Series: Touchy-Feely Series.
Subject Areas: First Reading Experiences, Tactile Experience.
Ages: 6 months 1 2 3.
Type: Board Books, Touchy-feely Books.

Today I want to introduce a set of books for a much younger crowd. Usborne has almost 30 Touchy-Feely books in their collection. They're perfect for young children, with thick, colorful, sturdy pages; each page has a unique sample of texture to feel. These books are a tactile learners’ delight. The stories are easily memorized, so you’ll find even very young children “reading” it over and over to themselves. But more importantly, these books serve a very specific purpose in a child's development, a skill called Sensory Integration.

"Sensory integration is the ability to take in information through senses (touch, movement, smell, taste, vision, and hearing) to put it together with prior information, memories, and knowledge stored in the brain, and to make a meaningful response." In her book, Sensory Integration and the Child, Dr. Ayres describes sensory information as food for the brain similar to the food which nourishes our physical bodies. Another analogy compares the brain to a large city with traffic consisting of the neural impulses. She states: "Good sensory processing enables all the impulses to flow easily and reach their destination quickly. Sensory integrative dysfunction is a sort of `traffic jam' in the brain. Some bits of sensory information get `tied up in traffic,' and certain parts of the brain do not get the sensory information they need to do their jobs." (Ayres, p. 51) Excerpt taken from See/Hear Newsletter

Early Childhood.com states: "Developmentally, young children learn and understand best from what they can see, touch, feel, and manipulate. Providing safe, readily available materials that children can experiment with is one of the most important steps towards effective hands-on science investigations."

You'll find titles in this series that are "girly" such as That's Not My Fairy; some seem more boyish- That's Not My Tractor - but any of them can be enjoyed by both sexes. Several come in a Spanish version also. There are some touchy-feely titles that feature characters from Usborne's popular Farmyard Tales, others that come in a larger format called Luxury Touchy-Feely, and then my personal favorites - the Ultimate Touchy-Feely Books - Diggers and Trucks. These last two were snapped up by our county library system and have been well-used by patrons of all 17 branches. You should also check out the series of Snuggletime Board Books featuring a comforting, soft baby's blanket to feel and lift.

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Of Interest To: Librarians and Media Specialists, Parents, Teachers, Daycare Providers