Bigfoot Books: Learning Starts Now

By Kayla Coburn

Enjoying a crisp Fall Day out with your child, coffee in hand, checking out a new playground with new swings, communication boards, and accessible playground equipment that we never saw as kids ourselves, when all of a sudden, your child says, just quite too loudly, “why is that big kid crawling on the ground?” 

You look over to see a child with a disability. Instantly embarrassed by the question your interested child asked and now in shock of not knowing what to say to not hurt anybody’s feelings. You might frantically look up at the parent or caregiver with an apologetic look in your eyes, you might tell your child not to ask questions like that, you might just panic and move out of state. But you don’t have to! Bigfoot Books is here to help educate you and your children on how to navigate these tricky questions with ease! Let’s go step by step. 

First, don’t shame your child for the question, no matter how ill intended it sounds.  This is the perfect time to model and say the appropriate language back to your child. You can respond with, “it looks like that big kid is exploring! We all explore in different ways, right? How do you like to get around?” This turns the situation into “not a big deal.” You are confirming that the child is doing something different but you are okaying it to your child and confirming we all experience the world in different ways. They might have follow-up questions and answer them as best you can. When children ask why a person with a disability can’t do something, you can answer simply with, “maybe they can’t walk, but do they still like to play? Yes!” These simple concepts need to be reminded to children who haven’t seen a lot of people who access the world differently than them. 

Now that you notice your child is asking questions like this, let’s prepare. What should you say when you see someone using a wheelchair? Someone with a limb difference? Someone flapping their hands? Someone who is non-speaking? The best place to learn about how to answer these tough questions are through advocates within the disabled community! Bigfoot Books is here as a resource for you to lead you to self-advocates and resources so we can all learn how to best support each other. Bigfoot Books is all about the power or reading. We partner with authors who share their stories experiencing the world with their disability and with authors who work within the disabled community. Reading books with disability representation is a great starting point to understand different perspectives and see representation of people that are different than you. 

Finally, learning together. No one can answer perfectly every time to those spontaneous questions our children have, but we can teach our children that there is always learning to be done. After a situation, which might require some vulnerability and talking to the parent or caregiver, go to your local public library and ask for books with specific representation. Our community will continue to thrive if we can work, learn, and play together! 

Check out Bigfoot Books to learn more about the importance of disability inclusion.

www.bigfootbooks.org
bigfootbooksproject@gmail.com