Children with developmental disability

![CDATA[Within industrialised Western countries there are shared and clearly defined expectations around what normal development looks like for children. Notions of ‘healthy’ and ‘typical’ development are pervasive within the literature of the health, psychology, and education fields. A plethora of standardised psychometric tests are used to measure child development and to identify those who do not fall within culturally and statistically defined normal ranges. Researchers vigorously debate how strong our reliance on psychometric testing should be, the role of culture in determining what we see as desirable child development outcomes, and where the borders of normalcy should be (Ball & Harry, 2010). Although there is not scope to explore these debates in detail, they set the scene for the premises that guide this chapter. The first premise is that there is diversity in the ways in which children develop and there are children whose developmental pathways fall outside what our culture understands to be typical. Children who perform far below expectations for their age are said to have developmental disability. The second is that it is helpful to view developmental disability within a bioecological framework (as described in Chapter 1), that is, within the context of interactions between an individual’s characteristics and that individual’s home, community, service systems and culture. A bioecological perspective guides us to see the challenges associated with developmental disability as not residing wholly within the characteristics of the individual but also in a society that primarily serves the needs and interests of the ‘typical’, and in a culture that often has little tolerance for those who are different. This chapter is also underpinned by a right-based framework. The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) states that children with disabilities should have “full enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms on and equal basis with other children” (United Nations, 2006, Article 7). This convention was ratified by the Australian Government in 2008, with a statement of national commitment to providing respectful, inclusive and supportive communities, legislation, and service contexts for children with disabilities and their families. This chapter begins with a discussion of how disability is defined. It moves on to explore the role of context in the expression of developmental disability and in influencing the ways in which developmental disabilities are perceived and supported. The final section of the chapter discusses what we know about the consequences of developmental disability for children, their families, and the broader community.]]