FINDLAY, Ohio — While learning to read, young children can also be learning other life skills as well.
This has prompted one local organization to offer a list of books for elementary students that help to develop empathy and inclusion.
The University of Findlay's Mazza Museum has partnered with local organizations to launch its new DREAM program.
DREAM stands for Disability Representation, Education and Awareness in Media.
The program will highlight 14 children's books with the hopes of better exposing and informing elementary children about people with disabilities.
"It's a way to show children in the early grades individuals with disabilities, and how their lives are impacted by those disabilities, and how we should understand them better through those books," said Ben Sapp, director of the Mazza Museum.
College of Education students at the University of Findlay will be working the remainder of the school year to develop lesson plans that go along with the books, following the Ohio Department of Education's social emotional learning standard.
Officials will then send 238 copies of the books to all Findlay city and Hancock County schools and libraries.
Funding to purchase the books came through a grant from the Hancock County Community Foundation.
"Using that lens of empathy, how can I ask the questions in a sensitive way, said assistant education professor Kerry Teeple. "How are these people not so much different than me, but how are these people the same as me? And I think that is really important and that's what these books share."
The program helps young readers understand what people with disabilities encounter every day, Sapp said.
"And I think it helps to make our cities, our counties just a better place when we have an understanding of each other," Sapp said.
The initiative will officially kick off at the Findlay-Hancock County Public Library with its Summer Reads program.
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