Article Review and Conclusion

Learning Disabilities in Children’s and Adolescent literature: How Are Characters Portrayed?

By Mary Anne Prater

 

The article chronicled studies done about learning disabilities in children’s literature.  There were a couple points found in the article that I thought were worth mentioning.   They make note that books that feature characters with disabilities are often used for two different purposes; to serve as a way to educate those without disabilities about disabilities or to serve as a bibilotherapy for those with disabilities.  I think this point marks a big idea we have discussed throughout the entire course.  It address’ the issue of insider/outsider.  These books can either be used by insiders, outsiders, or both.  They also discussed they different ways characters with disabilities were portrayed and how there are specific ways in which they contribute to the storyline.  I think that it is =important to have a character who embraces their disability.  For those that are learning about disabilities seeing how children’s disabilities affect their lives is helpful in their understanding of that disability.  For the insiders, seeing characters that face the same challenges as they do can be comforting and can be something that they can relate to.  This article does a good job providing information about the ways to use books featuring disabilities and it also gives a good analysis of the types of books available today.

Conclusion

From looking at and reading these books I discovered a few things.  One small thing I noticed about books featuring autism was that many of the characters with autism were named Sam.  Now none of the books I reviewed did, but I found three different books that all had characters named Sam.  It may be a coincidence but it does make me wonder how this came about.  I also noticed that difference was a key theme in these books.  The characters with autism were not portrayed in a negative light, just a different light.  They highlighted how their worlds are different but that different was just different not bad.  And lastly I noticed that many of the books were good for insiders and outsiders.  Many of the books did a good job helping those who do not know about autism learn about it.  But they also did a good job creating characters that those with autism could relate to and make them feel like they are not alone.  But I do have to say that though I found some good books, there were a lot of bad ones.  I was surprised to see there were more books featuring autism than I expected but I think there can definitely be a lot more.