:: Cher Gorman :: Lilly's Story Road

Lilly's Story Road

Click here to view photos of Lily.

As a full time writer and mother of a sixteen year old daughter with mild to moderate mental retardation, I have spent years mining for the “gold” that would help ease some of my daughter's struggles to fit in with the “normal” world. I've discovered a unique and fun way to help my daughter enhance her writing and reading skills, foster a positive self image and give her a strong sense of personal accomplishment. How did I do this?

By making a Story Road through collage.

This isn't frustrating or hard and there are no boundaries or rules to follow. This is different from choosing a book, sitting down with your child and having them read to you. I know how frustrating that can be especially if it's a new book or a more challenging book that your child hasn't read before. You both sit there while your child slogs through the pages. If they are anything like Lilly, they might fidget, or rock back and forth and have trouble focusing on the page. Reading is important but sometimes we as parents really need a break.

The benefits of the Story Road include enhancing creativity, bonding, improving artistic and motor skills and most importantly it boosts pride.

Here are some simple tips to follow:

1. Make this time with your child important and special by ignoring the phone, your pager, the dust on the furniture, dishes in the sink and the pile of laundry waiting for you.

2. If you have other children in the household choose a time when they will be out of the house or better yet ask your husband to take the kids out for a quick trip to the grocery or hardware store.

3. All you need is 10 to 15 minutes because kids have a short attention span but especially special needs kids.

4. Generate excitement but only on the day you plan to do the project because special needs kids tend to dwell on planned events by repeating them over and over again.

Here is a list of supplies you will need:

Scissors
Magazines that you've finished reading and are ready to throw away.
Glue
A piece of poster board, cardboard, bristle board or whatever you have around the house. You don't need to make a special trip to the store to buy anything. You can even make the collage on a piece of plain, white paper as long as it is not too light in weight.

Sit down with your child and look through some magazines together. Any pictures your child likes or finds interesting, have your child cut them out and lay them to the side. Try and make sure at least one of the pictures is of a person or even an animal. Continue this process until they have a nice pile of pictures

Next, have them glue the pictures to the piece of poster board in whatever order they would like. Remember, there are no rules. After the pictures have been pasted, look at the collage with your child. Together, the two of you will make up a story. First, point to a picture of a person or animal and ask your child to give them a name. Second, Look at another picture you child has chosen. It could be a place or a thing, an ad for a vacation, clothing, a book, whatever.

Here are examples of a few questions you might ask?

Who is this person or animal?
What are they doing and why?
Are they going somewhere and if so why?
What time of day is it?
What do they want?
Are they with someone and if so who is it?

The Story Road can also be used to help your child deal with an upcoming event or new experience happening in their life such as the first day of school, riding the bus for the first time, going to the doctor or dentist, going to camp for the first time, going on vacation, learning a new sport, moving to a new town/new house, flying on a plane for the first time or how to make new friends. You could also help them understand a bad event they see on the news such as what happened on 9-11 or when Katrina devastated New Orleans and the effects these events had.

You can also make a book from construction paper or drawing paper and have your child draw some pictures of what they are afraid of and talk with them about it. If they are afraid of riding the bus, talk to them about what a bus actually is, the size, the color and the sounds it makes. Talk to them about what it will feel like when they ride the bus. Walk out with your child the first morning to meet the bus driver. Reassure them beforehand that there will be a teacher waiting for them when they arrive at school.

These collage stories can also be problem solving stories. Introduce a problem then help your child come up with a few ways in which that problem might be resolved.

Hint: The project does not need to be completed in one day. Your child can cut out pictures from magazines one day, glue them the next day and make up the story the day after. Or even the following week. Remember, there are no rules.

Here is a list of some of the pictures that Lilly chose for her collage followed by the story she created.

A funny silver mannequin sitting on a park bench.
An ad for a tropical vacation
An ad for orange juice
A picture of a dog
An ad for cheese
An ad for chewing gum
An ad for chocolate
A picture of a cake
A picture of a restaurant
A picture of a plane
An ad for lotion
An ad for salad dressing

Lara's Journey

There was a girl named Lara who went snorkeling with some friends. They saw lots of pretty fish in the crystal clear water. After swimming, she stopped at a little café and ate lunch. Then she went to the store and bought a container of orange juice because orange juice is good for you. On her way home, she saw some aliens sitting on a park bench. The aliens invited her to come back to their planet with them for dinner. After she got home from having dinner on the alien's planet, she baked a chocolate cake. While she was baking the cake, her dog, Spike started barking at the back door. When Lara opened the door a man was there. He was her husband who had just gotten home from work. So, she made her husband some coffee then she had to go pack for her vacation. She was going to Florida to visit Grandma Doris. On the plane she ate some salad and had some chocolate. Her skin felt dry so she put some lotion on her face. Then she had a stick of gum. When the plane landed Grandma Doris was waiting for her and Lara gave her some cheese.

Of course there is one very important ingredient missing from this story and that is conflict. But you don't need to worry about that because this is simply a learning tool for your child.

I will be updating Lilly's Story Road again soon with tips and helpful hints I've learned through the years about parenting a special needs child. Thank you for stopping by and taking a look at this new section of my web site. I hope you enjoyed being here.

See you soon!