Aim: Children's literature can be a powerful tool in education and identity construction. The images and stories one is subjected to during early childhood can help bring an understanding of oneself as well as other people. The focus of this project is intellectual disabilities (ID) in children's literature with a special interest in picture books for the younger ages. One of the main questions is if these portrayals contain any stereotypes or outdated imagery that in turn could influence how people with ID are perceived and treated in society.

Method: Using a Foucauldian discourse analysis, a selection of picture books was studied in order to gain an understanding of how these works of fiction portray people with ID.

Results: The preliminary Results show both positive and accurate portrayals as well as some significant differences when compared to picture books without any characters that have ID.

Conclusions: The different roles available for the intended audience to identify with and how the selected books differ in some ways from mainstream children's literature will be discussed.