RAR #39: Reading to Kids with Special Needs, Cheryl Swope
What’s a parent of a special needs child to do about reading aloud? How do you choose books to read with a child who is developing at a different rate than his or her peers?
Cheryl Swope, author of Simply Classical: A Beautiful Education for Any Child and mama to special needs twins, gives us the lowdown in this episode of the Read-Aloud Revival podcast.
In this episode, you’ll hear:
- about the benefit of reading aloud with kids with special needs
- choosing books
- Cheryl’s advice for parents starting out
Click the play button below:
Books from this episode:
(All links are affiliate links.)
Books from this episode:
- Simply Classical
- Eternal Treasures
- Tasha Tudor’s books
- Margaret Wise Brown’s books
- Robert McCloskey’s books
- The Little Bear books
- The Epic of Gilgamesh
- Homer’s books
- Little Britches
- Fellowship of the Rings trilogy
- Endangered Minds
- Failure to Connect
- The Read-Aloud Handbook
Other links from today’s show:
- Latina Christiana (Cheryl Lowe’s program from Memoria Press)
- The Simply Classical forum for 24/7 support and ongoing discussion
- Simply Classical curriculum packages from Memoria Press (more coming in 2016!)
- A little more about that study Cheryl references
I love what Cheryl Swope shared in this episode. I’m homeschooling my children ages 7,5, and 3. Our baby has Down syndrome and I’ve been wanting more info on homeschooling children with special needs. We tend to be more on the Charlotte Mason side of things. Any insight on how to do this with my son with special needs?
Hi, Alissa.
Many of our Simply Classical moms appreciate Charlotte Mason’s gentle approach. If you have time, look at ClassicalSpecialNeeds.com. I think you will find these new offerings compatible with the approach you would like to take. More on the way.
We incorporate narration in smaller, more incremental steps, nature study with the possibility of scribing My Nature Journal, and beautiful books (no twaddle. :)). Yet our children with special needs require a little more intensive approach to phonics, reading, writing, spelling, and listening than an exclusively Charlotte Mason approach might provide, so we include this, along with multi-sensory teaching and review, to ensure mastery. See what you think.
If you have any questions, feel free to contact me at cherylswope@memoriapress.com.
Thanks for listening!
Cheryl
Simply Classical: A Beautiful Education for Any Child
ClassicalSpecialNeeds.com
Loved this podcast, Sarah! I had not heard of Cheryl or her work until now but will definitely be sharing this podcast and the resources with the local home school groups. What a treasure as a bit more formal school is on the horizon for our gal with Downs. I am always impressed by the statistics and just high level of content in your podcasts. This one in particular should bring much hope to those with kids with any type of special need and even those without. What a blessing. I wasn’t going to order any new homeschool materials for myself or the kids until I got through the things I already have here, but her book looks amazing! Thank you for another excellent podcast. And you were right. Once you two began talking, I didn’t even notice the difference in the microphones. :)
This was great! I really enjoyed this and it’s very timely for me as we are in the process of adopting a child with special needs.
Also, I’m not a stickler for political correctness, but I think it’s important to get into the habit of saying “children with special needs” rather than “special needs child.” Each child is a person first, not a condition. Just a friendly reminder. :)
I have an author friend, Heather L. Fitzgerald, who read aloud until her voice gave out, (as she writes it). Her autistic son moved on to listen to CDs on audio.
She recently released a book with an autistic character, by the way! The book is called “The Tethered World.”
What a brilliant subject to broach! I have always been a firm believer in chucking ‘reading levels’ anyway, and thinking about it terms of special needs kids just cements my feelings on the matter. Thanks for this great advice and for making us all think… again.
Thank you so much for this week’s podcast! We have an adopted son with mild CP. I have been interested in Classical education for some time, but we don’t live anywhere near the school in our city, can’t really afford it and don’t know if they even have the ability to accommodate special needs kids. I have some friends doing Classical homeschooling, but I wasn’t sure if it was something we could do. I LOVE that there is specific curriculum just for this purpose. Now I feel like we really have options. Integrating his other therapies will be interesting (since he will soon be switching to the local school district for them), but we’ll navigate it the best we can. Thanks for all of the resources mentioned! (I’m so glad you posted this episode in spite of the quality – it really wasn’t a big deal.) :)
Loving the eclectic and applicable subjects/guests you bring on the show. Keep up the fantastic work.