Abstract
This creative research project investigates the need for more children’s literature that features children with communication disorders, communication differences, and disabilities and it creates a children’s picture book that attempts to fill a gap in the children’s literature market. It also details the reactions of students without communication disorders to their peers who do have communication disorders. This work states the importance of introducing children to literature early in their development and stresses the need for children’s books to include positive and accurate representations of children with communication disorders while recognizing the effects of negative portrayals. It identifies strategies to first create and then evaluate the representation of characters with communication disorders and disabilities, stresses the necessity of having critics who display similar characteristics to characters represented in the work analyze and review the work, and relays the difficulties that come from condensing complicated concepts into ideas that are easily understood by children and adolescents. This project also details the process of writing and illustrating a children’s book that follows a child learning about communication disorders, communication differences, and other disabilities. The author discusses some of the difficulties in the creation of a work of children’s literature with this specific focus in mind while arguing the significant need for its creation.
Semester/Year of Award
Fall 2021
Mentor
Jade Hill Robinson
Mentor Department Affiliation
Communication Sciences and Disorders
Access Options
Restricted Access Thesis
Document Type
Bachelor Thesis
Degree Name
Honors Scholars
Degree Level
Bachelor's
Department
Clinical Therapeutic Programs
Department Name when Degree Awarded
Communication Sciences and Disorders
Recommended Citation
Wright, Maria L., "Why Representation Matters in Children’s Literature: A Look at How Communication Disorders are Displayed in the Media through the Creation and Illustration of a Children’s Book" (2021). Honors Theses. 870.
https://encompass.eku.edu/honors_theses/870
Children's book about understanding communication disorders
