Children with Disabilities

 Many children in Canada face special challenges. Sometimes a child's physical disability may be the result from an accident, such as a car wreck or fall, or they may be born with the disability that prohibits normal growth. Education plays a major roll, as children face learning disabilities, bullying and social alienation.

Many of these children do attend regular public schools, and learn in regular classrooms with other students. The chances of there being another physically disabled child in the classroom is not likely, so the child may have a hard time making friends. Since it is more of a challenge to play and socialize at recess and classroom, the disabled children tend to be more quiet and distant from other students. Mental or Emotional stress may also create a communication issue.

Anger and frustration issues are expressed with children who have a physical disability. They want to be included with the other children playing, and when they are shunned and looked down on, social rejection is very hurtful. According to an article, approximately 56 percent of children with disabilities "act out" verbally or physically. Without warning, incidents can occur at school, home or in a public place, such as a store or largely populated area. This is not only very stressful on the child, but also for the parent.(Larin HM, Tancredi A, Wright M, Yundt B, 2006)

Sleep problems are also a concern for caregivers of children with disabilities. They experience nightmares and suddenly may need assistance with going to the bathroom, or calming down when they feel overwhelmed. This disrupts the parent's sleep and further causes job stress, and day to day living, because now they are tired the next day. Not only do they experience poor sleeping due to nightmares, but pain related to their disability is causing setbacks. Sleep has a significant impact on the daily functioning of children and their parents.

In a recent study, questionnaires were completed by care givers and siblings of the physically disabled children. They reported significantly greater concerns regarding; general sleep problems, safety, discomfort at night, night wakening, daytime irritability, interference with daytime activities and sleep-related health concerns in children with physical disabilities than in their counterparts. In order to solve these issues, they cited strategies to alleviate these problems such as; consistent routines and provision of calming, and supportive sleep environments. The well being of the child needs to be addressed with a pediatric therapist.

Overall, I think that we live in a country that is evolving in change, and fortunately there is knowledge about the issues of physically disabled children. There are many teachers assistance in the education system that are set out to help the children, and with our free health care system the caregivers are also able to seek the assistance they need in dealing with them. Of coarse the issues can be made more aware, but generally we do see a lot of services that help families dealing with a children who are physically disabled. Neoconservatives would look at these issues as challenging and hard to overcome, because change is necessary. Since they cannot embrace change and accept new beginnings in making the issues aware to the Canadian population, they would consider the challenges useless.


- Meri-Beth *


References:

Retrieved from: http://www.ehow.com/info_8288851_problems-faced-children-physical-disabilities.html
(Danielle Eickenhorst,1999-2000) Problems Faced by Children With Physical Disabilities, eHow Contributor


 
( Larin HM, Tancredi A, Wright M, Yundt B, 2006) Sleep issues in children with physical disabilities and their families. McMaster Children's Hospital-CDRP, Hamilton, ON, Canada
PMID:16966316 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]