Episode 59: Promoting Inclusion Through Books for Children

Karen Dobyns, OTD, MOT, OTR/L, is an occupational therapist who lives and works in Southern California. She loves pediatrics and mental health and is adjunct faculty in an occupational therapy assistant college program. Karen was interviewed about her path into the field of occupational therapy on Episode 10 in January 2018 and is back to talk about her experiences in writing a children's book centered around the concept of inclusion (and OT!).  She talks about how she came up with the idea for her book "The Centipede Who Couldn’t Tie His Shoes" and what she learned during the process of writing and publishing. 

Resources & recommendations shared on this episode:

• Karen's website: www.missawesomeness.com/books. 
• Episode 10 on On The Air: Mental Health: http://www.ontheair.us/podcast1/episode-10-mental-health
• Society for Children's Book Writers & Illustrators: http://www.scbwi.org/ 
• Mark Mitchell's website where a writer can take a short course and then get matched to an artist: https://howtobeachildrensbookillustrator.com/
• Children's Book Insider: https://cbiclubhouse.com/clubhouse/​
• Buy "The Centipede Who Couldn't Tie His Shoes" on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Centipede-Who-Couldnt-Tie-Shoes/dp/1945033401/
• Website: We Need Diverse Books: https://diversebooks.org/
• Resource to use to design an original font - Fontifier: http://www.fontifier.com/template.html