UKS2 notes for lit rev

 Non disabled children’s understanding of disability changes over time. By the age of 7 most non-disabled children understand the difference between a temporary injury such as a broken arm and a permanent disability (Diamond et al, 1997). They can also provide potential causal explanations for impairments such as blindness or being in a wheelchair (Smith and Williams, 2005). Yet between 12 and 15 years old, pupils already appear to display negative attitudes towards those with disabilities (King, Rosenbaum, Armstrong and Miller, 1989; Moore and Nettlebeck, 2013. These attitudes are attributed to their degree of knowledge, perceptions and assumptions about disability (2,3,7,12,13) in (Lindsay and Edwards, 2013).

These negative perceptions contribute to what drives the moral compass of society and can lead to social exclusion and isolation of those with disabilities (Babik and Gardner, 2021).

In between the ages of 7 - 11 children are at the concrete operational stage of their cognitive development, meaning they can think more widely and decrease their over generalising and categorising of people (Glasser et al, 2014). They are more capable at this age of analysing a situation from multiple perspectives that can help facilitate positive attitudes (Katz and Channeil, 1989; Okagati et al, 1998).

At this age children can engage with moral reasoning when considering factors related to social inclusion (Fisher et al, 1998; McDougall et al, 2004; Glasser et al, 2004; Beaulieu-Bergeron and Morin, 2016; Shaler et al, 2016). Moral reasoning incorporates concepts such as fairness, justice, equality and human rights into human and social evaluation (Killen and Rutland, 2011).

Later in that window, at age 10-11 children are said to better empathise with the impact of disability from a more human perspective (Beckett, 2014).

Between the ages of 6-7 children rely on external instruction to determine in-group and out-group bias. By 10-11 children can trust their own judgment based on information and experiences (Babik and Gardner, 2021).

Empathy and sympathy are critical skills for the learning and development of pro social behaviours and moral reasoning (Diamond, 2001; Eisenburg et al, 2006; Mestre et al, 2019; Portt et al, 2020).

Poor understanding and low empathy is attributed to bullying behaviour in 13-16 year olds (Endresen and Olweus, 2002; Jollifle and Farrington, 2006).

Face to face exposure to peers with disabilities, 7-10 year olds were reported to have more favourable attitudes than 11-16 year olds (Armstrong, 2016).

Similarly 9 year olds showed higher levels of attitudes towards social inclusion than 12 year olds (Gasser et al, 2013).

Taking these studies as examples, and the latter stage of concrete operational stage of cognitive development to maximise the impact of learning. This identifies those between age 9-11 as an ideal time to explore an intervention. This age group equates to year 5 and 6 in schools, otherwise referred to as Upper Key Stage 2.

Previous research suggests that during a child’s development attitudes towards out-groups and individuals with disabilities becomes increasingly negative across a 3-7 year period, but can gradually improve thereafter (Babik and Gardner, 2021).

Disability is a socially constructed concept, therefore the extent of understanding and attitudes towards disability depends on what information and experiences children are exposed to, modelled by others and taught and this can shape and affect their perceptions of disabled people and cultural norms (Babik and Gardner, 2021).

Structured school based interventions can increase knowledge, promote cohesion and help to focus the narrative on similarities rather than difference (Pettigrew and Tropp, 2000; Diamond, 2001; London et al, 2002; Kurtz-Costes et al, 2011; Kang and Irelichtz 2012; Vezzali et al, 2012…).

12 year olds use moral justifications to evaluate exclusion more frequently than 6 year olds (Gasser, Malti and Buholzer, 2014).

With age and advances in the social and cognitive domain children become increasingly more able to coordinate and include different perspectives and multiple points of view in moral conflicts (Smetana, 2006; Gasser, Malti and Buholzer, 2014; Killen and Rutland, 2011) - Richardson , Mulvey and Killen, 2012).

Developing negative attitudes means that 11th graders (age) are more likely than 5th graders (age) to express embarrassment if they had to go swimming with someone in a wheelchair (Crystal, Watanabe and Chen, 1999).

Negative attitudes towards disability stem from a lack of knowledge and this is the premise for developing disability awareness programmes before these negative attitudes develop (Ison et al, 2010).

Ison et al (2010) conducted a study with 9-11 year olds using a programme designed to raise awareness of disability and promote more supportive communities. Example activities included disability simulations, explaining disability types, Q&A sessions with persons with disabilities, demonstrations of different equipment and items used by people with a disability. They used both a questionnaire to measure progress as well as focus groups to get feedback to improve the programme. Both learners and the teachers felt it was extremely worthwhile, informative and invaluable as it really changed pupils perceptions and understanding. Pupils also took the knowledge home to tell siblings and parents and were even able to provide examples of how their behaviour and the terminology they used had changed, as well as feeling more comfortable around people with disabilities.

In childhood when attitudes are just beginning to formulate and develop is the ideal time to implement effective interventions designed to promote equity and justice (Killen, Rutland and Ruck, 2011). These have been found to lead to significantly improved attitudes towards disability (12,19 - in Ison et al, 2010 paper) as well as improve acceptance of peers with disabilities (18).