Guest Post: Gail Giles on Writing Across Mental Abilities

By Gail Giles
for Cynthia Leitich Smith's Cynsations

Okay, so I’m going to try to write a book that fully explores the life of a special needs girl, two of them in fact. And I’m going to do in in alternating voices—in first person.

How do I get in the heads of people that I am not? Whose mental abilities are different that mine?

First, I have a background. I taught special needs (the upper end) in my classes when I taught high school.

 Some would be able to read and some never would, but they...