By Gina Khirfan
Readers Advisory Resources on Children
with Disabilities
When we think of good reading resources for young children we
tend to forget about providing children that have disabilities or their parents
with good books or other resources geared toward children with disabilities or
about children with disabilities. Disabilities in children can range anywhere
from specific learning disabilities to children who are blind or deaf. The IDEA (Integrated
Disability Education and Awareness Program) defines a child with a
disability as any child who has: “mental
retardation, hearing impairments (including deafness), speech or language
impairments, visual impairments (including blindness), serious emotional
disturbance [...], orthopedic impairments, autism, traumatic brain injury,
other health impair- ments, or specific learning disabilities; and who, by
reason thereof, needs special education and related services.” (Brault,
M. W., 2010). It is also noted
that in 2010 about 2.8 million school-aged children in the U.S., out of 53.9
million school aged children, are reported to have had a disability (Brault,
M.W., 2010).
As librarians or future librarians are we
able to prepare a story-time to include kids with special needs or refer books to
other kids about kids with special needs? Are there audio books or books in braille available
for children who are blind or physically handicapped? Does the library provide movies and websites
that have closed captioning for the deaf child? Most libraries do provide closed captioning
for the deaf child and the majority of movies do come with closed captioning.
I
have included five websites that I believe are significant websites to help
librarians find book lists for children with disabilities, parents of children
with disabilities and books on children with disabilities for other
children to learn from.
National Library Service
for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS)
NLS Kids Zone. Welcome!
This Kids Zone website by the NLS is specifically
designed for the visually impaired, blind and physically handicapped child. At this website librarians can help the
visually impaired, blind and physically handicapped child, from preschool to 8th
grade, to have access to braille and audio books that can be sent to the
library or directly to the child’s home.
The child has access to Newbery Medal and Honor books, Coretta Scott
King & John Steptoe Award books for new talent book lists, Schneider family
book award lists, children’s classics, bibliographies, books in a series,
magazines and other resources and websites. There is also a list of network
library sites where they may find other sources
Special Needs Book Reviews
I
found this website to be a very informative website mainly for parents on
understanding their child with special needs. This website has book reviews on stories
written by professionals and parents, book reviews, podcasts, conference
information and a question page with answers by a professional on disability
issues. The books are visually shown with many of the books written by a
disabled person. Each book lists the age group, synopsis and reviews. I would
consider this a great resource for librarians to give to parents on finding
books that may have similar characters with disability issues as their own
children or someone they know.
One More Story
This website was started in 1999 by a former
Sesame Street producer Carl Teitelbaum and his late sister a kindergarten
teacher, Rona Roth. The website was launched in 2005 with music and sound
effects produced by a former Sesame Street Music Director (One More Story, 2013). This interactive children’s readers advisory
website, though not geared specifically for children with disabilities, is I
believe a very beneficial website for very young children learning to read or
children with learning disabilities who cannot read.
The illustrated books here are set to music
and are read aloud to the child or they can chose the reading mode and read it
themselves. They have easy to use icon buttons and access modes to various classics
and award winning children’s books. It does have great reviews and was awarded
the 2011 Teachers Choice Award for Family Winner. The only downside is it is a
subscription based website from $15.99 for three months up to a year subscription
for $44.99. I do know of an elementary
school librarian who does use this subscription in their library and she says
it has been very helpful to get children who do not like to read, to read.
The World’s Leading Website on Learning Disabilities and ADHD
Kids Books
This website is good for educators,
parents and kids to learn more about learning disabilities, along with other
resources and websites on learning disabilities. The main page on kids Books
has six main topics of books to choose from starting with “What is a learning
disability?”, “I am I the only one with LD?”, “Paying attention isn’t my best
skill”, “Me and my family”, “My friends and personality”, ”Expressing myself”
and “Reading enjoyment”. From any of
these main topics you will go to a list of visually shown books with each book
having a synopsis, reading level and age level of the book. You can also
purchase the book from here, which sends you to Amazon.com to buy the book, and
from there you can also see reviews for the book.
Story Snoops
This
website was started by four moms from the San Francisco Bay Area. Working with
other parents they started this website to help parents to choose age
appropriate and context appropriate books for their children from age 9-18.
This is an easily navigable website for kids and parents. I choose this website
because it does have a link to books on children with disabilities. You have to
first click on the advance search button and from there you will go to a page
where from a list you can click on disabilities and disorders and then you can
click on the disability of ADD and ADHD, autism, blindness, disability,
dyslexia or hearing impaired. Depending on which one you
clicked on it will take you to a page that visually lists books according to
the disability you chose.From the list of books you can click on a book and get the book detail information of the recommended age, publisher, year published, number of pages, genre, main character gender, ISBN number and a read and reviewed by whom. When you click on the “get the scoop” icon will be taken to a page that gives the synopsis and reviews on the book. You also have the option of purchasing the book from Amazon.com or IndieBound.com both websites give more information and reviews on the book you have chosen.
A few more websites for your consideration:
Good Reads.com
Best
Non-Fiction Books For Parents Of Children With Disabilities
Teacher Vision
Children’s Books About Disabilities
Smories.com
Smories are original stories for kids, read by kids
References
Brault, M. W.
(2010). School-aged children with disabilities in
U.S.
metropolitan statistical areas: 2010 .
Retrieved from https://www.census.gov/prod/2011pubs/acsbr10-12.pdf
National Library
Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped
(NLS). (2010,
September 01). NlS kids zone. welcome!. Retrieved from http://www.loc.gov/nls/children/index.html
One More Story.
(2013). Authors you know, books you love.
Special Needs.
(2013). Books. Retrieved from
Story Snoops.
(2012). Children’s book reviews. Retrieved from
WETA. (2010). The
world’s leading website on learning
disabilities
and adhd kids books .
Retrieved from
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