Summer Activities For Children and Children With Special Needs

The summer is a great opportunity to incorporate authentic learning experiences. Families frequently spend more time together and deviate from their typical daily routines. There are not specific activities or tasks that parents must do with their children, but giving mindful attention to communication, vocabulary development, community experiences, and preparing for the upcoming school year may support continued academic and social development.

Communication

Engaging communication provides continuous opportunities to converse with children and allows them to express their ideas and concerns. This dialogue is a great opportunity to learn about your children's thoughts and reasoning skills. People make decisions based on their thoughts and perspective, and sometimes parents are surprised by the behaviors and decisions of their children. This may occur because parents are not familiar enough with their child's ideas, beliefs, and interpretation of their world. Having open lines of communication fosters the development of a loving parent and child relationship.

Vocabulary development

Increasing vocabulary can be done through reading fiction, nonfiction, and by discussing current events. Begin in the area of your child's interest. Conversations also promote vocabulary development by aiding children to make meaning of words in context. Research has shown that children score higher on standardized tests with increased vocabulary. Ruby Payne's research about the language acquisition of children from ages 1-3 varies by economic households. Her work found that children in poverty with stable households possess as little as 10 million words while their working class and professional class peers have 20 million and 30 million words respectively. Vocabulary should not be taught in isolation with a spelling list to be tested at the end of the week, but should be taught in context of experiences. Vocabulary development is a link to increased comprehension and making meaning during reading.

Community experiences

Planning adventures in your local community can be a starting point to expand learning experiences. Vocabulary alone will not always fully provide children the meaning they need to understand unfamiliar or new concepts. Some ideas for community experiences may include visiting museums, parks, businesses, or utilizing varied modes of transportation. Also, traveling to rural, urban, and suburban communities with diverse cultural opportunities may bring life to the vocabulary that a child has acquired.

Preparing for the upcoming school year

As children relax and enjoy their summer, encourage and support them to journal their events. Keeping a chronological timeline is a great way to teach sequencing. The memories of the summer can also be organized and collected to summarize a specific event or period of time in their lives. Making both structured and unstructured ways of pulling the summer memories together help children learn to take the skills acquired in school and use them in their daily lives. These activities tie into both reading and language arts tasks that children are given throughout the school year. As long as learning takes place, children are always preparing for school. Actually, school is the preparation place for life. The more children engage in both school and out of school learning opportunities, the stronger their abilities to function and make decisions in life will be.

For children with Asperger's Syndrome and other mild forms of autism, the idea of blending socially with the rest of the world can be extremely challenging. During the summer time it is no different. Like most children, autistic kids want to get out and enjoy summer weather and fun too, and they should. Typically children with AU do not play well with other children. They parallel play with little social engagement.

Studies show that activities that build social skills and offer sensory integration can be more exciting for children with these forms of special needs. Sensory integration is always needed. Here are a few suggestions and reasons for parents who are looking for ways to engage their autistic child in the summer fun.

o Swinging

o Jumping rope

o Trips to the Jungle Gym

o Walking on sand at the beach

o Building sand castles (watching so that they don't eat it)

For more information and customized support for creating successful learning opportunities for your child, visit my website at http://www.practiceinmotion.com or email me at practiceinmotion@gmail.com

Patricia F. Glenn, Ed, S., is the President and Founder of Practice in Motion Training Institute, Inc. in Atlanta, GA. Practice in Motion's primary goal is to empower and equip families to better care for children with special needs. However its staff is trained in many therapeutic disciplines to serve all children from preschool through young adulthood. For more information about Practice in Motion Training Institute, its programs and services, visit http://www.practiceinmotion.com or email practiceinmotion@gmail.com

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