Blog: Scraps of Mind
I stumbled across this little snippet over at one of the newsbytes internet sites and it got me thinking about how valuable a social tool scrapbooking can be.
Scrap Girls consumers are using digital scrapbooking products for much more than scrapbooking family memories.
Los Angeles, CA (FV Newswire) - Scrap Girls consumers are using digital scrapbooking products for much more than scrapbooking family memories. Melanie, a layout designer at ScrapGirls.com, takes her digital scrapbooking personally. So personally in fact, that she has started using this art form to design social stories for her son. Melanie’s son struggles with language delays. As part of his therapy, his speech therapist recommended that Melanie should write stories for him in which she would describe how he should behave. Melanie knew right away how she would do this: digital scrapbooking.
Melanie uses digital scrapbooking products from ScrapGirls.com to display digital photos of her son in a colorful comic-book style that will keep his attention. Her son is the star and he loves the books. Through them, he can watch himself make good choices.
Rose Ann Bright, a Scrap Girls customer noted, “I think this is a wonderful idea. I teach a variety of children, some of whom have autism, learning disabilities, or intellectual disabilities. Social stories are a big part of teaching children the correct way to interact with peers and adults.” Rose Ann also suggests the digitally scrapbooked stories could be presented as PowerPoint presentations.
Julie, a friend of Melanie’s, recently underwent brain surgery. To prepare her autistic son for the event, she prepared social stories to help him understand what would happen. He learned why his grandparents would be taking care of him for a while and why his father wouldn’t be around as much. He learned why his mother’s hair would be cut and why she wouldn’t be able to read to him or take him to school for a period of time.
How fantastic to be using scrapbooking as an educational tool!
I never really thought about it before but scrapbooking lends itself to this purpose so perfectly. After all, isn’t scrapbooking all about communication? Whether we are telling a story in pictures or a combination of pictures and words, or whether we are communicating a mood or emotion through the colours and design of our layouts. We’re communicating something.
And what a perfect tool to communicate to those with learning difficulties or who are too young to grasp complex ideas.
Have any of you used your scrapbooking in this way? Let us know in the comments. I’m sure many of us would like to know more about this side to scrapbooking that we may never have explored before.
Share your ideas and we will be sure to pass them on to the contributing blog Scraps of Mind
3 comments:
Digi-scrapping is so much fun. From scrapbooking I've learned how to do so much with images.
I haven't used mine in the exact same way, but we do use it to teach about "where we've been and what we've done" and in the early days I would collage tons of images together so that we could play a type of Where's Waldo? for vocabulary building.
What a great idea! Digi - I presume is digital. Is there any suggested programs for this? What a great way to educate via computer -in terms of programs and creating stories from them. Can anyone share any info on this?
And a collage is also a great idea, Make a collage of really any kind of imagery, and search later for the images. I would love to see your projects? Can you email pixs and write a few words?
Post a Comment