SEND library resources

Family Matters and Tough Topics

To support children and parents living with SEND we have our 'Family Matters' and 'Tough Topics' book collections. There are also a range of fiction titles with SEND themes and neurodiverse characters in our libraries.

You can also enjoy a wide range of e-books, e-audio, magazines and comics through our digital library.

Reading Well collections

These collections are to support people to understand and manage their health and wellbeing using helpful reading. These may be useful for parents and carers as well as possibly being suitable for children with special educational needs.

You can ask to use stim kits in our libraries. These kits include a variety of items to make our library spaces more accessible, particularly for those who identify as neurodiverse.

From dark dens to fibre optic lights, our stim kits are aimed to suit a variety of needs. There are six stim kits which any of our libraries can access for an event or activity.

The following free SEND book packs for young children, provided by BookTrust, are usually available through your health visitor. If you have not received one, you can request one from your local library or contact us online.

Bookstart touch

These resources are for visually impaired children. There are two packs:

• Bookstart Touch Baby - for 0 to two year olds
• Bookstart Touch Toddler - for three to five year olds

Each pack has two touch and feel books and guidance around sharing books with blind and partially sighted children. The baby pack also includes a BookTrust keyring.

Bookstart shine

These packs are for children with a hearing impairment. There are two packs:

• Bookstart Shine Baby - for 0 to two years olds
• Bookstart Shine Toddler - for three to five year olds

Each pack has two books, a rhyme place mat (with babies signing) and guidance around sharing books. The toddler pack includes a bookmark showing British Sign Language and the baby pack has a BookTrust keyring.

Bookstart star

This pack is available for children aged three to five years who have disabilities that impact on or delay the development of their fine motor skills. Each pack has two books plus finger puppets for playing along with the stories and guidance sheets.

Dual language materials

If you wish to request a dual language baby pack, we will replace one book with a dual language book. Over 40 different languages are available.

Older children and young people can borrow our self care toolkits - these can be reserved and borrowed free of charge from any of our libraries. These toolkits are a portable collection of items, books and activities to encourage young people, aged 11 and over, to practise self-care and improve their mental health. Contents include:

• books from our Reading Well collection
• sketch pads
• colouring pencils
• fidget toys
• origami
• information on support organisations