Helping Children Cope through Literature.

Abstract

Introduction In our society children are exposed to violence, instability, and other stressful factors. As a primary school educator, I have witnessed the impact literature can have on a child's life. On September 12, 2001, three children in my class sobbed, explaining that a parent never came home the night before. As these three first grade students cried, others discussed how cool the planes looked as they flew into our World Trade Center. To discontinue the chatter immediately I announced that it was morning carpet time. One of the children handed me a book and asked me to please read it to them, as the rest of the students voiced their approval. During this traumatic time in our history, a book instantly and uniformly bought tranquility back into my classroom. It was at this moment that I knew the bridge between coping, expression, and healing for my students would be through children's literature. Individuals of all ages appear to lose themselves in stories. I have read picture books to five year olds, as well as Master's degree candidates. Both groups of students will display disapproval if I discontinue reading in the middle of an interesting book. Story-telling is a timeless teaching tool. Expression through text offers readers of all ages the opportunity to find solutions through the characters and conflicts within a story, and thus within themselves. As educators we can utilize this avenue of expression to provide the guidance and resources required by our students to securely pave the road to coping and healing, consequently enabling academic and emotional progression. Over the past few decades, there have been significant shifts in our society. More families in our communities live in poverty, speak languages other than English, and are culturally diverse. Divorce, child abuse, military deployment, relocation, and school violence are some issues on the rise that are having a major effect on our students (Pratier, Johnstun, Dyches, and Johnstun, 2006). Various students in crisis might exhibit symptoms observable in the classroom such as; laziness, carelessness, lack of motivation and engagement, and resistance to authority (Sitler, 2008). Maslow (1987) states that an individual's basic needs, such as food, shelter, and safety, must be attained to lay the foundation for future educational opportunities. Therefore, if children are concerned about where the next meal is coming from or personal security, logically they will have great difficulty concentrating on classroom instruction. According to Horseman and Naparstek, children cannot conceptualize beyond daily survival and getting through each day might be all the student can endure. It is essential for children to learn the coping skills needed to successfully handle the distress, frustration, and anger that are a part of their daily life and to emerge with a sense of self-control, hope, and resilience (Oddone 2002; Beslin 2005; Kersey & Malley 2005). Children's literature is the tool necessary to assist children through personal tribulations. Real life does indeed call for real books: books that provide information, comfort, and models for coping with life's difficult times (Roberts and Crawford, 2008). Bibliotherapy, or therapeutic reading, (Galen and Johns, 1979) helps children relate to characters and cope with their own emotions. Often the reader is looking for a solution to his/her own personal life situation and feel more at ease when learning that he/she is not the only one dealing with a life crisis. Dreyer (1984) identifies three characteristics concerning the use of literature to assist children through trying times (Kramer and Smith, 2004). Universalization reinforces that other children have experienced similar anguish. Catharsis connects the reader and the characters in the story. Empathy and problem solving are exhibited during this stage. Finally, insight helps the reader to self-reflect and apply their knowledge to others and society. …

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 15 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.