Children with Disabilities

A disability includes a physical impairment such as mobility, hearing, visual, and language difficulties, and developmental delays which affect a person’s behaviour, emotional expression, and learning abilities. It includes mild to severe disabilities, from cerebral palsy, paralysis and amputation, to blindness, deafness, autism, and dyslexia. Children may be born with an impairment, or develop one as a result of disease, abuse, or an injury, e.g. many children are the victims of shootings, bombings, and explosions in conflict affected areas.

The degree of disability a person experiences is frequently related to society’s adaptation to meet the needs of people with varying abilities. This is known as the social model of disability which highlights the role of the environment in reducing or increasing the ability of individuals to participate equally in everyday life. For example, a person in a wheelchair has the impairment of not being able to walk. The disability, however, may be that he cannot take up services due to a lack of building access. Protection workers must consider any additional needs or risk factors a person may have as a result of his impairment and disability. Children in developing countries are more vulnerable to disability since poverty and conflicts increase the incidence of impairments, and reduce the provision of necessary health, education, social services, and adaptive provisions to help include children of all abilities.

Children with impairments or special needs are highly vulnerable to discrimination, abandonment, abuse, exploitation, injury and death, since they are more reliant on the cooperation and support of others to meet their basic needs, and may be less able to express their wishes. In some cultures, children with special needs are actively excluded from participating in society since they may be viewed as a source of shame, or unworthy of care and protection.

Government policies should seek to reduce the incidence of injuries and diseases via adequate health care, including education, immunizations, nutrition, and sanitation. All programming and policies for children should promote the social inclusion of children with disabilities at every level. Children should benefit from the reduction of physical and social barriers, adaptation of services and/or rehabilitation assistance in order to enable them to participate as fully as possible in their communities. This includes family support, health facilities, access to education, and respite services to enable children to fulfill their potential. Children of all abilities must be empowered to express their views and to influence their own lives.

The resources in this section focus on children with disabilities in developing countries, and those affected by conflict. They highlight their vulnerability to exclusion and abuse, and provide examples of projects to address the needs of children with special needs.

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Discriminating baseline indicators for (un)favorable psychosocial development in different 24-h settings

Harmke Leloux-Opmeer, Chris H. Z. Kuiper, Hanna T. Swaab, Evert M. Scholte - Children and Youth Services Review, 14 Apr 2018

The study consisted of a comparative follow-up study with a pretest-posttest design which explored the association between baseline child, family, and care characteristics and the psychosocial development of 121 schoolaged Dutch children during their first year of placement in foster care (FC), family-style group care (FGC), and residential care (RC).

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The grand challenges of social work: Deaf children in the child welfare system

Miriam Elizabeth Bowman - Children and Youth Services Review, 21 Mar 2018

The current paper explores the accessible and equitable services to deaf children in the child welfare system, in terms of the Social Work Grand Challenge: Healthy growth and development of all youth.

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Country Care Review: Panama

Better Care Network, 28 Feb 2018

This country care review includes the care-related Concluding Observations adopted by the Committee on the Rights of the Child and the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Country Care Review: Guatemala

Better Care Network , 28 Feb 2018

This country care review includes the care related Concluding Observations adopted by the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Committee on the Right of the Child at their recent examinations of Guatemala's report.

The attitudes of medical professionals toward children and children at risk of separation from parents in Eastern Europe

Katherine H. Shelton, Geoffrey Haddock, Heather Ottaway - Children and Youth Services Review, 07 Feb 2018

This article reports the findings of a multi-country study of medical professionals' perceptions and evaluations of children in three Eastern European countries (Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova).

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Disability Inclusion in Psychosocial Support Programs in Lebanon: Guidance for psychosocial support facilitators

Women’s Refugee Commission (WRC) and UNICEF Lebanon , 01 Feb 2018

This resource is designed to support PSS Facilitators to strengthen inclusion of children and adolescents with disabilities in a range of PSS activities, including community based and focused activities.

From the day they are born: a qualitative study exploring violence against children with disabilities in West Africa

Janet Njelesani, Goli Hashemi, Cathy Cameron, Deb Cameron, Danielle Richard and Penny Parnes - BMC Public Health, 17 Jan 2018

This study explores violence experienced by children with disabilities based on data collected from four countries in West Africa- Guinea, Niger, Sierra Leone, and Togo.

The Risk and Prevention of Maltreatment of Children with Disabilities

Child Welfare Information Gateway, 02 Jan 2018

Children with disabilities are at least three times more likely to be abused or neglected than their peers without disabilities, and they are more likely to be seriously injured or harmed by maltreatment. This bulletin describes the scope of the problem, risk factors, and strategies for prevention.

Foster Care for Children with Behavior Problems from the Perspective of Experts

Ivana Čičak & Maja Laklija - Socijalne teme : Časopis za pitanja socijalnog rada i srodnih znanosti, Vol. 5 No. 5, 2018., 2018

The goal of the research is to gain insight into the challenges of foster care for children with behavioral problems from the perspective of experts and their suggestions for improving foster care, with the purpose of identifying guidelines for the development of specialized foster care and protecting the welfare of children with behavioral problems.

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DOVCU Learning Brief 1: The effect of DOVCU’s integrated package of interventions on children and families at risk of separation

ChildFund International, 2018

This learning brief analyzes quantitative data from the first of the project’s stated objectives: examining the extent to which “Deinstitutionalization of Orphans and Vulnerable Children in Uganda” (DOVCU) project interventions decrease vulnerabilities for households and children at risk of separation.