Whangārei students create toileting book for children with intellectual disabilities

Mya Kereopa and Kahn Tangihaere-Brom were inspired to create the book by Mya's brother Zane who has autism.

When Mya Kereopa saw one of the learning resources her 4-year-old brother who has autism was given, she decided it wasn't up to standard.

So she and her Kamo High School business classmate Kahn Tangihaere-Brom have done something about it.

The pair have created and printed a toileting book titled "I go to the toilet" targeted at children with intellectual disabilities, and have launched the business Neurodiverse Learning Resources with plans to release similar high-quality resources, including a te reo Māori version of the book.

The inspiration for the project was Mya's brother Zane.

"My brother was just learning how to go to the toilet and he had recently got a resource given to him.

"The problem that I found with the current resources available were the use of stock images, I felt like there wasn't a lot of care put in to them, and they weren't actual books, they were more laminated pieces of paper attached by a ring.

"When I saw it I thought this is kind of sad that children who are more neurotypical have books printed for them, but children who are neurodiverse don't really have proper resources," she said.

Kamo High School students Mya Kereopa and Kahn Tangihaere-Brom have produced a book for children with intellectual disabilities. Photo / Michael Cunningham

Mya and her mum discussed ideas for hours and Mya took those ideas to school. That's when Kahn jumped on board.

"I saw Mya's passion for what she wanted to do with her business and thought I really want to support this... So I opted to go co-owner with her to help," he said.

The pair worked with medical professionals at Whangārei Hospital and handed the book to 12-year-old Kamo Intermediate School student Hannah Park to do the illustrations.

Last month they printed their first 50 books and in the first day they sold about 15.

Zane was the first to test it out, Mya said.

"Zane loves it, he brings it to the toilet all the time and mum and my brother sit in the toilet and read it together and he interacts with the pictures."

Michelle Bonetti - a speech language therapist and owner of MoreTalk, which is sponsoring the te reo Māori print - said they wanted to celebrate the te reo edition to mark Te Wiki o te reo Māori and Speech Language Therapy Awareness Week.

"We are a bicultural society and a multicultural society and there's just not enough resources out there, not just for the diversity of the learners that we have, but the languages."

The students are working with someone to help with translation, and then plan to take it to local iwi for feedback.

If you are interested in the books you can visit the NDLR Facebook page: facebook.com/pg/NDLRNZ

• Meanwhile, Friday's Northland Taniwha V Canterbury ITM Cup rugby game will be broadcast on Sky with a te reo Māori commentary option.