Children and youth with and without disabilities

Abstract

The issue addressed by Cavalcante and Goldson is extremely relevant for understanding the background in which many Brazilian children and youth have grown up. Physical and mental limitations in childhood and adolescence are poorly appreciated in our country nowadays, and there are just a few public services to serve this population with special healthcare needs. Furthermore, we still have little scientific knowledge as how to deal with certain kinds of disabilities. So, when adding the scenario of limitations associated with poverty, the effects of social inequalities (such as the extreme lack of specialized services) and several forms of violence, it is obvious that the difficulties for special children and their families are multiplied.Although I have been working for eighteen years with children and adolescents affected by violence, our research team did not invest time in the study of the life of people with disabilities. In my research experience I have seen blind and autistic adolescents, children with mental and physical disabilities but only peripherally.The amount of emotional and material privation observed in the lives of Brazilian children and adolescents we investigated was always so great that we never had the extra energy to deal with the challenges of disability. Combined with our lack of energy, there was also an emotional resistance to entering into this new, painful and challenging universe. For this reason, the discussion of Cavalcante and Goldson's article is going to be a delicate task for me.We have looked at the statistical analyses and the reports about children and adolescents suffering from lack of food and comfort in their homes, lack of privacy and impossibility of achieving success related to the child's imagination because of the extremely poor conditions of the family. We also observed the day-to-day effects of the poor relationship between children and their families, schools and communities and the violence associated with

Perspectives of intellectual disability in Latin American countries: epidemiology, policy, and services for children and adults

“…One example is a study of 500 children aged 6-12 years old, from Rio de Janeiro, which found 4% of students had intelligence quotients below 70. Additional findings from this study describe the quality of the social relationships in the intellectual disability population (40% of persons with intellectual disability have regular or bad relationships with friends versus 16% of persons with a high intelligence quotient) [16 ].…”

Intellectual disability and impact on oral health: a paired study

“…However, they have to voluntarily seek the dental treatment provided. The study's questionnaire asked for information about other dental care services (non‐SNP centers), where there normally is a combination of inappropriate professional infrastructure or a low professional qualification/experience in treating ID subjects …”

“…ID subjects may have deficient oral hygiene, especially when motor disability is associated with their condition . Inadequate oral hygiene might also be associated with low family income and a low level of schooling, factors that might result in limited access to dental health services …”

Neuropsychological and behavioural profiles of students with intellectual development disorder on parents and teachers' perceptions

“…The results from two studies in South America that only used the Child Behaviour Checklist (CBCL) to screen for neuropsychological and behavioural problems were heterogeneous. In the study conducted in Brazil, no significant differences were found in the dimensions of internalising problems, anxiety problems, withdrawn behaviour/depression and somatic problems in schoolchildren with and without IDD indicators (Assis 2009). In contrast, in Argentina, the average score on the dimension of internalisation problems was significantly higher in children with moderate IDD than in those with mild IDD (Coronel 2018).…”