WHEN POOH WON’T DO
Twelve Tricks for Choosing Books for the Concrete Thinker and Visual Learner
by Ellen Notbohm
Peter Rabbit and Winnie the Pooh. Sneetches, Loraxes, and Grinches. Charlotte, Wilbur and Templeton. Babar, the Berenstain Bears and the Runaway Bunny.
They fairly dance off the page in a vivid pageant of youthful ebullience. And what do they all have in common? Obviously – they are the enduringly popular characters and stories of literature’s favorite children’s books.
More subtly, they are perennial favorites that revolve around the adventures of talking animals, critters who not only talk but often wear clothes, drive cars and keep house as well. These books have long delighted millions of kids, and they constitute the bulk of the children’s collection in many libraries and bookstores. But for children with autism and related spectrum disorders, they can be incomprehensible and disturbing. Cultivating a book lover in a child to whom ‘typical’ children’s literature doesn’t make sense can be daunting. How can parents and teachers help children bridge this critical gap?
We can begin by putting ourselves in their mindset:
- They are concrete thinkers who generally have trouble with abstract concepts.
- They don’t readily in ‘pretend’ play.
- They tend to be highly visual learners.
- They often have language delays or impairment, both receptive and expressive.
Frog and Toad may not do it for these children. But jump-starting their interest in books is as close as the non-fiction section of the library. Book enjoyment for them may not yet be about a story, but very much about making a connection to their world.
Try these tricks to get started
- Choose books with photographs, rather than artwork illustrations. “It’s easier for children with autism to form a visual association with a photograph,” says Julianne Barker, a Portland, Oregon speech/language pathologist. “They then seem to comprehend the language and concepts in the book more readily.”
- Choose books about real-life things that he could correlate with his own life, construction equipment, all about water, how baby gets ready for bed. Scholastic’s Let’s Find Out series: big, bright photographs of kids learning about things like ice cream, bicycles, toothpaste and money. From Wheat to Pasta, From Plant to Blue Jeans and From Wax to Crayon are representative of photo-essay titles from the Changes series published by New York Children’s Press. Lots of photos, a minimum of text and high degree of relevance make these books a great place to start.
- ‘Window’ books are designed with a cutout in each page. Tape your child’s photo to the back page of the book and his/her face appears on every page. The Hey, Look at Me! series from Merrybooks is available on Amazon.com and other web booksellers. Hey, Look at Me! I Can Be…..explores different career options. Hey, Look at Me! I Like to Dream places the child in a candy factory, a circus, a hot air balloon.
- Write your own book. Write about a past event (“My 5th Birthday Party”), a future event (“I’m Going to Kindergarten!”) or a familiar routine (“Thanksgiving at My Grandma’s House”).
- Wordless books can be very helpful. Tana Hoban’s dozens of photo-illustrated books introduce children to many concepts around them: Colors Everywhere, Is It Rough? Is It Smooth?, Shadows and Reflections are just a few.
Keep the momentum going
- When you find a book that works for your child, exhaust the series, the author, the
genre. If your child enjoys When Winter Comes (Robert Maas), continue on with When Spring Comes, When Summer Comes and When Autumn Comes, all by the same author, and then go on to other books about the seasons.
- When a favorite does materialize, buy it. Reading a beloved book again and again reinforces comprehension and enjoyment. How very discouraging for an emergent reader to go looking for a favored book only to find that it went back to the library last week.
Be aware of books that may not work (even though you love them)
- Dr. Seuss and his Zizzer-Zazzer-Zuzz may be wubbulous, but fantastical creatures and nonsense words are lost on the concrete thinker.
- Illustrations that are highly stylized or collage-type art (Stinky Cheese Man, Grouchy Ladybug) may be too abstract.
- Books peopled by anthropomorphic animals may be rejected as unrealistic.
- Joke books or books based on word play generally rely on puns and double entendres that are simply beyond the language abilities of most kids on the spectrum.
And most importantly...
- Don’t be discouraged by your child’s rejection of traditional fiction. For now, welcome his or her individuality and enter the exciting realm of non-fiction. And remember, it’s entirely possible that at some point, your child may be ready to make the transition to fiction.
It can be a short leap from reading all about bulldozers to reading Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel. Ease into this transition by pre-reading books using a “picture walk.” “A picture walk is useful in so many ways,” says Barker. “It expands vocabulary and ties in with sequencing. First, look at the cover of the book and try to make a prediction as to what the book will be about. Look at each page and ask the child questions about how the pictures in the book relate to them. What is this character feeling? What colors or shapes are in the pictures? What is going to happen next? Frame the questions as ‘I wonder’ statements. ‘I wonder why she’s crying?’ ‘I wonder who is knocking at the door.’ When you pose questions like that, there is a greater chance the child will want to read the book.”
But whether fiction, fact or fantasy, as much as possible, follow your child’s lead in choosing books from the library or the bedroom shelf. You may be thinking, yuck, why do they want that book, and try to steer them to something else. But it’s important to let them choose. “We all learn and experience things differently,” says education specialist Kayla Sanford, MEd. “As parents an educators, we often need to put our preconceived ideas to the side and simply listen to what the child is telling us he needs.”
© 2005, 2009 Ellen Notbohm
Please contact the author for permission to reproduce in any way, including re-posting on the Internet.