Special Needs and Inclusive Library Services (SNAILS)

What if I told you that some of the most amazing people who visit our libraries are also the most underserved patrons? Warren-Newport Public Library is trying to change that by developing programs for children and adults with special needs. On October 19, 2016 Adult Services Librarian Amy Longwell and I presented a session entitled "Special Needs/Special Programming: Engaging Children & Adults with Special Needs" at the Illinois Library Association Annual Conference . Here are highlights of our presentation: Librarians at Warren-Newport Public Library have developed and presented programs for children and adults with special needs. Programs for children and their families include sensory storytimes, sensory playtimes and sensory movie matinees. These are welcoming and sensory inviting programs that engage children with music, stories, STEAM activities, crafts, movies and more. Special Mondays in the Library (SMILE) is for adults with intellectual/developmental dis...

The Glenview Public Library hosted a wonderful Friendship Club event for special needs kids and typical kids seeking friendship (grades 3-8) and their peer volunteer buddies (Friendship Ambassadors grades 4-12). We invited musician and sound healer Preston Klik to conduct a session called Sound, Frequency and Sensory Fun . He brought his large gong, a variety of singing bowls and bells, crystal bowls, drums, rattles, and other instruments from around the world. After explaining and passing around his instruments, he conducted a sound meditation. The kids reclined on the floor and lights went off. A DVD with kaleidoscopic images played on the large screen while Preston took us on a meditative journey via sound and vibration. Everyone enjoyed this unique and relaxing experience, even a child with autism laid back and settled down for a time. Trying the instruments was neat, and we had sensory boards available for fidgety hands. This post was written by SNAILS member Silvia Kraft-Wa...

This post was written by Maria Papanastassiou, Early Literacy Services Supervisor at the Arlington Heights Memorial Library in Arlington Heights, IL . For more information about the Arlington Heights Memorial Library's services to families with children with disabilities, check out their Special Child webpage .  Our library was fortunate enough to host a very successful Fairy Tale play exhibit for over two months this past winter.  Crowds of children and their caregivers enjoyed playing with the interactive exhibit pieces from open to close daily .  Due to the high customer traffic and noise levels each day, we wanted to offer an alternative time for exhibit exploration for families with members with special needs.  Our library is open daily at 9 am with the exception of Sundays when we open at noon; w e chose a Sunday morning early opening time of 10:30 am to accommodate this program .     How did we get this program off th...

Our very own SNAILS group members Renee Grassi from Glen Ellyn Public Library and Sue Parsons from Plainfield Public Library presented an engaging program at the 2016 Reaching Forward Conference . This annual conference, hosted by Illinois Library Association, is a premier day of learning designed for library support staff. An audience of 40+ attentively learned a combination of theory and practice. Click here to download Sue's Sensory Storytime Favorites handout, which includes themes, books, songs, albums, and activities she has used in her program.  And don't miss this extremely useful resource list of articles, books, and websites on the topic of serving children with disabilities. If you're as captivated by Sue's approach as we are, don't miss her demo of Sensory Storytime from one of our previous SNAILS meetings.  You can find the video here ! What are some of your favorite resources for Sensory Storytime? Share them below in the comments!!

Last December, Renee and I had the pleasure of presenting the final webinar in a five-part series celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the Americans with Disability Act for Reaching Across Illinois Library System (RAILS). We opened with some statistics about the prevalence of disabilities and then briefly talked about models of service and inclusive technologies that create a welcoming library environment for young patrons. Our favorite part of the presentation was the time spent showcasing the amazing targeted and inclusive programs our SNAILS member libraries are offering children, teens, and young adults. We're so proud of you! We invite you to view the presentation and share it widely. An archive of the webinar, including handouts, is posted on the  RAILS website .

Many thanks to a team Naperville Public Library staff who planned and hosted our August 2015 meeting. Giant Steps Kylie Kirksey, a music therapist, shares a sample program and tips for librarians... Naperville Public Library's  Barb Prescott and Community Access Network's (CAN) Sherry Healey plan and present subject-specific, experiential programs for young adults with disabilities... (This blog post was actually published on 7/21/22, after Holly found it sitting in the Drafts folder!)

This guest post was written by Jo Kaeding, Children’s Programs Co-ordinator at Adelaide Hills Library Service , and PhD Student at  University of South Australia . Jo attended one of our SNAILS meetings while she was touring North America and conducting research for her dissertation on library services for children with special needs. Thank you for the follow-up, Jo! I would like to start my post by thanking all of the SNAILS members for the opportunity to attend the November meeting. It was both informative and inspirational. It is absolutely wonderful to see so many libraries and librarians passionate about access for children with special needs. I loved my time in Chicago, and I am keen to establish a similar kind of network as SNAILS in South Australia. Please keep an eye on my blog , and I would love to hear from you, particularly if you are interested in taking part in a survey as part of my research into this area. The following is a description of the program that we ru...

This guest post was written by Michèle Freese, Senior Librarian at  Oak Lawn Public Library in Oak Lawn, Illinois. Thank you for sharing your experience with us,  Michèle! When I was in high school in the 1960's, I helped out a classmate, who was deaf, by repeating what the teacher said for her and sharing my notes. My classmate attended Argo Community High School through  A.E.R.O.  -- a special education cooperative in Burbank, Illinois composed of twelve member school districts. The acronym, A.E.R.O., stands for the four high schools in the cooperative – Argo, Evergreen Park, Reavis, and Oak Lawn. Little did I know then that I would also work with A.E.R.O. students as an adult. In the late seventies and early eighties, I supervised A.E.R.O. student workers at the Bridgeview Public Library where I was the Youth Services Librarian. Now, at the Oak Lawn Public Library , I have an even closer relationship with A.E.R.O. staff and students. At least twice a y...

Today's guest blog post was written by Paula Shapiro.  Paula is currently a Youth Services Librarian at the Deerfield Public Library in Deerfield, Illinois.  Thank you, Paula, for making this fantastic contribution to the SNAILS community! I always have loved working with tweens. I think they are interesting, funny, insightful and often trying to find a way to fit in.   With that said, as most of us can attest, it can be tough to be a tween! There is not a lot of programming out there for tweens with special needs and I believe that this type of programming is important and beneficial to kids of all abilities. With the help of our wonderful teen librarian, Nina Michael, we started to plan our first program: Board Game and Pizza Night For Tweens of All Abilities.     The vision was to have it be a buddy-type program where we paired up neuro-typical tweens with tweens with special needs.  Here is the   visual schedule (from Boardmaker ) that I ...