Disability and additional needs
The KS:CPC recognises children and young people with disability, or diverse and additional needs are especially vulnerable to abuse due to factors such as reliance on others for care and support, communication barriers, and difficulty in self-advocacy. These challenges, combined with societal discrimination and power imbalances, may make it difficult to recognise, report or avoid abusive situations, underscoring the need for differentiated tailored instruction and specialised support.
The KS:CPC’s inclusive approach plays a crucial role in supporting the rights of students with disability by empowering them with the knowledge and skills to recognise abuse and unsafe situations, develop and apply strategies to be safe, and seek support from a trusted source. These practices are integral to the teaching and learning of the KS: CPC, as they aim to support and empower students in understanding their right to be safe, valued, heard and supported.
Key understanding
- differentiating and adjusting to support children and young people based on their understanding of personal safety, child protection concepts, and recognising and reporting abuse.
- collaborative practices are used to build understanding of the unique capabilities, capacities, and experiences of children and young people, in discussion with parents, carers and support staff to implement personalised learning.
- using instructional approaches where concepts are deconstructed, scaffolded, contextualised and explicit in in their delivery. The identification and expression of feelings and warning signs may be more complex which highlights the importance of understanding non verbals, body language and reactions through observation.
- using inclusive language to ensure all children and young people have their identities respected and are not othered or excluded based on labels.
- recognising vulnerable children may be seen as easy targets to manipulate due to their age, disability, emotional deprivation, isolation, or disadvantage (Department or Education 2019).
- acknowledging children with disability and those who are very young are especially vulnerable to violations of bodily integrity, as they may be unable to speak up for or defend themselves and give or deny consent (CRIN n.d.).
- different people advocating for the rights of children and young people with disability to ensure they are safe. (Some children and students with disability may not have the capacity to fully understand or communicate their needs and rights on their own.)
Implementation
Many concepts may need deconstruction, scaffolding, contextualising and explicit delivery. Identifying and expressing feelings and warning signs may be more complex, highlighting the importance of understanding body language and reactions through observation. Trusted networks may be more complex due to the additional people that support the child or young person.
The KS:CPC provides various inclusive and strengths-based activities and resources to support children and young people with disability and additional needs.
For Australian educators, connections can be made between the KS:CPC, Early Years Learning Framework and the Australian Curriculum. Also refer to Australian Curriculum: Meeting the needs of students with disability.
Topics
The following information supports KS:CPC implementation for students with disability and additional needs.
- Feelings/Verbal and non-verbal communication: Some children and young people may have difficulty understanding and reading body language and may need explicit teaching about how facial expressions and body language convey feelings and emotions. In explicitly teaching children and young people to recognise their own and body language of others further develops an understanding of their own feelings and recognise nonverbal communication. As with all activities, the developmental individual needs will need to be considered. Repetition and generalisation to new settings will be needed for some children.
- Networks: The trusted network is likely to be wider and more complex with the people that support the child or young person. For students with disability or additional needs, negotiate and prioritise the network with the student.
- Personal space/consent: When teaching personal space and consent, use verbal and non-verbal communication, including augmentative and alternate communication (AAC),body language, gestures, facial expressions, visuals, social stories and role-play (RLS 11) as ways to communicate ‘yes’ or ‘no’. In some circumstances, educators/carers will need to encroach on a child’s personal space when providing personal care and mobility support. Whilst seeking consent may be challenging, use respectful verbal and non-verbal communication, including body language, gestures, facial expressions, and visuals to convey the intention.
- Social skills: Social stories are personalised narratives designed to teach individuals, especially those with autism spectrum disorder, appropriate social behaviours and skills. They help reduce anxiety by explaining what to expect in various situations and are used by educators, therapists, parents and carers to support social learning and communication.
- Bullying and harassment: Children with communication difficulties may struggle to appropriately express their feelings or report incidents. Visual strategies, such as age-appropriate drawings depicting bullying or abuse, can help. Deaf and hard of hearing children and young people may require support from an adult skilled in sign language to effectively communicate what has occurred.
- Psychological pressure and manipulation: Psychological pressure and manipulation pose heightened risks for children and young people with disabilities due to their increased vulnerability. Tailored support is crucial in helping them recognise and resist such tactics. Effective strategies include using clear communication with visual aids, role-playing common scenarios, reinforcing their right to make decisions, and encouraging reliance on a trusted support network. Regularly revisiting these concepts helps build their confidence and strengthens their ability to handle manipulative situations.
- Reporting abuse: Reporting abuse can be challenging for children and young people with disabilities due to memory and communication difficulties, making it hard to recall details in sequence. Similarly, children and young people with visual impairments cannot rely on visual observations when reporting incidents. Developing observational skills through accessible modalities is crucial when seeking help and reporting to trusted individuals.
- Communication: When reporting abuse children and young people may communicate this in various ways – verbal, non verbal, or assistive communication methods. Explicitly teaching them various strategies to express themselves will support their concerns being heard.
Delivering the KS:CPC in mainstream schools
By gaining a deep understanding of each learner’s physical, social, emotional, and communication needs, educators can build on individual strengths and ensure access to a developmentally appropriate curriculum.
Educator tips:
- students with disability are particularly vulnerable to abuse and therefore the explicit teaching of concepts within KS:CPC is essential
- some students may not be developmentally able or ready to understand all of the concepts within the KS:CPC
- some students may struggle to remember, retain, understand and apply what is taught. Therefore, constant reinforcement through teachable moments and in a range of contexts is important, eg class discussions, playground, camps, excursions, etc
- provide lower age or year level activities that best meet the abilities and needs of students
- apply similar adaptive strategies used to deliver other learning areas or subjects for individual students, when implementing the KS:CPC
- provide information to parents and carers that can be reinforced at home.
Department for Education SA
- Personalised learning plan – Creating a personalised learning approach is when individual learner’s unique capabilities, capacities, and experiences are valued. Using this understanding as a guide a collaboratively developed a learning plan can be highly personalised. As an educator, you have a significant role to play in learner self-determination, which means allowing learners to be themselves, to be individual, and to participate in learning in unique and personal ways.
- Under the Disability Standards for Education, all children and young people with disability are entitled to a personalised learning approach and can be documented in a One Plan. This approach involves consulting, identifying needs, providing reasonable adjustments and regular monitoring and reviewing. This should be negotiated, documented and agreed.
Resources
Al-Ghani, K (2012) The Panicosaurus: Managing anxiety in children including those with Asperger syndrome
Autism and personal space: Animated social stories for children with autism (Autismworks)
Baker, J (2001) The social skills picture book: Teaching play, emotion and communication to children with Autism
Boardmaker (Tobii Dynavox)
Consent and sexual consent: autistic children and teenagers (Raising Children Network)
Disability discrimination at school (Government of South Australia)
International agreement on the rights of disabled people: Easy read version (United Nations enable)
Living with disability (eSafety Commissioner)
Department for Education SA
References
All children have the fundamental right to be safe – to learn, play, grow, live safely, be supported, valued and respected.
Disability can encompass a range of conditions, including the loss or impairment of bodily or mental functions, diseases, malfunctions, malformations, learning differences, cognitive disorders, and conditions affecting perception, emotions, or behaviour (Australian Government 2005).
‘Additional needs’ is a broader term that is inclusive and supportive of children with challenges that impact their learning, such as behavioural, social, emotional and mental health difficulties or those in complex or vulnerable circumstances.
Children and young people with disability should be treated with dignity, receive suitable resources for their health and needs, be supported to be active participants in the community, free from discrimination and abuse (United Nations 1989), with a life that ensures dignity and promotes self-reliance (United Nations 2006).
Children and young people with disability have the right to access and participate in education that provides them with opportunities to develop to their fullest potential (Department for Education 2023) with access to curriculum on the same basis as students without disability (ACARA n.d.-e).
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child provides a set of articles that defines the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of every child, regardless of their race, religion or abilities (Save the children). Children and young people with disability should be treated with dignity, receive suitable resources for their health and needs, supported to be active participants in the community, and free from discrimination and abuse.
- Article 28 and 29: Ensures every child’s right to education.
- Article 23: Focuses on the rights of children with disabilities, and advocates for dignity, special care, and education.
The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities provides guidance and standards about the rights of children with disability, their protection from discrimination or maltreatment, and to enjoy a full and decent life in conditions that ensure dignity, promote self-reliance, and facilitate the child’s participation in the community.
- Article 7: Children with disabilities have the same rights as all other children and their opinions should be valued in decisions that affect them.
- Article 24 – Children with disabilities have the right to attend regular schools and get the help they need to fully participate.
Heightened risk of abuse among children and students with disabilities
Studies indicate that children with disabilities are at a higher risk of experiencing physical, emotional, and sexual abuse. Children with disability, as a group, were found to have nearly four times higher risk of violence than their non-disabled peers (Australian Institute of Family Studies 2017).
In terms of specific violence, children with disability were:
- at more than three times higher risk of physical violence;
- at nearly three times higher risk for sexual violence; and,
- over four times higher risk for emotional abuse and neglect.
Risk factors
Children with disabilities are at a higher risk of experiencing abuse compared to their non-disabled peers due to several interconnected factors. These risk factors include:
- Communication barriers – Many children with disabilities have difficulties communicating, making it harder for them to express concerns or report abuse. This can lead to abuse going unnoticed or unreported. Communication difficulties also make it easier for abusers to target children, knowing that they may struggle to disclose the abuse (Australian Institute of Family Studies 2017).
- Increased dependency on carers – Children with disabilities often rely heavily on carers for daily needs such as personal care, which can create opportunities for abuse. Their dependence makes them more vulnerable to neglect or mistreatment, particularly when carers are not adequately trained or supervised (Australian Institute of Family Studies 2017); (Australian Government n.d.).
- Social isolation – Children with disabilities are often socially isolated, which reduces their access to peer support and makes it harder for others to detect abuse. They may be placed in segregated environments or excluded from activities that could provide them with protective social connections (Australian Human Rights Commission 2018)
- Attitudes and discrimination – Societal attitudes and misconceptions about disability can contribute to the risk of abuse. Discrimination or negative perceptions may lead to children with disabilities being viewed as less credible or capable, which could discourage reports of abuse from being taken seriously (Australian Human Rights Commission 2018)
- Care settings – Children with disabilities are sometimes placed in care settings, where they may be more vulnerable to abuse. Some care settings can isolate children from family and community oversight, increasing the likelihood of mistreatment by staff or other residents (Australian Government 2020).
These risk factors highlight the need for comprehensive safeguarding practices, proper training for carers, and inclusive education on safety and bodily integrity for children and young people with disabilities.
Vulnerability of children with disabilities to abuse
The Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability (2020) supports Brigg’s (1995) assertions that children with disability are more vulnerable to various forms of abuse, including sexual abuse, due to systemic and individual factors.
Briggs (1995, pp.18–27) believes this increased vulnerability is due to:
- Children with severe disability often having restricted social environments which are adult orientated. These children can become desensitised to the norms of adult behaviour.
- Children who depend on others for their basic needs are often powerless, are trained to be compliant and obedient and even indiscriminately affectionate with adults.
- Children with disability may be kept ignorant of their rights.
- Children with disability are more likely to be deprived of sex education than their peers.
- Disclosures of child sex abuse are often ignored or seen as hard to act upon when made by children with disability, particularly when the child has an intellectual or communication disability.
- Children with speech and hearing disability are disadvantaged by communication barriers. Deaf and non-verbal children can find it difficult to cope with the differing cultures of the hearing and the deaf community. They can become insecure, dependent, malleable, and lacking in confidence and self-esteem.
- The belief that sexual abuse does not harm children with disability because they do not fully understand what happened and they will quickly forget.
- Children with disability may lack the skills, confidence and assertiveness needed to complain.
- Children with disability may be deprived of parental affection and approval and seek it elsewhere.
- Children with disability are disadvantaged by the volume and nature of their ‘touch’ contact, often being handled by many more adults than non-disabled peers, particularly when they are dependent on others for their personal hygiene and basic care.
The findings of the Royal Commission align with international studies that consistently show children and young people with disabilities are at a heightened risk and vulnerable to abuse. Research from various countries, including the U.S., UK, and Europe, supports the assertion that systemic and individual vulnerabilities contribute to this risk. (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2024; World Health Organization 2012; Elklit et al 2021; Briggs, 1995).
Inclusive education
Inclusive education recognises the right of every child and young person – without exception – to be included in general education settings. It means adapting mainstream environments and teaching approaches to make sure everyone is genuinely included and valued. It embraces human diversity and welcomes everyone as equal members of an educational community (Children and Young people with Disability Australia 2023).
Australia
Australia
- Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on school students with Disability (NCCD) – The Broad categories of disability used in the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on school students with Disability (NCCD) is designed to support educators, administrators, and policymakers by detailing the range of disabilities that may affect students' learning experiences. It includes classifications that cover physical, sensory, cognitive, and emotional conditions, providing clarity on how these categories can impact educational needs and support requirements.
- The Disability Discrimination Act 1992 and the Disability Standards for Education 2005 establish the legal and procedural basis for inclusive education, while the Australian Curriculum provides a framework that supports the practical implementation of inclusive practices in the classroom. Together, they ensure that inclusive education is not just a principle but a reality in Australian schools.
The Disability Discrimination Act 1992 has 3 objectives:
- to eliminate ‘as far as possible' discrimination on the ground of disability.
- to ensure ‘as far as practicable' equality before the law for people with disabilities.
- to promote community acceptance of the rights of people with disabilities.
This act states that it is unlawful to treat a person unequally because of their disability.
The Disability Standards for Education (2005) requires all Australian schools to:
- ensure learners with disability are able to access and participate in education on the same basis as those without disability
- make or provide ‘reasonable adjustments’ for learners when necessary to enable their access and participation, including adjustments to curriculum, physical environments, tasks and activities and evidence of learning.
- provide reasonable adjustments in consultation with the learner or their associates
- provide an environment that is free from harassment and victimisation for all students.
South Australia
South Australia
- Equal Opportunity Act 1984 – It is unlawful under the Equal Opportunity Act 1984 to discriminate against a member of the public with disability by excluding or limiting their access to SA Government information and services.
- Disability Inclusion Act 2018 – provides a legal framework to support a whole of Government approach to improving the inclusion of all South Australians with disability in all areas of life in this State. The Act is intended to support and further the principles and purposes of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Person with Disabilities, and further protects in law that persons with disability have the same human rights as other members of the community.
Department for Education SA
Children and young people with disability have the right to access and participate in education that provides them with opportunities to develop to their fullest potential (Department for Education 2014) with access to curriculum on the same basis as students without disability (ACARA n.d.).
The Children and students with disability policy aims to:
- make sure department preschools, children’s centres, schools, programs and services are inclusive of children and students with disability.
- make sure all children and students with disability who are attending a program or service are provided with a personalised learning and support program that meets the functional needs of the child or student and the requirements of the Early Years Learning Framework, the Australian Curriculum, South Australian Certificate of Education (SACE) and modified SACE.
- clearly set out the legal responsibilities of the department’s personnel in providing inclusive learning programs and services to children and students with disability.
The Practice guidance for learners with additional needs practice guides offer educators hands-on, practical advice to support and extend learning programs for all learners. They include guidance on inclusive practices and specific additional needs. Each guide summarises the topic and has detailed information about practical adjustments the educator can make in the classroom and as they plan.
Refer to the Practice guides for topics.
References
Australian Government (2005) Disability Standards for Education 2005, Attorney-General’s Department
Australian Government (n.d.) NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission
Australian Government (2020) Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability
Australian Human Rights Commission (2018), National Principles for Child Safe Organisations
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (2024) People with disability in Australia 2024
Australian Institute of Family Studies (2017) Understanding safeguarding practices for children with disability when engaging with organisations
Briggs, F (1995), Developing personal safety skills in children with disabilities, Jessica Kingsley Publishers, London
Children and young People with Disability Australia (2023) What are the benefits of inclusive education?
Department for Education (2023) Children and students with disability policy, Government of South Australia
Elklit, A., Murphy, S., Skovgaard, C. and Lausten, M., 2021. Sexual violence against children with disabilities: A Danish national birth cohort prospective study, Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, 30(6), pp.662-678
United Nations (2006) Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, viewed October 2024, https://kscpc.sa.edu.au/e/10063
United Nations (1989) Convention on the Rights of the Child, viewed October 2024, https://kscpc.sa.edu.au/e/10061
World Health Organization (2012) Prevalence and risk of violence against children with disabilities: a systematic review and meta-analysis