The last couple of months I’ve been starting to focus on colors with Julianna. At 2 ½, it seems really tardy. This is the constant waffling you do as a parent of a child with special needs: is she there yet? Am I pushing too hard? Am I pushing hard enough? Anyway, I decided to give it a try.
There are two issues. One is comprehension: can she distinguish them? The other is communication: can she control her fingers sufficiently to point? I told the OT and Speech therapists that I wanted her to work on colors, so we’ve been hitting it on all fronts the last few weeks, and she has risen to the challenge beautifully. She’s still in that stage where it’s not a slam dunk, but she’s consistently correct.
The rule of thumb about development is that they surge forward in one area at a time. Right now her “area” seems to be fine motor/communication, rather than gross motor (is this child EVER going to walk?????). She’s really into books. Two of her favorites are these great books that her aunt and uncle gave her for her birthday: Meg Girnis’s ABC For You And Me and the corresponding 123 book. I highly recommend these books, for kids with Down’s and for typically-developing kids.
They are very simple photographic books featuring kids with Down’s. The kids and the objects are all on white backgrounds, and the colors are vivid and eye-catching. The counting book goes all the way to twenty, ending with a two-page spread of balloons. The objects featured are great for signing. Julianna can already sign about half of them, so it’s great multitasking for us, and she loves these books. It’s especially great because it’s a book starring kids with Down’s. She may be too young to appreciate seeing other kids like her, but I don’t think so. She probably doesn’t realize why the books attract her so much, but I think that’s part of it.
They’re good for typically-developing kids, too. These books are beautiful: high contrast, vivid pictures, fun objects. Besides, it’s good for typically-developing kids to see kids with special needs portrayed in such fun, beautiful pictures. Check it out.
While I’m at it, here’s Julianna coloring my world:
Kathleen M. Basi 
