The Need for Participation of Children with Severe Disabilities In Physical And Social Activity Programs
Introduction:
Across the world, people with disabilities have lower educational achievements, poor health, fewer economic opportunities for participation, and higher poverty. This is mainly because of the barriers that people with severe disabilities face in terms of accessing basic employment, education, health and recreational services. The World Health Organization has reported that around 93 million to 150 million of the children of the world under the age of 14 are living with some disability (University of Cambridge Research, 2017).
These figures alone are enough to show the severity of the problem. My passion is to work for people with severe disabilities. I feel satisfied by serving the people who are living in foster cares as well. This is the reason I want to serve children with severe disabilities under the age of 25 years. In my opinion, for any state, all of its citizens are equal. The main purpose of any state is to work on the development of its society and provide the citizens with activities and programs that enable them to live a productive life. This includes the creation of opportunities for the citizens who are more socially vulnerable. The UK government social and educational policy is to make sure that people with severe disabilities have access to quality education, physical activities, and socialisation programs. Therefore, it is important to raise awareness of the benefit and need of the physical and social activity services for severely disabled children. This is the area which I want to focus on in this study.
Literature Review:
Governments are expected to provide the best of opportunities for their citizens, including the people with disabilities. However, it is not always the best, and it is not always accessible by everyone. For all children, socialisation and physical activity are considered as one of the prime activities that enable them to have better physical and mental health. This is same for the children with severe disabilities. The benefits of exposing children with severe disabilities to physical and social programs are uncountable. Still, it is difficult for a parent to find such programs for their children with SEND. I want to explore this area. Reports have shown by evidence that how the disabled children access to positive and inclusive social and physical activities can help them improve in terms of their wellbeing (Shields, Synnot and Barr, 2011; Williams et al., 2017; Beresford and Clarke, 2009). These include leisure activities outside school, which provides opportunities for socially and physically active. However, there are not many children’s centres or extended schools who provide such services (Bartley, 2017).
Research Gap:
In terms of academic research, there are only very few studies that have been conducted to investigate the need for the socialisation and physical needs of children with disabilities. Here, it is important to note that enough literature could be found on socialising, inclusion and physical needs of children with “learning difficulties”. However, in terms of children with disabilities, it is rare. This is the research gap which I want to cover through my research.
Research Objective:
Based on this gap, this study is going to explore how children with severe disabilities can gain from social and physical activity programs. The research is expected to raise awareness of the benefits and the need for the physical and socialising programs for children with disabilities.
Research Question:
- Is there a need to provide social and physical activity programs services for severely disabled children?
- What are the benefits of social and physical activities services for severely disabled children?
Research Methodology:
In this study, I will explore how children with severe disabilities can gain from social and physical activities services. The study will use interviews and the survey questionnaire method to interview parents of children with severe disabilities to investigate their need for social and physical activity programs services. Furthermore, a qualitative study of literature on the benefits of incorporating more physical and social activities in the daily routine of children with disabilities will also be conducted. Hence, this study is going to follow a mixed research method using both qualitative and quantitative tools.
References
Bartley, J. (2017) The UK is turning back the clock on the education of disabled children, 30 November, [Online], Available: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/nov/30/uk-education-disabled-children-home-school-inclusion [9 October 2019].
Beresford, B. and Clarke, S. (2009) Improving the wellbeing of disabled children and young people through improving access to positive and inclusive activities, [Online], Available: https://www.york.ac.uk/inst/spru/pubs/pdf/positive.pdf [9 October 2019].
Shields, N., Synnot, A.J. and Barr, M. (2011) ‘Perceived barriers and facilitators to physical activity for children with disability: a systematic review’, British Journal of Sports Medicine, vol. 46, no. 14, pp. 989-997.
University of Cambridge Research (2017) Children with disabilities are being denied equal opportunities for a quality education across the world, including in the UK, [Online], Available: https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/children-with-disabilities-are-being-denied-equal-opportunities-for-a-quality-education-across-the [9 October 2019].
Williams, M., Pollard, E., Langley, J., Houghton, A.-M. and Zozimo, J. (2017) Models of support for students with disabilities, [Online], Available: https://dera.ioe.ac.uk/30436/1/modelsofsupport.pdf [9 October 2019].
