Professional Review

Pirofski, Kira. Strategies For Fostering Able-Bodied Children's Acceptance Of Disabled Peers. San Jose State University, California: 2002. Available at http://www.projectappleseed.org/aaceptance.html

This article reviews children at a young age, both disabled and able bodied. The children were asked who they were more likely to play with if given the chance to. Students who are able-bodied would usually pick the students that were also able-bodied, and the same was true when children looked at pictures of adults who were disabled, they would pick the adult who was able-bodied. The article goes on to state how this is attitude is no longer a barrier when it comes to able bodied and disabled. Later, the article talks about ways to include literature about people with disabilities and that if students are introduced to stories that include characters who have a disability that students started to be more accepting of people with disabilities.

The article says very little about what disabilities where shown in the pictures and why students picked the way they did. I found it interesting that we do not recognize that there are attitude barriers between students who have disabilities and students who are able bodied. I wonder how many teachers actually include reading stories to their classrooms that include the main characters having a disability. I really like looking at how we think change is going on and we are making progression to a more inclusive environments in the classroom and then research like this brings us back to looking at what else can be done so students are not be exclude and that everyone is being represented when you read in the classroom.