The Portrayal of Characters with Learning Disabilities in Children's Picturebooks

Children's picturebooks have a unique potential to support young children with learning disabilities, to allow them to see themselves reflected in the stories, to educate others around them about their experiences and their needs, and to better represent the diversity of learners. Are today's picturebooks that portray characters with learning disabilities harnessing this potential by providing a diversity of multi-dimensional characters that readers can connect with? Through the lens of radical change theory, this study uses content analysis to examine the text and illustrations of 14 recent picturebooks that portray characters with learning disabilities to assess the trends, themes, and strengths of modern children's literature. Fourteen children's picturebooks for children ages 4 to 8 published between 2010 and March 2022 were selected, with a special effort to find books featuring characters with dysgraphia and dyscalculia, but also including characters with other learning disabilities. The books were closely read and the illustrations examined to find dominant themes and evidence of radical change--elements of changing forms and formats, changing perspective, and changing boundaries. Findings include an increase in the diversity of families portrayed, new perspectives of youth voices and youth authors, and more multi-dimensional, strength-based portrayals of characters. However, there is still a need for more diversity of ethnicities and ethno-centric storytelling and representation of learning disabilities other than dyslexia, including dyscalculia and dysgraphia.