To explore children's understanding of disability.
Evidence and reflection
Ask the children in your class to make a list of all the people they can think of who have disabilities. (If appropriate you could act as scribe for a small group or whole class.) Encourage them to think of people they may have seen on television or read about in books, magazines or newspapers.
Ask the children to talk about how they think those people's lives are affected by their disability.
Note down what the children say. Record, where possible, specific words and phrases.
Consider the data. What view of disability do the children have? How do they express their ideas? What is their attitude to disabled people? Can you speculate on the sources of their understanding and attitudes? Do any have direct experience of disability?
Follow-up
Work with the children to make a book showing positive images of disabled people
