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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Country Care Review: Turkmenistan

Better Care Network, 17 Apr 2015

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: Dominican Republic

Better Care Network, 17 Apr 2015

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.

No Way Home: The Exploitation and Abuse of Children in Ukraine’s Orphanages

Eric Mathews, Eric Rosenthal, Laurie Ahern, Halyna Kurylo - Disability Rights International , 16 Apr 2015

This report is a product of a three-year investigation by Disability Rights International (DRI) into the abuses experienced by children - both with and without disabilities - in large-scale institutions, psychiatric facilities, and boarding schools in Ukraine, of whom there are nearly 100,000, according to the report.

Permanence for Disabled Children and Young People through Foster Care and Adoption: A Selective Review of International Literature

Vicki Welch, Christine Jones, Kirsten Stalker, Alasdair Stewart - Children and Youth Services Review, 25 Mar 2015

This review of literature covers international material related to stability and permanence for disabled children, in particular permanence achieved through fostering and adoption.

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Prevalence and Comorbidity of Mental Disorders Among Adolescents Living in Residential Youth Care

Thomas Jozefiak , Nanna Sønnichsen Kayed, Tormod Rimehaug, Anne Kristine Wormdal, Ann Mari Brubakk, and Lars Wichstrøm , 07 Mar 2015

The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence and comorbidity of mental disorders applying diagnostic interviews in an entire population of adolescents living in residential youth care (RYC) in Norway.

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Deaf and Disabled Children Talking About Child Protection

Julie Taylor, Audrey Cameron, Christine Jones, Anita Franklin, Kirsten Stalker, Deborah Fry - University of Edinburgh/NSPCC , 01 Mar 2015

This report summarises the findings of original research commissioned by the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) in the UK carried out by the University of Edinburgh/NSPCC Child Protection Research Centre to address a significant gap in current understandings of deaf and disabled children and young people's experiences of the child protection system.

History of Foster Care among Homeless Adults with Mental Illness in Vancouver, British Columbia: A Precursor to Trajectories of Risk

Michelle L Patterson, Akm Moniruzzaman, Julian M Somers - BMC Psychiatry , 26 Feb 2015

This study examines the relationship between foster care placement as a predictor of adult substance use disorders (including frequency, severity and type), mental illness, vocational functioning, service use and duration of homelessness among a sample of homeless adults with mental illness.

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Country Care Review: Sweden

Better Care Network, 04 Feb 2015

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

International Collaboration for Inclusion: Lessons from international experience in responding to the urgent human rights needs of children with disabilities in Ukraine’s orphanage system

Disability Rights International and Your Dimension, 31 Dec 2014

This report documents Ukraine’s Soviet-era system of orphanages and other institutions for children with disabilities. The report details the violence, exploitation, and other human rights violations that are frequently committed against these children. It also shows how families who wish to keep their children with disabilities at home are often forced to institutionalize them as a result of lack of support.

Treated Worse than Animals: Abuses against Women and Girls with Psychosocial or Intellectual Disabilities in Institutions in India

Human Rights Watch , 03 Dec 2014

This report documents the involuntary admission and arbitrary detention of women and girls with mental health disabilities in mental hospitals and residential care institutions across India.