There are many types of condition which can affect a child’s development. Three of these groups are physical conditions, which are conditions which mainly affect physical development, medical conditions, which are conditions which need to be maintained or treated, and developmental disorders, which are conditions which affect one or more aspects of development. Children suffering from a condition from any of these groups can have long term needs and short term needs. Duchenne muscular dystrophy is a physical condition which takes its name from Dr Duchenne de Boulogne, who was one of the first people to study the condition.
Duchenne muscular dystrophy is one of over 20 types of muscular dystrophy and “primarily affects boys, who inherit the disease through their mothers” (MDA c. 2009). All types of muscular dystrophy are caused by a fault in the genes which causes the muscles to become increasingly weak and waste away until they can no longer be used. The chance of giving birth to a boy affected by Duchenne muscular dystrophy is 1 in 3500, and 1500 boys affected with the condition are living in the UK at any given time.
The condition is usually noticed as the child begins to walk, or between the age of 1 and 3. At this point, the child will find it difficult to walk, and later on he will be less likely to be able to use his gross motor skills such as running, jumping and climbing as well as other children his age can. These skills will degenerate further, leaving the child unable to walk by the time, or before, he reaches the age of 11. When the child is in his 20s, he will be expected to live into his mid 30s.
Although, according to the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign in 2010, no cure has been found for this condition, many ways of managing the condition have been developed. A short term need for the child would be that he would need help walking and climbing the steps in the earlier stages of the condition. This means that he would need to be supported physically when he wants to move around, and taking him to physiotherapy in order to prolong the function of his muscles. Even before the child needs to use a wheelchair, he will have long term additional support needs.
At home, he will need help with, for example, going to the toilet, eating and taking a bath. At home, one of his parents or a carer would be available to help him with these things. At school, he will need a key worker to be with him so that he can go to the toilet, get around the school, and help him to communicate. When the child moves onto further education or work, the key worker will pass key information on to the new setting. At home and at school, the child may need a back brace to reduce the risk of spinal curvature, and speech therapy to develop the child’s ability to communicate.
There will be several problems for a child living with Duchenne muscular dystrophy. His family will also encounter their own problems. At first, the family may grieve for the “normal” child they have lost. Once the family has pulled through this grief, the parents of the child may remain upset for some time. This will lead to the child and any siblings not receiving as much affection as they need. As well as this, more attention will be paid towards the child with the condition, leaving less focus and attention on any brothers and sisters.
The parents and siblings will feel like they are on their own, that nobody else understands what they are going through and the child himself and his siblings may also get bullied because of his condition. Because of this, the family may feel that they need some support, which could come from counselling. These problems could affect the child in several ways. Because of being bullied, the child may try harder to be able to do the things that the other children can, and because he is unable, this could lead to injury, making him less able to develop physically.
The bullying, combined with a negative atmosphere at home may also affect his social and emotional development and his cognitive development, making him too quiet or distrustful towards people to make new friends and causing him to be too stressed to work properly at school or use his cognitive skills such as problem solving. Linguistically, the child might stop speaking because of the pressure he is under, and not trying at school could affect the development his written word. Asthma is also an incurable condition. Asthma is a medical, often genetic condition which affects over 1. million people in Britain, and is more common in boys than girls. Asthma is a difficulty in breathing caused by a swelling of the airways. The airways of people with asthma are more sensitive than those of people without the condition, and, according to the NHS website, “most people with asthma are described as atopic, meaning they have an allergic-type reaction to external triggers (2007)”. These triggers include dust, pollen, tobacco, and aerosols such as deodorant and for some people, asthma can be triggered through laughter or stress. When asthma is triggered, the airways to the lungs swell.
As well as this, mucus is formed, which makes the airway even smaller. A person experiencing symptoms of asthma may feel tightness in their chest, and the increased difficulty to breathe caused by the narrow airways will lead to wheezing, then on to coughing, which can make breathing even more difficult. Usually medicine can stop the symptoms, but if a person has an acute asthma attack, it comes on suddenly, causing shortness of breath and coughing. As well as this, the child may “find their lips are blue, they feel confused and they have difficulty concentrating” (Asthma Symptoms c. 006). Experiencing an acute asthma attack can also cause a panic attack, making the symptoms worse. These attacks are very serious and if a person experiencing one of these attacks isn’t taken to hospital, it can result in death. Although asthma can disappear during the teenage years, it usually comes back later, and so is a long-term condition. Long term additional support needs for a child living with asthma could include getting help with dealing with asthma triggers, or following an asthma action plan provided by the doctor.
The plan is a way of identifying whether or not the child is at risk of having an asthma attack, by identifying the symptoms of asthma at low, medium and high risk. As well as this, a child may need to use a peak flow meter, which is something younger children especially will need help with. Short term additional support needs of the child include having somebody to administer medicine during an attack, or take them to hospital during an acute attack. If asthma is controlled properly, there should be minimal effects on their family and day-to-day life.
However, if asthma is not controlled properly, this could lead to a child having an increased number of asthma attacks, having to go to the doctor more often, and missing school. This means that a parent may have to take time off of work, which would lead to earning less money than the family needs. As well as this, the child would not get the same opportunities to develop within an early years setting as a child without asthma. Asthma can have an impact on all areas of development.
The child not managing asthma properly and missing school will learn less and be unable to develop cognitively to their full potential unless they are taught at home. As well as this, the child will not be able to exercise as much, although a child who does manage their asthma properly is more likely to have a healthy diet, improving physical development. Linguistically, the child may develop further through learning new vocabulary relevant to their condition, such as “peak flow”, “inhaler” and “asthma attack”.
Socially, the child may not be able to fit in to some groups, and may experience people making negative remarks or bullying them because of their condition and emotionally, the child may have lower confidence in themselves when it comes to physical activity and a belief that they can not achieve what they want. Dyspraxia, a developmental condition, is an impairment of the order of signals relating to gross and fine motor skills in the brain, causing clumsiness and problems with co-ordination. It is thought that 1 in 10 children are affected by dyspraxia, 80% of which are male.
According to the Dyspraxia Foundation in 2010, “Dyspraxia is thought to affect up to ten per cent of the population and up to two per cent severely. ” There are many symptoms of dyspraxia. These include immaturity, poor balance and hand-eye co-ordination, falling over or moving awkwardly and being clumsy using the hands in tasks such as using cutlery, holding a mug and playing an instrument. Other symptoms are difficulty forming ordered sentences, pronouncing words correctly and a lack of special awareness. A child living with dyspraxia will have a variety of additional support needs.
The child may have to visit a speech therapist to help with their communication problems, and an occupational therapist to help increase the child’s ability in everyday tasks involving fine motor skills. Clothes which are easier to put on and take off would help the child be more independent when dressing and would include Velcro instead of laces, and larger buttons or zips. Teachers could help a child with dyspraxia by explaining some concepts more clearly, repeating instructions and checking that the resources used are suitable for the abilities of the child.
Short term needs may occur before the child has been diagnosed with the condition and when the child becomes frustrated as a result of being unable to carry out a task. Before the child is diagnosed, he or she needs to be assessed. Assessing the child fulfils a short term need, because its result enables family and education workers to work out how to manage the situation properly. When the child cannot do something he or she wants to do and becomes frustrated.
At this time, an adult would need to know how to react to the behaviour displayed at this time so that they can help the child to calm down or, if need be, help the child to complete the task. A child with dyspraxia will experience various difficulties. Children living with dyspraxia find it difficult to interact with others and are often too blunt in what they say to people, making it more difficult to make and keep friends. The child will also be less able to take part in physical activities even if they enjoy them, and will become frustrated if they encounter a problem they want to but can not tackle.
Maths can also be a large problem for children with dyspraxia. The family of the child may find it difficult to communicate with the child at the child’s level of development, and this could lead siblings being preferred over the child and a parent’s sense of isolation from the child. All areas of development are affected by dyspraxia. A child who is less able to use their motor skills is more likely to physically develop at a lower rate, and the linguistic development is affected by the child’s lack of grasp on sentence order and grammar.
As well as this, the child may become disinterested in any activity which involves writing, making it more difficult to develop cognitively. Finally, the child’s emotional and social development may be affected by the lack of communication and social skills such as tact, and being unable to do things that other children their age can do can seriously lower the child’s esteem. All types of conditions cause children to have additional support needs, long term or short term. The best thing to do is learn how to support these needs in order to make everyday life for children and their families a lot more simple.
