Children's Mental Health Week 2023: The importance of mirror and window texts

Raising awareness of children’s mental health

Children’s Mental Health Week was started in 2015 by the charity Place2Be and is still going strong in its 9^th year. They are working tirelessly to bring awareness to the importance of caring for children’s mental well-being.

This year, Children’s Mental Health Week 2023 runs from the 6^th to the 12^th of February with the theme ‘Let’s Connect’.

While intended to be enjoyed for amusement and relaxation, stories also hold a much more vital societal role. They are pivotal in expanding awareness of the world around us and representing a world familiar to us. Scholar Rudine Sims Bishop refers to this as mirrors and windows – stories that connect the reader to immerse themselves in the text’s context.

What are mirrors and windows?

Mirrors are instances where the reader can see themselves reflected within texts. This differs from windows, which offers the reader a view of experiences and lifestyles outside their own. Whether this is a story about a different culture, identity, or an event they have never experienced, this window expands their understanding, compassion, and perception of a concept they were unaware of. And for those whose life experiences have historically been forgotten, ignored, or misrepresented, these mirror texts are a long overdue reflection which works to empower, affirm, and inspire them.

The Cooperative Children’s Book Center’s 2019 study revealed that only 3.4% of children’s books have disabled main characters. In the UK, 9% of children have a disability (Scope).

A report by the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE) revealed that only 5% of children’s books released in 2019 had an ethnic minority main character. Children are almost eight times more likely to come across an animal as the main character than a person of colour.

Furthermore, over the last decade, the representation of male-to-female heroes was at a ratio of 1.2:1. Male authors were also three times more likely to write a male protagonist than a female.

Research shows that a lack of representation in media can lead to adverse psychological outcomes for those with identities that are underrepresented or negatively portrayed (Tukachinsky, Mastro, &Yarchi, 2017). Children who don’t feel represented in the literature they consume may also begin to feel invisible and unimportant (Levinson, 2020).

These figures show a massive disparity in representations and demonstrate the importance of diversity in books to create mirror texts reflective of everyone – and act as windows to raise awareness of other ethnicities and cultures.

Texts on the Reading Plus programme

The quality of rich and engaging texts on Reading Plus is something we continue to assess to provide a holistic reading experience for students. Over 1,100 informational, fiction, and non-fiction texts are available for students to self-select.

Of these, there is a range of mirror and window texts. Reading Solutions UK is dedicated to providing students with texts depicting a wide range of experiences and celebrating the diversity of people and cultures.

To achieve this, the content editors responsible for texts on Reading Plus look specifically for “content that respects and reflects the experiences and cultures of all children, especially those who have been historically underrepresented.” – Randi Gelfman Bender, Chief Content Office at Dreambox Learning (owners of Reading Plus).