TEDI 4 Week 4 - Listening to Children and Developing their Voice

Bosch, Carol

TEDI 4 Week 4 - Listening to Children and Developing their Voice

MOOC

2019-06-01

Abstract

In this video, Deputy Director of Cape Mental Health Carol Bosch discusses the importance of listening to the voices of children with severe to profound mental disability. She discusses how these children (and adults with mental disabilities) face high levels of stigma and prejudice about their abilities, particularly when it comes to self-determination. She stresses the importance of stressing the right to self-determination and the right for children with mental disabilities to make meaningful choices about their own lives. She emphasises the importance of using augmented communication techniques to allow those who may not be verbal or who communicate in other ways to be able to advocate for themselves and evaluate the quality of support that they receive. Parents are a crucial agent in this process of allowing children with disabilities to promote their own agency, and Carol speaks of the importance of addressing existing attitudes and prejudices that parents of children with mental disabilities may have that prevent them from allowing their children their full rights as individuals and their ability to develop themselves to their full potential. She discusses the particular difficulty around sexual abuse and how the disempowering culture of silencing and ignoring children with disabilities contributes to their continued abuse.