scholarly journals Measuring childhood disability and AIM programme provision in Ireland

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adele Whelan ◽  
◽  
Adele Bergin ◽  
Anne Devlin ◽  
Abian Garcia Rodriguez ◽  
...  

The social inclusion of children with disabilities, and in particular their inclusion in early learning and care settings, is key to maximising their wellbeing, care and future education. It is therefore vital that children with disabilities have equal access to early learning and school age care and education. Joint research, published by the ESRI and Pobal explores a number of existing challenges experienced by children with disabilities in this area.

2021 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 34-48
Author(s):  
Agota Giedrė Raišienė ◽  
Laura Gardziulevičienė

The phenomenon of the welfare state is characterized by complexity of indicators. To determine in which areas the country is closer to the welfare state, various areas of social policy are analysed. In this article, we set out to investigate one of them, i.e., the accessibility of social services for children with disabilities. The European Union ensures the basic preconditions for the well-being of children with disabilities and emphasizes the compatibility of health, social and educational services (European Commission, 2021). In addition, Member States are free to introduce specific measures for social inclusion (COM, 2021). The well-being of children with disabilities is inseparable from that of adults, usually the family in which the children live. Depending on the child’s disability, the family has to devote time to the child’s special needs, so opportunities to function in society, such as working and earning an income, become dependent on the social assistance received for the disabled child. Research shows that participation in labour market processes reduces the social exclusion of families with children with disabilities and improves quality of life indicators in general (Stefanidis & Strogilos 2020). However, analysis of good practice is more common, while information about the lack of services that parents face difficulties remains overboard. Thus, our research contributes to a better understanding of how families raising children with disabilities use state-provided social services and what solutions and measures are needed to improve the quality of life of children with disabilities and their relatives. The practical implications of our article are revealed through the possibility of more confidently shaping the decisions and measures of the welfare state.The article presents results of a survey of 68 families with disabled children. Our research was conducted in Druskininkai municipality which has typical infrastructure of social services for the disabled and their families in Lithuania.Our study has shown that social services in Lithuania poorly meet needs of families with disabled children. Though social inclusion is one of the most important features of the welfare state, the provision of social services to disabled and their families goes beyond the concept in Druskininkai municipality at least. Families have little information about social guarantees and support provided by the state and municipality. The families are limited to services reported by health care and education institutions. Moreover, the most significant problem hindering social integration of disabled and their families is a small portion of disabled children using services of day care centre. As a result, children suffer at risk of social exclusion while disabled children’s parents lack of opportunities to fully participate in the labour market.Based on the results of the study we state that increasing the availability of social services that meet the needs of families with disabled children is a necessary social policy solution, without which the development of a welfare state in Lithuania is hardly possible.


2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 146-167
Author(s):  
Belaynesh Tefera ◽  
Alice Schippers ◽  
Marloes Van Engen ◽  
Jack Van der Klink

This article presents the findings of a qualitative study on the social inclusion of children with disabilities in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and how this affects their achievement of valued life goals. The study is based on focus group discussions with children with disabilities and primary caregivers of such children. The thematic analysis is based on family quality of life and the capability approach, which are used to explain the effects of social inclusion (and exclusion) on children with disabilities and their families in three areas of quality of life: being, belonging, and becoming. The study also looked at how the social inclusion of children with disabilities can be actualised. The results of the study confirm the existence of considerable challenges to the social inclusion of children with disabilities in Addis Ababa, which is reflected in their capabilities. The results suggest that children with disabilities need assistance and support to achieve a good quality of life. They also indicate the need for the involvement of the wider community to support children with disabilities and their families to enhance the capability of such children, and so improve their family quality of life.


2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (5) ◽  
pp. 126-136 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norma Montesino ◽  
Ida Ohlsson Al Fakir

Inclusion policies focusing on Roma groups started in Sweden during the 1950s, when the Swedish government recognized the formal citizen status of the so called “Swedish Gypsies”, a group consisting of approximately 740 people. As the Roma were perceived as people living outside the boundaries of normal society, the challenge facing the Swedish authorities was how to outline and organize the new policies. In our analyses we focus on the taken-for-granted premises of these policies. We discuss the “entry process” of these Roma into Swedish society. People-processing organizations classified Roma as “socially disabled” in different administrative contexts. In the early 1960s adult male Roma were classified as socially disabled on the labor market. Later during the same decade, experts and professionals increasingly focused attention on the Roma family as a problematic institution. In this context, Roma adults were classified as disabled in relation to the normative representations of parental capacities during that time, while Roma children of school age were defined as children with difficulties and put in special groups for children with problems. The related interventions were justified by a discourse on social inclusion, but in reality produced a web of measures, practices and yet further interventions, which in the long run have contributed to perpetuate the social marginality of Roma groups.


1970 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 119-126
Author(s):  
Марина Орап

У  статті  висвітлено  методологічні  та  практичні  засади  вивчення  онтогенезу  соціального  інтелекту. Складність вивчення даного соціально-психологічного феномену пов’язана із дотичністю його  до багатьох явищ, які описують умови успішності соціальної взаємодії особистості. Проаналізовано наявні  теоретичні   підходи   до   визначення   змісту   та   структури  соціального  інтелекту,   до   взаємозв’язку  останнього  з  іншими  видами  інтелекту.  Визначено,  що  дослідження  соціального  інтелекту  молодших  школярів слід здійснювати на основі розуміння останнього як здатності, що виникає на базі комплексу  інтелектуальних,   особистісних,   комунікативних   і   поведінкових   рис,   що   зумовлюють   прогнозування  розвитку  міжособистісних  ситуацій,  інтерпретацію  інформації  і  поведінки,  готовність  до  соціальної  взаємодії і прийняття рішень. Здійснене пілотажне емпіричне дослідження прогностичних можливостей  дітей  молодшого  шкільного  віку  продемонструвало  наявні  позитивні  кореляційні  зв’язки  між  рівнем  розвитку здатності до передбачення найбільш адекватного сценарію розвитку подій у соціальній ситуації  та рівнем розвитку мовленнєвого досвіду. Найбільш тісний взаємозв’язок виявлено між рівнем розвитку  здатності  передбачати  адекватну  вербальну  відповідь  у  ситуації  комунікації  та  рівнем  розвитку  мовленнєвої компетентності та мовленнєвої діяльності дітей молодшого шкільного віку. Таким чином,  були зроблені попередні висновки про наявність взаємозв’язку між мовленнєвим досвідом та прогностичним  можливостями у складі соціального інтелекту дитини молодшого шкільного віку The  article  outlines  the  methodological  and  practical  principles  of  studying  the  ontogenesis  of  social  intelligence. The complexity of studying this socio-psychological phenomenon is associated with its attractiveness to  many  phenomena  that  describe  the  conditions  for  the  successful  social  interaction.  The  existing  theoretical  approaches to the definition of the content and structure of social intelligence, to the interrelationship of it with  other types of intelligence are analyzed. It is determined that research of social intelligence of junior pupils should  be carried out on the basis of the understanding of this kind of intelligencer as an ability that based on a complex of  intellectual, personal, communicative and behavioral features. This complex predetermines the forecasting of the  development  of  interpersonal  situations,  the  interpretation  of  information  and  behavior,  readiness  for  social  interaction  and  decision-making.  The  research  of  the  prognostic  possibilities  of  primary  school  children  demonstrated the positive correlation between the level of development of the ability to predict the most adequate  scenario of the development of events in the social situation and the level of development of speech experience. The  closest relationship is found between the level of development of the ability to provide an adequate verbal response  in the context of communication and the level of development of speech competence and speech activity of children  of junior school age. Thus, was done a conclusion about the existence of a relationship between speech experience  and prognostic possibilities in the social intellect of a child of junior school age.   


2018 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 70-84
Author(s):  
Zdenka Šándorová

Abstract The theme of the paper is very topical in global and European context. It brings theoretical information on the concept of asocial model of early care in the Czech Republic and practical case studies and final reports related to the early care provision which demonstrate tangible activities within the system of the complex support and assistance to children with disability and their families. The author applies the theoretical-practical approach as she is of the opinion that „the practice without theory is as a blind person on the road and the theory without practice is as a cart without an axle”. The aim of the paper is to extend theoretical information on the topic in the Czech Republic by individual examples of final reports related to the provision of social prevention of the early care in the Czech Republic. The overall aim of the paper is to justify topicality and eligibility of early care in its broad reference framework, including its practical impact. The theoretical basis of the paper is elaborated with respect to the analysis and comparison of Czech and foreign literature, legislation, methodology document and other relevant written resources. The practical level is elaborated with respect to 3 cases and final reports of the provider of an early care of the social prevention. The early care in the Czech Republic represents a professional, modern and recognized system in European and global comparison and is legally anchored in the Act 108/2006 Coll. on social services. It aims on the minimization of child´s disability impact upon child´s development, especially the social inclusion of a child and a family and their capability to cope with limitating disability in natural environ, i.e. by the preservation of standard way of life. It represents a multi-dimensional model, overcoming limitation of sectoral division of the early care and facilitating complex assistance from a series of subject fields at the same time. Services for families with an endangered child in early age are the background for social, educational and pedagogical inclusion of a child and the re-socialisation and re-inclusion of a family. Early care is considered preventive, from the point of the prevention of the second disability (i.e. is effective), in the prevention of institutionalized and asylum care (i.e. is economical), in the prevention of segregation (i.e. is ethical).


2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 1021-1026
Author(s):  
Rozalia Kuzmanova – Kartalova

An analysis of the social pedagogical work with difficult children is presented, outlining characteristics, specifics and approaches for prevention and social accompaniment. In order to highlight the specifics of this group of children, a comparison is made with two other groups of children in a situation of life difficulty - "socially disadvantaged children" and "children at risk". The analysis refers to the understanding that difficult children are children with impaired emotional development, difficulty in communicating with others and disrupted behavioral control, all of which can lead to consequences both on a personal and behavioral level. It is emphasized that difficult children turn into such in situations where adults cannot find an adequate approach to them, and most often these adults are members of the family, parents, or teachers. An overview of scientific positions on difficult children by English, American, Russian and Bulgarian researchers is offered. This is the basis for outlining the main spheres which affect children negatively and categorize them as "difficult children" - emotional-personal; learning-cognitive; behavioral; somatic. The reasons for children’s difficult behavior are examined, including: the family and the flaws in it; the lack of spiritual connection between parents and children; the asocial environment; participation in criminal groups; errors in the work of educational institutions; economic difficulties that have influenced all spheres of public life. The characteristics of problem children are presented that account for the formulation of the principles of social pedagogical work with them. It is emphasized that one of the important approaches in the work is the development of skills for social inclusion, social expression and self-assertion. The model for social pedagogical work with difficult children is developed in two aspects: preventive work and social accompaniment. Preventive work consists in constantly informing all stakeholders - teachers, educators, non-pedagogical staff in educational institutions and the family on the opportunities for preventing "difficult children" on the one hand, and ensuring interaction between the participants in the preventive activities as well as striving to attract more organizations and institutions, on the other. The social accompaniment as a social pedagogical work includes: identification of children with difficult behavior at the earliest stage of the disadaptation process, diagnosis of the factors of the difficult behavior and the reasons for the disadvantage, preparation of an individual road map for working with the child, implementation of the individual program for accompanying the child, measuring and analyzing the results of the child's work and his / her close circle.


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