Experience Books: A Tool for Conversation

Utah Schools for the Deaf & the Blind are part of a series of Communication Intervener Web Lessons.  This lesson on experience books includes an overview of the purpose of these books as a means to create a record of an event or something that happened in the child's life.  Pages in a book, with accompanying text, then give the student a way to "relive" past experiences and discuss them with someone else or refer to them, even without formal language.

The lesson also includes a discussion of important individual considerations, such as the importance of beginning with the most concrete item and then slowly moving toward a more abstract representation.

It also includes examples of things to put in an experience book, tips for making an experience book, and considerations about selecting a topic, as well as the time that the activity is introduced.