Books by Tara

April is Autism Awareness Month and I hope to bring you some Autism related posts this month (I had better get a move on...it's the 9th already!)

Today I want to tell you a little about Books By Tara. Tara, whose own son was diagnosed with Autism, found that there are very few "simple" books on the market that are designed for older children. With this in mind, she decided to create her own books. These books focus on a specific theme and use photographs to explore each theme. The books are also spiral-bound, which is great for isolating the pictures while teaching or "reading".

Tara found that these books help establish a mutual focus and this in turn provides an opportunity for social connections. The books also provide opportunities for fun discussions and in turn language skills are practised and enrichment takes place. Tara states it beautifully when she says, "all children require engaging experiences with caring adults to truly thrive linguistically." Tara has a variety of fun titles, including Holes and Tall, and shares lots of ideas on how to use her books on her website.

Last year I was fortunate enough to win a copy of Water through a competition run by Memetales and was, according to Tara, the first person in South Africa to see one. If you would like to read a free online version of this book, follow the Water link above and you can read it on the Memetales website. To see how we (Big One and I) won it, click here.

Would you like to win a book too? Every month one lucky subscriber to Tara's newsletter stands a chance to win a book. How awesome is that!

There is so much one can write about Autism. Is there anything that you would like me to specifically write about. If you do have any suggestions, please leave me a comment or email me.