A Scholarly Look

While researching and learning more about autism in literature for children, I read “Characterization of Mental Retardation and Autism in Children’s Books”. This article was researched and written by Tina Taylor Dyches for Brigham Young University, Mary Anne Prater for University of Hawaii at Manoa and Sharon F. Cramer for Buffalo State College. In order to study disabilities in this type of literature, they looked at twelve different books. About 25% covered autism and the other 75% covered some other kind of disability, most commonly Down syndrome. Throughout their study, they found many common themes. The most bothersome for them was the fact that they were all boys.
They found that out of the 14 mentally handicapped characters depicted, all were male except for one female with Down syndrome. Every one of the boys was a young Caucasian. They also noticed a theme of caretaker or protector in many of these side characters as well. As in “Ian’s Walk” the researchers see a lot of embarrassment from this protector. The point of view was also usually told from this persons point of view rather than the character with the disability. It was realized that in almost all of the books with an autistic character, the development of the other character grew. It was as if they used the autistic character to develop their own self. It was also shown that many of the characters never make a willful contribution. Instead, the character just follows another, commonly their caretaker. Although it was not the majority, in more than a couple of the books reviewed, the side character is embarrassed to be seen with someone who has autism. From this we usually see improved feelings. The researchers saw this in many of the books considered.
After looking back at their research, the scholars noticed many different themes. They agree that even although the number of picture books with disabled characters has grown, they would like to see more. In these new ones there is room for improvement. They would like to see a reemergence of the disabled character helping the other character who is not disabled. They would like to continue to see the characters as an integrated and resourceful part of the community. They all agree that it is challenging but would love to see them include all the positive elements possible in the next stories they will be reviewing.