Disabilities Depicted in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Running head: DISABILITIES DEPICTED IN SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS
DISABILITIES DEPICTED IN SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS
Name of Student
Name of University
Author Note

DISABILITIES DEPICTED IN SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS1
At the ages from three to five, children are still at their early developmental stage. At this
age, children need proper guidance and care. Children with special needs such as Autism,
ADHD, Down’s syndrome, Dyslexia and Dyspraxia, require special care and attention for the
proper development of their mental and physical faculties. This essay will outline how illustrated
fairy-tale story books, such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs can be used to acquaint these
children with the various disabilities, both mental and physical. It can also be explained to them
that being differently abled is not essentially a curse.
A fiction book for children when introduced in a visual art form in the early years of the
child’s life becomes the basis of the spiritual, intellectual and emotional development of the child
(Boyakova, et al., 2017). Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs read as a fairy-tale picture book, is
an easy read for children from the years, three to five. Written by the Grimm brothers, Wilhelm
and Jacob, it was first printed in the book Grimms’ Fairy Tales, originally published on 20th
December 1812 (Grimm & Grimm, 2016). It was initially known titled, “Little Snow-White”
(Grimm & Grimm, 2016). Walt Disney Company published the full-colour picture book of Snow
White and the Seven Dwarfs, along with Little Golden Books (Random House) in many editions
soon after the Disney movie that aired in 1937 (Brode & Brode, 2016). It is therefore, suitable
for children aged three to five years who have special needs, such as those demonstrated by the
dwarves in the popular bed-time story.

DISABILITIES DEPICTED IN SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS2
Instead of using a disability orientation, a developmental focus is used for discussing
atypical development of children as well as curricular adaptations and the encouragement of the
treatment of the students as children on a universal scale, irrespective of the learning differences
(Cook, Klein & Chen, 2015). This non-categorical approach is integrated and assumes all
children to be alike, rather than different in their early development stages. This helps in
avoiding a negative impact that occurs with the labelling of children with disability names. This
inclusive focus illustrates that the environments, intervention strategies and attitudes could be