Sociology Of Handicapped Children Essay, Research Paper
The field of work for the handicapped child is one of exceptional,
perhaps even unique, rapidity of change and development. Widening
of outlook and better understanding are leading to new tactics and
new techniques in approach to identifying the handicapped, in
defining their disabilities and in providing better treatment,
education, and general care. In this paper I will demonstrate how
the handicapped child becomes socialized, has social control and
how family, education and the community plays an important role in
the development of the social self.
Play serves an important role in the all-round development of the
child. It is their method of growing in those areas in which they are
ready to develop. Play promotes the physical,social,mental,and
emotional growth of the child.
It is obviously impossible for the physically handicapped boy or
girl to compete in the more strenuous physical activities and,
therefore, two things must be done. There must first be an attempt
to alter their own scales of values, so that he/she sees their own
lack of competence in this field of play. They must be encouraged
and helped to reach competence in some socially acceptable
recreation. The range of physical recreations is such that quite a
large proportion of handicapped children can find one that suits
them if the effort is made to give them opportunities and training.
The handicapped child who can never hope to play well, or even to
play at all, can still get a good deal of happiness from learning the
finer points of a sport and watching experts in action and there is
much to be said for encouraging them to do so.
It is not possible to live in any society, even the most primitive,
without some general education. The mentally handicapped child is
unable to obtain such a full education and is faced with an
inevitable social handicap. The best that can be done for them is to
minimize their difficulties by giving them as much general education
as they are able to receive and use. Physical handicap, however,
need not be essentially disastrous in the same way. It may affect
education by closing one of the sensory gateways by which education
enters the mind via sight or hearing. In this case, fuller use must be
made of the other gateways. The blind or deaf child can receive as
full a formal and academic education as the child in full possession
of their senses. They will, in later life be unable to engage in as
wide a range of activities as the normal child, but they can and
should be educated for the fullest possible living within the
limited range. Not only do physically handicapped children need
special educational needs, so do mentally handicapped children. The
mentally handicapped child with an I.Q. between 60 and 75 will
therefore be ready to start special education at about the age of
seven. His response to it will initially depend very much upon what
has been done to prepare him socially, in the home and outside it.
There is little question that the teacher has a profound
influence on student behavior, achievement, and feelings of
self-worth. This interaction is an important factor to consider with
handicapped children. The nature and quality of the interaction
between teacher and student may be strongly influenced by the
teacher’s expectations. Such expectations may be too low, expecting
only minimal achievement or little acceptable behavior, or too high,
which may cause the teacher to pressure the student to achieve
beyond his/her capabilities, resulting in discouragement,behavior
problems, or failure. This can cause the student to not want to
associate with school at all.
Most physically handicapped children are totally dependent on
their parents or caregiver. This makes it very hard for the child to
get used to any other interaction with other children or adults.
The child feels safe, knowing their mom or dad will be there to pick
them up and hold them. When meeting new people, the handicapped
child does not know if that person could give the same love and
support as their parents do. The home constitutes the basic unit in a
community. It is here that the observations are made and that the
decisions and plans for the child must be formulated. With the help
of the community agencies, the parents obtain the needed assistance
to let their handicapped child become socially independent.
From my own experiences, I have baby-sat two children. One who
you
can call the “normal” child whose name is Amanda and the other who
was mentally handicapped whose name is Lisa. Once their mother had
left the house Amanda adjusted very easily. She went over to her
play house and quickly amused herself. Lisa grew angry the minute
her mother stepped foot out of the door. Lisa was not comfortable
with me in the house. Her dependent was her mother and she had no
idea if I could give her the love and support that her mother gives
her. I tried to reassure her that mommy was coming back and I will
help her with anything she needs. Reassurance was not enough for
Lisa. She cried the whole 4 hours that her mother was gone. If this
was another child that did not have a handicap, I would have easily
gotten aggravated. Since I knew about Lisa’s handicap I tried my best
to deal with her. I tried playing with her, reading to her, trying to
get her sister to play with her but nothing worked. Even though I
showed her the love and support her mother gave her, I was still
not her mother. This experience made me understand the needs of a
handicapped child. It is not at all an easy job.
Not all handicaps are physical or mental. There are some
handicaps that you could not recognize with the eye. In considering
deafness we are dealing with a disability of unique complexity. It is
always tempting to think in terms of handicap as a matter of damage
to a particular organ. Nowhere in the whole field of handicap can
this error be so damaging or even disastrous, whether we are
considering the help we give to an individual or the nature we make
for all those who suffer from that particular disability. Deafness
is important in itself but even more important in its consequences.
The immediate consequences of a hearing defect are no means
unimportant. Inability to hear a horn, a bicycle bell, and certain
other noises may be a cause of serious physical danger. Inability to
hear music or birds singing deprives one of pleasures which mean
much to many people. These are modest in their effect compared with
impairment of hearing for speech.
Medical and surgical treatment have little to offer to the
majority of deaf children, especially those whose deafness is
congenital. The positive approach to the deaf child is to make use of
whatever remains of hearing the child possesses, and most do have
remains, and by building on what remains and using a variety of
techniques to develop the child’s hearing skills, his speech and his
language. In achieving this, care, management and hearing are so
closely interlinked that they must be considered as part of the
same total process.
Much remains to be done in exploring the field of possible
employment of the deaf. There is a certain amount of prejudice and
resistance to be overcome and it is hard to say if apparent
objections to the deaf are true. A deaf child can do the same things
as a normal child but without speaking. They should have the same
respect as any other child trying to grow up.
As I have demonstrated in this paper, a handicapped child is not
someone to laugh at. They may be different physically or mentally,
but they need the same love and support from their parents and
loved ones just as any other child. Different handicaps need a
certain kind of attention. People cannot understand that when a
mentally retarded child has a violent fit in the mall, it is not
because they are a bad child, they cannot control what they do. Next
time your walking in the mall with your “normal” child and she
asks “what’s wrong with that boy” all you need to say is they are
exactly the same as you, they just need some more help at times.