Learning Aids: Educational Toys and Books for Autistic Children

Toys and games such as legos or Scrabble are a great way to reach out to children when trying to teach them at the same time. Sometimes a break away from the board or books can gear them up to their next class after their fun session as kids with autism and other disorders such as ADHD can have difficulties focusing on activities that are not of their interest for long periods of time.

A great learning tool for children from about 3- 8 years old, the Play Doh Creativity Center is a visual and tactile learning set. It includes dough cutters that are animal shaped, with items like play kitchen utensils that can be used to make designs in the dough and improve the child’s grasping technique. It helps with development of motor skills, use of imagination, and helps when learning to identify the differences between different animals, colors and other objects. If you think you want to try this activity set it can be found at Play Doh Creativity Center.

Let’s Go Fishin’ is a fun game that has been around for decades and is helpful in exercising coordination skills. This game features battery operated fish and plastic fishing rods and rotates in different directions making it a challenge for the players to catch the fish. Younger children or children that find the Let’s Go Fishin game difficult can play a very similar version that is a bit easier called Gone Fishin' which features the same concept, but moves a bit slower and has less fish. These exciting games can both be found at Fun Fishing Games .

Another important area of learning is language development skills. Many children with autism experience problems with speech, often having no language or poor language. Articulation and pronunciation of each syllable of a word can prove difficult for these children. Phonics Games by Evan- Moor Educational Publishers features a game for kids that need work on learning how to use different reading sounds and know the difference between consonants and vowels. It goes up to 6 players and is great for older kids who are breaking speech barriers and learning to read. Practicing these skills while participating in a fun game like exercise can make it easier to teach children than the conventional board and book method. It is available at different grade/ learning levels and is found at Phonic Games by Pressman .

All of the above are excellent choices when it comes to choosing to combine education with fun. There are information links included in each section on where to get the learning products and they are listed from sources with reasonable prices so the whole class or family can enjoy.