Children's Books as a Tool for Raising Young Readers' Awareness of Dyslexia

Abstract

French law requires children with disabilities to receive schooling, wherever possible in ordinary schools. To achieve this goal, schools must create a truly inclusive environment that meets every child's specific needs. Ensuring other students accept peers with disabilities is an essential part of providing an inclusive environment. We postulated that reading children's books featuring characters with disabilities can foster this acceptance by enabling students to understand and empathise with peers with disabilities. Indeed, readers' tendency to attribute emotions, beliefs, intentions and perceptions to characters helps them better appreciate characters' feelings, mental states and experiences. The present study analysed the impact that reading a children's book about a young boy with dyslexia had on children without dyslexia. We read Les mots d'Enzo to 25 fourth- and fifth-grade students (13 girls and 12 boys) and then conducted semi-structured interviews with each student. Reading Les mots d'Enzo taught participants a lot about dyslexia, the difficulties it causes, its consequences for children with dyslexia and the help these children need. In addition to gaining a relatively accurate understanding of dyslexia, participants grasped the story's moral, attributed emotions, beliefs and intentions to the character with dyslexia, appreciated how he felt, and showed empathy towards him. They were also capable of generalising these aspects to real students with dyslexia or other disorders.