Cultural Status of People with Intellectual Disabilities - Essay Example

Contrasting and Comparing the Cultural Status of People with Intellectual Disabilities in Three Countries The problem of having an intellectually disabled child is not just the main concern of many parents but also of the society. These children when they grow up can either be a burden or an asset to their country. But just like any other human being who has the right to live, these people who has a learning disability also deserve to have a normal life. In order to fully understand the situation being problematized by the intellectually disabled people, first we have to define what is learning disability. The United States Federal Government defines this in Public Law 94-142, as amended by Public Law 101-476 (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act - IDEA) as: Specific learning disability means a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, which may manifest itself in an imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or to do mathematical calculations. The term includes such conditions as perceptual handicaps, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia. The term does not include children who have problems that are primarily the result of visual, hearing, or motor disabilities, or mental retardation, emotional disturbance, or of environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantage. (Osman, Learning Disabilities and ADHD, page 5) The same definition was used by Thomas Finlan in his book "Learning Disability" but in it he also added part of its history such as: Learning disabilities, though very real, remain an intriguing puzzle. This is true, even though they officially received their name during the mid-1960s The term learning disabilities has different meanings to individuals with different professions. It may also have different meanings to individuals with the same profession. One expert in the field of special education noted that "the field (learning disabilities) is in obvious turmoil, if not disarray. We move to uncertain future, but when was that not true We are at least not afflicted with the illusion of constancy and stability." (Finlan, Learning Disability, page 27) But no matter how we try to define the meaning of this kind of disability, still we can't avoid the fact that having such disability lessens one's capability and chance of living a normal life. It can be remembered that the term evolved from what was known to be "word blindness" which was then associated with perceptual handicap, dyslexia and or minimal brain damage. People long time ago did not make much fuss about this subject and only until 1960s did the term come into the public's notice. Though this learning disability only came into existence and in print in the year 1962 with the help of some middle class parents who pushed for a legitimate action to help their kids who were considered "underachieving children," still the effort was worth a try. The movement created by the enjoined forces of the middle class parents was able to fund five LD research institutions. The success of the movement was also coincidental to have happened during the civil rights movement in the year 1960 but then again, however it may be related to politics, still it can be seen that the successful movement gave answers to the long quest on learning disabilities. (Finlan, page 24) Learning disability can also be related to emotional disturbance. Finlan clarified in his book how an underachieved child can be considered as one of the LDs. Since the way of teaching, school system and even boring subjects are out of main causes of LD, it can be traced to emotional disturbance which is a possible reason for not achieving much like other people or kids. But again the question is whether a kid is considered underachieving because of being emotionally disturbed or being emotionally disturbed because of the disability itself remains unanswered (Finlan, page 26). Dr. Betty Osman in her book "learning Disabilities and ADHD gave nine causes for such disability. She mentioned intelligence, sensory deficits, activity level and attention span, genetic factors, prenatal or postnatal trauma, maturational lag, emotional factors, environmental and educational factors as the possible key to the said kind of disability. (Osman, page 29). The fist one deals with the intelligence of different people which vary from different kids. According to her, children of different levels of intelligence also have different learning problems which can affect his performance at school. The second is characterized by sensory deficits and Osman describes this as follows: Sensory deficits refers to deficiencies in the working of the child's eyes, and ears, or in the central nervous system's connections to or from those organs. To hear music or see a beautiful sunrise, one must have healthy eyes and ears, but some people with 20/20 vision and perfect hearing might misinterpret sensory impressions because of a central nervous system dysfunction. In short, their brains give them the wrong messages. (Osman, 23) The third factor has something to do with the activity level and attention span of the kid. Parents in one way or another try to justify their kids' short attention span to being hyperactive. Normally it's hard to catch a kid's attention and Osman justifies this to a kid being able to notice everything at the same time. (Osman, page 24). This is also another challenge that elementary teachers face since they always have to device a technique to ensure that the kids would listen no matter what. Another possible cause of learning disability can also be the genes of the parents or grandparents of the individual. Osman compares the genetic factor as that of a talent that runs in the family. If a child therefore has an artistic hand (like in painting) which is like his uncle, it is also not impossible for a kid to inherit a learning disability from an aunt for in most cases they can be coined as "synonymous." The fifth factor which is prenatal, birth or postnatal trauma can also cause a permanent defect to a child. A child's condition at birth maybe looked at as a very petty reason for such a serious disability and yet, it is possible. An example of this is the lack of oxygen or anoxia, low birth weight or serious physical injury (Osman, 25). It somehow can make us wonder why some kids who have neurological problem are excellent in their academics than the others. But in some cases, there are also kids who have a hard time understanding the basic information being fed at school. This difference can again be traced to the physical condition of a child at birth. The sixth factor which is Immaturity lag goes like this: Learning differences in the early years are most frequently attributed to a child's immaturity. Most often this is probably true. A youngster may just be developing more slowly than his peers in some areas. It is not the number of candles on a child's birthday cake, after all that determines his readiness to learn, but rather his rate of development and level of maturity. If a child is physically small, is late to lose his baby teeth, and perhaps walks and talks somewhat later than his peers, we might as well expect his learning to follow suit. But his problems are compounded if he enters school before he is ready to learn. (Osman, page 26) The emotional status like what was said a while ago can also be another factor that may affect a child's performance in school. Osman relates this situation to the feeling of "fear" where children have the tendency to be scared of failure. The condition of a child in the way he performs academically can also depend on his feelings whether or not his family made him worried before coming to school. An example given by Osman was the child's feeling after seeing his parents fight inside the house. (Osman, 27) In the case of environmental factors, this includes neglect, abuse, malnutrition, and cultural deprivation where the kid cannot perform well in school. If a child is not in a good physical condition due to poverty, there is a big tendency for him to just sit in class and listen than to be receptive and participate well in class discussion (Osman, 28). Although this can also be helped by the last factor which is education. Educational factor refers to the method of teaching, the curriculum in school and how well teachers teach the kids. It can't be denied that a good teaching method adds up to getting a child's attention no matter how slow it is for the kid to cope with the lesson (Osman, 28). When these factors get in the way of a kid's life, it is certain that his growing up will not be like that of the normal kid. The tendency then is of him to be experiencing a much difficult social condition in life. A child who has a learning disability can be in one of the three levels of social problems. One is if the kid doesn't have exactly any idea or knowledge on the proper attitude or social behavior on a certain event and therefore he needs to be coached or taught about the norms in the said society. The second is if the kid knows what to do and yet he feels lazy or he doesn't want to do the appropriate thing. The third level is that he child knows what he must do but he doesn't have an inkling about the effects that it could bring (Osman, 70). If these problems don't get corrected or given remedy, it will certainly give the individual a hard time adjusting in the community or specific group where he belongs. An example of this can be the difficulty of focusing his attention to specific direction to a particular game. The attention problem gets in the way since he doesn't know which is more important and which is not. This way, he gets excluded from the group of the "easy-to-handle" kids who could play the game. The matter of not getting what is important is a big deal if one wants to be included in a bunch of friends or in the society. The exclusion of the learning disabled individuals from the group can also be related to the lack of proper judgment which makes them over sensitive and therefore immediately bursts out in front of other people. The tendency of not being able to control the emotion prevents them from gaining friends and from enjoying the company of the "normal." (Osman, 71) Christine Sleeter from her essay Literacy, Definitions of Learning Disabilities and Social Control gave a more optimistic way of dealing with and defining what learning disability is and what it should be: Children who come to be called learning disabled are for the most part normal children who have not experienced success in the regular classroom because their best learning modalities simply happen to be something other than reading and writing. We can find nothing consistently wrong with them because there is nothing wrong with them. A very, very small percentage may have neurological deficiencies, but there is no evidence that the great majority of those who get labeled as learning disabled do, and no state definition of learning disabilities requires such evidence (Franklin, page 84). With the rise of modern technology and the advent of a more systematic and scientific community and society, some countries have also devised a way to take a look at the situation of the learning disabled people from the different walks of life. In England for example, the government created a program that will handle the concerns of the learning disabled population through what they call Valuing People: a new Strategy for Learning Disability for the 21st Century. This group whose main concern is not only to promote good health but also a quality life makes a way to health the disabled people belong and be part of the society. The project also aims to give the learning disabled people an equal share of right to health benefits which they also deserve. Some of the Key requirements needed for the said Valuing people are as follows: The most important issue is to address the skills to consider the needs of people with learning disabilities Practice nurses and other members of primary care teams will provide the main contact with the health group tasked to take care of people with learning disabilities Mainstream secondary healthcare service must be accessible to people with learning disabilities All the National Service Frameworks (NSFs) for specific conditions must be delivered in a way that includes people with learning disabilities with those conditions/needs All people with learning disabilities are to have a proactive Health Action Plan by 2005 In order to help achieve all the above, specialist and professionals of the said health group are to change the focus of their work to have a greater priority in supporting, teaching and working with mainstream clinicians and managers The article released by UK's department of Health entitled Valuing People; A New Strategy for Learning Disability for the 21st Century, there are a total of 210,000 people with learning disability and 1.2 million has carries a mild condition of the said problem. These people suffer a common problem such as having poorly coordinated services for their families, ineffective planning at the point of transition to adulthood, and insufficient support for carers, especially for those caring with complex needs. These people also have lesser choices in their lives and most of their needs are unmet like opportunities for employment and or partnership between the health and social care which involves the learning disabled people. To answer the quest for real existence in the government, the governing body of UK, in connection with the Human Rights Act 1998 and the Disability Discrimination Act 1995, four key principles were proposed, all of which concerns the value of Rights, Independence, Choice and Inclusion. Together with this proposal are some beneficial programs, all in support for the learning disabled people such as: New national objectives for services for people with learning disabilities, supported by new targets and performance indicators, to provide clear direction for local agencies New national objectives for services for people with learning disabilities, supported by new targets and performance indicators, to provide clear direction for local agencies. A new central Implementation Support Fund of 2.3 million a year for the next 3 years that will be used to fund a range of developments including advocacy and a new national information centre and help line (A white Paper, page 3). The same article mentioned the government' plan to improve life's condition for the learning disabled people and this can be attained through major objectives that will guide them to fully achieving its goal of making visible the needs of the learning disabled as well as giving tangible and obvious answers to the said needs. These objectives which also serve as an action plan of the government are as follows: Learning disabled children and their families face many barriers to full participation in society. The Government's objective is to ensure that disabled children gain maximum life chance benefits from educational opportunities, health and social care while living with their families or in other appropriate settings. To achieve this we will ensure that learning disabled children and their families are an integral part of the Quality Protects programme, the Department for Education and Employment's Special Educational Needs Programme of Action and the Connexions Service. Disabled children will be a priority group under the Quality Protects programme with 60 million over the next three years earmarked to provide better support. The Schools Access Initiative will provide funds to improve accessibility of mainstream schools and the Standards Fund will be used to improve provision for children with special educational needs. Transition from childhood to adulthood can be a particularly difficult process for both disabled children and their parents/carers. Our objective is to ensure continuity of care and support and equality of opportunity for young people and their families so that as many learning disabled young people as possible take part in education, training, or employment. The Connexions Service will provide new help and advice to disabled young people as they move into adult life. People with learning disabilities have little control over their lives, few receive direct payments, advocacy services are underdeveloped and people with learning disabilities are often not central to the planning process. The Government's objective is to enable people with learning disabilities to have as much choice and control as possible over their lives and the services and support they receive. To achieve this, we are investing at least 1.3 million a year for the next 3 years to develop advocacy services for people with learning disabilities in partnership with the voluntary sector. We are extending eligibility for direct payments through legislation. We will also set up a national forum for people with learning disabilities and enable them to benefit from the improvement and expansion of community equipment services now under way. A person-centred approach will be essential to deliver real change in the lives of people with learning disabilities. Person-centred planning provides a single, multi-agency mechanism for achieving this. The Government will issue new guidance on person-centred planning, and provide resources for implementation through the Learning Disability Development Fund. ( A White Paper, pages 4-5) This in general has a goal to uplift the current status of the learning disabled people in a way that in the future, it can be said that the government in England has never really abandoned the voices which longed for equality (in terms of rightful benefits not mentioning the current status of England whose poverty level is below sixty percent of contemporary median net disposable income of 2000/2001). Peter Gilbert describes the social perspective of people from UK to be shifting to the Newly Formed Social Perspective Network which means it is a modern social model on whose key factor is in the need to understand the complicatedness of human's health in connection to how social and biological factors are interlinked. This is a better way of understanding how one should behave as to the attitude of the society to the learning impaired population. In Norway on the other hand, progress is deemed to be one of its highlights and Wikipedia puts it as an economic growth fueled by abundance of natural resources including petroleum exploration and production and the likes. With the real growth rate of GDP now at 3.0%, it is also interesting to note or assume that perhaps just like England, Norway has also worked its way to give ample benefits for the disabled. The national mainstream employment support program (AB) in Norway has improved its way in facilitating the issue on disabled job seekers where it tried to intensify and improve its ways and means to integrate these workers in the society. In the article from the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions entitled "New strategy to integrate disabled people into employment," a claim for a well-supported training from the government of Norway was made. This according to the article can be done by exposing the disabled person to a separate scheme that can help him be prepared prior to entering the world of a working population. He then is subject to support workers and coaches who will assist him in the job. The program leans on the two principles which are: Work training and employment should occur simultaneously, not consecutively. This means that a job has to be found first, before on-the-job training can begin. Services should provide support not only to the employee with the disability, but also to the co-workers and the employer in order to better facilitate the integration process, so that the person with the disability would be able to get and keep the job long term. (New strategy to integrate disabled people into employment) Canada also with its growing population and with a 78 million new inhabitants coming every year, it is fascinating to note that it has not forgotten to allot a good part of its law to be of service for the learning disabled people. It is therefore forbidden in the said country to show discrimination. Although it varies on every province and territory, still, Canada's federal government follows a certain rule in implementing Human Rights Act Code. Specifically, section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms focuses on the people with learning disabilities which is categorized into mental and physical and even both. The problem on learning disability in Canada, UK and Norway are just are obvious examples of a need being answered both for the individual and for the society. It is an answer gotten both from the cumulative effort of the families or the population or group of learning disabled people. But the matter is not merely an issue of privileged and the underprivileged minority or majority. It is both about the social significance of the existence of the learning disabled individual and the attitude of society in dealing with this kind of situation. The more that the government of a certain country gives importance to this lesser group, the more obvious is the sign that the country is progressive in a way that it answer not only the needs of a few individuals who have physical/ mental needs. This is the real meaning of urbanization, progress and success of a country. SOURCES Books Finlan, T.G. (1994). Learning Disability; The Imaginary Disease. United States of America. Bergin & Garvey. Franklin, B.M. (1987). Learning Disability: Dissenting Essays. London. Falmer Press. Kaiser, A.N & Gray, D.B. (1993). Enhancing Children's Communication: Research Foundations for Intrevention. Maryland. Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co. Inc. Sleeter, C. (1987). Literacy, definitions of Learning Disabilities and Social Control. In Franklin, B,M. Learning Disability: Dissenting Essays. London. Falmer Press. Osman, B.B. (1997). Learning Disabilities and ADHD. Canada. John Wiley & Sons Inc. Web A White Paper. Valuing People; A New Strategy for Learning Disability for the 21st Century. Retrieved March 8, 2007, from www.bcodp.org.uk/campaigns/hol%20amendments%20briefing.doc Canada's Population. Retrieved February 3, 2007, from G:Canada's Population.htm European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions. New Strategy to Integrate Disabled People Into Employment. Retrieved March 8, 2007 from http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/ewco/2006/10/NO0610029I.htm Gilbert, P. Social Care Service and the Social Perspective. Retrieved February 3, 2007, from G:Learning about Intellectual Disabilities and Health.htm Greig, R. The New Government Policy in England : A change of Direction. 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