SpecialNeedsGifts.com Skill Building Holiday Gift Guide Nov. 2013

Choosing a Skill Building Toy Choosing a Skill Building Toy - Page 17 Keeping Calm During the Holidays - Page 9 Skill Builder Categories Defined - Page 4 Tips for Busy and Crowded Holidays - Page 13 10 Free iPad Apps that Teach Cause & Effect - Page 3

Table of Contents Learning About Specialneedsgifts.Com 2 10 Free Ipad Apps That Teach Cause & Effect 3 Skill Builder Categories Defined 4 Top 10 Toys For Infants To 4 Years Old 7 Keeping Calm During The Holidays 9 Top 10 Toys For 5 Through 9 Years Old 11 Tips For Busy And Crowded Holidays 13 Top 10 Toys For 10 Through 15 Years Old 15 Choosing A Skill Building Toy For Your Special Needs Child 17 STAFF SpecialNeedsGifts.com Editor in Chief: Missy Ward 522 Hunt Club Blvd. #411 Graphic Design: Karen Ward Apopka, FL 32703 Articles in this Skill Building Holiday Gift Guide are the opinions of the authors and may or may not reflect the views of the website or its owners. SpecialNeedsGifts.com always welcomes opinions of an opposite nature. For more information, please visit us online at SpecialNeedsGifts.com © 2013 SpecialNeedsGifts.com and Individual Authors. 1

Learning About SpecialNeedsGifts.com SpecialNeedsGifts.com offers hand- first-time parents (my sister, Jenny picked, reasonably-priced gifts that and brother-in-law, Nick) as they help kids with Down syndrome, quickly got up to speed on best ways Autism, ADD, SPD, Cerebral Palsy, to care for Mason and get him well. Sensory Integration Impairment, developmental delays and other The best remedy for a developmental special needs. delay may be the right toy. Playing is more than just a popular childhood Why should you trust us to help you pastime. It is the mechanism through with this important decision? which children learn about their world and hone their skills. The gifts This is my nephew, Mason. Don’t let and toys included in this gift guide his gorgeous face fool you. He is one have been hand-picked by parents and tough kiddo! Mason fought his way relatives of children with special into this world on September 15, needs and they are designed to 2012 with an unexpected birth specifically develop fine and gross- diagnosis of Down Syndrome and motor skills, communication, speech, several related health issues. Let’s imagination, cognition and social just say it was an interesting year for skills. 2

10 Free iPad Apps that Teach Cause & Effect Get your children involved with can learn the basic concepts of technology at any age. How about a shapes, colors, and numbers while special case for the younger ones, or developing sensitivity and creativity. dedicated FREE apps as they get FingerPiano Lite older. Cause and effect Apps are great It allows you to play the for cognitive thinking, creating piano with your forefinger. positive self-awareness and predicting. They're always big hits as Christmas Piano Play or sing along to reinforcers as they involve the child Christmas carols on a real doing something to get a reaction. piano right on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch! Here are 10 iPad apps that are great Giraffe’s Matching Zoo for children who think more literally and are very soothing to children who This is a vibrant and exciting mind don't like changes in their routine. development game designed for children, but fun for all Pocket Pond ages. Every adorable animal makes a Create relaxing ripples unique and entertaining sound. while you enjoy the sounds of nature. Interact Tiltoria with the fish, scare them, feed them, Tiltoria is an animated show, music light and watch their schooling behavior. visualizer and psychedelic Finger Paint with Sounds paint box all in one to sooth and Explore touch with color, excite at the same time. sounds or music. A chance to finger paint without the Make Shrek Roar mess! Finger Paint with sounds offers Use Butterpants to help you annoy Shrek. Punch a fun alternative to help children with the button, and the little special needs and others to practice boy will badger the big ogre and their first interactions with touch cause him to bellow out his enormous screen. Peekaboo Barn Lite ogre roar. AlphaBaby Free A little bouncing barn, Touch the screen to show friendly farm animals are and hear letters and waiting to pop out and shapes. Flick them to send surprise your little one. Try and guess them flying across the screen. Press who they are; tap the doors to find out! them and the letters shrink and grow. Record your own voice for the letters Play Lab and shapes. Add your own images Let the whole family enjoy from the camera or photo library, and playing with shapes, colors, and numbers. Kids record captions to match. 3

Skill Builder Categories Defined Fine Motor Skills child to use their arms and legs like balance Fine motor skills games, racing games, allow your child to or outdoor sports perform precise equipment are perfect movements such as for promoting gross picking up a tiny motor skills. object with their thumb and index finger or drawing a picture. These Language and Speech skills rely on the child's ability to concisely control their muscles, Infants begin to develop language and bones, and nerves in order to make speech skills well before they utter small movements. Fine motor skills their first word. However, these skills develop slowly over time, and they can only be measured as the child can be fostered by the right toys begins to use language. In order to including blocks, art supplies, and use language effectively, children anything else that encourages the must develop receptive and child to practice coordinating their expressive language abilities. mind with their small muscles. Fine Receptive abilities refer to the child's motors skills allow us to eat, dress ability to understand the messages ourselves, write, draw, and more. that are being communicated to them. For a young toddler, this may mean Gross Motor Skills understanding simple phrases Gross motor skills refer to the like \"all gone\", coordinated use of large muscle and for an groups and whole body movements older toddler, like walking, this may mean running, and developing the jumping. Babies ability to start to develop understand gross motor simple requests. Expressive abilities skills very early refer to the child's ability to use in their lives, language to express themselves. This and the skills ability first presents itself in gestures. are typically In fact, many developed in a head to toe order. That parents find means that babies develop head sign control, core stability, and walking in language to that order, and the child continues to be a helpful develop these skills into their early tool in childhood. Toys that encourage your promoting 4

language and speech development in interactions, their self-esteem also has children who have difficulty with the opportunity to thrive. Self-esteem expressive language. Eventually, is the way that children think and feel expressive language skills become the about themselves. Unfortunately, ability to speak in sentences and tell many children who have special complete stories. Toys that boost a needs, in particular, can suffer from child's vocabulary or encourage them low self-esteem, especially if they are to work through a story can help to teased or harassed by their peers. promote these skills, especially for Toys that allow a child to follow their children who have a developmental own interests can boost self-esteem. speech delay. As a child becomes proficient at something they care about, it can Social Skills and Self Esteem make them feel accomplished and increased self-esteem will ensue. Humans are naturally social creatures, Once a child has an adequate amount and the development of social skills of self-esteem, they will have better happens naturally as children spend tools for dealing with their peers and time with other people and get to approaching any challenges that come know their their way. environment. Until the age Visual and Spatial Perception of three or four, most Visual and children prefer to play on their own in spatial parallel play, but as they get older and perception develop the necessary social skills, refers to a they become ready to play with others child's ability in cooperative play. Toys that to see the promote cooperation, communication, world around and interaction are ideal for them and promoting social skills in children. As make sense of children play these games, they learn it. Spatial how to handle conflict, how to read perception other's emotions, and how to interact refers, in with others. Through positive social particular, to the ability to gage the relationship and distance between two or more objects. As visual skills develop, they help the child with reading, math, and handwriting. Children who have difficulty with visual perception may have trouble identifying objects or figuring out 5