8.3: Children with Diverse Abilities and Special Needs

Children with Diverse Abilities and Special Needs

It is important to recognize and overcome societal and socialized limitations such as stereotypes and discrimination of children with special needs and diverse abilities. According to U.S Census Bureau (Young, 2021), over three million children (4.3% of the under-18 population) in the United States had a disability in 2019, up 0.4 percentage points since 2008. Linking back the previous discussion, some racial groups had higher rates such as Native American and African American children. Connecting the data to future discussion, children living in poverty have nearly double the rate of disability.

Children with disabilities or other special needs refers to children with a specific diagnosis, as well as children who do not have a diagnosis but whose behavior, development, and/or health affect their family’s ability to maintain child care services. The disability or special need may be as mild as a slight speech delay or as complex as a mixed diagnosis of motor challenges, vision impairment, and cognitive delays. Special health care needs include a variety of conditions such as birth defects, neurological disorders, and chronic illnesses that can be life threatening or impact daily living (e.g., cancer, sickle cell disease [or anemia], cystic fibrosis, hemophilia, AIDS, diabetes, juvenile rheumatoid arthritis).

Historical Challenges

In Bronfenbrenner's Macrosystem there are many cultural and legislative challenges. Similarly to the discussion of stereotyping, bias of ethnic groups, children with special needs have been the target of overt and covert discrimination as well. These discriminations were often viewed as justified as a result of the child disability. In the US, the socialized view that children with disabilities should be removed from society or eliminated promoted the eugenics movement as a humane necessity to the misfortune of being born different with a special need. As recent as 1970, sterilization laws were legal for people with disabilities. Issues advocates consider controversial with direct implications for children with special needs are limiting medical care to children and adults with disabilities, and the use of prenatal testing to determine the presence of disabilities in embryos and fetuses (Pullen, et al, 2020).

Only 50 years ago, children with disabilities seeking education could not attend public schools. This resulted in many children being separated from their families and ecological systems only to be sent to private schools, isolated in separate classrooms or institutionalized in appalling State centers. Advocates used the ruling from Brown v. Board of Education decision arguing disabled children are entitled to the same rights applied to Black children in that landmark decision.

Critical Think

Thinking about macrosystem changes, what system reforms would you advocate for to support children and families with special needs?

Outcome for Children with Diverse Abilities

The societal view of people and children with disabilities ranges from mistreatment, to pity and neglect. These societal attitudes can be internalized and cause learned helplessness - the belief developed from the cumulation of negative experiences that a person does not influence the outcome of events. Elliot & Dweck (1988) found that when children believe their failures to achieve simple developmental tasks are due to uncontrollable factors related to their own skills or lack of ability, they stop trying to achieve. Many factors can cause learned helplessness such as parental over-help, educational mismatch (placement and teaching style), and bias from adults and caregivers. These factors reinforce a belief that less is expected of them because they are capable of less. Children can get caught in a negative cycle of perceived incompetence and subsequent debilitating belief.

On an institutional perspective, poorer educational outcomes and lower standards Educational mismatch can be seen in the data from lower academic achievement, increased likelihood to repeat grades and less time in general education classrooms are all consistently noted in the research (U.S. Department of Education, 2015). In our youngest children, we see disproportion trends as well. Researcher Zeng et. al (2021) highlights that 5.4% of young children with disabilities had been either suspended or expelled, compared to 1.2% of children without disabilities.

Lastly, social emotionally, internalizations of negative feelings can be seen in children with learning disabilities as well. Research suggests found that internalizing problems occurred more often than externalizing problems in students with learning disabilities. These children reported feeling more depressed than students without Learning disabilities (Hinshaw, 1992).

Historical Legislation

In response to these observed outcomes, legislation was passed to support children with special needs. The Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975 and The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) of 1990, established rights of young children with disabilities and exceptionalities to receive a Free and Appropriate Education (FAPE) in the Least restrictive Environments (LRE) to the extent possible, requiring children with disabilities to have access to the general education curriculum, along with learning activities and settings that are available to their peers without disabilities. Corresponding federal legislation applied to infants and toddlers (children birth to 3) and their families specifies that early intervention services and supports must be provided in “natural environments,” generally interpreted to mean a broad range of contexts and activities that generally occur for typically developing infants and toddlers in homes and communities. To learn more about IDEA Department of Education website.

Supporting Children and Families

It is critical that children with disabilities or other special needs and their families are included in quality early childhood education programs that are the natural environments of their typically developing peers. Children learn from their interactions with other children and their surroundings while developing a sense of security and self-esteem from caring relationships with program providers and staff. Everyone benefits from quality early childhood education programs that provide inclusive care. This allows for children who have a disability or special need get to know and interact with typically developing peers, while their families benefit from programs and services they need to achieve their parenting goals. Children who are typically developing benefit when they have the opportunity to get to know peers who are atypically developing in the classroom. Everyone has the opportunity to learn about other human beings in regard to their strengths and challenges. Despite increasing rates of inclusion, many teacher preparation programs do not require all candidates to demonstrate the skills needed to effectively instruct diverse learners. Graduates of these programs often arrive in schools that do not have a culture or mechanism for educator collaboration. Many schools also lack the resources to provide high-quality professional development to address gaps in teachers’ skills or knowledge.

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): A Sailor plays with a child from the Association For the Welfare of the Disabled Day Care Center during a community service project.
(CC BY-2.0; N. Ross Taylor via Wikimedia)

Reflection

• What resources are available in your community for children with diverse abilities and their families.
• Are there resources concentrated in one geographic area?
• Are there resources for specific diverse abilities- physical, socio-emotional or cognitive?

^References

Elliott, E. S., & Dweck, C. S. (1988). Goals: An approach to motivation and achievement. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54(1), 5–12.

Hinshaw, S. (1992). Externalizing Behavior Problems and Academic Underachievement in Childhood and Adolescence: Causal Relationships and Underlying Mechanisms. Psychological Bulletin, 111, 127-155.

Pullen, P., Hallahan, D., & Kauffman, J. (2020). Exceptional Learners. Oxford Review of Education.

U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics. (2015). The Nation’s Report Card: 2015 Math & Reading Assessments.

Young, N. A. E. (2021, March). Childhood Disability in the United States: 2019. U.S. Census Bureau.

Zeng, S., Pereira, B., Larson, A., Corr, C. P., O’Grady, C., & Stone-MacDonald, A. (2021). Preschool Suspension and Expulsion for Young Children With Disabilities. Exceptional Children, 87(2), 199–216.