Making Back to School Shopping Meaningful, Accessible and Fun

Submitted by Liamsmom on Aug 17, 2015

My son Liam, who is deafblind, will be starting first grade in a couple of weeks in a mainstream classroom. Last year, I bought all of Liam's supplies and labeled them myself. This year I wanted Liam to be part of the process. And of course I wanted it to be a good learning experience as well. It took a little preplanning on my part; here is what I came up with:

Step 1:

Accessible Tactile School Supply List:

To be created sometime before the trip

A tactile school supply list will look different for every child and their own unique needs and levels. I wanted Liam's to be simple with just a few items on our list (I picked 4 ). I glued on an object symbol to represent the items we needed to buy along with the braille. I also used "puffy paint" to draw horizontal lines to clearly separate the items on the list. We will take the list with us to the store to follow together and buy the items we need.

Variations:

You could think of a way to "cross" off items on the list, such as a tactile sticker to show that you already bought the item.
You could "velcro" the items onto the list you want to buy and then take them off once you purchase them.
You could create the list together before you go shopping.
Your list could use braille only.

Step 2:

Create Labels:

Ahead of time (by yourself or with the help of your child) create labels for the items you are purchasing. For example: "glue" to stick on the glue bottle, "crayons" to stick on the crayon box, etc...

Also, create "name" labels ahead of time to use to label your child's new supplies with their name.

Step 3:

Introduce the List - Go Shopping!

Before you go to the store, introduce the list and read it over together. Once at the store use the tactile list to begin searching for the items you need to purchase with your son/daughter! This should be fun, allow your child to have as much choice as possible.