Rick Lavois' Website, Books, and Videos

Watching PBS today, I saw a program titled "It's So Much Work to Be Your Friend." The speaker was Rick Lavoie. As you may know, Lavoie has written several books and appeared in several videos and DVDs on the subject of children with special needs -- especially learning disabilities and behavior disorders. My first introduction to him was "How Difficult Can This Be? The F.A.T City Workshop." I used it many times in my classes because it was/is packed with useful content and excellent simulations. (It was produced in 1987, so the terminology is somewhat dated, but Lavoie has produced an update.) Lavoie's other work is equally good. I suggest that you check his Web page: http://www.ricklavoie.com

Recent Additions to the Collection

Recent Additions to the LLW Collection
Professional Collection:

Bruni, Maryanne. Fine Motor Skills in Children with Down Syndrome: A Guide for Parents and Professionals ISBN 18906276774

Divinyi, Joyce. Discipline That Works: 5 Simple Steps. ISBN 0965635376

Emmons, Polly Godwin and Liz McKendry Anderson. Understanding Sensory Dysfunction: Learning, Development And Sensory Dysfunction In Autism Spectrum Disorders ADHD, Learning Disabilities and Bipolar Disorder. ISBN 1843108062

Schoenbrodt, Lisa. Children With Traumatic Brain Injury: A Parent's Guide. ISBN: 0933149999

Ward, Marilyn. Voices from the Margins: An Annotated Bibliography of Fiction of Disabilities and Differences for Young People. ISBN: 1593114001

Winders, Patricia C. Gross Motor Skills in Children With Down Syndrome: A Guide for Parents and Professionals. ISBN 0933149816

Books About Children With Disabilities:

Debear, Kirsten. Be Quiet, Marina! ISBN 1887734791

Dwight, Laura. We Can Do It! ISBN 18877343441

Girnis, Margaret. ABC for You and Me. ISBN: 0807501018

Heelan, Jamee Riggio. Rolling Along: The Story of Taylor and His Wheelchair.
ISBN-1-56145-219-X

Jackson, Luke. Freaks, Geeks and Asperger Syndrome: A User Guide to Adolescence ISBN 1843107422

Janover, Caroline. How Many Days Until Tomorrow? ISBN-1-890627-22-4

Josephson, Gretchen. Bus Girl. ISBN-1-57129-041-9

Keyes, Daniel. Flowers for Algernon. ISBN: 0156030306

Klein, Stanley. Reflections from a Different Journey: What Adults with Disabilities Wish All Parents Knew ISBN: 0071422692

Kroll, Virginia. Brianna Breathes Easy: A Story About Asthma. ISBN 0807508802

Lears, Laurie. Nathan's Wish: A Story About Cerebral Palsy. ISBN: 0807571016

Levi, Dorothy Hoffman. A Very Special Sister. ISBN-0-930323-96-3

Levinson, Nancy Smiler. Annie's World. ISBN-0-930323-65-3

Martin, Bill and John Archambault. Knots on a Counting Rope ISBN-0-8050-0571-4

McCaffrey, Anne. The Ship Who Sang. ISBN: 0345334310

Moser, Adolph J. Don't Pop Your Cork on Mondays: The Children's Anti-Stress Book ISBN 0933849184

Polacco, Patricia. Thank You, Mr. Falker. ISBN 0399237321

Rickert, Janet Elizabeth. Russ and the Almost Perfect Day. ISBN-1-890627-16-x

Schlieper, Anne. The Best Fight. ISBN-0-8075-0662-1

Verniero, Joan C. You Can Call Me Willy. A Story for Children about AIDS ISBN-0-945354-60-6

Wanous, Suzanne. Sara's Secret. ISBN-0-87614-856-9

About Disabilities

It's occurred to me that we need a post about the disabilities and how they affect the children. I taught a class on materials for children with disabilities last week and was reminded that too often we think we understand the effects of disabilities when we don't. We can better serve the children if we understand their situations.

To begin with, each child is a unique "bundle" of abilities and disabilities. If you have read the article on the LLW Collection Web page, you know that I am especially concerned with identifying the abilities rather than focusing on the disabilities. Still, we must understand both. I'm going to develop a series of comments about some disabilities, and I hope you will add comments as well.

Appropriate Language to Use

What resources are available to provide guidelines on this topic? What have you experienced or observed about preferred language? Here is a place for you to discuss (please note that two links to resources are provided in a comment on the "Materials about Children with Disabilities" post.)

Professional Resources

Some Professional Materials in the Linda Lucas Walling Collection

You will find more professional materials listed in the Bibliographies and Bibliotherapy sections of the collection’s Web page. Some of these are old, but they still include useful material. It is unfortunate that little has been written on this topic in recent years. If you are aware of some good recent titles, or journal articles, please let me know so that I can add them to the collection. Thanks!

Selected Titles:

Butler, Dorothy. Cushla and her Books. 1975. Hornbook
This is THE book to read if you want to understand the effect books can have on a child with developmental disabilities! It’s a record of a young New Zealander’s experiences with picture books in her first five years of life.

Coon, Cheryl. Books to Grow With: A Guide to Using the Best Children’s Fiction for Everyday Issues and Tough Challenges. 2004. (For updates, go to http://lutrapress.com)
A good place to start if you are looking for titles to use in bibliotherapy.

Doll, Beth and Carol Doll. Bibliotherapy with Young People: Librarians and Health Professionals Working Together. 1997.
Here you will find good advice on how to actually do bibliotherapy with children and young adults.

Kranowitz, Carol Stock. The Out-Of-Sync Child Has Fun: Activities for Kids with Sensory Integration Dysfunction. 2003.
This is a relatively new book on a disability that has only gained attention in recent years.

Schwartz, Sue and Joan Heller Miller. The Language of Toys: Teaching Communication Skills to Special-Needs Children. 1988.
The subtitle says it all!

Walling, Linda Lucas and Marilyn M. Irwin, eds. Information Services for People with Developmental Disabilities. 1995.
See especially Coy Hunsucker’s chapter on sharing literature with children with disabilities. Hunsucker began working with the children in the Cincinnati area in the 1960s. She shares her experiences and gives examples of programs she has used successfully.

Walling, Linda Lucas and Marilyn H. Karrenbrock. Disabilities, Children and Libraries: Mainstreaming Services in Public Libraries and School Library Media Centers. 1993.
The sections on computers and the directory information in this book are obsolete. Other sections contain information that is still valuable. For example, Marilyn's chapters on tangible materials and programming include lots of good ideas. She gives detailed instructions on things like making games. This book is out-of-print, and I (LLW) hold the copyright. If you want to copy sections of the book, please contact me. Used copies of the book are often available on Amazon.com.

Materials about Children with Disabilities

On the Linda Lucas Walling Collection Web page, you will discover an article on this subject. You will also find criteria for selecting materials about children with disabilities. Finally, there are lists of winners of the Dolly Gray Award and the Schneider Family Award along with links to information about those awards. (The Dolly Gray Award is for picture books about children with developmental disabilities. Schneider Family Awards are given for picture books as well as for books for middle schoolers and high schoolers.)

Materials about children with disabilities, of course, can be used by children with disabilities or children with no disabilities.

Have you found books you especially like or dislike?

(Here you may want to also discuss preferred language to use in this field.)

Materials and Services for High Schoolers

What works and doesn't work with this age group?

Materials and Services for Middle Schoolers

What works and doesn't work with this age group?

Ideas for Discussion Threads

I could begin a lot of discussion threads, but I'd like to hear from you about what you would like to discuss. Here are a few of my ideas. Please tell me which one(s) you are interested in, and please suggest others.
Here are some of my ideas:

1. Storytelling and other programming for children with disabilities
2. Tactile materials for children with disabilities
3. Low tech ideas for children with disabilities
4. Threads for children with specific types of disabilities (e. g., low vision, learning disabilities, hearing impairments, mental
retardation, etc.
5. Materials for middle and/or high schoolers

Picture Books for Children with Disabilities

There's an article posted on my Web page on this topic, and some bibliographies. What books have you found work best with the children you've worked with?

Technology Resources for Children with Disabilities

I've had a request to start a conversation on this topic. So what is working for you, and what problems do you have? I assume you know about Closing the Gap?

Behavior Disorders and Materials

When the LLW collection Web page was announced, I had an inquiry about why behavior disorders were not included. My answer was that I thought the Bibliotherapy information and links did include those disabilities. Some behavior disorders are also mentioned in the article on the Web page titled "Ability, Disability and Picture Books." What else would you suggest that I include on that topic? What have you discovered to work well with children who have these disabilities? Thanks for your input.