Because people with special needs oftentimes have difficulties with social inclusion, their quality of life is usually lower than that of their peers. In the past, purely physical aggregation of children with special needs and their peers in the same classroom did not improve social inclusion of children with special needs. Therefore, an implementation of systematic strategies for promoting social inclusion is needed. These strategies should focus on developing awareness, informing about special needs and suppression of prejudice toward people with special needs. This could be achieved in several ways, for example, with reading and talking about works of literature that depict people with special needs. This type of literature is named inclusive literature. With focused reading, a teacher or some other expert is able to create a non-invasive, make-believe environment, where children can experiment with their feelings and freely express their attitudes toward people with special needs. In that way, they learn about people with special needs and practice the correct emotional response. In addition, with reading, it is possible to rectify children’s lack of real-life experiences, which can prevent improper or violent behavior towards people with special needs in real-life situations. It is reasonable to use picture books with younger children as a pedagogic conversation starter. In accordance with the communication model for teaching literature the teacher as an experienced reader is supposed to steer the pupils toward communicating with the text for a better understanding of the literature work. The teacher leads the conversation with questions about the content of the text, which includes all the steps of Bloom’s taxonomy. The teacher can offer different activities to promote understanding of the text and motivate children. In the empirical part of this master’s thesis, we have created, executed, and evaluated an interventional program, which we have based on a selection of inclusive literature works with protagonists with special needs. We have used a revised and translated CATCH scale for a measuring instrument to evaluate the effects of the program that we have carried out in a second and third class of the primary school. We have concluded that the students who participated in the program answered the questions of the CATCH scale in a way that showed a statistically better attitude towards students with special needs after the program, compared to before. Based on the analysis of the literature and our findings we have created a manual for teachers, other pedagogic professionals, and parents in which we have presented inclusive literature works we have used in our program. The manual explains how inclusive literature can be used as a motivational conversation starter for promoting a better understanding of people with special needs and a better social inclusion for them.
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