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November 20, 2001
Children and Youth with Special Needs
This report provides two important new pieces of research to our understanding of children with special needs. The National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth (NLSCY) provides a wealth of information regarding how children and youth are faring in Canada. To date, there has not been an examination of children with special needs within that database. This report provides that overview. In addition, this report gathers the perceptions and experiences of service providers and policy makers who are concerned with children and youth with special needs. Through a survey of community-based agencies across Canada, along with provincial and national organizations, the adequacy of the service sector is explored.
Analysis of the NLSCY data provides an overview of the proportion/number of children living with special needs – defined as children living with an activity limitation, a learning disability, a physical disability, and children living with certain long-term conditions (physical and emotional). Using these data, an index of ‘special needs’ was constructed and two important questions were examined:
1. What is the relationship between the determinants of health and children with special needs?
2. What is the experience of children with special needs in terms of social inclusion, and how do they participate in various aspects of society and life?
Utilizing this index, the data show that approximately 21% of children aged 6 to 11 were classified as having special needs 1994. Approximately 14% of children aged 6 to 11 were categorized as having one special need, 4.5% had two special needs and 2.6% had three or more special needs.
Given this definition of children and youth with special needs, it appears that some of these children and youth are at higher risk of living without a number of the conditions necessary for their optimal development, and they are not integrated and included socially and academically at the same level as their peers. While these differences are small in many cases, they reappear over virtually all of the variables.
It is encouraging to see that children with special needs report having many friends, and that they spend time with their friends. The majority of children with special needs feel that most kids like them. However, it is troubling to see that children with special needs do have a somewhat less positive experience socializing with their peers than do children without special needs, and this at a crucial time in their social development.
The experience of children and youth with special needs at school is consistently less positive than it is for their peers without special needs. They miss more school, they change schools more often, they perceive themselves as not doing as well at school (as do their parents), they feel somewhat less positively about school, and they are slightly less likely to look forward to going to school. Again, while these differences are not large, they are consistently in the same direction. The good news in school is that they are more likely to get extra help and special education. It is impossible from this data to determine if the amount of help they receive is sufficient.
The second part of this report is based on a survey of community-based agencies conducted by the Canadian Council on Social Development. The purpose of this survey was to understand the capacity of community-based organizations to respond to the needs of children and youth with special needs. For the purpose of the survey, children and youth with special needs were defined to include: children/youth with physical disabilities; children/youth with chronic physical health problems; children/youth with emotional health problems; children/youth with developmental disabilities; and children/youth with learning disabilities. This was consistent with the NLSCY data analysis. There were 112 respondents to the CCSD survey, a 56% response rate.
According to this survey the needs of children and youth with special needs are not being served adequately. There are many barriers to service for these children and their families. Some of them are characteristics of the services themselves, such as inadequate funding; others involve problems facing families, such as inadequate financial resources and an inability to provide support. Still other barriers are community-wide, such as attitudes of the public and some professionals. There are physical attributes that still bar children from services, such as the physical inaccessibility of facilities and the lack of transportation.
In conclusion, this report highlights the fact that there are a substantial number of Canadian children who live with special needs. We have seen that these children face a number of challenges within the social and economic context of their lives. In addition, they run the risk of being socially excluded from a number of opportunities that the majority of Canadian children take for granted. And, this is compounded by the fact that children and youth with special needs are not being served adequately and that there are many barriers to services for these children and their families. While Article 23 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child recognizes that children with disabilities have the right to enjoy full and decent lives – this research indicates that this opportunity is not fully enjoyed by all children with special needs.
Children and Youth with Special Needs - Related Material
Canadian Council on Social Development,
190 O'Connor Street, Suite 100,
Ottawa, Ontario, K2P 2R3
Tel: (613) 236-8977, Fax: (613) 236-2750, Web: www.ccsd.ca, Email: council@ccsd.ca
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