Product Description

Arnie and His School Tools: Simple Sensory Solutions to Build Success is an illustrated children's book about an exuberant little boy who had difficulty paying attention in class and doing his school work until he was equipped with the tools to accommodate his sensory needs. Written from Arnie's point of view, the book uses simple language to describe some of the sensory tools and strategies he uses at school and home to help him achieve a more optimal level of alertness and performance. Arnie and His School Tools creates an environment that is accepting of students with sensory modulation difficulties, including many on the autism spectrum. Occupational therapists, teachers and parents will find this book an engaging way to introduce elementary students to basic sensory tools used to help children focus in classroom settings, such as fidgets, chewy pencil toppers, and weighted vests. Additional resources are provided at the end of the book, including definitions of sensory processing and sensory modulation disorder, suggested discussion questions, and lists of related books and websites.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #40980 in Books
• Published on: 2008-01-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 47 pages

Review
Arnie and His School Tools is a delightful and one-of-a-kind book that helps others 'walk a mile in the shoes' of a child with sensory processing difficulties and understand the day-to-day challenges these children experience, especially in the school environment. Each page unfolds with helpful sensory strategies and accommodations from a child's perspective. All teachers should read this to their students! --Jenny Clark Brack, OTR/L, speaker on sensory processing disorders and author of Learn to Move, Move to Learn

This book is super! Well-written, whimsical, with-the-program, and wonderful in every way, it will become a favorite of every child with sensory processing disorders and all the grown-ups in the child's circle. I love it, and you will, too. --Carol Kranowitz, M.A., author of The Out-of-Sync Child and The Goodenoughs Get in Sync

We all do things throughout the day to make sure we have just the right amount of alertness to be happy and productive. Some of us drink coffee, close our doors to screen out sounds from the hall, or wear only certain clothes so we feel comfortable. When we understand that these strategies are ways to manage our own sensory experiences, then we can better understand people like Arnie who use strategies, too. This book provides a window for understanding the everyday sensory challenges and solutions that are available to support kids at school and at home. --Winnie Dunn, Ph.D., author of Living Sensationally: Understanding Your Senses

About the Author
Jennifer Veenendall is a school-based occupational therapist in West St. Paul, Minnesota. She works with students with a wide range of abilities and is especially passionate about creating learning environments that meet students' individual sensory processing needs. Jennifer received her occupational therapy degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her master's in human development from St. Mary's University of Minnesota. She lives in Hudson, Wisconsin, with her husband, Scott, and their two children, Anna and Benjamin. When she is not working, Jennifer enjoys spending family time at their cabin as well as drawing and painting.

Customer Reviews

Enthusiastically recommended picturebook, especially for public and elementary school libraries.
Written and illustrated by school-based occupational therapist Jennifer Veenendall, Arnie and His School Tools: Simple Sensory Solutions That Build Success is a children's picturebook about Arnie, a young boy with sensory modulation difficulties - that is, he's a "mover". His body needs to move, and his hands need to be busy, which makes it hard to sit still in school and pay attention to his teachers! What is a naturally restless boy to do? Fortunately, his parents and teachers instruct him in simple helpful strategies, including fidgets, chewy pencil toppers, earplugs, headphones, ball cushions, weighted vests, and more, as well as the use of natural physical movement to help keep his body calm and enable his mind to focus. Arnie and His School Tools is no ordinary picturebook; it's also a useful teaching aid for occupational therapists, teachers, and parents helping elementary children understand helpful basic sensory tools. "Sometimes I jump on our mini-trampoline, and at other times I jump and crash into our couch pillows. All these things help calm my body and my mind so I can get my homework done." Suggested discussion questions, a list of resources for children and parents, and helpful websites round out this enthusiastically recommended picturebook, especially for public and elementary school libraries.

Powerful and normalizing
This is exactly the book my family needed. Reading "Arnie and his School Tools" to my children made them feel "normal". Giving it to the teachers to read to the class was the perfect start to improved classroom behavior. The teachers suddenly "got it", and the students who saw behaviors in themselves wanted Arnie's tools, too. The children who didn't understand why the Arnies in class needed to move suddenly became more empathetic.

A very powerful experience. A book I intend to give to each of my children's teachers at the beginning of every school year.

Lovely Hard Cover Book with Beautiful Lessons Inside
Jennifer Veenendall has done an amazing job at creating a wonderful hard covered cleverly illustrated book. I would highly recommend this for teachers who have students with autism integrated into their classroom. The book would educate typical peers on autism and the tools kids with autism find useful. The wonderful illustration would catch the eye of any young reader while teaching them valuable lessons about their peers with autism. Also, parents can share this with their childdren who have autism or sensory processing disorders to provide them a character whom they will understand and enjoy.

This would be a terrific gift for any lower elementary school teacher.

Joanna Keating-Velasco, Author and Instructional Aide, A Is for Autism F Is for Friend: A Kid's Book for Making Friends with a Child Who Has Autism