By Himani Hitendra
I would like to share with you about the library program my mom and I have been involved with for the last 2 years. I love reading books, and going to the library. Reading helps me learn about new places and people. Books are my friends who always support me in every situation of my life. I wanted to share this experience of enjoying reading books with others who communicate like me.
In November 2022, my mom and I decided to reach out to our local library, and educate our librarian, Miss Polina about AAC, and how AAC users communicate. We expressed the need to start a story time for AAC users to help build their love for reading books, communicating, interacting and participating in a library program.
I am thankful to Dr. Dukhovny and Miss Polina, for supporting our initiative and helping us start ‘Storytime with AAC’ at Union City library in April 2023.
This program gives me the opportunity to learn and grow as an individual and an advocate. Being autistic, I face sensory challenges and anxiety when I am out in the community. However, attending ‘Storytime with AAC’ regularly has built my self-confidence and has helped me communicate effectively in public places. I feel comfortable being in a familiar environment along with my friends and enjoy participating in Storytime. I was deprived of this opportunity in my school library because my teacher felt I was disrupting Storytime as I liked to touch and flap the library books. Now at my local library my friends and I have access to fidgets and toys to engage with while we listen to the story. We also get many opportunities to share our thoughts, and opinions about the characters in the story, make comments and connect the story to our own personal experiences. I also enjoy the games we play after Storytime. My favorite games are Bingo and Mad Libs. I am happy to see that using my AAC to communicate during Storytime encourages parents of young AAC users and helps them believe in the ability and potential of their own children.
Storytime with AAC has helped me connect with other AAC users, make friends, and has built my confidence in communicating with people out in the community. I no longer feel isolated, and I am happy to be a role model to younger AAC users, and a peer mentor to my fellow AAC users.
In my role as a volunteer, I also help my mom select books for Storytime. Both my mom and I enjoy reading many different picture books. We usually try to select books that go with the month’s theme. For example, in 9th grade I read the autobiography of Malala Yousafzai, ‘I am Malala’, which was very inspiring, so I suggested to her that we read her picture biography for Storytime. To celebrate Women’s History Month in March 2024, we read the book ‘Malala’s Magic Pencil’. I like reading autobiographies and realistic fiction. Some of my favorite books are Anne Frank – The Diary of a Young Girl, Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, Lord of the Flies and Homeless Bird. Earlier this school year, I enjoyed reading the autobiography of Trevor Noah, ‘Born A Crime’. I also enjoy reading books in which characters use AAC. One of my favorite books is ‘Out of my mind’ by Sharon Draper.
Some of my favorite picture books that we have read for Storytime with AAC during AAC Awareness Month in October are A Day with No Words, Sabita finds her voice, and Dancing with Daddy. I also enjoyed the picture books we read for Autism Acceptance Month in April like The Girl Who Thought in Pictures (picture biography of Dr. Temple Grandin), My Brother Otto and the Birthday Party, and Remarkable Remy. All these books have autistic characters in it. We have also read books that have neurodivergent characters in it like My Brain is Magic and Bitsy Bat, School Star. Our library will do free book giveaways in the months of April and October, and thanks to that I have a great collection of a variety of neurodivergent picture books at home!
In Sep 2024, we celebrated Hispanic Heritage Month by reading the books ‘Frida Kahlo’ and ‘Spanish is the language of my family’. We celebrated Halloween by reading the book Room on the Broom. We all dressed up in costumes. I dressed up as Rapunzel, my favorite Disney princess. After Storytime, we enjoyed playing carnival games and received treats. In November, we celebrated Diwali, the Indian festival of lights. My mom read the book ‘Shubh Diwali’. She explained how Indians celebrate Diwali, the customs and traditions we follow. Many of my friends including myself dressed in traditional Indian clothes. We had fun making Diyas, traditional Indian lamps from craft paper. My mom also gifted a diya to every participant. Afterwards we had a potluck and enjoyed delicious Indian and Thai food, while listening to some popular Bollywood and Indian music. It was one of the most memorable celebrations! Likewise, we have also celebrated holidays like Christmas, Chinese New Year and Valentine’s Day by reading books, doing crafts and enjoying treats. For Chinese New Year we made a dragon and a snake craft since it’s the year of the snake. We all dressed in red and enjoyed eating pineapple cakes. In February, we also celebrated Black History Month by reading the book Flying High, The Story of Gymnastics Champion Simone Biles.
March was another special month as we celebrated Women’s History Month by reading the book Who Says Women Can’t be Doctors? The Story of Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman doctor. What made this Storytime special was that the reader was our librarian, Miss Polina. I was very happy to listen to her read and model core words on an AAC device. It reminded me of the days when I first showed her how I use my AAC. I bet she must be the first librarian in the country to do a Storytime using AAC! How exciting! In March, we also celebrated the Jewish holiday, Purim by reading the book ‘Purim Superhero’. We dressed in costumes and Dr. Dukhovny bought us delicious treats to eat, and also prepare gift baskets called Mishloach Manot to gift our loved ones.
All of our readers make the story fun and engaging and I feel I have learned so much from these stories. We get to learn about different cultures and celebrate different holidays! I don’t think I would have got this opportunity at school. Storytime with AAC has helped me connect with different cultures!
All our participants also enjoy the different props we have based on the story book characters for Storytime with AAC. We also have multi ethnic dolls that have their own little toy AAC devices. Some of my favorites are the Penguin and the Frida Kahlo doll.
Apart from all the interesting books we read and the fun games we play, in September 2024, my friends and I got to participate in Miss Kate’s Drama Club online. We played fun games, learned acting, picked our characters and rehearsed our lines. At the end, we all got to perform in a play. I played the role of Snow White! This was the first time me and my friends got to perform! We had a lot of fun! I love Miss Kate! I have been her student for over 5 years now. She is my favorite teacher!
Some of the other memorable experiences have been getting the opportunity to meet one of my favorite authors Tiffany Hammond at our local library. I was thrilled to introduce her at our guest author event to read her book, ‘A Day with No Words’ in September 2023. In October 2023, for AAC Awareness Month, I gave a presentation sharing my experiences as an AAC user, covering different areas of my life and sharing how I use it at home, school, community, for socializing, for self-advocacy, and for being a disability rights advocate. This was indeed a great experience!
Earlier this year, I received the Gold 2024 President’s Service Award in recognition of over 100 hours of volunteer service to library programs. It was an honor to receive this award, which also included a letter and a pin from President Biden.
The thing I enjoy the most about Storytime with AAC is the friendships I have made. I now have friends of all age groups. Two of my best buddies are Brihus and Adnan whom I enjoy hanging out with even outside of the library.
I feel proud to be a part of Storytime with AAC!
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Communicators In Action - storytime