Small Steps Forward: Using Games and Activities to Help Your Pre-School Child with Special Needs

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.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgement. Preface. 1. How to Survive. 2. What Everyone Needs to Know. 3. Cognitive Development. 4. Language Development. 5. Physical Development. 6. Sensory Development. 7. Social development. 8. Emotional Development. 9. Everyday Living: Behaviour, Sleep and Toileting. 10. The Support Your Child Should Expect. 11. Resources. Index.

About the Author :
Sarah Newman worked for ten years as an administrator in higher education after gaining a degree in history at Oxford. Her first child was diagnosed as developmentally delayed at the age of one and as autistic at three. She has two other children and lives in the New Forest. She has also chaired a local charity for families of children with special needs.

Review :
This book is an accessible resource written by a parent, for parents with children with special needs. It gives a clear and accurate description fo the progression of normal development (without age norms), divided into six areas: cognitive, language, physycal, sensory, social and emotional. Practical activities are described for specific skills in each of these areas - and the activities are easy to carry out, using resources you would find around the home, or linked to everyday routines. The communication ideas are consistent with what speech and language therapist would advise and it gives good summaries of specific approaches such as sighning. The book also includes useful chapters on 'how to survive' coming to terms with having a child with special needs, as well as other issues important to parents of any young child - sleep, toilet-training and bahaviour... I would cerainly recommend this book to parents and newly qualified therapists as a quick, accessible guide to development as well as for practical ideas and an insight into the main concerns of parents. When young children are diagnosed with autism, there is much that parents can do to help. This new edition of an award-winning book includes up-to-date research and practice, providing parents and carers with the information they need and a host of ideas to encourage their chilld's development. The games and activities use toys and materials which most children will already have and involve no special preparation. Most important of all, they are fun to play. This book is a great resource...as it gives an excellent insight into the worries and fears that parents face as well as offering excellent advice. Full of suggestions of ways to help your child without specialist therapies and equipment, and lots of practical tips on sleep management, toilet training, dealing with professionals, and coping with the stress of a special child in the family. Parents of young children will find this a fine guide for behavior management and cognitive skills as well as social and emotional growth. The best bit about this book is the warm feeling of positive reasurance that runs reliably throughout from an author, who you know, has really been there and lived through it. Rings with reassuring authenticity throughout and has some very practical, useful tips and details as a result. The book is positive, accessible, easy to dip into and reflects real life... For parents dealing with the initial realization that their child has special needs I feel this book must be 10 out ot 10. This book would make a welcome addition to the bookshelf among the classic books on child development and rearing. It is a "parent power" book to be dipped into, which, coupled with the knowledge the parent or carer has of their own child's vision, and some modification, will offer information and advice to help a child with a visual difficulty take small steps forward along their unique development path.