The impact of books on social inclusion and development and well‐being among children and young people with severe and profound learning disabilities: Recognising the unrecognised cohort

Abstract

Br J Learn Disabil. 2019;47:91-104. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/bld | 91 Accessible Summary• This paper shows what people with learning disabilities can get out of enjoying books and reading even when they cannot read words easily.• The writers think about how people with learning disabilities can be helped to enjoy books. They say that this can happen through reading with other people, enjoying lots of activities about books and making books part of their daily routine.• The writers also think about the way that books and stories help us to learn about the world and the people in it.• The writers are annoyed about the way that enjoyment of books by people with learning disabilities has been ignored by people.• This matters to people with learning difficulties because enjoying books, even when we cannot read words easily, can give us good feelings and help us to learn and develop. AbstractThis paper presents the findings of an original research project commissioned by BookTrust, a respected UK charity that gifts books to children, young people (CYP) and their families. It explored the impact and modus of pleasurable engagement with books among CYP with severe and profound learning disabilities and applied a critical, phenomenological stance on what it means to read through drawing on "inclusive literacy" as a conceptual framework. Data were collected from four local areas in England and included 43 CYP aged 4-14. In keeping with a phenomenological stance, it employed interpretivist methods involving 13 deep-level interviews with families to include observations and structured play; 13 observations of CYP sharing books with others in home, play or school settings, and interviews with 27 practitioners working in a range of organisations (e.g., Portage service and advisory teams). Findings were that books had a positive impact on well-being, social inclusion and development. CYP were engaged in enjoying the content of books through personalisation, sensory stimulation, social stimulation and repetition. This affirmed the theoretical and practical approaches espoused by "inclusive literacy" but made a critical and original contribution to our understanding of the special place that books occupy as ordinary artefacts of literary citizenship among this cohort. The benefits of volitional reading among CYP who do not have learning disabilities are 42 55 132 Books support learning to read the physical and social world 12 28 38 Books provide incentives for volitional movement and communication 38 38 112

Social Impact of Psychological Research on Well-Being Shared in Social Media

“…Espinosa-Montero et al 2016developed an instrument to measure the relationship between water consumption and well-being using empirical data from a lowincome adult population in an urban area, which can be useful in other contexts. Finally, Robinson et al (2019) found a positive impact of engaging with books on the well-being of children and young adults with severe and profound learning disabilities, which is in line with what the Children and Families Act of 2014 required in England. What all these examples have in common is the fact that they are oriented to responding to societal needs, sometimes by including stakeholders' knowledge about their daily life experience.…”

Rethinking the contributions of young people with learning disabilities to iPad storymaking: a new model of distributed authorship

“…Eve's mother Anna noted that children with PMLD were more typically directed to sensory ‘cause and effect’ apps—for example, where placing your hand on the touchscreen is rewarded with a visual burst of fireworks or a sound effect—and subsequently had not considered the possibility of storymaking apps like Pictello. By repositioning children with the most severe disabilities as co‐authors through the lens of distributed authorship, engagement with storymaking is legitimated as a worthwhile and meaningful activity, which in turn contributes to wider goals of ‘inclusive literacy’ (Robinson et al, 2019).…”

Multisensory Reading in Early Childhood: Systematic Review with Theoretical Guidance for Human Development Studies

“…Rather one of these papers discussed how we experience the world through our senses (Aspán et al, 2020) and the other referred to sensoriality and sensory perception (Pacheco-Costa & Guzmán-Simón, 2021). AND "child*" OR "toddler*" OR "student" OR "pupil" OR "infancy" OR "preschool*" OR "pre-school*" OR "pre-k" OR "kindergarten*" OR "kindergartner*" OR "ECEC" OR "ECE" OR "daycare*" OR "day-care*" OR "day care*" OR "primary school*" OR "junior school*" OR "elementary school*" OR "grade school*" OR "grammar school*" OR "graded school*" OR "junior school*" OR "preparatory school*" Of the four papers that discussed both multisensory and embodiment, one study (Glenberg et al, 2011) referred to two individual senses, whilst three papers (Labat et al, 2020, Zhou, 2021and Robinson et al, 2019 referenced four or five individual senses.…”