Book Fair Buys for the Child with Special Needs

Appropriate Reads for Kids with Developmental Delays

Mar 14, 2009

Many schools have a book fair once or twice a year. Plan ahead to get appropriate book buys for the child with developmental delays.

National March into Literacy Month is a popular time for book fairs. Most school book fairs have materials at different reading levels. The tricky part is finding a match between the child’s reading level and what is considered to be a popular choice. Kids in special education programs and those who struggle to read in the regular classroom need additional assistance in making book fair choices. Parents and teachers can work together so that the assistance is discrete and yet results in a successful book pick.

Preview the Promotional Flyers

Typically, flyers (mini ads) come home a week or so before the book fair. These are valuable tools for selecting books that will be readable and socially acceptable. Teachers can give suggestions about which books fit both categories. Ask the child to mark books of interest. The ones that are on the teacher’s list as well as the family’s will be the ones to purchase.

Find out how the sale times will be scheduled. Perhaps each class has a designated shopping day and time, but there are also times that the book fair will be open before and after school. A parent and child window shopping time ahead of time can alleviate some of the concern on both sides as the class shopping day approaches and provide more information on the reading level of the books.

If there are only a few appropriate choices, talk with the teacher or those running the sale. Explain that there is a special need for age appropriate, readable books. Perhaps the selections can be put back until it is time for the child’s class to shop.

Choose Books with Visual Support

Choose alternate reading materials. Joke books, world record books, and books with lots of science-related pictures are often good picks. The visuals make reading easier. The material is kid-friendly, and these types of books are popular with readers of almost any level.

Consider Read-Together Books

Perhaps some of the popular books are too difficult for the child to read independently. These books can be good choices for parent-child shared reading. The parent can read to the child if the reading level is much higher than the child’s capability. Also, parent and child can take turns reading paragraphs or pages.

Making pre-planned book fair choices is a stress-free way to assist the child with a learning disability or one with a hearing loss to make good book choices. Whether the book has good visual support or is a more difficult read-together book, books from school book fairs can promote interest in reading and confidence in literacy skills in the child who struggles to read.

The copyright of the article Book Fair Buys for the Child with Special Needs in Children with Learning Difficulties is owned by Lynn Moore. Permission to republish Book Fair Buys for the Child with Special Needs in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.