So my friend and I were talking just yesterday about a mom she knows who has some serious concerns about her non-verbal ten year old son.

The mom is concerned because she does not know how to encourage his participation and interest in learning to communicate either by words, signing or an assisted device.

My friend, who is awesome and the mother to a special needs child herself, offered many good suggestions to this mom. Ones that, like the song in Sound of Music says, “start at the very beginning…”

This got me thinking, that the very beginning can and does mean different things for each and every child.

Some children can talk but not write.

Others can write but not run well.

Others can have global needs.

The “special” in special needs translates to different things.  But it got me thinking about the very beginning for communication.

There is a book that I just love, love, love that would fit the need for introducing communication skills.  It is called Lucas the Lion Loves the Tiny Talker.

The book is so appealing when you just look at the cover, and it looks like the other children’s books that tell a story. The child gets to push a button at certain markers in the story to make a certain sound effect or noise.

The wonderful thing about the Lucas the Lion book is that the choices of sounds like on other books is replaced by “the Tiny Talker” which is a communication device for non-verbal individuals.

The Tiny Talker has pictures that describe the words or phrases you can press.  For example, the picture with the word for “sorry” is a child with his/her head down.  And the one for the phrase “I want to play” is a boy playing with a toy car.

And that is the beauty of the Lucas the Lion Loves the Tiny Talker book. It teaches the child with special needs, the great power of communication and words. The story is simple, cute and easy to process.  And also wonderful because it ties in to the goal of associating words and phrases with examples from the book.

I really think this book would have been a fantastic thing to use for Elizabeth when she was young and struggling with speaking.  Her special needs of Sensory Processing Disorder( SPD) and Global Dyspraxia made learning to talk so very challenging but Elizabeth wanted to talk so badly and this type of book would have been wonderful.

Another pretty amazing thing is that the “tiny talker” is detachable so it can go where your child goes and be more incorporated into their daily lives and activities.  This would further enhance the concept that language and communication is powerful.

So if this book sounds like it might be a fit for your child or someone you know, please take a look on our site to read more about it.  It would be a great book to add to a special needs child’s life.

I am going to show it to my friend so she can share it with the mom I talked about.

I wish everyone a peaceful week.

Michele Gianetti author or ” I Believe In You: A Mother and Daughter’s Special Journey” and “Emily’s Sister”

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