Impact of Child Disability

Dr. Tanya Kane

Read the colours not the words.
Explain to a “blind” student how to draw the
shape.
Objectives

✤ 1. Discuss the social, psychological and economic impact of having a

physically or intellectually disabled child on other family members.

✤ 2. Discuss the importance of community support for families of

children with disabilities.

✤ 3. Describe the social and rehabilitative support services available to

persons with disabilities in Qatar.
Is my child different? Trigger 1

✤ “They were also concerned

about the complications and
how they will affect their
child’s development and
intellectual ability.”
Is my child different? Trigger 3
✤ “Salim's mother wondered whether all this
could even be because of something she
had done wrong during her pregnancy…
The doctor explained the relationship
between maternal age and Down
syndrome…In addition, they were referred
for social and rehabilitation support.”
Is my child different? Trigger 4
✤ “A year later, Salim's mother was coming to terms with
having a child with a disability. Sharing her experience with
her friend Maysoon whom she met through the “Qatar
Centre for Children with Special Needs” was also a big help.
Maysoon’s daughter, five-year-old Alia, had a more severe
degree of intellectual disability than Salim. The two women
often talked about the pleasure and pride they felt as their
children learned new skills, even if they acquired these skills
far more slowly than other children of a similar age. They
also discussed the financial problems and strain on their
marriages and families as they were raising a child with
disability.”
Different types of disabilities
✤ Physical disabilities affect physical capacity and/or mobility (e.g. MS, cerebral
palsy, spina bifida, brain or spinal cord injury, epilepsy, and muscular
dystrophy).

✤ Sensory disabilities affect one or more senses; sight, hearing, smell, touch, taste
or spatial awareness (e.g. autism, blindness, and hearing loss).

✤ Mental illness affect a person’s thinking, emotional state and behaviors.

✤ Intellectual disabilities affect communication, learning, and retention of

information (e.g. Down syndrome, Fragile X syndrome, Fetal Alcohol
Syndrome). Intellectual and adaptive functioning are significantly below
average.

✤ Adaptive functioning = degree individual can effectively meet life demands

Father's Days: the animated memoir of a first-time dad
The Truth About Down Syndrome
Watch: https://www.youtube.com/embed/CcFjzUazsB4
 Grief reaction
Discuss reactions of parents to the news of child disability
What is the impact of a diagnosis such as Down syndrome or
disabled children on the lives of the other family members?
✤ Way a couple react to/deal with diagnosis of disability
may strengthen their relationship or weaken it (blame
each other)

✤ Concerns: How child will fit into their lives? Fear of

future, income, education, transport, mobility,
emotional, social, fear of not loving child, respite
Siblings

✤ Parents may focus time &

energy on child with disability

✤ Feel neglected, jealous

✤ Value differences, understand

importance of social justice

✤ Protective, help with care of

sibling
Parenting best done in context of supportive extended
family & community.
 How can psychosocial
issues be addressed?

✤ Social support from family &

friends

✤ Support groups for children

with disabilities

✤ Support & information from

medical professionals

✤ Community services

✤ Counseling
 The Social Model of Disability

✤ Social model of disability says ✤ The medical model looks at

that disability is caused by the what is 'wrong' with the person,
way society is organized. not what the person needs.

✤ The medical model of disability ✤ Creates low expectations and

says people are disabled by leads to people losing
their impairments. independence, choice and
control in their own lives.
✤ Medical model, these
impairments should be 'fixed'
even when the impairment or
does not cause pain or illness.
 1:27

Social Model Animation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9s3NZaLhcc4
E.g. 1 Access
Social model = Add ramp
Medical model = No solution to help
wheelchair users climb stairs.
Excludes from many spaces and activities
E.g. 2 Child with
visual impairment
wants to read a best
seller
Social model = make full-text
audio-recordings when book 1st
published
Medical model = no solution,
excludes /limits activities
Watch"Chronicle" - A Look at Life Today with Down Syndrome
https://www.youtube.com/embed/1vmF1hUt5yw
 What can we
do?
advocacy
volunteer
What support is available in Qatar?
Watch: Shafallah Center For Persons With Disabilities (time 7.19)
Https://Www.Youtube.Com/Embed/X13H34Fel18
Etiology (often no cause identified)
Clinical presentation = Key features

✤ Intelligence quotient (IQ) approximately 70

or less
✤ Impaired adaptive functioning
✤ Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales used
to evaluate skills for daily living
Associated features
✤ Mildly and moderately intellectually disabled children commonly
know they are different

✤ May become frustrated, socially withdrawn

✤ May have low self-esteem because it is difficult to communicate and

compete with peers

✤ sometimes ADHD
DSM 5: Intellectual disability = impairments of general mental
abilities that impact adaptive functioning in 3 domains which
determine how well an individual copes with everyday tasks.
✤ Conceptual domain includes skills in language, reading,
writing, math, reasoning, knowledge, and memory.

✤
Social domain refers to empathy, social judgment,
interpersonal communication skills, the ability to make and
retain friendships.

✤
Practical domain centers on self-management in areas such
as personal care, job responsibilities, money management,
recreation, and organizing school and work tasks.
Intelligence
✤ Mental age (MA) = intellectual
functioning

✤ Chronological age (CA) = actual age

✤ MA/CA x 100 = IQ

✤ IQ of 100 means MA and CA =

✤ Normal/average IQ 90-109

✤ IQ tests influenced by cultural

background & emotional response
to testing
Classification of
intellectual disability
✤ a) Borderline (70-85)

✤ b) Mild (IQ 50-70)*

✤ c) Moderate (IQ 35-55)

✤ d) Severe (IQ 20-40)

✤ e) Profound (IQ <20)

✤ * Overlap because number of

different IQ tests in use
Management
✤ Severity & existence of comorbid conditions =
management approach

✤ Special education & vocational training

✤ Behavioral therapy (increase adaptive skills,

reduce problem behaviors)

✤ Physiotherapy

✤ Occupational therapy (max level of functioning in

class, home, community)

✤ Pharmacotherapy

✤ Family support

✤ Assistive technology