The Disability of Childhood

According to the Social Model of Disability, people with impairments are ‘disabled’ by the barriers operating in society that exclude and discriminate against them. Are Children Disabled?

Children have a Right to be Heard - but not in the drafting of the CRC

The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was the first human rights treaty negotiation to benefit from the participation of its target stakeholders - this is very good,

means that the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which recognized Children as the Subject of Rights, and their Right to be Heard, did not consider it worthwhile to include children in the drafting of the CRC. This is not surprising given that the original convention permitted gaslighting of children.

Impairment vs Disability

From a Social Model perspective, there is a radical difference between impairment and disability:

• Impairment is an individual’s physical, sensory or cognitive difference (for example, being blind, experiencing bipolar, having M.S. or a learning difficulty).
• Disability is the name for the social consequences of having an impairment. People with impairments are disabled by society, so disability is therefore a social construct that can be changed and removed.

Are children impaired?

Compared to the norms of adulthood, children are naturally impaired - it is usually in the early 20ies that the development of the brain is completed. It is perhaps worth remembering that mental capacity does not increase monotonically with age. At some point, either as a result of old age (senility) or degenerative diseases, our mental capacity decreases.

We would certainly consider dementia to be an impairment, why would we not say that a child who yet fully developed their faculties is also likewise impaired?

Are children disabled?

Because of the barriers operating in society that exclude and discriminate against them, where their rights are routinely suppressed and violated by adults who are unilaterally and paternalistically deciding "the best interest of the child", Children are disabled.

Indeed adult paternalism (adultism) in the context of children is very similar to ableist paternalism towards disabled people (including elderly). It is also noteworthy that the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities speaks of no longer treating disabled people as objects of charity, and UNICEF uses the same term in describing children as the Subject of Rights when introducing the importance of Child Rights.