Making Story Books for Children

Books are critical parts of learning. When babies are born I always give books – even if I am giving other presents. And I include a note with the books telling baby to ask parents to read at least 10 books a day. A hit to the parents to read every day.

Parents can also make books about the child’s experiences that can be read over and over. Children certainly love reading about themselves and seeing pictures of themselves in books is always fun.

The simple way to make a book for a child is to take photos, perhaps on your phone, of some activity a child is participating in, and print them. Then write a short sentence or two under each photo describing what is happening in the photo. You can put them together just by stapling the pages. To keep safe longer you can use cardboard covers. Topics might include going grocery shopping, going on a picnic, going to school. Making dinner, etc.

For special occasions it might be good nice to order a book from a photo processing company. There are several available. You can put the book together on the internet.

Some parents make books with newborn photos, photos from hearing tests, receiving technology, and therapy. Books can be made about family, about holidays, trips to the zoo, and birthday parties.

Books to introduce a child to school

One of the most valuable book projects is making a book to introduce a child to teachers at school at the beginning of the school year, for summer camp, or even to sports team leaders. For a book like this, the goal is to introduce the child to the adults who will be responsible for school or camp etc. The reason for the book is to help the adults understand who this child is. The book should talk about who the child is. We might want to talk about what things the child likes to do, what she is interested in, his favorite color. It is important to be sure that everyone understands that the child is just like other children with interests and activities.

The book should include some information about the child’s hearing loss. It would be important to talk about the technology the child uses, how it helps, what the child can hear with the technology and what she cannot hear. For example it might be helpful to say that she hears best when there is very little background noise and when she is standing fairly close to the person talking. If she benefits from lipreading it would be helpful to suggest that she should sit close to the teacher so she can the teachers face.

It is important that the book be optimistic about what the child can do so that teachers are not frightened away. The book may be a good book to read to other children in the class to help them understand what living with hearing loss is like.