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Today I’m back with 5 MORE ways to use adapted books for special educations.  If you didn’t catch it, you can read my earlier post on the first 5 ways I use adapted books here.  And adaptive books are also a great tool for literacy with students with autism and other disabilities. I’m sure there are more ways that they can be used, but these are the primary ways I’ve used them in classrooms.  I would love to hear from you about how you use them.

1. Adapted Books For Independent Work

Once students are familiar with the books, they are designed so that students can complete the books on their own and “read” the books even if they are nonreaders.  They can practice matching pictures to pictures.  For instance, students can read this color book and match the color visuals to the pictures whether they can read the text or not.  If the student has difficulty matching colors to the pictures, have him or her do it backwards.  Leave the visuals in the book and have the student match the color squares to the color squares on the page holder.

2. Adapted Books as a Partner Activity with a Peer

I’ve used adapted books for special education as a social activity with peers. Whether in general education or a special education classroom, adapted books are a great turn-taking activity between peers.  If both students are readers, they can take turns reading the pages and finding the pictures.  If one student is a reader and one is not, then the reader can read the book aloud and the student who doesn’t read can find the picture (or word) for the page.

3. Adapted Books for Including Students in Groups and Differentiate Instruction

I love to use adapted books as a way to include students with special needs in group time.  You might remember that I talked about using materials that involve interaction as a way to increase engagement in group activities. adapted books, like the one in the picture with words and pictures, can easily be used in younger grades to differentiate. Students who are readers find the word. Students who are working on understanding of the text find the picture.  They also make the group time more interactive, so the students are more likely to stay on task.

4. Enhance Literacy

I like using adapted books for special education as a way to enhance literacy efforts across the board.  These are books that students often get excited about because they can understand them and read them on their own. Many teachers tell me that the kids are really excited when the teacher pulls the books out. And that means that we are getting them excited about reading.  

In addition, I always want to have a book that has a clear title page with an author so the students begin to be able to identify the cover of the book, the title and the author.  They can also then begin to understand sentence structure, particularly if it’s predictable, and start to connect the pictures to the text.

5. Adapted Books as a Reinforcer or Choice for Choice Time

Given that students like adapted books so much, students are often motivated to work for them. They also may become a chosen leisure item during choice time.  Since it’s always a teacher’s dream for a kid to love to read, those outcomes seem like a win to me.

Interested in seeing what makes up an adapted book? Check out my preview video for my Winter Adapted Book Set for Special Education below.

I’ll be back next with skills and goals that can be addressed with adapted books for special education.  Until next time,