16 Web Resources for Special Needs Children and Their Parents
If you have a special-needs child, it can be hard to find information, resources, and support. Here is a great list of 16 online resources that either your child can go to our which assist you in connecting with organizations that can help your exceptional child.
#1
storylineonline.net
Published by the SAG-AFTRA Foundation, Storyline Online is an excellent resource for children with learning disabilities like dyslexia. Get free narrated book videos, (sometimes told by well-known actors like Eva Longoria). Students develop their literacy skills by following along with text as the literature comes alive.
#2
funbrain.com
Children with learning disabilities in grades K-8 can watch lesson videos and practice their skills in attention-grabbing games like Penguin Drop. Game directions are conveniently illustrated to assist struggling readers too.
#3
unlocktheeinsteininside.com
Unlock the Einstein Inside: Applying New Brain Science to Wake Up the Smart in Your Child by Dr. Ken Gibson, the founder of LearningRx, the nation’s largest personal brain training company, the book offers hope—and answers—to parents with struggling students and special needs children. It is available as a free download through the website.
#4
ixl.com
Aligned with Common Core Standards, IXL Worldwide is a dynamic, immersive website offering adaptive learning for students with disabilities. From Pre-K through senior year, IXL will provide fun exercises for mathematics, language arts, science, and social studies. Children remain motivated by earning awards like stickers and balloon animals for each lesson mastered.
#5
starfall.com/h/
Starfall is a free educational website with an optional low-cost membership program that teaches phonics. Young children diagnosed with learning disabilities will load fun activity lessons from letter recognition to reading full-length books. Students can also download swinging sing-alongs, including “Wheels on the Bus,” for fine-motor coordination.
#6
snrproject.com
The Special Needs Resource Project provides information and resources for parents of children with chronic health issues, disabilities, and special needs. There are tips, a newsletter, information on dependency determinations, letters of medical sufficiency, ramps, insurance, accessible spaces, and more.
#7
do2learn.com
Learning disabled kids can access thousands of free elementary-level worksheets for literacy, math, visual discrimination, behavior management, and more. There are also printable picture cards available to promote functional communication in children with Autism.
#8
medstartr.com
The Reach for Me Network was founded by a single father of a son with Williams Syndrome. The organization’s mission is threefold: to provide a community of support to parents and related caregivers of special-needs children; to help caregivers of special-needs children save money using the leverage of group buying power; and advocating for caregivers in the areas of health insurance, legal services, prescription drugs, special education, and more.
#9
reading.ecb.org/index.html
The Wisconsin Media Lab created the “Into the Book!” website to provide engaging reading comprehension activities in English and Spanish. Elementary children with learning disabilities will benefit from dissecting books, such as The Wolf Who Cried Boy and A Pirate’s Life. Short, 15-minute videos are included to teach important reading strategies like visualization and summarizing.
#10
gadoe.org
Use their search engine to type in “Special Education Services and Supports” where you will find a host of helpful topics for Georgian students such as current topics like Resources during COVID-19, Parent Rights, IEP Resources and loads more.
#11
exploratorium.edu/explore
Children with learning disabilities and a knack for science will enjoy The Exploratorium, a website that brings the San Francisco museum to your desktop. Youth can scroll through 55 pages of educational videos to illustrate key topics like climate change, electricity, and human anatomy.
#12
aaamath.com
Children diagnosed with dyscalculia will particularly benefit from AAA Math, a website filled with free, easy-to-understand K-8 mathematics lessons. Interactive pages help remove frustration from tough concepts like division, ratios, exponents, and graphing. Practice questions and fun games like Countdown give students’ instant feedback to prevent learning incorrect methods.
#13
bringingthesunshine.com/ebook/
Get this free downloadable book: here’s Sunshine Behind the Clouds; Surviving the Early Years as a Special Needs Mom by Andi Sligh, a mother of two children with special needs. Sligh aims to let parents know they’re not alone on their journey.
#14
amazon.com
If you have Amazon Prime you can get Caregiver Helper; A Guide for Caregivers & Their Friends and Family as a Kindle book at no cost or without Prime pay just $.99 on Kindle. This guide is more for the friends and family of a caregiver, and how to help the caregiver so pass it on to your friends and family.
#15
parentingspecialneeds.org
This Parenting Special Needs Magazine digital version offersr parents of special needs kids and teen readers great advice on everything from teaching your kids the art of social distancing, nutrition and fitness advice, special mobility/recreation resources, DIY sensory rooms, and loads more.
#16
pbskids.org
Special Needs-friendly UI elements in PBS KIDS websites include metadata for screen readers to provide auditory descriptions of onscreen navigation, text-to-speech elements, and optimized text-to-background color contrast to ensure that text is easy to read. #
Compiled by GFM November 2020