This section of the website aims to highlight academic work. Tell us how this has supported you.

Picture books and their influence on social constructions of disability

Karen Argent [May 2008]

An academic paper for the Sands of Time conference at Hertford University. To read this please contact In The Picture.

Images of Disability

Rachael Burnett - BA in Illustration research paper - Anglia Ruskin University [2007]

This paper looks at the current picture book market and has strong links to In The Picture throughout. Click here to view [5mbs].

Using Picture Books to Discuss the Social Model of Disability

Dr Nicole Matthews [2006]

Case study notes on work with illustration students at Liverpool John Moores University - Click here to view.

Of Both Worlds - Images of Disability in Fairy Tales

Jackie Gay - MA in Writing - Sheffield Hallam University

What is contemporary? Assignment.

To read this article in full, contact In The Picture.

Why Pictures Matter

Emily Ault - MA Children's Book Illustration - Anglia Ruskin University [2005]

Our earliest memories are like visual snapshots: a sunny afternoon on a daisy sprinkled lawn, my mother coming up the stairs late at night, with a new baby. Far from being dusty old photographs however they are packed with the emotion of the moment. As people grow old those snapshots often become sharper and more real while short-term memory fades. It is as if these foundation images are the base coat for all layers of experience. If they are so then they are crucial to the way we develop.

Children are introduced to picture books at around the same age as they are unconsciously laying down their first memories. I believe that is why so many people have a fondness for picture book images from their childhood or that when they meet those images again there is an unexpected moment of joy in recognition.

These are the opening lines of my dissertation "Why Pictures Matter" which formed part of my MA in Children's Book Illustration from Anglia Ruskin University. I am also the parent of a child with severe learning disabilities/autism. My work was based partly on the value of picture books to my son: picture books engaged him in a way that nothing else could. In the dissertation I talk about autistic children and their relationship to picture books and also the value of picture books in child development generally. If anyone would like to read this please contact In The Picture as it is not possible to publish it all here. Emily Ault, illustrator

Disability Studies Quarterly Winter 2004

This is where work including papers by Jane Stemp, Kathy Saunders, Lois Keith and Jenny Kendrick can be found. Click here for the contents page. One example is listed below.

An Examination into the Portrayal of Deaf Characters and Deaf Issues in Picture Books for Children

Isabel Brittain - MA Children's Literature - London [2004]

This paper examines children's picture books that either feature deaf characters or are aimed at a deaf audience.

Click here to read more.

Different Lives - Disability in Contemporary Children's Fiction

Rebecca Butler - MA - University of Roehampton [November 2004]

There is a lesson to be learned about the way physical disability is presented in books for children. It is a mistake to treat disability as if it were a unique phenomenon, totally unlike anything else in human experience. For disability has much in common with other forms of adversity, such as discrimination on grounds of race, gender or religious belief. Being black is not a huge disadvantage unless you have the misfortune to live in a white racist society. Being a woman is not a burden unless you live in a misogynistic society. The main disadvantages of being disabled lie in the eye of the beholder, in the view of society that they are automatically maginalized. The depiction of disabled people in children's literature is important because the chance to raise awareness in young minds and create a more perceptive society is too great an opportunity to miss.

To read this in full please contact In The Picture.

Beyond the Concrete: The uses of Fantasy in the Education of Deaf Children

Natividad White- MA in Education University of Greenwich [1994]

Report that provides significant theoretical underpinning for the use of fantasy in children's books for all children, but particularly in the curriculum for deaf children, as an aid to stronger self esteem and more fruitful personal, social and educational development.

To read this in full please contact In The Picture.

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