How Special Needs Children Spend Their Day

If we compare the typical daily activities of a child with disabilities to those of a child without disabilities we may see these things:

Activity

Non-Disabled

Disabled

Self-Care/Activities of Daily Living X
Mobility ActivitiesX 
Fine Motor ActivitiesX 
CommunicatingX 
In Therapy X
At Doctor’s Appointments X
Playing IndependentlyX 
Playing with childrenX 
Playing with adults X
Spending time alone X

Our goal should be to find ways that help the special needs individual spend their days more like their typically developing peers.  Dr. Nielsen approached this issue through the development of perceptualizing aids (see Equipment and Materials) and specific strategies for instruction (see Key Points of Active Learning and the Five Phases of Educational Treatment).