This giveaway is now closed. Congratulations to our winner, Michele Cervetti. Straightforward, friendly, and loaded with practical advice, these hands-on guides for kids with special needs give students the tools they need to not only survive, but thrive. With plenty of realistic examples and bright illustrations, these guides are accessible, encouraging, kid-friendly, and even life-changing.
One lucky reader will win all of these positive, must-have resources:
- The Survival Guide for Kids in Special Education
- The Survival Guide for Kids with LD
- The Survival Guide for Kids with Physical Disabilities & Challenges
- The Survival Guide for Kids with Behavior Challenges
- The Survival Guide for Kids with ADHD
- The Survival Guide for Kids with Autism Spectrum Disorders (And Their Parents)
To Enter: Leave a comment below telling us how you help students with special needs thrive. This giveaway is now closed.
For additional entries, leave a separate comment below for each of the following tasks that you complete:
Each comment counts as a separate entry—that’s four chances to win! Entries must be received by midnight, February 24, 2017.
The winner will be contacted via email on or around February 27, 2017, and will need to respond within 72 hours to claim his or her prize or another winner will be chosen. This giveaway is in no way affiliated with, administered, or endorsed by Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest. Winner must be a U.S. resident, 18 years of age or older.
We welcome your comments and suggestions. Share your comments, stories, and ideas below, or contact us. All comments will be approved before posting, and are subject to our comment and privacy policies.
© 2017 by Free Spirit Publishing. All rights reserved.
I help students with special needs learn how to talk openly with others about their needs. One example: When a student with ASD can explain ASD to his/her classmates, a wall comes down and friendships are more easily formed.
I also help educate parents about their child’s special needs. My best resource is Free Spirit. I give away every catalog I receive and direct many parents and educators to your website.
One of the best ways that I work with students with special needs is educating their teachers and other staff members that work and interact with them. I have students in 5-8 grades (all girls school) and NUMEROUS ones have varying degrees of LD (math and english/language arts), ADHD / ADD, and anxiety disorders. I assist them in learning new or better methods in which to interact with their academics and teach them while we work on homework or upcoming projects as well as studying for tests and quizzes. I always have a positive interaction and often reaction when they get that “Aha Moment”, but it’s more fun when I work with their teachers and see them have the same reaction (“Aha Moment”) when they understand how the student is learning and why things don’t “stick” like it does for other students or in understanding that attempting to level the playing field is not a method of cheating or truly even giving extra opportunity to the individual – often it just allows them the opportunity to be able to think and work without running out of time. I would really love this set of books because I know that it would expand and extend what I know and give me more insights into how I can best reach my students and teach the teachers to reach them better.
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Working with child care providers and assisting them, this package would be awesome to share with providers while we are in the field!
Having a child with special needs has been tough but since I work in an elementary school I have been very lucky to have resources at my fingertips. It has actually inspired me to go back to school to become a special education teacher.
I think about myself how I learn how I feel and try to understand the students with the same difficulties I have. Being ADHD helps me understand the students and I use myself as an example I have no shame to share this info about myself
I am a classroom teacher that tries to meet the needs of students with such different strengths, learning styles, interests and challenges. Some students do have diagnoses, but my goal is to try my best to reach and support ALL students.
I am always looking for different ways to reach my students in my Life Skill classes. From finding fun and interesting activities, to cooking their favorite foods and teaching them how, to learning how they think about life in general. Getting my students to open up and share their thoughts and feelings helps me to figure out how to teach them the best. Last year I taught juniors and seniors and helped them prepare for life after high school (transition programs, jobs, etc) and this year I have freshman and sophomores and their needs are so different from the older students. This year I am working more in interpersonal skills and getting the students to relate to each other, where as last year, the group had already established themselves and was ready for what was next.
I work with families that have children that recently has been diagnoses with special needs. This guides will be good resources to share with them.
I’m a school social worker and I work with any student in the school who needs help. I lead social skills groups for students in both mainstream classes and students in special education. The school I work at is over 80% free and reduced lunch and we do not have the funds to purchase great materials like this. I hope I win!
I work with children who have behavioral challenges thrive by helping them develop alternative, appropriate behaviors.
I co-teach a social skills group for the special needs kiddos in my school. We work on any skills that are needed for each student. We are always looking for resources to help our students.
I help children with special needs thrive as an Inclusion Specialist. My job is to teach childcare providers from birth through school age care about caring for children with special needs. I could use these books to help me with information that I provide to childcare providers or as a possible resource that I could give to a childcare provider.
I help the students with special needs succeed in our program through individualizing education for all of our children, paying particular attention to the social-emotional needs of the children. We work together as a school family and include parents as a part of that family as their children’s first and most important teacher. Providing resources for the parents to use at home will utimately affect the success of their child at school.
I help all my children with programme’s that include all of the children to interact together as a happy group. I care for, the hearing impaired , vision impaired and a range of ASD I have booked into my care. Tactile and visual stimulation and lots of games. Also raising our own son with intellectual delays and Autism. Using lots of picture prompts.
I help students with special needs thrive by including them in lunch bunches and giving them opportunities to build relationships and build skills alongside their peers.
I believe that hands on relationship based guidance is key. Having said that, resources and activities that foster growth and trust are so important to our programs. I’m always looking for new and exciting resources to share with our families.
I work with preschoolers, infants, and toddlers and these resources would be awesome!!! With limited funding, we access all resources we can. The one thing I work on in the beginning to help teachers know how to begin working with children where they are developmentally. When this is done correctly, it makes for a better foundation.
I help our special needs children by identifying the children who may need extra help, having them evaluated and working with the IEP to work on the goals. Until the eval is done we use what we learn from observing the child and individualize based upon the child’s strengths and areas of need’
I am entering the contest to win the “Survival Guides for Special Needs to have these resources would be so helpful to my students who I see weekly to learn new skills and take tools with them in the areas they are lagging in Social Skills or Executive Functions to succeed in the classroom and build up their self-confidence to use these tools to help themselves with academics or in building their peer relationships.
I am a paraprofessional who is also a certified special education teacher. I love my job working with students who have learning challenges. I have worked with a wide variety of children. Each is unique and takes different approaches. I have helped teachers modify and adapt work to make it more accessible. I love seeing my students learn and grow and become confident in themselves as people and as learners.
Building relationships helps special needs kids thrive at any level.
I search for the resources my students need to learn.
We read books to the students and show video snippets that have social issues similar to the students’ and then have discussions/activities to process alternative ways of dealing with the issue. We teach them how to self regulate and advocate in a positive manner to have their wants and needs met while providing a nurturing, inviting and safe environment for them in which to learn and thrive.
We are currently working with a family that has one child with ADHD, and the other is being looked at to have the same. The guides would be so very helpful to not us and the families. It would give us something in hand that can be referred to.
I try to find something that they are interested in and make sure I have books on that topic in my classroom library. I also have them set goals for themselves that are attainable so they can celebrate their growth.
I work exclusively with twice-exceptional students who are integrated into a congregated gifted school population. These resources would enable our Student Services team to develop stronger skills and be better able to support our 2e learners.
I read books to students and I have a grandson who has ADHD, who would also benefit from these books.
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As a middle school special education teacher I work hard to make sure kids leave my classroom knowing how to appropriately self advocate. I want them to leave me stronger than when they came in.
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I work in the cafeteria but I am always patient with whatever the individual child may need at the time. I also treat them like they are a human.
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As a school counselor I work with the special education teachers and homeroom teachers to help with social and emotional skills. I offer small group counseling to expand on skills and take the time to help learners in areas that might be a struggle. I am flexible and accommodating to their needs. These resources will definitely help me while working with learners and understanding their needs.
In our program we work on inclusion. We make sure our environments are conducive to all learners and we have some sensory tools to help support the children with sensory needs. We have classroom routines and picture schedules. We use lots of visuals, like sand timers and pictures.
Hi, I’m currently studying Cert III in Early Childhood and running a Family Day Care. I would love to read these books! They look like great reading and subjects I could really gain more knowledge in.
I have taught special education for 3 years now. This year I coteach in a general education setting. I help them thrive by identifying what supports they need and making sure they get those needs met.
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My main goal is to make sure that all the children do not only feel safe in their classroom environment but to make sure that they are happy as well. Find out what they like, firetrucks, dolls, anything. Incorporate it into the classroom. If a student is comfortable and happy they are more open to learning.
One of the ways I help special needs students thrive is to celebrate the small, incremental steps with them along the way. It is so easy for my students to get caught up in failure it is important to celebrate success!
As a school counselor, I advocate for children each and every day.
I am a childcare health consultant and assist teachers and parents in ways to include children with challenges in the classroom. This may mean, teaching sign language to all the children so that they may communicate with the one child who does not hear.
As a public librarian, it is good to know more about children/families with special needs to better be able to serve them. By having the opportunity to view the materials, it will provide us with better knowledge and resources to help and direct them..
I am the psychologist in a preschool for children with hearing and language deficits. We also provide after-school services to school-aged children with IEPs. We work to identify the children’s strengths, and build coping skills for the social and academic challenges they face.
I am a social worker at an elementary school of approximately 700 children pre-k through 6th grade. We serve each and every kid who comes through the door no matter what their special abilities are. I love my job as I get to help each student have a great school day (that’s how I describe my job to them) and empower those that are struggling by teaching them strategies and filling their tool bags with techniques to use when they feel like things aren’t going their way. I help them problem solve and try to make better choices. I help them learn from mistakes and use each situation as a chance to grow and learn. These books would really help the students understand that they can still excel even when they may face some additional challenges that other students do not have to deal with. I believe the students and families would benefit greatly from these resources!
I am a former school librarian, now a school library consultant who does the collection development for a Catholic Elementary School serving students from pre-school to Grade 8. I have always strived to include books in our collection that serve the needs of ALL students in our school. It is important that each and every student is able to find books on the shelves that speak directly to them and their life issues.
I am a middle school counselor who works with children with a wide range of abilities. I also tutor elementary students in reading and math. In addition, I work part-time in a mental health facility. I am always searching for meaningful and practical resources for “all” my children.
I’m a SLP, we help preschool children with special needs.We utilize a variety of tools and approaches to individualize our therapies as much as possible.
As Director of the LOGOS ministry at our church, I work together with other adults in meeting the needs of children from many different backgrounds and learning abilities. These books help our teachers understand the children from their point of view and give many ideas to better their experiences with us and development of lifelong relationships.
As a director of a Preschool with about 250 children we see a lot of children with a variety of Special needs. Any resources I can get to help myself and my teaching staff work with the children in our care would be of great assistance. Currently we work with outside agencies and get what ever information we can to provide the best services for our children.
As a school counselor, I utilize many different tools to help students be successful every day. These resources would be a phenominal addition to my school. It will help me with student success, as well as teachers feeling the success fo their studesnts, as well.
Enter to Win Survival Guides for Kids with Special Needs
I am entering this contest, as I am a Home School Resource Educator/Evaluator and I work with parents who seek to homeschool/educate their special needs children of all ages. This library would give me hands-on resources to work with students who has special needs as well as to share with parents I serve o rloan out this as a resource to parents who cannot afford a purchase. to parents who can afford, I would encourage parents to purchase this library in working with our kids who have special needs.