Play for Children with Special Needs

Play for Children with Special Needs, Including Children aged 3-8. Edited by Christine Macintyre. (David Fulton, 14, 020 8996 3610)

Reviewed by Collette Drifte, special needs consultant.

This is a timely book dealing with the issues of play and inclusion of children with special needs in the early years.

It is a well-organised and clearly written book, considering both the theory and practice of play as a concept, and also giving plenty of good ideas and suggestions for activities to do with the children. The 'theoretical' aspects of play are discussed in a reader-friendly way.

Because the main points are illustrated with case studies and examples, the academic side of the issues is easy to understand.

The author gives lots of suggestions for things to do with children who have a variety of special needs including Down's syndrome, dyspraxia, other physical and motor skills, Asperger syndrome and sensory disabilities. Of course, these represent only a tiny part of the huge range of disabilities that exist, and practitioners may not find the information they specifically need. Even allowing for this limitation however, the book is useful and informative. It's worth investing some of the literature budget to have a copy on the shelf.