A development disability children and young people essay

Recreation is beneficial for children in improving their health and well being, social networks, and their sense of social connectedness. By children engaging in these activities this helps develop their identity and build self- esteem. Through participating in these activities children will develop various skills which includes teamwork, leadership, decision making, and communication skills. Participation in these recreational activates relies heavily on their parents income and education level. These are the two main reasons which determines children’s recreation time. . The income of parents greatly affects their children’s opportunities to participate in these activities. Sports participation among children from high income households is 68% while children with lower income households only accounts for 44% (Statistics Canada, 2005). These statistics prove that children from lower socio economic backgrounds miss out on several recreation opportunities which helps them develop. They miss out on these opportunities if their community doesn’t provide free or accessible recreation and inclusive programs. Studies conducted also show that educations levels are highly related in the degree to which children partake in these activates. It’s mentioned that children with a parent who has a graduate or a professional degree is 60% more likely then children with parents having a high school diploma, who have a 40% chance (Statistics Canada, 2005). These percentages indicate that there is a strong relationship between the parents education level and sports education. Autism is a very serious condition which is associated with many conditions such as intellectual disability, having troubles in motor skills, and health issues. Children want to have the ability to participate in activities and to be part of their community. This is known as social inclusion which is defined as the ” ability to fully participate in normal social activities, and engage in political and civic life” (Roberts, Brown, & Youell, 2011, p. 46). This concept can also be called community integration, since children want to feel that there part of their community. Children living with autism will encounter several benefits and constraints when looking to partake in these recreational activates. The ability to partake in these activities is effected by several factors. The first factor which hinders the ability of these children to participate in these activates is there difficulty to communicate their experiences and interests. Not everyone in society feels an effort should be made to include these children with autism into the community and this disorder is often overlooked. This can be a severe problem causing them to isolate themselves since their not receiving the support and attention required. Most of these children require support in order to make appropriate decisions regarding the individuals they interact with. The second factor which effects children with autism is the concept known as the ” invisible disability” (Roberts, et al., p. 47). This means that children’s differences with this disability are often not recognized. If individuals don’t notice the disability they are unlikely to understand the issues associated with it. This will cause the child to feel neglected, which will lead to a low self esteem. This will cause the child to participate less in these recreation activities which will have impacts on their health and well being. The third issue which hinders the child’s ability to partake in these activities being labelled as having ” challenging behaviour” (Roberts, et al., p. 48). Their autism is often blamed for this behaviour even though this may be caused by the lack of understanding the needs of the child. It’s very important for individuals to recognize that children with autism are different then other children and they provide different skills and talents which are deemed valuable to their community. There are several benefits autism children gain from partaking in these activities. When children participate they get a sense of belonging to the community in which they live in. These activities provide children with social support which ” refers to a source of comfort found within group and individual relationships” (Meadan, James, & Aaron, 2010, p. 26). This social support can be provided by either a spouse, family, and friend. This social support will help reduce the child’s anxiety levels by having someone who they can communicate with. The second benefit which arises from recreation activities is they provide formal supports. Formal supports include support groups, health and professional services, and counseling (Meadan, et al., 2010). Studies conducted showed that parents of children with autism reported that professionals who provided services to their children were more beneficial than many other types of support, which includes friendship opportunities for their children (Silko & Kerns, 2006). Another study which was conducted shows that siblings self-concept and knowledge of autism improved from the beginning to the end of the support group meetings (Smith & Perth, 2005). These results show that children with autism become more aware of themselves, which is critical in determining their needs and wants. The final benefit which recreation provides to these children is improving their capabilities. Through learning new skills through recreation activities this will help children complete a routine that was attempted before independently and at a faster pace. All these benefits mentioned above will help children deal with autism and this will help them develop and grow. There are a few constraints which must be considered when children with autism partake in recreational activities. The first constraint is that there will be an impairment in nonverbal behaviours which include eye contact, body postures, and gestures. Children with autism will find it very difficult to convey messages to individuals to tell them how their feeling. The second constraint which limits children from partaking in these activities is the failure to develop relationships. The inability to form relationships is due to the impairment in social interaction. Children with this disorder will be afraid to approach others and they won’t handle unfamiliar situations very well. This is shown by the statement that ” children with autism who are in an unfamiliar situation may react by crying, pulling away, or refusing to join the examiner” (Ilene, Boulware, Bonnie & Susan, 2001, p. 223). This is a major drawback which can lead to low self esteem and the child suffering anxiety. The third constraint of children with autism is inadequate speech. These children will find it very difficult to maintain a conversation with others and be engaged in group discussions. This is also a huge drawback since they won’t be able to communicate and share life experiences with others and express their feelings. The final constraint which must be taken into consideration is the children being easily overwhelmed by external and internal factors (Jolie, 2008). Children with this disorder have difficulty dealing with a situation at a given moment in time, and therefore find it difficult to make any necessary adjustments. Jolie (2008) illustrates that when telephone rings this might set off a reaction which causes either over activity to withdrawal. All of the constraints mentioned will make participating in recreational activities difficult. In conclusion, children with this disorder are very unique than most children. This disorder impacts children on an everyday basis when looking for recreational activities to participate in. The benefits and constraints will give us a better understanding of these children’s needs and will give us an idea on how we can help them adapt to their own community. Each child is different in their own way, therefore recreational needs and wants must be addressed individually. Once these needs and wants are understood, an individual can fully understand the child’s life and the problems/struggles they go through every day.