Children With Disabilities

Demographics

• In 1991, there were 389,355 children 0 to 14 years of age and 145,080 youth 15 to 19 years of age with disabilitiesresiding in households . In total, 534,430 children and youth between 0 and 19 years of age had at least one disability7.2% of all children in Canada.

• The rate of disability varies by age group with children 0 to 4 years showing the lowestpercentage (4.5%) and children aged 10 to 14 years the highest (9.0%).
  

Types of Disabilities

• Forty-six percent of children aged 0 to 14 years with disabilities had a disability or long-term health condition that limited orprevented them from participating in school, play or othernormal activities. Thirty-five percent had sensory difficulties and almost 11% had a long-term emotional, psychological, nervous or mental health condition that limited their activity.

• The most common long-term condition suffered by children 0 to 14 years of age is learingdisabilities.

• The highest disability prevalence rates within the youth population showed that 40.4 per 1,000 had a learning disability, mental, emotional or psychiatric disability or developmentaldisability. This was followed by mobility limitation (23.4 per 1,000) and agility difficulty (20.7 per 1,000).
  

Participation in Leisure Activities

• Most children aged 0 to 14 with disabilities are able to take part in free play, either alone or with others. Far fewer are able to access community physical recreation programs or community competitive sports programs. Only 26.5% of children aged 0 to 4 years and 57.8% of children aged 5 to 14 years with disabilities were able to participate in a community physical recreation program. Merely 7.9% and 54.5% respectively were able to participate in community competitive sports programs.

• Forty-one percent of youth with disabilitieswould like to participate in more activities intheir spare time and almost half of all youth with disabilities reported that they would like to be more physically active. The two most common obstacles cited were cost and the lack of nearby facilities or programs.
  

Children in Need of Care

• More than 30,000 children 0 to 4 years of age with a disability use some kind of child careservice. Sixteen percent use a licensed child care facility, 10.4% use a caregiver in the child's home; and 9.9% go out to a caregiver's home.

• Almost 37,000 children or 43% of all children aged 0 to 4 with disabilities have needed child care at some time. Twelve percent of these children have been refused the service. Twothirds have been refused care by a licensed facility; 38% by a caregiver in the child's home; and 27% by a caregiver in the caregiver's home.
  

Education

• A large proportion of children and youth reported that their disability interfered with their education in some way. More than half of children 5 to 14 years of age are in regularschool and just over one-third are in regular school with special education.
  

Transportation

• Almost half of all children with disabilities have specialized transportation services available in their community; however, 2.5% need specialized services that are not available.
  

Accommodation: Unmet Needs

• 7,984 or 1.5% of all children and youth with disabilities need specialized accomodationfeatures but do not have them. Forty-eight percent of these children need ramps; 43% needwidened doors or hallways; 35% need automatic or easy-to-open doors; 35% need elevators or lift devices; and 4% need easier access to parking.
  

Adapted from
The Health of Canada's Children: A CICH Profile, 2nd Edition

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This site was initiated by the Canadian Child Care Federation and produced under contract to Industry Canada.

Ce site a été développé par la Fédération canadienne des services de garde à l'enfance et produit avec l'aide de Industrie Canada.

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