First Opinion: Looking Past Disability: Meet ClaraBelle Blue

Children's Literature Association Quarterly, 2016

Early Childhood Education Journal, 2015

Canadian Journal of Disability Studies, 2017

Designed as a book for educators that challenges how dis/abilities are portrayed in novels and short stories, Patricia A. Dunn’s Disabling Characters: Representations of Disability in Young Adult Literature offers an assessment of 14 stories for youth, some of which have been incorporated into middle and high school English curricula for over the past 30 years. Though this book is particularly useful for teachers, it also provides an accessible entry into the academic discipline of Disability Studies.

The portrayal of characters in children's literature can be a very powerful influence on young children. Teachers have a responsibility to expose children to characters of all types, including those with disabilities. The goal of this study was to explore how third and fourth grade students responded to characters with disabilities in children's books. We read a total of 12 books that included characters with disabilities to students in two third-grade and one fourth-grade class at three elementary schools. We video-recorded discussions about the books and identified the following four themes, all of which related to influences on students' responses to the character with a disability: (a) societal messages , (b) academic responses, (c) teacher influence and (d) portrayal of disability. We recommend that teachers carefully select books featuring characters with disabilities based on the way the disability is portrayed in the book, and, after the read-aloud, use questioning strategies that encourage students to make thoughtful, deep comments rather than giving 'expected' responses.

Teaching Exceptional Children, 2008

2020

DADD Online Journal, 2020

As parents and school professionals are typically responsible for choosing or making available books for children and youth, guidelines for choosing literature that is inclusive and diverse are warranted. Using the Rating Scale for Quality Characterizations of Individuals with Disabilities in Children's Literature to conduct content analyses, we evaluated one graphic novel, 16 picture books, and 30 chapter books (n=47) for their portrayals of characters with developmental disabilities. All books were eligible for the 2020 Dolly Gray Children's Literature Award. Results indicated that most characters portrayed have autism spectrum disorders (71%) and the majority are male (74%); most characters are portrayed positively and realistically, and in the chapter books the characters generally have dynamic development. Most engage in positive social relationships with friends and family, and all are included in integrated settings to some degree. To help school professionals select and use literature for children and youth, we provide several teacher-friendly materials.

2010

Children suffering from different forms of physical or intellectual problems can be viewed as representing a double minority group –both for their age and disability. As a result of these two factors, this minority group cannot speak for itself and needs an outside mediator to speak for it. Writers of children’s literature featuring disability can be seen to fulfill this role with the aim of promoting acceptance and greater understanding of difference and disability. The focus of the present paper is to investigate disability children’s fiction in Arabic as part of world minority literature. Critical studies of fictional representations of disability in English are consulted. A key element in deciding how vocal writers are in speaking for this marginalized group of children is through looking at the roles given in the stories to characters with disability, the treatment of the disabled child’s inner world, the point of view and tone in the stories and the messages they convey.

2019

Disability & Society