Best books for special needs toddlers

Reading to your child is a wonderful thing. It has so many benefits such as helping to improve your parent-child bond, support their cognitive development, improve vocabulary, develop their imagination and help concentration levels. Regardless of your child’s ability, it is important to read to them.

Here are some of SpecialKids Company’s favourite books for toddlers with special needs.

Usborne Touchy-Feely Books

Usborne have a wide range of Touchy-Feely books that are fun and timeless. They are a fantastic sensory experience with every page bringing new textures and sensory experiences. These books are great for children with developmental delays because they are colourful, bright and easy to follow with repetitive language. They are also board books, which means that they are not easy to bend and break.

First 100 Animals Board Book and First 100 Words Board Book by Roger Priddy

This is a lovely, colourful and bright picture book of animals. It’s a great book to look at with your child and simply repeat the animal names that you are looking at. Similarly, Roger Priddy has a First 100 Words board book which has lots of everyday objects that your child might recognise. These books use short and concise language, which is helpful for children with developmental delay and autism.

Bath Time: A book that changes colour in water by Pat-A-Cake

Lots of toddlers love bath time and books so why not team these two fun things up by using a bath book. We particularly love Pat-A-Cakes bath time book because it changes colour in the water creating an extra special sensory experience for children.

My Makaton Book of Colours by Tom Pollard

Makaton is great for helping children with communication and cognitive delays to communicate. It’s great to start using Makaton at an early age. This book by Tom Pollard teaches you how to sign colours in Makaton – something that you can use on a daily basis with your toddler.

My Makaton Book of Nursery Rhymes by Tom Pollard

Another fantastic book by Tom Pollard which teaches you the Makaton to use when singing nursery rhymes – something all toddlers appreciate. Nursery rhymes are not only fun to listen to but they can help speech and auditory development.

The Abilities in Me Series by Gemma Keir

This series of books is brilliant. They cover various topics such as speech delay, tube feeding, epilepsy, Down’s Syndrome, ADHD and Tracheostomy – to name a few. They are books that children with special needs can relate to and see a character that looks like them, which is very special.

Off to the Park! by Stephen Cheetham

This is a fantastic interactive board book, which takes the reader on a journey through the park. The book is very engaging with lots of sensory stimulation, designed with children who have visual impairments in mind.