Storytime Theme: Disability Pride Month

July is Disability Pride Month! So, going along with my goal to provide more diversity in my storytime themes available here on my blog, I’m sharing some great books that celebrate kids with disabilities because I think it’s so important. I’m going to preface this lesson plan and let you know that I focused more on physical disabilities than developmental disabilities only because there are so many different types of disabilities and it was very difficult to share even just a few. I also chose this focus because in many situations, people with physical disabilities look “different” than able-bodied people. And, I think it’s important for kids to understand why people may use an assisted device to help them in their daily life. Or, when you see a service dog, that you can’t distract them because they are working.

When a child sees someone in a wheelchair in public and stares and asks (usually) very loud questions – they are learning about the world around them. They’re not doing it to be rude or ignorant, but when you have discussions at home about people who are different from you (in any way shape or form), kids have a point of reference because they’ve seen something similar in a book. If kids can remember, that people are just people and being kind is important, we’ll all be in a much better place. And I think that’s a great way to begin to better understand and have empathy for the world around you.

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