Chapter 47: CHILD-to-childHelping Teachers and Children Understand Children with Disabilities

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HealthWiki > Disabled Village Children > Chapter 47: Helping Teachers and Children Understand Children with Disabilities

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In this chapter:

 

In this chapter:

Children can may have a variety of reactions to a child who is different. Very young children may not see difference as negative, and may treat a child with disabilities like any other. But often, children can be cruel by teasing, laughing, imitating, or even doing physical harm. But more often they are cruel simply by not including the child with disabilities in their games or activities, by rejecting the child, or by pretending she does not exist.

Children may act in a cruel way because they fear what they do not understand. When they gain a little more understanding, children who may have been cruel or felt uncomfortable with the child who is different, can become that child’s best friends and helpers.

It is important that children in every neighborhood or community have a chance to better understand persons who, for whatever reason, are different from themselves— in color, in dress, in beliefs, in language, in movements, or in abilities.

One way to help a group of children gain a better understanding of children with disabilities and learn ways to be helpful is through CHILD-to-child activities.

CHILD-to-child is a non-formal educational program in which school-aged children learn ways to protect the health and well-being of other children—especially younger children and children with disabilities. The children learn simple preventive and curative measures appropriate to their own communities. They pass on what they learn to other children and their families.

The CHILD-to-child program began during the International Year of the Child, 1979. David Morley (author of Paediatric Priorities in the Developing World and See How They Grow) brought together a group of health workers and educators from many countries. They designed a series of “activity sheets”—or guidelines—to be adapted by teachers and health workers for children in different countries and situations.

Thirty-five activity sheets for children, including 6 activity sheets about children with disabilities, can be found in a book called Child-to-Child: A Resource Book available from Health Books International.

• Children with disabilities
• Helping children who do not see or hear well
• Children with learning difficulties
• Polio
• Helping children who experience war, disaster or conflict

Other activity sheets in Child-to-Child: A Resource Book, that include disability prevention are:

• Feeding young children: feeding children aged 6 months to 2 years
• Feeding young children: how do we know if they are eating enough?
• Caring for children with diarrhea
• Preventing accidents
• Our neighborhood
• Playing with young children: playing with babies
• Playing with young children: play for preschool children
• A place to play
• Caring for children who are sick
• Safe lifestyles

CHILD-to-child activities can be introduced:

• by schoolteachers with schoolchildren,
• by schoolchildren (who have practiced the activities in school) with younger schoolchildren, or with children who do not go to school,
• by health workers or community rehabilitation workers,
• by parent groups or any concerned persons in the community.

The purpose of CHILD-to-child activities that relate to disability is to help children:

• gain awareness of different disabilities and what it might be like to live with these,
• learn that although a person with disabilities may have difficulty doing some things, she may be able to do other things extra well,
• think of ways that they can help children with disabilities feel welcome, take part in their play, schooling, and other activities, and manage to do things better,
• become the friends and defenders of any child who is different or has disabilities.

Rehabilitation programs in several countries have developed their own, more complete CHILD-to-child activity sheets. Here we combine versions from Kenya (Africa), the Philippines, and Mexico (where some of the original sheets were developed and tested). The 3 activities we include in this chapter are:

• “Understanding children with disabilities”
• “Children who have difficulty understanding”
• “Let’s find out how well children see and hear”

This page was updated:04 Apr 2024