Early literacy experiences are critical for young
children’s development. More specifically, quality literacy
experiences are beneficial to children’s understanding of
their world. Ensuring that early childhood literature appro￾priately reflects the diversity of children’s life experiences
can support their sense of belonging within an early child￾hood environment. Considering that the number of children
with diverse abilities who attend general education class￾rooms is increasing, it is imperative that these classrooms
provide welcoming and supportive environments for all
children. One way to support inclusive environments for
children with disabilities is to ensure that classroom books
include characters with and without disabilities. As many
early childhood teachers and family members regularly use
community libraries to find books to read to young children,
exploring how characters with disabilities are represented in
library books is important. Results of a study focusing on
children’s library books revealed that characters with diverse
abilities were represented in ways that promote their
inclusion, however some books displayed poor insight into
the individual lives of characters with varying abilities.
Implications for research and practice are discussed.

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Perpustakaan FITK Pusat

Tersedia

• Exploring Representations of Characters with Disabilities in Library Books

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