Benefits and Drawbacks of Using Labels to Categorize Children Whose Development is Atypical - Essay Example

Benefits and Drawbacks of Using Labels to Categorize Children Whose Development is Atypical Every year in Great Britain, as well as in many other parts of the world, hundreds of children are born whose later development may be labeled atypical. Those are children with physical, mental, and psychological problems, and all of them need proper treatment, care and attention both from their parents, and doctors. The general opinion is that those kids are just less lucky than their healthy coevals, being valuable citizens, no worse and no better than the other people, thus the society accepts the responsibility of taking care of these boys and girls. Whereas the official position is that atypical children and adults are no worse than the healthy ones, individuals and groups of people exist who discriminate against those, who have severe health problems, and especially against kids and grown-ups who have their mental sphere damaged. The specialists say that it is one of the reasons that lead to the appearance of labels, more or less offensive to those, who are labeled. In order to make the topic of this paper more clear, the terms "label" and "labelization" should be first defined. Anthony Giddens et al define label as a "a brief description given for purposes of identification" (2003:68). Actually all of the diagnoses put by the doctors can be recognized as labels, as they define the methods of treatment the doctors use, and, sometimes, even the attitude (the doctors feel more pitiful towards a child, which has cancer or leukemia, than towards a kid with flu). Labelization is, in fact, assigning labels to people (Henslin, 1997:362). Those labels can be of different origin, and concern different individual peculiarities, like race, age, gender, ethnicity, skin color, and, of course the state of health. The opinion exists that everyone at some period of his or her life is labeled somehow. The sociologists say that people assign labels to others just because it is easier for them to orientate in the surrounding world this way. They add, that some forms of labelization are inevitable, and, moreover, even useful. The next step to review the topic of the paper is to define the term "atypical", and define some of the signs for the child to be considered atypical. Most of the dictionaries agree at the definition of atypical as " Irregular; not standard or characteristic; not conforming to type". There are few symptoms of atypical development for children, like: No exploratory or independent ambulatory movements No manipulation of small objects Does not identify himself/herself by name No listening or understanding of 1 simple instruction/command No two-word phrases; few words Does not use the pronoun "I" Flat affect - No eye contact - no object of attachment (doll, stuffed animal, blanket) OR No self-soothing - 'uncontrollable' temper tantrums No interest in peers, surroundings, toys - by the end of year two. (Slee, 2001:167-177) Children with these symptoms are usually considered to be atypical by the doctors, teachers, and their coevals. Their life changes radically when this label is assigned. On one hand, it becomes much more complicated, as, unfortunately, the signs of discrimination against physically or mentally impaired people are still present in our society, but on the other it becomes easier for the surroundings to communicate and deal with such a child, as they understand that something is wrong with it, and they can build their behavior accordingly. In addition, if the child is put a diagnosis, the ways of treatment of its condition also become clear. When discussing any question concerning atypical children or adults it's vital to understand the routes of typical and atypical development. Martin Herbert notes in his book Typical and Atypical Development: From Conception to Adolescence that hundreds and thousands of causes, as well as representations of atypical development exist, beginning from hearing or seeing impairments, and ending with mental health problems (2002:7). Most of the children, whose development became atypical because of some reasons, are somehow labeled in this or that period of their life, whether by parents, doctors, teachers, or coevals. Sooner or later most of atypical children realize that they are somehow different from their coevals. At this point lots of those kids develop severe psychological and communicational problems. The development psychologists note that public opinion, the thoughts and feelings of their surroundings towards them are of greatest importance for forming the right apprehension of self and self esteem. In case this opinion is negative, the child usually suffers greatly. Labelization is usually negative in some way for the atypical children, so it leads to the appearance of psychological problems. Despite of the diagnoses a child has, it usually has to exist in the surrounding of its coevals, of other children. And children are cruel creatures sometimes, as they often tend to bully those, who are different somehow. That is why some psychologists share a thought that being in the collective with healthy children is traumatizing for the disabled ones. In the same time, another opinion exists about this problem. Some doctors say that it's better for a child to see healthy people around it, as it helps it to become more sociable, and adapt better to the surrounding world. It's obvious that there is no universal solution for this problem. Every atypical child has its individual peculiarities, and if for one of them special needs school is the best variant, for the other learning with healthy children is much better of a solution, despite of all the labels he might get in the usual school environment. In the same time it's vital to remember the influence of the presence of a disabled child in the usual school environment. Most psychologists agree that in case the child's disability is not very severe, it's useful for its healthy coevals to communicate with it, as this way they learn inclusion and tolerance. If the relations of the atypical child with its classmates are good, than it is less vulnerable towards labelization, and its classmates, in their turn, are less likely to label a disabled person. Using labels to categorize children whose development is atypical may also have negative influences on the child's parents. For most parents the health of their child is one of the most valuable things, both physical and psychological one. Putting a label like "learning disabled" on a child is a great stress for its parents. When the diagnosis is put, the parents understand it is actually something wrong with their child. In addition, for most of the adults the opinion of the surroundings matters a lot. People, who have atypical children are considered to be worthy of regret in our society. In addition, it's well-known that some of the disabilities and illnesses are triggered by the parents' unhealthy way of life. Thus the parents whose child is labeled somehow because of health often feel badly about it. It is also that often after putting a diagnosis a feeling of blame emerges in them, as they try to find out what led to the child's llness, and suspect it is their fault. In the same time, there are positive aspects of labelization of atypical children. When a child fails to behave itself the way it is appropriate for its age or gender at some period of life, the parents and teachers are usually appalled. If a child, for example, refuses to sit during the lessons, and prefers to run in the classroom, the teacher usually punishes it, and the parents also scold the child. If this behavior is more or less permanent the child is being labeled as "disobedient", and sometimes even "aggressive". The child is condemned for its behavior, parents and teachers feel they fail to cope with a kid, and the psychological climate both in the classroom and in the child's family becomes strained. After the kid visits a doctor, who diagnoses it with ADHD, its behavior no longer looks appalling or scaring for adults that surround him. The adults and the kid itself understand that it is not the kid's fault, and that it is not "a potential criminal", as teachers sometimes say about hyperactive children with attention disorders. Moreover, in the contemporary medicine lots of ways of dealing with this type of disorders exist, thus the behavior of the child can be corrected either by psychological, or medicinal intrusion. Most people see the label "learning disabled" as one of the worst ones that can be put on a child. Those teachers and parents are forgetting that learning disability is not a sentence, but a problem to be dealt with. When the child is diagnosed to be learning disabled, the roots of all the learning difficulties the child has, become clear to the parents and teachers. The child is no longer called "dumb" or "lazy". The adults rather take the measures to deal with health problem that leads to learning disability, or design an educational programme especially for the child to help it get the education it is capable of getting. Jerry Newport in his book Your Life is Not a Label: A Guide to Living Fully with Autism and Asperger's Syndrome states that is very hard to live in a world that labels you as "odd", "eccentric", "nerd", or just "socially inept". People who have some kinds of disorders are allowed to behave themselves in odd ways without provoking clamor and condemnation. In other words, in our society the impaired people are allowed to behave themselves oddly, while such a behavior of a presumably healthy person arouses resentment and protest. This is why labelization is sometimes helpful to make the existence of the disabled person easier, as well as the lives of those, who surround this person. It is obvious that there is no universal answer to the question of whether it is right to use labels to categorize children whose development is atypical. On the first glance labeling impaired children is wrong, as both they and their parents suffer from it. Nevertheless, attaching a label to the child, whose behavior is weird, often helps its surroundings to understand its behavior, and justify it. Bibliography 1. GIDDENS, A. DUNEIER, M. APPELBAUM, R. 2003. Introduction to Sociology. W. W. Norton & Company 2. HENSLIN, J. 1997. Essentials of Sociology: A Down-to-Earth Approach. Allyn & Bacon 3. HERBERT, M. 2002. Typical and Atypical Development: From Conception to Adolescence. BPS Blackwell. 4. NEWPORT, J. BASS, R. 2001. Your Life is Not a Label: A Guide to Living Fully with Autism and Asperger's Syndrome. Future Horizons 5. SLEE, R. 2001. Social justice and the changing directions in educational research: The case of inclusive education, International Journal of Inclusive Education, 5 (2-3):167-177 Read More