What was your favourite book as a child?

Can you remember your favourite story book as a child? Who was your favourite character? Peter Pan? Matilda? Maybe Mowgli from the Jungle Book?

Children gain an awful lot from characters in stories; they look up to them, identify with them and aspire to be like them, and it’s a huge part of developing the imagination and learning about themselves and society.

Unfortunately, the number of impairments portrayed in children’s stories are few and far between, and disabled children often feel excluded and cannot relate to the characters in their books. 

With the help of disabled children, Scope has created an amazing range of books to help a child understand their condition and build their confidence for the future. The books feature disabled children and explain a child’s condition in their own language.

Celine is one of the children who helped Scope with this project. She has cerebral palsy and needs assistance to be able to walk. When she was six years old, she helped Scope to develop Celine’s New Splints – a fictional story-book leaflet designed for disabled children to read themselves, or for parents to read to their child. The leaflet explains the process of being fitted for splints in a way that young children can appreciate, enjoy and understand.

Celine explains: “When I was little and I had my first splints I was quite scared because I didn’t know what it was going to be like.  Celine’s New Splints lets children know what is going to happen and hopefully they don’t feel scared anymore. I loved helping to write Celine’s New Splints.  You don’t see many disabled children in books and I’m really proud that I helped change that.”

You can download the books and share with children you know by going here: http://www.scope.org.uk/help-and-information/publications/celines-new-splints-booklet

Thank you for your generous support of our work and for helping us continue to make the world a more inclusive place for disabled children.

Support the work of Scope with an ongoing donation from your pay.

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