“Characterization of Mental Retardation and Autism in Children’s Books” Review of Professional Resource:

The professional resource that I have chosen to review is titled, “Characterization of Mental Retardation and Autism in Children’s Books.” It is by Tina Taylor Dyches, Mary Anne Prater, & Sharon F. Cramer, and was written in 2001.

This article analyzed the different ways that children’s literature portrayed people with disabilities. Before I begin, I must say that I don’t personally like the use of the term mental retardation in the title. Obviously, nothing negative was intended from the authors, but I think it’s an archaic term. Anyway, the article does a great job of breaking down the different criteria that should be used when deciding what literature to include when choosing children’s books that include characters with a disability.

The article points out that the images of characters with disabilities that are often presented to students at a very young age include classic characters such as the evil Captain Hook, the scary Hunchback of Notre Dame, etc. Always being accompanied with a less than desirable personality or situation. Realistically, these characters can be just as happy and beautiful as the typical fairy tale princess or as smart and popular as a typical character. The main three criteria are that the character is portrayed a.) realistically, b.) positively, and hopefully, c.) dynamically. I really appreciated the description of a positive portrayal as a future special educator. It emphasized that to be positive, high expectations must be set for the character; they must be shown as having reciprocal relationships with other characters, and emphasize strengths rather than weaknesses. To be realistic, the character must “demonstrate skills and knowledge consistent with their projected ability level” (234). This doesn’t mean that the text must highlight or point out the disability the character might have, but, instead, it must show the character with a specific disability in a context that is true to what it might actually be.

Another category of criteria that should be used when choosing children’s literature depicting people with disabilities deals with the relationships that are portrayed among characters with and without the disability. The article stresses that these relationships should be positive, the character with a disability shouldn’t be seen as a victim, dependant, or an invalid, and that they should be seen as capable of having reciprocal relationships. These criteria and the ones listed above are all very essential when thinking about what literature portraying characters with disabilities to include and exclude from a classroom library. I was very interested in this article because it was a source that allowed me to understand what I should be looking for in this specific type of literature, it also gave examples of texts that were desirable and texts that were not, and it gave in depth reasons why they should or shouldn’t be considered. As a future educator, I found this professional resource to be very informative and easy to read, which makes it likely that other educators and I will actually use it in the future.


Professional Resource:

Dyches, Tina Taylor, Mary Anne Prater, Sharon F. Cramer. "Characterization of Mental Retardation and Autism in Children's Books." Education and Training in Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities (2001): 230-243.