For this professional development activity, I reviewed a comic on the topic of Diversity (The review can be found in the appendix). This comic focuses on disability, namely deafness. The comic is titled El Deafo by Cece Bell with illustrations by David Lasky.

This activity is relevant to professional practice as it relates to the ways in which primary school aged children receive and seek information. Further, it allows me to see how information about important issues is portrayed to children. There are several gaps in my knowledge in relation to the way in which children seek out information. It is my understanding, the parents/caregivers would gather the information for them as the child would be not know how to obtain information. It is not until the start of their primary school from Kindergarten to Year Two that children begin reading for themselves (Cerney, 2006 p. 8). From Year Three onwards they may have access to classroom libraries, and for the first-time, experience reading choices (Crisp et al, 2016). It is in these instances that children seek representations of themselves, their lives, lives of others and the world they live in (Short, 2012, p.12). Therefore, it is vital that children’s books contain positive portrayals of diversity.

In my experience reading children’s literature on the topic of diversity, I found an accurate depiction of disability rare, and portrayals of people of colour rarer still. Although, perhaps I notice this more as a woman of colour seeking representations of myself in the books I read. However, this entry will focus on representations of deafness in children’s books. I chose El Deafo and prior to reading it, I was not aware the book is wholly based on the writer’s experience as a child.

Regarding diversity in children’s literature, Crisp et al. (2016, p. 29) describe it as “overwhelmingly white”. Children’s literature is “predominantly upper middle class, heterosexual, nondisabled, English-speaking, and male” (Crisp et al., 2016, p. 29). In short, there is a definite lack of diversity even in 2021. In relation to deafness specifically, Golos et al. (2012) posit that children’s literature has the potential to support deaf children’s identity development with the inclusion of deafness and deaf characters. However, literature has a tendency to replay the same old tropes. Brittain (2004, parra. 14 ) developed a list of six elements that are common in the portrayal of disabled characters in fiction:

1. Portraying the character with an impairment as “other” than human, for example, the character is able to communicate with animals due to their disability
2. Portraying the character with an impairment as “extraordinary”
3. Relegating the character to a sidekick
4. Lack of realism and accuracy in the portrayal of the impairment
5. The character with an impairment is portrayed as an outsider and is socially isolated
6. No happy endings, as the author fails to see a happy and fulfilled life being a possibility for a character with an impairment.

Referring back to El Deafo, Cece is portrayed as an outsider for a brief period in the book, however, it feels authentic to the story as Cece isolates herself as she is getting used to her hearing aids and returning to school. It does come as a relief that all other elements from this list are missing from El Deafo.  In a thesis (Heavy, 2018) adds that El Deafo​ promotes self-acceptance and inclusion while giving deaf children with hearing aids a character to relate to. Now, I’m not saying El Deafo is the perfect example of diversity portrayal, I am saying it is missing many problematic elements evident in other children’s books.

Stereotypical portrayals in children’s books can be damaging to deaf children, as they may not see themselves in a positive light from a young age. This is reinforced by Gangwish (2019) who adds that stories support a culture and can shape and impact an individual’s identity and understanding of self. While children’s literature has the ability to capture the attention of specific audiences (in this case, the deaf community) it can further expose hearing readers to deafness. As demonstrated by El Deafo, through picture books, both deaf and hearing audiences are exposed to deaf culture, sign language, and other aspects of the deaf community (e.g., deaf schools, sign language classes) as opposed to seeing deafness as a disability, or pathological condition, that can be fixed with hearing aids or cochlear implants (Golos, et al., 2012).

 

References

Brittain, I. (2004). An Examination into the Portrayal of Deaf Characters and Deaf Issues in Picture Books for Children. Disability Studies Quarterly, 24(1). https://doi.org/10.18061/dsq.v24i1.841

Crisp, T., Knezek, S. M., Quinn, M., Bingham, G. E., Girardeau, K., & Starks, F. (2016). What’s on Our Bookshelves? The Diversity of Children’s Literature in Early Childhood Classroom Libraries. Journal of Children’s Literature, 42(2), 29–42.

Golos, D. B., Moses, A. M., & Wolbers, K. A. (2012). Culture or Disability? Examining Deaf Characters in Children’s Book Illustrations. Early Childhood Education Journal, 40(4), 239–249. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-012-0506-0

Short, K. (2012). Story as World Making. Language Arts, 90(1), 9-17.

Appendix

El Deafo is a coming of age comic about a young girl named Cece. Cece’s origin story involves her losing her hearing after becoming ill. The title of the book, El Deafo, is an alter ego created by the protagonist who helps her deal with, often times, insensitive comments made towards her or events during which she feels she has no control over. El Deafo allows Cece to perceive her hearing aids as her superpower, thus enabling them to be her asset and allows her to see that her deafness is not a deficiency. El Deafo is kept as a secret identity for the majority of the story, till she finds someone special to confide in about her super alter ego.

El Deafo does a wonderful job of providing diversity in children’s literature by having a protagonist who is differently abled. What is impressive about this comic, is the way in which it makes the reader aware of the struggles a child who is hearing impaired experiences the world. Instead of solely portraying a hearing impaired character who tries to fit in, we see the ways in which Cece struggles with her peers, the assumptions her peers and strangers have about Cece’s impairment, and Cece’s ability to interact with others among other things stand out. We also see the “normal” ways in which someone’s Cece’s age would react to certain situations.

I would recommend this book to children with hearing impairment, their parents and encourage their peers to read it too. It has made me aware of the way in which I personally interact with those with hearing impairments at work (I work in a health setting, although most of my interactions are with those significantly older than Cece). I saw myself reflected in the characters in the probelmatic ways in which the characters interacted with Cece (talking louder, turning the volume up on the tv because I thought it would help etc).