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"Learning disabilities Fiction."
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Niagara Falls, or does it?
Fourth-graders Hank, Ashley, and Frankie are excitedly preparing for a magic show at the Rock 'N Bowl when Hank's creative alternative to an English essay lands him in detention and grounded the week of the show.
Book
Applying a Critical Disability Studies Lens to Young Adult Literature: Disrupting Ableism in Depictions of Tourette Syndrome
This project is an interdisciplinary endeavor to connect research in the teaching of English with Critical Disability Studies, an intersection that is crucial to disrupting ableism and creating more liberatory schooling and societal contexts that embrace broader notions of human differences. Invoking critical content analysis of five young adult novels that depict characters with Tourette syndrome (TS), we asked, how are various models for understanding “disability” invoked in YA fiction that depicts Tourette syndrome? How do these various models function to reinforce, complicate, or reconstruct in a more progressive way notions about human difference in YA fiction that depicts Tourette syndrome? We focused on one of the many pervasive tropes found within all five novels using the psychodynamic construct of splitting. In particular, we call attention to depictions of TS as embodying an animal—most often a dog—that splits off into the bad/dangerous side, usually subsumed within a character’s “normal self.” This trope can be seen as part of broader, historical discourses that have dehumanized disabled people, constructing them as “other” and subsequently rationalizing exclusionary practices. We advocate for and discuss ways for scholars and educators to continue integrating disability from the margins to the center in literacy research.
Journal Article
The disturbed girl's dictionary
Fifteen-year-old Macy, officially labeled \"disturbed\" by her school, records her impressions of her rough neighborhood and home life as she tries to rescue her brother from Child Protective Services, win back her overachieving best friend after a fight, and figure out whether to tell her incarcerated father about her mother's cheating.
BOOK
Challenging Deficit Depictions with Authentic Representations of Neurodivergence in Young Adult Literature
It is also important to embrace pedagogical practices that support students, whether neurotypical or neurodivergent. Universal Design for Learning is an inclusive pedagogy where teachers provide all students with multiple means of representation, engagement, and expression. For example, English teachers could offer students the choice of hard-copybooks, audiobooks, and/or ebooks (representation); choices in reader response questions (engagement); and choices for showing their work in formats including narratives, visuals, or presentations (expression). Armstrong's book Neurodiversity in the Classroom: Strengths-Based Strategies to Help Students with Special Needs Succeed in School and Life guides teachers through positive niche construction, helping them create environments and supports that position students in a place of strength and empowerment so they all have the opportunity to showcase their talents rather than only being seen for the skills that challenge them. This includes providing positive neurodivergent role models, utilizing assistive technologies, employing strengths-based learning strategies, and making environmental modifications. Biklen and Burke remind to presume competence by acknowledging that all students are capable of learning regardless of neurological differences.
Journal Article
The art of Miss Chew
Describes how a teacher named Miss Chew encouraged individuality, and accepted learning differences, and helped a young student with academic difficulties get extra time to take tests and permission to be in advanced art classes. Inspired by the author's memories of her art teacher.
Book
Understanding the Inclusionary Practices and Politics of Representability and Accessibility in Indian Children’s Literature Publishing
This article aims to understand the inclusionary practices of children’s literature publishing houses in India with a focus on disability. The article engages with authors and publishers through interviews to understand the politics and practice of publishing and disseminating children’s literature texts in India. The Indian publishing industry for children has redefined itself in the past twenty years by publishing and representing stories previously considered taboo or “inappropriate” for child readers. Intending to be more inclusive and equitable in its representation, the publishing industry started telling stories that reflected the real-life experiences of children in India. Consecutively, issues such as gender, sexuality, class, caste, and disability found a place in the conversations and considerations. However, there continues to be a disparity between the practices and politics of representing disability and accessibility for disabled people. The article begins by offering a brief background of disability in Indian children’s literature to understand the growing relevance of the issue amongst readers and the demography of the intended readership.
Journal Article
Hostile environments? Down’s syndrome and genetic screening in contemporary culture
This essay explores the complex entanglement of new reproductive technologies, genetics, health economics, rights-based discourses and ethical considerations of the value of human life with particular reference to representations of Down’s syndrome and the identification of trisomy 21. Prompted by the debates that have occurred in the wake of the adoption of non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT), the essay considers the representation of Down’s syndrome and prenatal testing in bioethical discourse, feminist writings on reproductive autonomy and disability studies and in a work of popular fiction, Yrsa Sigurdardóttir’s Someone To Look Over Me (2013), a novel set in Iceland during the post-2008 financial crisis. It argues that the conjunction of neo-utilitarian and neoliberal and biomedical models produce a hostile environment in which the concrete particularities of disabled people’s lives and experiences are placed under erasure for a ‘genetic fiction’ that imagines the life of the ‘not yet born’ infant with Down’s syndrome as depleted, diminished and burdensome. With close reference to the depiction of Down’s syndrome and learning disability in the novel, my reading explores the ways in which the generic conventions of crime fiction intersect with ideas about economics, politics and learning disability, to mediate an exploration of human value and social justice that troubles dominant deficit-led constructions of disability.
Journal Article
A brand-new me!
As he is preparing to attend middle school, Hank, who has learning differences and academic difficulties, gets an unexpected opportunity to audition for a performing arts school where his creativity and humor will be appreciated and nurtured.
Book
“Every One of Them Are Worth It”: Blanche Van Leuven Browne and the Education of the “Crippled Child”
Many rights struggles have promoted education and learning as proof of citizenship and capacity, and disability rights movements are no exception. Blanche Van Leuven Browne, one early twentieth-century polio survivor, reimagined the possibilities of education for “crippled children” by approaching schooling as not only preparation for vocational work but as a sign of disabled children's social worthiness. This article explores the role of education in Browne's life and work, from her childhood in the 1880s to the Detroit hospital-school for physically disabled children she operated from 1907 to 1918. Browne's educational approach emphasized writing and citizenship to (re)define the identity of the “crippled child,” envisioning each as an intelligent future citizen. This approach contrasted with predominant contemporary medical, philanthropic, and educational approaches, which emphasized medical care and vocational training for children with orthopedic disabilities. It also distanced physically disabled children from intellectually disabled children, who were key cultural targets of eugenic fears.
Journal Article