Method and strategies for inclusion

Bibliotherapy to Increase Disability Awareness

	K-2	3-5	6-8	9-12 and beyond
Learning Disability			My Thirteenth Winter by Samantha Abeel
Physical Disability		All Kinds of Friends, Even Green by Ellen B. Senisi
Autism				The Way I See It By Temple Grandin
Down Syndrome and Intellectual Disabilities	Be Good to Eddie Lea by Virginia Fleming
(your choice)

A powerful tool for raising awareness about disabilities is bibliotherapy. It is often more effective for students with disabilities and their peers to read about fictional characters and then translate those messages to everyday classroom scenarios. Students identify with the protagonists and absorb the subliminal messages through stories that often have common themes.

Bibliotherapy has been used successfully to build both academic and social skills of students with social and emotional difficulties(Regan & Page, 2008). Through this medium, educators can send out the message that kids with disabilities have the same issues as their peers. At the same time, reading books such as these increases students’ awareness of diversity and differences and minimizes preconceived stereotypes.

Create a Bibliotherapy by selecting books by grade level and disabilities that portray students with disabilities in a positive way.