Credit: Nick Romanenko

Michael Thompson, School of Arts and Sciences, Class of 2011, reads a donated book with fourth-graders at the Lincoln School. Each book included a message about persons with special needs.

Students in Professor Stanley J. Vitello’s “Introduction to Special Education” class went to the Lincoln Elementary School in New Brunswick recently, bearing children’s books to donate to the school. But they also had a larger mission: All of their books had a child with a disability at the center of the story.

The class wanted to donate the books to promote positive attitudes toward children with disabilities. One unfortunate statistic is that an alarming number of these children are often targets of bullying. According to the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration, children with disabilities are at an increased risk for bullying. A recent study by the British-based National Autistic Society found that 40 percent of children with autism and 60 percent with Asperger’s syndrome have been bullied. According to another British study, 80 percent of children with learning disabilities are bullied at school.

 “We’re hoping that the students at Lincoln School can read these books, and the teachers can make use of them, to foster a more positive view of those with disabilities,” said Vitello, a professor at Rutgers Graduate School of Education (GSE). The class donation of books was a step toward fulfilling that purpose.

As part of Vitello’s course, each student had to find a children’s book that featured a character with a disability, read the book, and write a critical review. The critique included a discussion of the description of the disability, how nondisabled classmates related to the child with the disability, and whether the narrative supported the inclusion of the disabled student in the regular classroom.

Sophomore Kara Haggerty, who has volunteered at the Lincoln School as part of Rutgers’ Big Buddy program, came up with the idea to donate the books to the school. About 30 Rutgers students made the trip just before Thanksgiving.

Dana Sacks’ fourth-grade class watched in anticipation as the Rutgers students unpacked the books in the school’s library.

“If someone in your class had a disability, what would you do to help?” Rutgers student Lauren Costello asked the class.

“I’d help them with their homework,” one fourth-grader volunteered. “If they were in a wheelchair, I’d help push them around the school,” said another.

Among the books for donation are stories about children with autism, Down syndrome, Asperger’s syndrome; children with low vision and deafness; and children with physical disabilities requiring the use of a wheelchair. After unpacking the books, the Rutgers students read some of them to the fourth-graders.

“I hope that the students learn to think the best of others. I don’t want them to negatively judge another student. I want them to learn how to have empathy toward their fellow classmates,” said Nena Marshall, a junior who intends to pursue special education teacher certification.

The Lincoln School, on Bartlett Street just off the College Avenue Campus, has long been a partner with GSE in the professional development of the school’s faculty. Rutgers students also do their student teaching at the Lincoln School.

One of the biggest challenges facing special educators will be to develop collaborative relationships with general education teachers, as more children with disabilities are included in regular classrooms, Vitello said.

“The book project put into the hands of general educators a collection of stories to begin a class discussion about those children who learn and behave differently,” Vitello said, “and what programs can be developed to further their cognitive and social development.” And the books also point out that those with disabilities are more like their classmates in many ways, despite their individual differences.