Theme:
Children with Disabilities
About the Issue:
Early childhood is a vital stage of human development, setting the foundation for lifelong learning and participation for children with or without disabilities. Interventions from birth to age six, with prioritization during the first three years, can prevent developmental delays or provide early support to children at risk of or with disabilities and their families to ensure they reach their full potential. Early intervention and inclusion in ECD services benefits all children, not just those with disabilities.
The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities explains that persons with disabilities include those with long-term impairments that, in interaction with barriers, may hinder their full participation in society on an equal basis with others. Disabilities result from a complex interplay between health conditions and environmental factors, and each child’s experience is unique. It is crucial to approach children at risk of or with disabilities using methods that consider developmental and functioning profiles, such as strength-based methods, and avoid deficit-focused labels.
However, children with disabilities are often overlooked in programs meant to ensure their development. They face numerous barriers, including lack of policy protections, limited screening and specialized services, inadequate training for service providers, limiting social perceptions and cultural beliefs, inadequate financial support to families, and lack of accessible environments, among others. Without timely and appropriate intervention, these challenges can worsen, leading to lifelong consequences and increased exclusion.
The Sustainable Development Goals specifically mention disability in several places and make it more hopeful that no one is left behind. To achieve this, a twin-track approach is essential, combining disability-specific interventions with mainstream disability inclusion in universal policies and services. This approach strengthens systems for all children with and without disabilities, ensuring they receive the support they need to thrive.
In collaboration with our partners including The RISE Institute and other Early Childhood Development Task Force members, ECDAN created this thematic page to offer resources for enhancing ECD interventions for all children, particularly those with disabilities.
Why it Matters
Ensuring that children with disabilities are included in policy and services is essential for building an inclusive and equitable society. It not only upholds their rights and well-being but also empowers them to fully participate in and contribute to their communities.
Resources
- Approximately 240 million children under age 18 have some form of moderate to severe disability, whether present at birth or acquired later in life as a result of illness, injury, or poor nutrition. This represents about one in ten children worldwide.
- Of these children counted, 29 million were under age 5.
- Compared to children without disabilities, children with disabilities are 24 percent less likely to receive early stimulation and responsive care and 42 percent less likely to have foundational reading and numeracy skills.
- Children with disabilities are 25 percent more likely to be wasted and 34 percent more likely to be stunted. They are also 53 percent more likely to have symptoms of acute respiratory infection.
- Children with disabilities are 49 percent more likely to have never attended school and 47 percent more likely to be out of primary school.
- Children with disabilities and developmental delays are often invisible politically and socially. While recent attempts are being made to improve data gathering and reporting on children with disabilities, many live with hidden or mild disabilities that go unnoticed and therefore unrecorded.
- A development delay or a condition can be temporary if there is a timely intervention. Universal ECD services can break the cycles that allow development delays or disabilities to continue. For example, children with severe or moderate acute malnutrition are at risk of developmental milestone delays and disabilities. An early childhood intervention that is disability-inclusive would minimize the risk or even the severity of the developmental delay or disability.
The following points are taken from the Methodological Guide: Research for National Situation Analyses on Early Childhood Intervention that provides a general overview of early childhood intervention (ECI) systems and services:
- To ensure that all children attain their full developmental potential, infants should be identified soon after birth through neonatal screening or within a neonatal intensive care unit or later through developmental screening and medical surveillance, monitoring and diagnosis.
- ECI services must address the care and developmental needs of infants and young children from birth onward. Services that begin during the period from birth to 36 months, when the brain has a high level of plasticity and grows the most rapidly, will be most effective in attaining good child development outcomes.
- ECI services are essential for parents and caregivers of all children with “developmental difficulties” including all children in at-risk situations and/or with developmental delays, disabilities, behavioral conditions and mental health needs.
- To promote good child development, primary attention must be given to ensuring family leadership, participation and support in planning and conducting nurturing ECI activities, as well as to providing all or most services in the “natural environment of the child” as a part of daily family and childcare or preschool routines.
- Well-designed family-centered ECI services that include community outreach and universal systems of regular developmental screening can identify infants and children with developmental difficulties early, thereby giving parents essential and timely support in promoting good development and nurturing care during the critically important period of birth to 36 months.
- ECI services are essential for enabling the national deinstitutionalization of young children, most of whom have many developmental delays and difficulties.
- The few country-level studies regarding ECI service outcomes that have been conducted have revealed notable improvements in family and child development. Improved child developmental capacity leads to reduced school attrition, grade repetition, poor grades and remedial and special education services.
Learn more about early intervention by getting involved with the International Society on Early Intervention.
