Disability awareness activities for children and families

According to Mencap, there are approximately 351,000 children aged 0-17 with a learning disability in the UK and that number only scratches the surface of the population that are living with any type of disability, so it is more important now than ever before that as a nation, we try to understand these disabilities a little more. We think it is important for children and adults alike to learn a little more about learning and physical disabilities and how these can impact a person’s life day to day as well as long term.

In this article, we take a look at disability awareness activities you can undertake at home to teach children (and yourselves!) a little more about the effects of disabilities.

Auditory disabilities

An auditory disability is when someone has difficulty understanding words and sounds, including spoken words, it is commonly known as an Auditory Processing Disorder (APD). This disorder affects between 3% and 5% of school-aged children according to Kids Health. 

There are a number of activities you can try at home to further help your children’s understanding APD, one of these includes having the children wear a set of headphones that are playing white noise and asking them to try and get involved in the conversation. Ask them afterwards how hard it was to understand the conversation and get involved in the session, they are bound to find it a lot harder than anticipated.

Physical disabilities

A physical disability can be anything from epilepsy to cerebral palsy and affects a large population, with many people being affected from birth. There are some simple ways you can simulate the effects of someone living with a physical disability for children who want to understand the effects a little more.

A great way to simulate living with conditions like cerebral palsy which greatly effects your balance is to place a piece of tape on the floor in a straight line, allowing the kids to spin around a few times and then asking them to try and walk along the tape without stepping off, there is no doubt that they will find it nearly impossible.  

Visual disabilities

Visual disabilities can affect people in many different ways, including loss of vision in one or both eyes. A simple way to try and replicate this disability for children is to place a blindfold over their eyes or an eye patch to replicate the loss of one eye. Ask them to do some simple tasks like reading a book or complete a jigsaw puzzle and ask them how they found it. People often don’t realise how much loss of sight, even very slight can have a humongous impact on everyday life and undertaking the simplest of tasks.

Another way to introduce children to life with loss of vision is by getting them to wear someone else’s glasses and getting them to walk around and try to complete some small tasks.

Intellectual disabilities

An intellectual disability is when there is a limit to a person’s ability to learn at an expected level and function in everyday life. Ask your children or family members to relay a sentence to the group without writing, speaking, or spelling, it will make it very clear to them that when your ability to communicate is taken away it is very hard to get across your emotions and feelings.

Differentiating disabilities

For children, differentiating between a physical and mental disability can be tricky, but there are some simple ways to make it more apparent for them. If you’re trying to convey a physical disability to them, get them to place an item of clothing over their hands and get them to pick up items or try and tie their shoelaces, this will give them an idea of how hard it is to live with some physical disabilities, even though their mind is working at full capacity. These sorts of activities will get children to appreciate the difficulties that those with both physical and mental disabilities have to go through daily to lead normal lives.

If you’re wanting to educate your kids on the different disabilities and how they can affect people’s lives, then considering trying some of these activities is a great idea. Not only will it offer them an insight into how people with disabilities cope on a day-to-day basis, but it also means they have a newfound respect and appreciation for their own abilities. If you want to find out more about our aid options and stairlift prices, then make sure you explore out website, or to find more tips, guides, and advice, make sure to visit our news page.