Bringing More Inclusivity to Story Time with Children's Author Lindsey Larsen

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[00:00:09] Shawna: Lindsey Larson earned her doctorate in occupational therapy and is a certified autism spectrum disorder clinical specialist. She is also the mother to two amazing daughters, a homeschool educator and a military spouse. Lindsey's older daughter. Madeline survived a massive stroke in infancy, which resulted in a variety of disabilities.

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[00:00:52] Shawna: When Lindsey engaged with other children and explained Madeline's disabilities, the children were not only understanding, but eager to know how to play and engage with her. Lindsey decided to write a picture book. To educate all children and adults in their lives about asking questions regarding disabilities because understanding leads to inclusion.

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[00:01:32] Shawna: Welcome, Lindsey.

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[00:01:37] Shawna: You have done so many things in your life and it is so exciting. First, tell me the most interesting thing about where you are from.

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[00:02:05] Lindsey: Um, one place we got to stay at five years and most one to two years. , I feel like I, a little bit of me is everywhere now. I have friends everywhere and, and my heart is everywhere, so, but I grew up in Nebraska.

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[00:02:24] Lindsey: That's right.

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[00:02:36] Lindsey: Oh, probably bossy I'm thinking of a particular friend who is still a best friend of mine, uh, these days. And she was a little bit younger than me and we, so now we've been friends for you know, 35, 34 years. I feel like we were best friends because she always just went along with everything I wanted to do, , and that just made us a perfect pair.

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[00:03:03] Lindsey: Hopefully I'm a little bit less bossy, but my kids would probably say I still am.

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[00:03:29] Lindsey: Absolutely. I look back and my heart kind of breaks thinking about how little I understood about disabilities when I was a kid. It might make me a little emotional . Um,

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[00:03:46] Lindsey: but it does, it, it it, I really wish that it would've been available when I was a kid and I realize that it needs to be available now because there's plenty of parents like me who, didn't get those opportunities to reach out to the other kids with disabilities, like they probably wish they would have, but now I feel like they also don't really know how to teach their kids that, because we weren't, well, I shouldn't say everyone, but I know me growing up I did not learn about disabilities.

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[00:04:42] Lindsey: Kids that we've encountered and, and I've kind of actually made it my mission. Um, , you would tell the girls like, we're going to the playground. Who are we gonna educate today? Because you could see these kiddos and they would, you know, be looking over our way. And Madeline likes to wear her earmuffs out in public, especially at a noisy place like a playground.

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[00:05:21] Lindsey: I don't know how to handle this situation and things like that. And I would kind of make it a mission that I'd, I'd kind of go over and say, Are you wondering why she wears those on her ears? And they'd just be like, yes. Like I just pulled that question outta their mind for 'em. Like, I'm, I'm, I'm just like a magician.

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[00:06:17] Lindsey: You know, didn't have that information growing up, and I would still want to put it out there in every way I can. And I didn't think I was getting to enough playgrounds. So , I was hoping that the, the book would be able to supplement and get out there, um, to other people that I w I'm not able to reach. Um, there's probably some people listening who are like, I know that lady, , she came up to us on the playground and decided to lecture us. No, I wasn't doing that, but just to help their kids understand.

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[00:07:10] Shawna: Cause they dunno how and no one's taught them how. And this is a way to learn how, and it's great that you, you're teaching people individually cuz that's how we learn best. And the book teaches people individually, so this is a great opportunity for them.

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[00:07:46] Lindsey: When they can relate it to a book. Remember that book that we read, mom, you know, and they'll bring that up and say, you know, we were talking about that and my kids are a little bit older. But still we, they still love reading children's picture books. I mean, that's still something they love to do, even being a little bit older, but they always, they bring it back to the books that we've read and remember we talked about that, and I love that and I hope that lots of kids get to have those moments.

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[00:08:28] Lindsey: Right, right.

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[00:08:48] Lindsey: That's a great question. I was actually kind of all over the board with my ideas of how to get this message out there. I kind of ended up landing on the children's book because. I felt confident in my ability to get that done. I can't say as much as I am so impressed by people who have written a novel and they've been able to pull in a character, um, you know, I'm thinking of one in particular right now, you know, where the character had a child with disabilities and,

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[00:09:39] Lindsey: Um, but I, I felt that a children's book, I've read hundreds if not thousands to my children.

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[00:09:47] Lindsey: so I just felt very confident, like, I've been doing this for years, reading these books and there's so many things I have to say about so many of them, that I kinda felt like, well, I should just, give it a shot and do my own.

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[00:10:15] Shawna: There are sensitivity readers who read novels, they can add to the perspective that people have. So maybe you should be a sensitivity reader for people who are looking to publish novels about parents of children with special needs, that you can add that perspective to make sure that their getting that right.

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[00:10:32] Lindsey: Yes.

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[00:10:41] Lindsey: I guess, the process I wasn't surprised about. I feel like I researched enough to know what it was all going to entail. What surprised me the most actually was the response from everyone. and was overwhelmingly positive and part of me was, it was just nervous what people would think, because my book is it, it's an educational book.

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[00:11:30] Lindsey: So I didn't know if people would think, well, this is kind of boring , you know, this is, this is very simply written. And I had to remind myself, my kids will pull out books like Go Dog Go still from

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[00:11:44] Lindsey: I. Go Dog Go. I mean, and not everything has to have the most beautiful poems in it.

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[00:12:17] Shawna: you found your people. You found people that needed it. And that's, that's

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[00:12:27] Shawna: that does, that's so exciting. And so where's the best place for people to be able to find you then?

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[00:12:42] Shawna: That's, that's nice that they both did that. That was very good. That landed

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[00:12:45] Shawna: nicely.

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[00:12:46] Shawna: Yes.

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[00:12:51] Shawna: Nice. And what book or story inspires you the most?

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[00:13:22] Lindsey: It, it doesn't. It was so relatable to me, even though that was not at all the main point of the story, but I love that that just was like built in and I felt like with how many people read this book, people are gonna have a little taste of what that's like. You know, just by reading the story, even though that wasn't, that was just a, you know, side note of, of the story. And, and I thought, gosh, there's so many ways to educate people, is what I thought when I read that. Like, there's so many ways to get out there to people. Um, and I think that's amazing. And I think when it comes to disabilities, we need to come at it from all angles.

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[00:14:16] Lindsey: Thank you. Thank you so much for having me.

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