Check it Out! Products You Can Use: Have a Ball

All ages and all abilities are ready to break out of the winter doldrums and get outside to release their pent-up energy. What better way than bouncing, dribbling, throwing, catching and kicking! Ball play hits all the body muscles that have been in hibernation all winter. There are enough types of balls to keep everybody busy, active and having fun. Look at your interests, abilities and space to determine what’s right. Here are a few to get the ball rolling.

Oball by Kids II is the perfect introduction to ball play. Lightweight, interconnected rings are made of thin plastic that’s easy to grasp as kids learn how their hands move to hold, transfer, throw and catch.

If basketball is the game for you, check out Fisher-Price Grow 2 Pro Jr. Basketball. Ingeniously designed, expandable rim lets kids get nothin’ but net right from the get-go. Challenge their skill by reducing the diameter for the dunk shot.

If bowling is more your speed, Little Tikes Clearly Sports Bowling is a clear choice. Backyard sidewalks make the perfect alley – the grass keeps the ball in the lane and prevents gutter balls. Transparent pins have several tumbling balls inside to make the sounds of a strike that much more striking.

Light Up Scented Balls

Take to the water with Waboba Balls. These water bouncing balls bounce and float making water the field for your game. Different sizes, densities and colors let you pick the perfect fit.

Pick a bunch of bananas – or grapes or strawberries. Hedstrom Specialty has a set of light-up, scented balls that are sure to please. Breathe the fresh air of summer and the fabulous fruits of these balls to wake up your senses as you wake up your muscles!

Fun doesn’t have to end at sundown! This football-shaped Nightball by Tangle Toys adds a twist to your spiral! Internal LED lights get brighter the stronger your spiral is and the Matrix design lets you throw successful spirals at each pass.

Whether it’s rolling or throwing, balls are sure to bounce into play on a warm, sunny, summer day.

Reviewed by Ellen Metrick, Director of Industry Relations & Partnerships, National Lekotek Center

Helpful Books for Parents of Children with Special Needs

The New Social Story Book

by Carol Gray Random House Publishing Group

Winner of an Outstanding Literary Work of the Year Award by the Autism Society of America, this 10th Anniversary Edition of The New Social Story Book offers over 150 most requested Social Stories, each one professionally written by Carol Gray. Carol also teaches you how to write Social Stories yourself! She explains her process in the included ten-step learning module: The Social StoryTM 10.1. The book comes with a CD containing each Social Story in ready-to-print PDFs AND easy-to-edit Word files!

Buy it at Amazon.com

It’s So Much Work to Be Your Friend: Helping the Child with Learning Disabilities Find Social Success

by Richard Lavoie, Touchstone

As any parent (teacher, etc…) of a learning-disabled child knows, every learning disability has a social component. The ADD child, for example, constantly interrupts and doesn’t follow directions. These children are socially out of step with their peers, and often they are ridiculed or ostracized for their differences. No book, until now, has provided practical, expert advice for helping learning-disabled children achieve social success.

Buy it at Amazon.com

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This post originally appeared on our May/June 2014 Magazine

Check it Out! Products You Can Use: Have a Ball

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