Additional Needs

Special Christmas Books

Posted by Naomi Aldridge on 11th December 2018 Additional Needs, Advice & Support

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Christmas time is so magical. Ethan loves this time of year, with the lights and the music. I love making his Christmas as special as possible, because after all we don't know whether it will be his last with us.

We do lots of festive things together and every year I try to do something meaningful for him.

For one of Ethan's first Christmas' my mum made him a book advent calendar. We pull it out every year and each year I add more books to it to keep it exciting.

I thought I would share with you some of the books we will be reading this year and books we recommend you should get a copy of to read by your Christmas tree with a warm hot chocolate or gift to someone you know who would love a special book to read.

All of these books are tailored to our special children in different ways.

I find reading to Ethan is a time when we can escape from the daily grind and head off into our own little adventures.

1. '10 little elves'. This is the book for our Christmas box this year. We don't have all our children on Christmas eve so they are having Christmas pyjamas, a book, Christmas t shirts and light up Christmas spinners at the start of December.

This book is about some Elves off on a rescue mission to save Christmas.

This book is great for encouraging number recognition and counting practice. It's a lovely rhyming story so easy to read.

Ethan loves us helping him to count using his finger to point.

2. The works have a great deal on books, 10 for £10. This is great for creating a cheap advent calendar of books! There are some lovely titles! Some of our favourites are the 'Dinosaur that pooped Christmas', 'Father Christmas needs a wee', 'Granny saves Christmas' and 'One snowy night'.

The 'Dinosaur that pooped Christmas' is a big favourite in our house. We all have a good chuckle including Ethan!

We love stories that get us talking and laughing together!

3. We were recently gifted 3 beautiful Christmas books from an author. 'The Special Delivery', 'The Christmas Next Door' and 'Santa's Wish'. They are all gorgeous with rhyming words to make it flow more. Each has its own special message encouraging us to think of others.

The one that stands out to me is the 'Christmas next door'. One of the main characters is a little girl called Lily who has autism. It shows her get over excited about her school play.

Lily's Grandad calms her down and gives her the ear defenders to help calm her. It's a lovely way to show a child with autism and that they can still take part in Christmas things.

It offers the chance to talk to children about Lily and also for those in similar situations to be able to relate to her.

These books can be found over at owlet press.

4. 'The Christmasaurus' is another one we intend to read this year. I'm not sure of Ethan’s full understanding but we have been starting to read bigger books and he seems to be following along and enjoying them!

This story is about a little boy who uses a wheelchair after an accident. It's nice for Ethan to see children in wheelchairs like him as this doesn't pop up much in books.

There is also a music CD available which is great for our children who love music.

5. We love all the 'that’s not my' books. There is a lovely set available for Christmas. These are all textured which is great for children with sensory needs.

Ethan has learnt to hold his finger out to be able to stroke and touch the feely pages.

6. Last up is 'The Night Before Christmas'. This book was always read to me and my brother growing up. Our mum read it to us every Christmas eve.

I still remember that now and how much I loved mum bringing the story to life. I have carried this tradition on with my children so we will be reading this on Christmas Eve.

We have a couple of different styles of this book. There is also a pop-up version available too.

We hope you enjoy these stories as much as we do. Let us know if you have favourite stories too!