent with an advanced reader, you can keep your child’s interest in reading piqued by accommodating their proficiency and inspiring their imagination.

Finding Appropriate Books
For children who read at or below their age or grade level, finding the right books for them is easy. Children who are advanced readers often find themselves bored with titles that are aimed at their grade or age, and may have difficulty finding something they like. This can be tricky, especially since some advanced books may challenge your child as a reader but may not have age-appropriate material. Make sure you do some research before providing your child with a list of new books to check out, or accompany them as they comb the library or bookstore. Some advanced books may be appropriate, but since the next level up from grade level books might foray in teen and young adult books, make sure you look at the content beforehand since they may include darker and more adult themes that kids may not be emotionally ready for. Consult your child’s teacher or ask a librarian for some suggestions if you’re hard pressed for an appropriate reading challenge.

Turning the Tables
If you’re young reader can’t find anything they like, or if they are looking for something in particular but can’t find it, encourage them to write their own stories! Writing can help boost comprehension and communication skills just as much as reading can. If your child yearns for a certain kind of story, help them write it. Ask them what kind of book they would like to read and why, and use their answers to help them get started crafting a story of their own. They may discover a love for writing and storytelling as well as for reading and discovery that could last a lifetime.

Get Creative
If your child isn’t feeling challenged enough by their reading material, think outside the box. We offer plenty of personalized books, that put your child right in the center of the action, sending them along on an adventure with their favorite characters. Not only are personalized books fun, but they make a great gift for a kid who has read every other book – and their own personalized book is sure to be the most unique book they own or read all year! There are also plenty of interactive reading apps or storytelling games that children can pick up and play too. These apps or games should incorporate reading and some also implement animation, problem-solving games and other fun aspects that make the act of reading more interesting and entertaining as well.

How To Get Your Kids to Really Love Reading

The best way to forge a positive relationship with reading for your child is to help encourage a love for reading. A love of reading is a love of learning, and it is not only linked to better academic success and performance, but it can also lead to a more fulfilling life, overall.

Make reading a part of your lives. Making something a habit is one thing, and it can certainly help. If you schedule in some nightly story time every day, you can certainly make reading a part of your child’s life. It can help reading feel like a normal part of the day instead of an extraneous activity that they may or may not feel like doing. Setting aside time to read can differ from family to family depending on their schedule and their preferences, so find a time that works for you and make it stick!

Let them see you read, too. Reading with your child is one thing, but it helps if they see you read on your own, too. Children learn a lot by seeing, therefore, you’ll notice that they will take after you by repeating certain mannerisms, using certain words, and wanting to do all of the things that you do. Making reading a part of your life can help you build your own positive habits but it can help send a positive message to your kids, as well.

Books, books, books! Populating your home with books and other sorts of reading material is also a good way to encourage reading. Having a variety of books, magazines, coffee table books, comics, etc. can help further drive the notion that reading is a part of life and it is more likely to become a part of your child’s life, too. Even if they simply peruse catalogs or look through classics, having books around can work wonders. In addition to books around the house, also try to give your child a little library of their own.

Personalize their books. Make them the star. When populating your child’s own personal library, consider getting personalized books as well. Personalized books include your child’s name, and sometimes other attributes, in order to create a unique story where they are at the center of all the action. Personalized books, like those we publish, can help make your child’s library feel more like their own, and  they can help make books and reading more of a personal experience, too. Personalized books are great for kids who may be reluctant readers, but once they hear that they are the hero, they will be much more inclined to want to find out more!

Personalized Books

Get graphic. Graphic novels and comics have come a long way, and nowadays there are plenty of critically acclaimed works that adults are scrambling to get their hands on. Comics and graphic novels can be a great gateway to reading for kids who may be reluctant to read, kids who may have issues with reading because of a reading disability like dyslexia, or even children who have difficulties imagining abstract concepts because of another learning disability. Images and dynamic scenes play out across the pages and can help instill interest in kids of all kinds.

Let them get the pick of the week. Kids may not always like what they’re reading in school, especially if it is for a project or an assignment. There may be a number of different reasons as to why this is, but many children might feel turned off because of the link to school and homework specifically. Remember to let your kids pick out what they want to read every once in awhile.  Give them some space and freedom to broaden their horizons and pique their own sense of curiosity whether they are looking for a book to read for fun or a book to share with you at story time.

Consider tablets and other formats. With apps and games becoming increasingly popular, as well as general mobile-device usage, kids may also have fun playing around with ebooks. Ebooks can sometimes be interactive as well, including game-like aspects and illustrations that can further help interest them in the story they’re reading.

Give them incentives. You might feel like bribing them, but after a while kids may begin to continue reading on their own without any idea of a reward. Let them stay up later to read, offer to buy them books or take them to parks and other places that are near the library, etc. You can try rewarding them for reading books, however, making it seem like more of an accomplishment when they do can help to instill a feeling of satisfaction on their own that can drive their interest and keep it going the more they read.

Make reading a special treat, too. Making reading an everyday thing is important, but it can be special, too. Try making a dedicated reading nook in your home or in your child’s room to help encourage them to use the space. You can also make family outings of going to the bookstore or to the library to get new books a special gift.

Let them work at their own pace. Whether your child wants to eat up books or take them in slowly, make sure that you still respect their wishes. Instilling an interest in books and encouraging them to do so is important, and it can work – as long as you don’t push them too hard and allow them to soak stories in at their own pace.