Carlsbad Mom with Special Needs Son Creates Award-Winning Educational DVDs

In 2005 Lucile Lynch started Steps4Kids, a business making commercial quality DVDs for children with and without special needs. The idea to make the DVDs started when her own son, who was born with cerebral palsy at 24-weeks-old weighing under one pound, had trouble in school learning how to write.

Lynch, who has lived in Carlsbad since 1999, made videos at home to help him and it worked.

"He responded really well so I consulted with the occupational therapist that had helped him in the past and we started this business," Lynch said.

Over the years, Lynch grew the video collection to include DVDs teaching printing, cursvive, multiplication and now drawing.

Her latest video, Steps4Kids to Draw, won Creative Child Magazine's "DVD of the Year" award. The 90-minute DVD teaches children how to draw everything from shapes to more complex things like animals, said Lynch.

"What makes the product different is that it uses video modeling shot from the child's 'point of view' perspective so that they see exactly what their hand should be doing," she said. "Video modeling has received increased attention over the years because it has been shown to be so effective with children with disabilities."

Her goal with her newest DVD is help kids enjoy art without getting frustrated,

"I loved to draw as a child and still love to draw but have noticed in working with children over the years that so many children disconnect from drawing (and art in general) because they do not feel that they are good at it," she said.

Steps4Kids DVDs can be purchased on steps4kids.com