| Strategy |
Sample Activity |
- Make sure that architecture, room arrangement, and materials
can be used by all children.
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- Build a sand box up on legs so a child in a wheelchair
can use it.
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- Suggest to children with and without disabilities ways
they can interact with and learn from each other.
|
- Help all children to learn sign language and encourage
them to use it throughout the day.
|
- Use pictures, books, and dolls to increase knowledge about
disabilities.
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- Make sure books about people with various disabilities
are available to the children. Choose books that don't focus
solely on the disability, but rather show people with disabilities
doing many different things.
|
- Assist children in becoming familiar with equipment and
devices used by persons with disabilities.
|
- Include items such as canes, walkers, or eyeglass frames
in the Housekeeping or Dress-Up area for children to try
out. (It is best to use surplus equipment and devices rather
than using a child's personal equipment.)
|
- Provide experiences that enable children to learn about
what different degrees of hearing, vision, and mobility
are like.
|
- Play a "feeling box" game where children use only their
hands to tell what an object is. Encourage a blind child
to play, too, and to offer helpful hints about how to identify
objects that aren't easily guessed by others.
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- Correct misconceptions and stereotypes about disabilities.
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- Listen for the children's ideas about what persons with
disabilities can and can't do, and find examples to disprove
or support their ideas. "We know persons who use wheelchairs
can go grocery shopping because . . ."
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Methods