“There needs to be a lot more emphasis on what a child can do instead of what they cannot do.” - Dr. Temple Grandin, Ph.D. Assistant Professor at Colorado State University.

For many kids with special needs, especially those with learning disabilities, it can be challenging to learn new vocabulary and expand communication. A lot of the time, these kids suffer from a lot of anxiety when dealing with people, especially ones they’re not used to.

Kids' flashcards have been shown to develop and improve toddlers’ and young children’s memory, vocabulary, fine motor skills, and hand-eye coordination. Flashcards for children with special needs, can be a godsend which does even more than that!

Awareness is the first step

So maybe your child struggles to learn at kindergarten or school and his/her teachers often describe him/her as “in a world of their own”. The biggest challenge many kids with special needs face is that their parents and teachers are completely unaware of their struggle with these sorts of developmental conditions.

This is why it’s extremely important to always pay attention to your child and to be in tune with their feelings and needs. If you see that your child is exhibiting odd behavior, it’s always better to get a professional opinion.

Flashcards can make a huge difference

Flashcards can be a wonderful way to help children with special needs learn; the unique, detailed illustrations engage their vivid imaginations, while the playfulness of the experience can help to decrease their anxiety towards education in the long-run. Studies have shown that flashcards are extremely useful in early childhood education, and can help children quickly expand their vocabulary and engage their fine motor skills.

Because flashcards are so non-invasive, children with special needs don’t often feel the stress and anxiety of a traditional classroom when they’re learning through flashcards.

Beyond the low-stress nature of learning with flashcards, according to the Indiana Institute on Disability and Community, most children with autism are visual thinkers. They can find it difficult to understand long strings of words, but much more natural to understand through images. Moreover, they can often experience sensory overload in school due to all the different things and sounds happening around them. These are all reasons as to why flashcards can be an effective tool for early-childhood education for children with special needs. 

As special needs parents we don’t have the power to make life “fair,” but we do have the power to make life joyful. 

Learning with flashcards can be even more engaging if you can make a game out of it. These are some fun ideas you could try out with your children:

Languages are better taught early

For bilingual or trilingual parents, flashcards can also help greatly with learning a second or third language. When you start to develop your infants’ language skills before school, they can find it easier to absorb a new language at school, because they’ve already built positive associations with learning from their previous exposure through flashcards.

Moreover, flashcards have been shown to be effective in teaching those with learning disabilities such as dyslexia. This study indicates that DI flashcards could improve the comprehension, identification skills for an elementary student with learning disabilities.

Help your toddler learn while they’re young and prepare them for childhood and beyond with Lanalou’s flashcards. They’re safe, colorful, and they cover all the essential topics, at Lanalou you will find, Alphabets and Numbers flashcards, Animals flashcards, Fruits and Vegetables flashcards and much more! 

Get our starter sets and kickstart your child’s learning journey! Now available in English, Arabic, French, and German!