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 Activities | X | |
| Fine Motor Activities | X | |
| Communicating | X | |
| In Therapy | X | |
| At Doctor’s Appointments | X | |
| Playing Independently | X | |
| Playing with children | X | |
| 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).