Library Lions
Story time program for children with special needs at the
Adelaide Hills Library Service
Link to youtube clip featuring Library Lions as part of a Local Government of South Australia campaign.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_833H5KIgM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_833H5KIgM
Program outline
Library Lions is a literacy based early childhood program developed for children with special needs. The program involves using Makaton (keyword) sign language and props / puppets to enable stories, songs, rhymes and actions to be more accessible to the children. The program promotes interaction and involvement with literacy at whatever stage and / or capability of the child. The pace and developmental level of each session is dictated by the children involved. The needs of all children are taken into consideration when developing each session. Specific examples of this include: a child with autism who is comfortable participating when she is provided with a large cushion under which she can lie; another child with vision impairment will participate if he is able to view the book up close before each page is turned.
Siblings of the children with special needs are welcomed and included in the sessions with the aim that they will also feel important.
The program offers a coffee and chat session in the library after each Library Lions session. This provides a valuable opportunity for families to meet and to support each other.
Parents / carers are provided with photocopied Makaton signing sheets for the songs and stories of each session. This encourages parents /carers to continue to practise and increase the number of signs that they are familiar with – enabling them to incorporate it into their everyday literacy activities.
Rationale
The need for the program resulted from staff observation and customer comments that the regular programs were not accessible to their children with special needs. In particular, customers commented that the regular early childhood group sessions were too large and too loud for their children. Children with autism and hearing difficulties were overwhelmed by these sessions. The sessions were also intimidating for some parents /carers of children with disabilities. This led to them dropping out of the sessions. We also identified a lack of literacy based programs within the local area, with families needing to travel 45 minutes one way to access similar programs.
Goals
The goals of the program are to:
· Enable children with special needs to access and become involved in literacy based programs within the library
· Assist the parents/carers to access the library and its resources
· Provide a safe and welcoming environment for parents/carers and their children with special needs to attend library programs.
· Encourage parents/carers and their children with special needs to feel welcome at all times within the library.
· Provide opportunities for parents/ carers of children with special needs to meet and support each other.
Partnerships
In developing and running the program partnership were formed with the following groups:
Novita Children’s Services: Support included -
· Provision of a speech pathologist to help develop the program
· Provision of a speech pathologist to attend the first few sessions
· Contacting Novita families of children with special needs in the local area of the program
· Sharing of their signing sheet resources.
Adelaide Hills Community Health Service: Support included -
· Provision of a speech pathologist to help develop the program
· Provision of a speech pathologist to assist with each session
· Contacting families of children with special needs in the local area
· Sharing of their signing sheet resources.
Resources
· Quiet space
· Puppets / props
· Signing sheets for books, songs and rhymes
· Floor mats
· Cushions
· Books
Evaluation
The program has been running since 2011. In that time it has been attended by a regular group of between 3 – 6 families, with a very small dropout rate. The families who attend provide verbal feedback each week – which is always very positive. Two quotes from a local newspaper article are:
“It’s intimate and it’s quieter, it’s absolutely fantastic”
“The coffee afterwards is just as important because it can be isolating with a child that has issues”
The high level of involvement with and interaction from the children is also a good indicator as to the success of the program and its content.
Some of the families have become regular borrowers of the library’s resources and have also started to attend other children’s and school holiday programs.