1. What is disability?
Ros Madden 1

2. UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
‘Persons with disabilities include those who have long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments which in interaction with various barriers may hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others.’
Article 1

3. ICF: Interaction of concepts
Health Condition (disorder/disease)
Body function & structure (Impairment)
Activities
(Limitation)
Participation
(Restriction)
Environmental Factors
Personal Factors 3 3

4. Functioning and disability
Functioning encompasses all human functions; at the level of the body, the individual and society
Functioning and disability: multi-dimensional experiences resulting from the interaction between people’s health conditions and their physical, social and attitudinal environment
ICF-CY 2007: derived classification for children and youth (additional text and examples) 4

5. How do health conditions play out in the context of children’s lives?
Examples
A school child with quadriplegia
A child with cerebral palsy
So …
Diagnosis tells only part of the story
‘Functioning’ reflects how people live 5

6. In 2003
About 1 in 12 children (317,900) aged 14 and under in Australia had a disability
And about half of these needed additional assistance with self care, mobility and/or communication
AIHW 2005 6

7. Children with disabilities, Australia 2003 (AIHW 2005)7

8. In developing countries
Between 14% and 35% of children screened positive in most participating countries.
UNICEF MICS results
‘…more than 200 million children under 5 years fail to reach their potential in cognitive development because of poverty, poor health and nutrition, and deficient care… Most of these children live in south Asia or sub-Saharan Africa’
Grantham-McGregor et al 2007

9. References and links
UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
WHO 2001: International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) Disability updates: Children with disabilities. Bulletin 42. AIHW Cat No. AUS 19. Canberra: AIHW
Grantham McGregor S, Cheung YB, Glewwe P, Richter L, Strupp B, International Child Development Steering Group Developmental potential in the first 5 years for children in developing countries. Lancet 2007:369:60-70 9