Library Services to Children with Special Needs

LIBRARY SERVICES TO CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL NEEDS AT MLA/CSD

On April 14th, I attended the Maryland Library Association/Children’s Services Division training on “Library Services to Children with Special Needs”. Deborah Margolis, who is working with us from Maryland State Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, also joined me - we both came back with some ideas that can be tried as part of the "first" inclusive Mother Goose on the Loose program geared towards including children of all abilities, to be held at the Olney Library on May 7th. Two children's librarians (one from Olney and one from Rockville) will observe this pilot program and incorporate ideas into their own children’s programs. We will be offering opportunities for other children's librarians to observe at a future time, dates to be announced.

Patricia Steelman, children’s librarian from the Library of Congress and a member from the Schneider Family Book Award Committee, described how the committee evaluates children’s books for “disability content”. Lori Bonnington and Jeanne Holsey of the Howard County Early Intervention Office offered tips for including children with disabilities in library programs and ideas for increasing accessibility of library materials and services to children of all abilities and their families.

Ms. Steelman shared the following resources, which adds some ideas for the process we use here in MCPL:

1. Evaluating materials for children with disabilities – see www.libsci.sc.edu/fsd/walling/web/evaluatingmaterialsabout.htm

2. Evaluating materials about children with disabilities – see www.libsci.sc.edu/fsd/walling/web/evaluatingmaterialsabout.htm

3. The Schneider Family Book Award – “honors an author or an illustrator that embodies an artistic expression of the disability experience for child and adolescent audiences.” (For more information on criteria – go to www.ala.org, awards) Next deadline for nominating a book for this award is December 1st.

Lori Bonnington and Jeanne Holsey covered discussed programming for children with developmental delays (ages 0-5).

Both Lori and Jeanne provided a copy of the Books and Young Children with Developmental Delays handout, which offers suggestions for selecting books, reading to a group and adapting books for interactive storybook reading. A copy of this handout has been sent to J heads at each library branch for your own use.

When the presenters suggested “watering down” or “modifying” the language of the story as part of the "adaptation process" - several children’s librarians expressed concern about “copyright issues”. Both Lori and Jeanne suggested that adapting books allows children to receive the basics of the story at their current language level. As children acquire more language, the child can read the book again and be able to read and appreciate the story as it is written.

In Howard County, they follow the 4 “S” model for programming to children with special needs –
· Say less
· Simplify/show
· Stress (emphasize to give certain words more attention)
· Go slow, increase pauses – the slower, the better the children can participate

We also discussed how to find the balance among the varying levels of abilities of all children. This is where “knowing your audience” becomes important.

If the librarian is expecting a child with a disability to attend the program – it’s always helpful to talk with the parent – and find out the child's strengths and how you can make the program a positive experience for the child.

There were a few suggestions I thought are worth mentioning here:

1. Create visual/physical “boundaries” in a programming room – to keep children seated. On the carpet, place 10” Utility Sequencing Spot Markers that can be used as “seats” or “resting places” for children. This product is available at Abilitations at www.abilitations.com.

2. Children with autism tend to have sensory issues – during a story time, the child can use a heavy blanket helps as it weighs child down and it helps the child be aware of their own body in connection to his/her environment. (I tend not to want to “single” out a child – but would leave that up to the parent.)

3. Find ways to offer activities that allow children to “interact” with the story or a book – modify books so that children can “participate” – i.e. copy illustrations of a book, add a Velcro to the back of the picture and attach it to the book – have child identify the item, pull it off and put the item on a flannelboard.

Do you have any inclusive programming strategies that you used in your programs that have been successful that you would like to share with us?

Susan F. Cohen
Coordinator,
Library Services to the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Community
Librarian,
Children's Resource Collection,
Disability Resource Center