Let's Play: Building Play Skills with Special Needs Children
I have always been a huge supporter of teaching children through play. When I started my career back in Head Start many years ago, playtime was 45 to 60 minutes of our school day, much like it is in most preschool classrooms. So naturally when I moved into my Early Childhood Special Education classroom, I thought I could do the same, but I was sadly mistaken. The majority of the students in my special education classroom did not have the skills necessary to play. That may seem silly to most of us, as play came so naturally when we were children ourselves, but children with a variety of social and communication deficits do not always pick up on the concept of play.