Personalized Stories Boost Positive Attitudes Changes Towards Children with Disabilities

• In Event: Poster Session 08
  In Poster Session: PS 08 Topic -Diversity, Equity & Social Justice

Abstract

According to different studies, it has been found an influence of personalized stories on word learning, reading approach, parent-child relationship and empathy. These advantages of personalized stories can be useful to work on one of the mayor challenges about educational inclusion, which is to overcome barriers to learning and participation, more specifically to take action against those attitudinal barriers towards children with disabilities. This research takes advantage of the power of personalizing a story to contribute to this issue. The main goal of this study was to evaluate the effect of personalized stories on attitudes toward disabilities in primary school students. Nighty-nine children (54 girls and 47 boys) from first and second grades of elementary schools in Cuernavaca participated in the study. Attitudes were evaluated in three dimensions: cognitive, affective and behavioral. The sample was divided into four groups.: 25 children were exposed to a story unrelated to inclusion (control group), 24 children were exposed to an inclusive, but non-personalized story (non-personalized group), 25 children read the inclusive story with personalized information distributed in different characters of the story (general personalization group) and 25 children read the inclusive story with personalized information focused specifically on the main character of the story (direct personalization group). The experiment consisted on reading the corresponding story to each of these groups. A pre-test and post-test were performed using the Questionnaire for the assessment of attitudes towards disabilities. Results showed differences in changes of attitudes depending on the content of the story (personalized vs. control story) but also depending on how personalized the story was. The effectiveness of personalized inclusive stories in changing attitudes towards disabilities can be considered for further interventions.

Keywords: personalization, story telling, attitudes, disability

Authors

• Danya Patricia Cadena, UAEM
  Presenting Author

• Alberto Falcón, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos
  Non-Presenting Author

• Beatriz Dumpíerres, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos
  Non-Presenting Author